The Plan
Comments
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Yup, financially it is best to invest long term but you can't underestimate the feeling of security from owning your own home. However, all too soon your little one(s in the future????) will be up and grown and you'll want to retire - you also can't underestimate how lovely it is to not have to work any more :rotfl:. Maybe think about investing any unexpected money longer term? E.g. you should get a tax rebate this tax year - maybe stash that away longer term?All the FI websites say I should invest rather than pay down the mortgage and I understand the logic but....the thing that helps me sleep at night is de-leveraging.
I only invested for 5 months at £200 a month and actually ended up worrying that I would lose my money, I'm far more risk averse than I realised. Our aim is to reduce not add to our worries so investing outside of the work pension is off the cards for the next 12 months at least.
Hope the test results have come back clear. Take it easy - but it does sound like you're already 'nesting'
. A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort
Mortgage Balance = £0
"Do what others won't early in life so you can do what others can't later in life"0 -
Haha very good point gallygirl. We do actually want to retire fairly early but the mortgage balance is currently just higher and over a longer term than we feel comfortable with. I do keep thinking we should invest something extra though, perhaps just not yet.
I forgot to mention the test results. The medical professionals have certified me as normal:D
It must have just been some kind of virus or that salt thing, or just bring pregnant, or......who knows!. My HR hasnt been as low since and I've felt fine for the most part.
Nesting started in month 6, is been bonkers.
I uttered wanting to paint the kitchen yesterday. I just got a look:rotfl:0 -
DH and I had a free day at the Eden project yesterday and out at the beach today. We're off to the cinema tonight, its their £5 per ticket night and we're not buying sweets so it keeps it very reasonable.
For dinner last night we had a thai curry out of a jar with sainsburys basics basa fillets. It was very tasty and a break from our usual, to be frank quite bland fayre. I had a look and I dont think I could make it cheaper from scratch as we do with other meals. I made Jack Monroes Banana bread last night, we ate half of it and then had the other half down the beach after sandiwches for a picnic today.....it was supposed to last us longer than that but its so tasty!!
Im going to make another one tonight and also a flapjack topped with pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin harvested from the garden which will help keep DH and I from not spending money on food at work.
I could really get used to having these extra days, it was great down the beach - even though work did keep popping into my head. Its just fantastic having all this time!
- The kettle broke, there is a local 'bring and fix for a donation' group but they did Novembers yesterday. Ive bought a cheap one to keep me going and keep as a spare but I would like to see if it could be fixed, I dont like sending it to landfil. I checked the fuse, thats fine so Im all out of ideas. I havent left budget in ynab for replacing this this month which youre supposed to do, I need to get over not wanting to leave money in there saving from month to month rather than paying it off the mortgage at the start of the month. I just think I would have been more careful spending money on the house if I didnt have it sat there, I probably did overspend a bit.
- second and last ebay sale was posted off this morning
- took half the cash out of the bank for the nieces and nephews Christmas presents today. This will be stored in an envelope and next half with come out next month.
- bought some sleepy time herbal teas out of my own spending budget. Ive had very irritating issues staying asleep again, I thought I had gotten over it but the last few nights had been bad. I bothered to make myself my last sleep herbal tea last night - this resulted in me sleeping all night so it does seem to help.
Its not very rock and roll but ive had quite a lovely, inexpensive few days0 -
DH is back at work today so I have my last planned day of getting stuff sorted before I really feel like the nest has been built and I can just go to keeping everything ticking over. I do have some outside jobs but I think its heavy rain all day so will mostly stay indoors.
Tasks:
-Spot clean hallway carpet (a few decorating slip ups)
[STRIKE]- wash all surfaces, walls and ceilings etc of kitchen. Ive already been through all the cupboard and thrown out the out of date stuff
-sort cupboard under stairs[/STRIKE]
- caulk around front door
- Paperwork sort out - I have thrown a lot of old stuff out but I have this stuff stored in a few places around the house.
- Sort through clothing draws. (DH has been better at helping with putting away washing etc, but he puts things in the wrong places so I need to sort this out)
I only managed 2. I had no idea my kitchen was that grotty:eek:
Top tip, dishwasher tablets make great surface cleaners, it just kept lifting more and more dirt from the floor so I had to go back and do it again and again. My lower back has definately had enough now, so apart from doing the homemade pizzas tonight - Im sitting or laying down for the rest of the evening. DH is picking himself up a beer as had a terrible day at work and me some alcohol free beer. Pizza and a movie in order I think.
I managed a few onepolls at lunch so up to £28 there now.
I mentioned previously I was keeping an inventory of cosmetics etc that needed using up but I didnt list it it. Rather than joining the specific thread Im just going to list it all here and go through it periodically.
