Light the fire...

Botherthatcat · 15 November 2017 at 1:15PM

I haven't heard of Damson brandy before, must add that to the list to try. Have a nice day off!

woodfired · 18 November 2017 at 4:38PM

Today has been a mixed day on the MSE front.
I have been stuck inside with DS who is poorly for 2 days so have used this opportunity to do some online Christmas shopping. I have spent quite a bit but kept a close eye on who each present is for by making a list for each child with a running total. Hate spending so much money in one go but would like to get organised sooner rather than later!

I have also made a list of the freezer contents and am amazed how much food is in there. We could probably live for 3 weeks without buying a thing! I knew it was fairly full and therefore only spent £45 this week and will try to do the same over the next few weeks whilst meal planning carefully to use up what is in there.
I have already liberated some fish and prawns for a fish pie for myself and the children tonight. DH doesn't eat fish so will have a pastie made with leftover pepper steak pie filling from last night and using a tortilla wrap as the 'pastry'. I tried this last week with corned beef filling and they were lovely.

As the Esse is lit i'm very tempted to bake or make bread but supposed to be eating healthily in the hope of losing a few pounds so i'm trying to resist!! Its a shame as it is just made for baking treats!! Then again, baking might help entertain the children.....

I went to a charity do last night (DH stayed with DS), I drove and only bought one lemonade so a cheap night. I also bought a strip of raffle tickets for £5 and won a bottle of prosecco and a lovely bottle of port! I like prosecco but I have promised a raffle prize to school so this will do nicely. The port will be enjoyed over Christmas (or perhaps before :rotfl:) but I was very pleased with the return on £5:D

Right off to make this fish pie, enjoy your Saturday folks. :wave:

woodfired · 19 November 2017 at 8:36PM

A nice quiet NSD today. Have had quite a good weekend for cash spending, spent less than £35 including myself out on friday (£15 per ticket) and DH having a few drinks with his friends in the pub yesterday. Unfortunately the poor CC has taken a hammering with the present buying, but all spends were planned and well within budget so all good.

The freezer emptying is continuing, I took out a small pack of mince this afternoon to make a cottage pie for my little sister who had her first baby on Friday. Managed to make a decent pie for them and another that will feed us four tomorrow night. I love having a meal ready to stick in the oven when I get home from work, I can never be bothered to cook from scratch when I don't get in til almost 6 and the kids are hungry. I also found a pack of lovely mexican sausages from our wholesale sausage supplier so those were dinner, alongside homemade chips, soft boiled eggs and beans. Not your typical sunday dinner but very nice all the same!

I have just checked the business account and am really fed up that it went overdrawn yesterday when the business loan came out. There should have been plenty of funds, however, our switch machine provider has recently started to extend the pay-in time on the days payments. They used to hit the account the next working day but have now begun to pay in at the end of next day and didn't bother at all on Friday. I should have checked but totally forgot so that will be a £20 charge coming our way.

What is even more annoying is that we just re-signed for another 12 months with them, we were very happy with them, especially the quick pay in time! Typical.

Anyway, onwards and upwards, I wont forget to check again! Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

woodfired · 20 November 2017 at 9:53PM

So I saw another SOA and thought it would be interesting to do mine, gosh we must waste a lot of money....
Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 0

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1313
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1300
Benefits................................ 136.7
Other income............................ 1200
Total monthly income.................... 3949.7

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 618
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 769
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 21
Council tax............................. 127
Electricity............................. 35
Gas..................................... 34
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 18.82
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 21.5
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 73
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 350
Clothing................................ 35
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 32
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 29.6
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 14.5
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 36.7
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 85
Haircuts................................ 5
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 200
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2517.24

Assets
Cash.................................... 12500
House value (Gross)..................... 300000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 220000
Total Assets............................ 532500

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 135000...(618)......1.64
Secured Debt.................. 81500....(769)......5.5
Total secured & HP debts...... 216500....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,949.7
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,517.24
Available for debt repayments........... 1,432.46
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 1,432.46

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 532,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -216,500
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 316,000

Just to note, the other asset is the shop premises/business, this is a conservative but realistic valuation. We had an offer recently for this amount which we turned down after realising how much it benefits us. The other secured loan of £81k is the business loan. The flat above rents for £430 PCM and the business pays us £770 rent each month which is where the other income figure of £1200 is derived from. We own (DH and I) the premises personally (with the help of the loan) and the business 'rents' it from us. We do pay income tax on these figures when the accounts are completed but these are mostly covered by the business (fingers crossed anyway!)

woodfired · 20 November 2017 at 10:05PM

Another thing to note is the car situation. We have a car on lease-hire through the business which saves us a lot of tax. Diesel and road tax are paid by the business but we pay the insurance personally as this is the primary use. I wonder where that £1400 a month goes.....? Although I do save £825 pcm into regular savers which is a chunk.

