MeandO's mortgage-free musings

MeandO · 17 March 2018 at 4:27PM

Not to worry gallygirl, i’m happy it is cheap in the first place so it can be posted. It’s obviously helped as the listing is up to £52 already. :j:j:j:j
I also sold an item for £30 on Thursday evening. I would have liked to pay it towards the mortgage, but i’ve Kept it in my purse for now as funds are so low in the bank account. I’ve used around £10 of it on some supplies presently. I’m hoping I can make the £20 last until payday on Friday.

My paint arrived and i’m mid painting my table. Coat one is done, coat two will be applied shortly. Hopefully I can the. Buy some wax and get it completed ASAP so that we can start using it and sell the current big table I have. I’m hoping to get £40-£50 for that.

MeandO · 19 March 2018 at 1:21PM

Ebay item is up to £66 with 3 days to go.

There's probably around £8 of the £30 left.

I've advertised the table and there's a fair amount of interest, so it should sell for £40. I'm getting the usual troublesome buyers though - sometimes I wonder if it's worth the hassle...

I need to pop to the bank after work today to (hopefully - if the bank let me) pay in some old £10 notes and £1 coins OH found in his house. They will then be transferred to his savings pot.

I've ordered wax for the new (old) table and some gifts online today. Money from those will be taken from the gifts pot.

4 days and counting until payday...

MeandO · 21 March 2018 at 7:43AM

The table sold for £40 and was collected yesterday - I say collected, the buyer turned up, carried the legs and bolts and let me lug the really heavy table top to their car, parked a way away from my house, by myself! I’m a bit disappointed to see it go for that as it was a good one and worth more, but it was a bit big for just the two of us. Ironically, the dining room feels a bit empty now with our little table in there and I got rid of the big one as it felt lonely just the two of us there all the time!

Anyway, I have £40 in cash which I am determined to pay into the bank ASAP and pay it off the mortgage.

DS’s swimming lessons have been paid for (the ex and I pay half each), so my share was £23.50. The holiday pot has taken a beating this month and is now empty as i’ve used the £60 that was in there for other things now. Good job i’m Not planning any holidays...

At least the swimming is paid for ten weeks now.

I didn’t get to the bank to pay in the ‘old’ cash the other day. Will aim to do so tomorrow, it’s just finding the time before the bank closes.

I still haven’t topped the car up with diesel and it’s really low. Thankfully my commute is only a few miles each way, but I’ll have to do it this week. If I can last until Friday (payday), I will be really pleased.

Roll on Friday...

MeandO · 21 March 2018 at 3:07PM

Just cancelled the gift orders I made earlier this week - none have been dispatched yet and the price dropped dramatically minutes after I'd placed the last order (Amazon). :mad: I've decided to not bother to re-order - I will find something else at a later date. The money saved there has now more than covered DS's swimming lessons.

Someone was supposed to be collecting an item I've saved for them since last week for £15. I double checked they were coming today and got a rather rude 'I'm too busy' reply, :mad: so that's £15 no longer coming in. Someone else on FB wanted it, but alarm bells were ringing with odd messages so I've blocked that one. I don't understand why people can be so difficult.

MeandO · 22 March 2018 at 1:14PM

The ebay item ending today is up to £90 which I'm really pleased with. :j The £40 is still in my purse as I've not yet had time to get to the bank and doubt I will today.

I will add the profit made from the ebay sale to the £40 and split it, with half to the savings and half as a mortgage overpayment.

It's payday tomorrow and I still haven't put diesel in the car, so it will now come out of next month's budget and I will be able to fill it up. We are going on a longer trip at the weekend so will probably use a tank to get there and back.

YNAB has all been updated this morning too.

Had some more bad news about my Mum last night

and decided to gently introduce the truth of the situation to DS. My Mum and DS are incredibly close, despite living far away. He was sad, but OK, and quite matter of fact about everything, but I found it incredibly difficult. I just don't know what we're going to do when the awful time comes.

:(:(

MeandO · 22 March 2018 at 3:49PM

Ebay sale made £90. I've paid the fees from it and left just over £10 in the paypal to cover postage and transferred £75 to the bank account.

With the little bit of money left in there, I've made a £50 OP to the mortgage and sent £50 to the emergency savings fund. Total OPs for this month £150. Next month's challenge starts tomorrow as it's payday.

Mortgage total now: £77,226.44

greent · 22 March 2018 at 6:28PM

Brilliant ebaying/ OPs! :T

Sorry to hear about your mum

xx

selloptape · 22 March 2018 at 8:52PM

Sorry to hear about your Mum x

MeandO · 23 March 2018 at 11:01AM

Thank you both xx

MeandO · 23 March 2018 at 11:22AM

Finally, it's payday, but I'm feeling less than chipper.
With all my planned savings pot refills and covering all the bills, I'm £43.48 underfunded for the month.

This isn't all on essentials as I've include my regular mortgage OP in it, but I'm determined not to let that slip. I'm sure I'll make it up, but it's just so frustrating constantly living on 'the line' of affordability.

I've also re-instated my pension payments from next month too. I had to put them on hold when I applied for a mortgage alone to buy the ex out a few years ago, but I really can't leave it much longer. I'm not sure how much that will be a month, but it will be a chunk less money coming in. It does correspond with the increase in tax credit payments I'll be receiving, so I'm hoping one will cancel the other out - at least. It would be nice if there's a bit more money spare each month, but I'm not optimisitc.

I've worked out that it's nearly a 5 week month until the next payday, so I have to really be careful with my money this month.
I have two weekends of long drives ahead of me too this month, so the diesel budget has had to be increased greatly.

Hopefully I've sorted a sale of an item for £15 via a gumtree buyer - the item I was previously messed around about. They have said they want the item and will collect next week, but I never count my chickens with local sales anymore until people actually turn up and I have the money in my hand. So many people just don't bother to turn up.

I have around £45 in my purse - the money from sales which I've yet to pay into the bank. However, I'm hoping to cover spends for this coming weekend with this now. OH and I are taking the children for a planned trip - the tickets, accommodation and breakfast are paid for, but I need to factor in picnic food to buy tonight for a packed lunch tomorrow to save costs and the same on the way home on Sunday. I'll be taking a bottle of squash and flasks for us to make drinks up too.
The expensive thing will be dinner tomorrow night (limited choice, all overpriced most likely :mad:), but OH has said he will pay for that and put some diesel in the car. No doubt DS will like a bit of spending money too. We shall count his money box tonight and then I can top it up by £10-£15 if needed.

Happy Friday everyone xx

MeandO's mortgage-free musings

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