Inventory:
Hairspray x2
sebastian hair gel 75ml
nice and easy hair dye 1
Carino tee tree shampoo 250ml
Carino coconut conditioner 250ml
Paul Mitchell Shampoo one 500ml
Paul Mitchell Conditioner 750ml (I dont like this as a conditioner so use it as a shave gel - may take a while)
Superdrug Argan oil Conditioner 300ml
Paul Mitchell Shampoo 3 250ml (I havent been swimming in ages and probably wont start again until spring, so this will take a while to be used up)
Paul Mitchell Conditioning treatment 250ml (as above)
Mitchum Deodrent x3
Sanex Deo x1
[STRIKE]sainsburys shower gel 30ml[/STRIKE]
Dr Bronner 4 in 1 organic baby sugar soap 355ml (I bought this for baby and for handwash but its too drying so I will just use it as a body wash)
Oliva soap 1 large bar
Nivea Cleansing cream wash 30ml
sukin cream face cleanser 75ml
simple face wash 100ml
simple kind to skin repleninshing moisturiser 75ml
superdrug hydrating serum last legs
lush dream cream 50 ml
sainsburys vite body lotion 350ml
Bio-oil 200ml0 -
Yesterday was a NSD as I was at work and had homemade cake and flapjack to satisfy my sweet tooth. Today should be the same. I take batch cooked meals to work so I can have a hot meal. Today's lunch is cottage pie suprise....I've chucked a few things that needed using up in there, tastes fine but sometims a bit odd:D it'll be the same for lunch tomorrow too. I would like a nsd tomorrow also as we going out for dinner on Saturday.
Just got to get through the work days. I ended up getting a bit upset at the end of the day yesterday when noone was around, people there are lovely but on some things I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing and it's horrible being in that position. Ill try and focus on what I'm doing, not how I'm doing and get though it.
Have a good day all.0 -
....oh yes then I got home and found that I had a parking ticket from overstaying in a 2hr limit car park. I went there for a work meeting which over ran, I completely forgot about the 2hr limit and stayed 2hr25m. I see that these can no longer just be ignored like before but I may have a option to challenge as it took them over 40 days to issue the ticket and they're supposed to do it in 350
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Only 3 days of work left :j It does mean I shall have to buy cakes etc from my discretionary fund but im happy to do it.
Some unexpected expenses have come up this month:
- £51.50 Car parking ticket. (£1.50 is for paying by debt card:mad:) There was no way around this unfortunately
- £15 for sorting our life insurance
- £189 for will writing ( I think this may end up coming out of decembers spending as we're having to wait a bit for the call back appointment). I got one of will packs from smiths but decided to do it proper.
- £200 The MOT was due early December but so is the baby :eek: so I got it done early. At £200 it wasnt too bad for a car that age - and one I thought may have quite a few problems. They couldnt do the service which I will taking it back for next week.
^^^^all in all, a cheery weekend :rotfl:
Also
-bought an additional 5 baby grows for £5 from the charity shop. We were a bit short on full sleeve newborn ones but I think we're set now. We have lots of vests as most of our relatives had summer babies.
- took more bits to the charity shop to clear out the house some more
Ive been tilly tidying the spending categories in ynab (up to £1.24)
My ebay sale funds came in at around £200 after fees. As before, I was hoping for more but I wont really miss what I sold.
We've been meal planning of course and also because Im down to three day weeks at work Ive done more cooking from scratch than usual. Weve had a few massive home made pizzas, flapjacks and cakes. Ive been ravenous and it has stopped me buying 'treats' when im out and about. There are a lot of chillis, curries and fish in the freezer and on meal plan so its not all sweet goods
I have £53 left for food for the rest of the month. It doesnt seem like much but the fridge/freezer and cupboards are still full so I think our big shop method is working. I shall stay careful until the end of the month.
I found myself browsing around some lovely clothes shops yesterday - remembered the embargo I set myself and walked out and home quickly.
Onepolling and getting to the bottom of that to do list is todays focus.
.....after a coffee:D0 -
Gah! Just got the car back from its service, after taking the wheels off they found brake issues that needed fixing. I do trust this garage but I am annoyed as with the full service and the brake issues it cost another £350....which I had paid of the mortgage. This is leading to next month being rather tight, especially as the cat is going to need another prescription and the money I hadnt planned for on the will writing etc.
Its rather an old car and as previoulsy stated, I was concerned there would be a few things wrong with it. I have found a car maintenance course at the local college, there is one that starts in a couple of days but I dont think I could fit under the car in my present condition so Im going to sign up for the ones in April. I want to learn how to service my own vehicles and I will take it to the council test centre for its MOTS, otherwise owning 2 cars will get too expensive. I wasnt previously averse to only having one at all but found myself stuck at home and rather unhappy about it quite a few times over the last year and I dont want to return to that....public transport is not a viable option where I live.
