I'm going to do a diary too :)

teapot2

gerbiljo wrote: »

Haven't got much to report at the moment I still find it bizarre that the mortgage direct debit can't come out on a saturday!

Me too, don't they know we're waiting here to see our new total

gerbiljo

They keep us in suspense!

Well new balance £43670, Interest=£55.15, so daily £1.84, meaning for the first time the amount to come off the balance is over £400, £402.36. This feels great, I feared that the interest rate was going to go up and put this hurdle off for a bit but luckily it seems luck is on our side at the moment

gerbiljo

£44 food shop by the husband, gotta say for a change time seems to be flying by, need to have a good go over the finances really...
I like october, november december and am generally feeling a bit better, looking forward to the next few months and hopefully going under 30k

Will have more to say at some point but just wanted a quick update

gerbiljo

ok! just paid £70 of CB into mortgage account, £43600:j:j

wantabetterlife

Well done gerbiljo....and only 13 months to go...woooohoooo:j:j

CathT

Well done Jo, almost into your final year. That's brilliant.

gerbiljo

thanks
So close yet so far

gerbiljo

Feeling a bit of a fraud coming on the money saving diary!!
I feel like I've been spending more than saving. The credit card has not gone down yet and I think we have some to put towards it but last month I think it was close to £4k.
On payday I might have to hold back a bit as our boiler went off the other day though it seems to be working we need to get a service booked.
We have finished our daughters birthday and xmas now just gotta get her cake sorted, need lots of chocolate and ingredients.
Need to do some comparisons for home insurance also, i just can't seem to find the time!!
This weeks food shop £44, but shortly followed by a spend up in the disney store and a lovely meal out, that was about £45 too but I think we need to have these nice times.
I am generally much happier and feeling better, I am a winter person and like october onwards, I am excited about halloween and xmas!! We have planned out nearly all our weekends until xmas and we have a lot of building to do although we have done well. Our neighbours are moving soon and so the new people are obviously not bothered about the extension so it will be lovely not to have angry neighbours anymore!! The plan is to get to first floor by xmas then have a break so my husband can finish his studying we keep putting off and start again in spring. Preschool is going well too, I have managed to get home from work every time to pick up and collect our daughter I feel happy that I don't feel the absent mother as usual
So a break from the moaning:T, this month is the first month to go quick for a while, looking forward to payday springing upon me for a change!!

gerbiljo

£5 mysurvey

gerbiljo

Feeling a bit overwhelmed at the mo!!

I am still struggling with money saving, this week our weekly shop was £50 and we got one of those £5 vouchers for asda, then the following day we went to get a few bits I'd forgotten and spent another £30. I am generally finding it harder to keep on top of our money partially due to time but definitely my daily checking has been knocked on the head due hsbcs new pinpad, obviously myself, the pin pad and the computer are rarely in the same place at the same time!! I like this time of year and get a bit excited about halloween as it is the day before our daughters birthday and so I see it as 'birthday eve' i bought her a little dress and 2 halloween dvds- the worst witch and scared shrekless. We usually do some kind of meal also, we are off that day, we have the dentist ££ and a boiler service££. For her birthday I suspect we will go out for lunch as we are off but the weekend coming up will be the time when people pop over so we need to provide nibbles££ and make her cake££ and helium£. It's my own fault thats I do not financially plan for these events I just sort of think they will come out of the food budget (which as I previously mentioned I have decided is not enough anyway!!). House insurance is also due next week!

The cake is going to be princess jasmines castle, I will post a photo when I do it, it usually takes all day and I enjoy doing it but I am feeling a bit overwhelmed about cleaning all the house, making the cake and sorting the food etc, this weekend will be a weekend off building...(the extension anyway)

This month we have not overpaid the credit card we are meant to overpay by about £550-600 so that has obviously disappeared somewhere... I think we have both been tired and down and so we've gone out here and there and bought the odds things that add up like xmas decorations etc. I don't really have a problem with doing these things but we do need to sit down and pull ourselves in line a bit. We have 2 car insurances imminent, services, apparently we need new tyres and brake pads...it goes on. Dare I say the word credit card but I am tempted to get another one for all these things. currently one has about £3k and the other £4k, the latter needs to be paid by march so I am tempted to get a new one so that we can live off it and pay off the £4k one quicker. if we do that our mortgage will probably be paid a bit earlier and then we can pay off the £3k one before october 2012....providing our 'investment doesn't come through or we will not need to worry about this!! I don't mind doing that except I was going to use another interest free credit card for our holiday (2013) and then we would have had all the cards and so I don't know what the plan would be for that!! My only concern is that we are shifting our debt (mortgage) which is non-urgent debt to more urgent debt (credit cards) which means pulling out of this situation is more difficult as I do not want to incur interest charges, we would obviously save on the mortgage and not pay interest on the credit cards but I guess just something else to think about.

Generally we have done very well. Recently our pattern has been building every saturday and family day on sunday. This weekend I made up loads of cement and must have moved 500 bricks, its hard physical work after long hours monday to friday and both myself and my husband are thoroughly tired, yesterday we took our daughter horse riding and before i got up i could feel every muscle in my body aching. We hope to get to first floor in the next few weeks and if we can do this we will have a break....

One of my cats has been ill as well, I find having a sick animal all-exhausting and consuming. I have had to separate him from the other 6 and he has a fairly difficult problem to deal with. He had a urethral obstruction and this is fairly common in indoor cats with lots of friends and I guess i am feeling the guilt-burden hard to deal with as well. I hope he gets better as I selfishly would like him better for the up and coming weekend as we have 4 days off so I want it to be special for our daughter. I just hope he does get better, time will tell but I guess I struggle with the hours of the day as it is without having all these extra tasks. I got an email from the battery hen welfare trust as well because lots of chickens are being booted out of their battery cages in line with regulation changes for jan 2012 so they will not have enough homes....its hard I really don't 'need' anymore chickens but I hate to think of them being disposed of when I could offer some a home!!!

I should probably add in that preschool has been going really well and I have managed to get home every day to take her to every session so far, i have really enjoyed it, they are very good at telling u about their activities etc and I think I will have been upset to miss this. From that point of view the current situation is successful. Also my sister and parents have chipped in to buy our daughter a rug I really wanted to get her, because there was a 15% off offer as well I also bought her 2 cuddly horse toys for a ridiculous price that I cannot repeat on a money saving forum, however I just hope they are as nice as I want them to be then I guess I will be pleased despite the cost!!!

I think thats it, I will have to update when we have made a more solid plan for finances, i need to do it this week as it is payday friday and so I will want to overpay so I need everything clear so I don't leave us short, which is what I seem to do every month and then I get in trouble with the hubby!!!