I didn't increase the savings pot much last year but we did have a ridiculous amount of trips away/holidays (mostly for different family events) which I reckon cost us over £8000 :eek:

This is NOT happening ever again. We did not even enjoy our main holiday in the summer and it cost an absolute fortune (expensive hotel picked by friends in the most expensive resort on Majorca) and this is why I started this diary, to remain accountable and watch where every penny goes!

I'm going to aim for a savings pot of £15000 by next xmas, the saving are going to take a hit in Jan when we plough some (perhaps £7k) into the shop for a much needed refurb. We could increase the loan but its on such a high rate (as are most business loans) that it makes far more sense to use our savings instead. So that means im aiming to save approx £10000 in a year on top of a £300 per month overpayment, hmmmm, lets aim high!

woodfired · 22 November 2017 at 4:19PM

:eek:Ah the best laid plans. There was a small flood in the shop kitchen this morning which helped confirm our suspicions that the extension part requires re-roofing. The tenant has recently mentioned damp in the flat above and now water reaching the ground floor means it needs seeing to urgently. Great.

I went to sa*nsburys this morning, don't usually shop there as in the local market town and known for being expensive, however, I had items to collect from the little in-store Arg*s counter and so did a tiny shop whilst there. Said tiny shop cost £56 :eek: I have no idea how! I bought basics everything and did not stray from my list. I was expecting it to be £40-45 as I did a similar shop online with T*sco last week. Won;t be going there again! In addition Arg*s had lost an item of mine and took 40 min to sort out!! Today is not going well. I haven't made a dent in my to-do list and its almost time to collect the children, I seem to have been busy doing nothing all day! Ah well, onwards and (hopefully) upwards......

woodfired · 25 November 2017 at 2:19PM

Woke up to a lovely dusting of snow this morning, very beautiful but glad we don't have to move out of the house!! The Esse is roaring, keeping the underfloor heating ticking over and the house lovely and toasty. We are going to do some baking later and perhaps make some pizzas for dinner tonight. I have also collected some bit for Christmas crafts with the children, although, the eldest had a friend sleepover last night so is v. tired and grumpy. We were meant to visit the Christmas fair in the church hall, however, neither child is bothered about going so that will have saved about £20 of unnecessary spending

.

The Christmas shopping continue this week and I hate seeing the total balance in my spreadsheet dropping as the month progresses, it should be increasing as DH is paid weekly!! I do, however, love Christmas so must not get too cross, we are sticking to budgets and even making a few cheeky savings with multibuy and other offers so I shouldn't complain. I do need to keep my eye on the ball though, as when i'm spending a lot I find it very tempting to think "sod it" and go mad on other things (such as decorations and soft furnishings) which I am trying to avoid doing this year

I am doing ok but have had a few slip-ups so must try harder

In other MSE news, I used some hotel miniatures to fill the kitchen handwash bottle

. We are still eating our way through the freezer and are making the best use of all our leftover food as I can be guilty of forgetting expensive veg in the bottom drawers of the fridge then throwing it out. Trying to plan meals to make sure everything is used whilst still (ish) in date! :rotfl:

Anyway, hope all of you are warm and toasty today, happy Saturday. x

woodfired · 26 November 2017 at 2:26PM

Today is not such a lovely day, freezing, rain and wintry showers. Generally miserable. I have been organised and marked a set of books after breakfast (hate marking) and just made a quick lunch of bacon bagels (a current favourite).
I am now planning dinner, I have some bruised and past-their-best apples in the basket which would go nicely in a crumble with some fruit out of the freezer for pud. It also seems like a full Sunday roast sort of a day, I have some lamb in minted gravy from a meal a couple of months ago which would be nice and clear some space. I remember I have a container of leftover broccoli from Thursday in the fridge which, with a small batch of hm cheese sauce, would go nicely. I just need a few roasted carrots and some mash & roasties (always have both :rotfl: ) and we are good to go! That was easy.

I still need to sort out the work clothes/uniforms for tomorrow and perhaps do another wash, other than that, I feel an afternoon in front of the fire with a good film might be in order!

Happy Sunday folks. x

woodfired · 26 November 2017 at 2:28PM

Oooh and the yorkshires, must NOT forget the yorkshires! :rofl:

woodfired · 29 November 2017 at 3:20PM

Day off today and quite productive it has been so far.

I had a massive to do list this morning and have managed to tick most of it :j, including my despised job of organising a new business phone/broadband contract (upgraded to fibre and £20 cheaper than the standard tariff we had reverted to on coming out of the contract) so good news there.

Popped into town this morning, bought some paintbrushes, banked DHs wage and did a food shop. Found 5% fat mince in the RTC section so bough 5 packs

(I have never seen it RTC before and its the only mince we eat) and a beef brisket which have all been stashed in the freezer. I also picked up some frozen party food which seemed reasonable and will be handy in the freezer in the shed over Christmas in case of unexpected visitors / impromptu parties (the latter seem to happen often to us! :rotfl: )

Off now to collect littlest one for a dentist appointment

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Light the fire...

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