There will be no over-payment made next month. Must remember that once upon a time, we wouldnt have been able pay cash for any of this in a month, let alone all of it in one go. still doing well, just not as well as I thought at the start of the month0 -
Nothing major should change over the next few days so Im 'closing' November down now. I have money left for groceries and a bit of going out if need be.
Overpayment for November 2017: £719.37
Food: [STRIKE]£220 (have added 20 as we seem to struggle with £200)[/STRIKE] On target
Car Parking: [STRIKE]£10. [/STRIKE]Spent £61.50 due to ticket
Diesel: [STRIKE]£70 (im hoping this wont all be needed this month)[/STRIKE] On target
Cat food: [STRIKE]£27[/STRIKE] Probably should have been £10 extra to get to end of month but due to impending baby arrival and money off deal I bulk bought so total cost £113. (eta: also want a 'buffer' here with a few weeks extra of cat food kept in the house)
Cat medical: [STRIKE]£295 carried forward from Oct for vaccinations not yet done[/STRIKE] £82.71
Baby: [STRIKE]£450 (carried forward)[/STRIKE] Carrying forward £400, got a few more supplies like bottle sterilisers in case breast feeding doesnt work out and post delivery consumables etc. Not sure I would have bought these if I didnt have the money but am please with the purchases.
Own spends: [STRIKE]£300 (£150 each)[/STRIKE] £20 each left
No cosmetics: Boots points: [STRIKE]£57.24 (this is my annual budget for hair dye, face wash, mascara etc)[/STRIKE] £47.96
No Clothes: target met
What went well/cost less than expected:
- Home baking seemed to keep us away from spending temptation (usually food) as we still seem to have rather a lot of food left and £15 in the food budget
- Gained approx £200 in income from ebay selling some tech, even though I had hoped for more it obviously proved helpful to cover the overspending
- Still nearly full on the car fuel tanks
What didnt go so well/cost more than expected:
- I spent a lot more on cat food than planned for. We used to bulk buy some dried/ specialist food for one of our cats, he was poorly recently and went off his food so we were giving him Felix as good as it looks to keep him eating and had to buy it when it wasnt on offer:eek:. This became really quite expensive, (even compared to when we used to raw feed). Ive bulk bought wet and dry food that should get us to the end of the year but budget rejigging was involved. additions cost £86
- I got a £50 parking ticket where I was bang to rights so had to pay it
- The MOT went OK but the car service did not, extra issues were found when the wheels came off resulting in total car bill of £565 for the month. It is running much better now though.
- Will writing. I bought a pack from smiths but then decided to do it properly. Additional cost £185
- Life insurance. We would get a cash lump sum through work but if something happened I figure we needed an income. I have arranged family income benefit for both of us at £22 but there was an additional cost of £15 arrangement fee.
- Boots points were £57.24 now £47.96. Bought some face creams as face skin was just getting so dry and sore.
- I still seem to be finding things to spend money on for the house. A few more DIY tasks etc but these expenses keep cropping up. Approx additional £500 -
Budget
Total for month: £2070
Food: 220 - not sure if this will be needed. We dont go in for xmas but we will have guests due to the babys arrival so the biscuit budget will be blown this month:D
Car Parking: 110 - permit up for renewl
Fuel: £75 - shouldnt use it all
Cat Food: £50 - shouldnt use it all
Cat Medical: £100 - will definately need
Car Maint & Ins: 240 - insurance due in Jan
Home Maint: £20
Other/Misc: £10
Discretionary: £175 each (£350) - Includes xmas, phone bills, haircuts etc
Other outgoings such as mortgages etc are not negotiable so I wont detail them.
This is our entire budget for the month.
I do not have anything to overpay the mortgage, the income has reduced in part due to covering last months extras.
Also - lesson learned, Im dont intend to use up my buffers again. Its difficult seeing money sat there I dont think I will need but actually, using them to overpay last month just meant I have had to top up again this month. That is why there are some categories that have money assigned even if I dont intend to use it this month.
I really, really want to overpay £1000 a month but I dont think that will happen. £500 will doable from January onwards.
I did receive a warning from the chap fixing a couple of roof tiles this month that they're all very fragile and we need to start saving for a new roof, I intend to keep adding to the cash pot which I wasnt intending on doing before. I dont know how imminent the new roof is - the factors are too variable but we will keep it going as long as we can. The tiles are about 90 years old so it is to be expected.
Anything over £500 will have to come from additional income from surveys and MB'ing etc or in month budget saving - though see above about buffers!
I have signed up for prolific academic and swagbucks. I have set up a new bank account so I can start MB'ing; OH is going to focus on bookies and im going to focus on casino and bingo. I will have to take this slowly though as it is not risk free, you do have to concentrate and I see fatigue in my future :rotfl:0
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