Pay off mortgage and start having fun!

newgirly

She’s usually asleep for 23 hours a day so the lockdown is clearly changing her behaviour, last week she came home with a mystery sausage 😆

We have blue tits nesting in a hole in the back of the house, above ds1s room and below the loft bathroom, I’ve been wondering what that tapping noise is lately! I hope the babies will be ok up there, it’s very high with a patio and a cat underneath. 

I’ve looked at the finances a bit yesterday, all is ok this month and it will be our first month not “taking into account” my wages. The 80% will go somewhere else for the moment, some kind of split between home op , factory pot and premium bonds for holidays and big future birthdays. All of those options are accessible if we need to take the money back, and lets face it who knows what’s around the corner now. There is also going to be a £150 odd surplus on top for extra wages not paid in March that I’m now getting through furlough, I’m making a £50 op off the home balance today and will decide on the rest on payday, there is also a surplus in the current account although I’m not sure what considering the food spending 😆

newgirly

We had a sweet delivery today, well ds2 did, the local retro sweet shop was doing deliveries, so I’ve had a bag of sweet peanuts, very nice! 

Asd@ click and collect amended for Monday, £148 😱 plus a riverf@rd veg box coming too Monday for £18, it’s not even that much food really, not even any alcohol. I guess I’m still getting used to every meal at home for everyone. 

themadvix

We've just spoken to a friend who had a kilo of jazzies delivered yesterday.... the insanity of lockdown life!

Our delivery for Thursday is £120 and I've got stuff to add to it. Also a veg box (smaller one) and milk deliveries to add to that. However there is alcohol on the supermarket order. Also did a zero-waste shop collection today. We just seem to be getting through food at a rate of knots! Part of the issue is that if we don't get a delivery one week, we have to wait a month as we're sharing our priority (staff) slot with DH's parents - so don't want to end up short!

newgirly

That’s that’s part of the problem at the moment, buying more to last a bit longer just in case and then eating more 😁

South_coast

I seem to be constantly hungry at the moment and my (already-generous) portions are getting bigger and bigger. Not helped by reading a recipe book this afternoon 😯!

newgirly

💚💚💚💚💚💚APRIL UPDATE💚💚💚💚💚💚💚

Start fig.Jan 2020:          Today’s Bal:           Monthly:        Yearly:

Home mort.£73,119.28     £72,261.48         £95.37             £857.80

work mort. £61,561.73      £56,477.48         £1277.80       £5,084.25

Offset:        £0                     £7,458.74          £1,093.74      £7,458.74

Total:         £134,681.01      £121,280.22        £2,466.91       £13,400.79 


Well that’s it for this month, a total reduction of £2466.91, however £1277.80 of that is normal mortgage payment through the business (which I don’t count in the mfw challenge) so a real figure of £1189.11. Also I’ve put some money I was hanging onto for our October Alton towers trip -£360 , plus the usual cruise saving £100 plus an extra £347 from furlough wages into premium bonds this month (£807 total). The other two thirds of the furlough money (some of it owed money from March) went the offset pot, in my head to go off the home balance but potentially if we end up being short to the factory mortgage, phew! 

I’m also holding all money to pay off the 0% cc in the offset (not shown here) it will go monthly until we need to pay it off in two years, currently we have spent £2930.77 this year, but that does include car insurance too, it’s not all food 😆 

newgirly

Warning, long waffly post about home decor and spending 😁

Now all the sensible money stuff has been done, it’s time to have fun with the personal spending money 😁 lockdown has curtailed my shopping for pleasure habit somewhat, which may not be a bad thing. The last year or so we have finally spent some money and got the two worst parts of the house fixed- living room/dining room/conservatory and a new kitchen. Aside from a new kettle and toaster (useless toaster that everyone hates!) and a few bits from £1land and home bargains to make my own accessories, I’ve not splurged any money on new things. 

The kitchen was a nightmare to decide on, I like sparse white clinical but also country cottage 😆 so we have a white handless modern kitchen with nothing really in it except the bright orange kettle and toaster and an orange Dalek teapot. I felt if it was super plain I couldn’t get sick of it too quickly. The living room has colour for the first time in years and feels cosier. I think as lockdown continues I feel like I’m leaning more towards wanting everything to feel more homely, a bit of nostalgia perhaps? I’ve not spent any money on anything special for a long time, it’s always been about buying things cheaply and making do, but I’m surprised how much nice he house feels since having the living room done. 

So I’ve decided as long as I can afford it I will start to buy at least one nice item for the home a month from my personal spending money. Usually I would buy lots of odds and ends, clothes etc. What I would call consumable things that are not exactly disposable but unnecessary. I think some items it doesn’t matter if they are cheap or not, but some you can tell. So to start with this month as I’m not swanning about drinking coffee and going for lunch with my friend still, I shall spend a bit more! 

Top of list again is a bit more emm@ bridgewater crockery (seconds, with a code and top cashback of course!) and possibly a nice white Egyptian cotton fitted sheet. I do spend a lot of time drinking tea and being in bed so it seems a good place to start 😬

South_coast

Sounds a good plan NG, home things will last longer than coffee and clothes too so you get "more bang for your buck" 😀

Being at home all day every day has reinforced how much needs doing here - normally I'm not here enough to think about it much! Seeing inside colleagues' homes on video calls makes me cringe - I know the walls behind me aren't painted and are multicolour and full of holes because I want to be MF before I attack the home project, but to others I must look like a proper slovenly mare who lives in a hovel and doesn't care a jot! Must start using some of those jazzy backgrounds....

themadvix

Very sensible to aim for quality over quantity NG. And you’ll value them more, I’m sure.

SC, if you’re doing the work, I don’t see what business it is of anyone to judge where you live! 😊

South_coast

Thanks Vix - maybe I should drop it into conversation more, so they know this isn't the permanent state! It's just very different from the "accuracy is everything", well-turned-out work persona that I try to project. 

Hopefully within two years I'll be into the "saving for" rather than "paying off" phase and once I am earning compound interest instead of paying it things should come together relatively smoothly. That's the plan anyway 😂