Our attempt at being MF!!

CathT

DS has started waking at 4am! That is his first wake up though so I am just grateful he is no longer waking in the night. Night weaning seems to have been a success!

Smallest at nursery for a few hours as I am working all weekends/bank hols this week as it's half-term. DD has worn herself out painting (not the bedrooms!) and is having a lie down to recover!

I've paid DS nursery bill (almost £400!) and I'm now working through the paperwork and a new budget - I have a plan!

yukkibear

Ouch i remember those nursery bills! I too have my budget planning head on. The bank statements are next to me ready to be scrutinised tonight

CathT

Did my sums and worked out we can survive until my payday and the new plan. I basically sent most of my wage to bills account last month and DH gets paid weekly. The new plan means I am having to send most of DH weekly wage to the bills account ready for next month so that we can 'live off' my wage and hopefully make it work harder for us. I think it might take us a couple of months to really get into it but will work out better.

Had a bit of a to do list today and have done some so will cross those off now

1. [STRIKE]Plant more seeds[/STRIKE] and try and work out what the ones are that are growing well - made the mistake of using biro for the labels! :rotfl::rotfl:
2. [STRIKE]Tidy the bedrooms[/STRIKE]
3. Pay decorator
4. Pay drain man and ring water board re: camera survey
5. [STRIKE]Put 2 baskets of washing away[/STRIKE]
6. Read gas and elec meters to avoid extimated bill
7. [STRIKE]Arrange to sort out DD bank account to a better one[/STRIKE]
8. Cancel L0v3film

I think that's it! Have also done more painting with DD and hopefully will bake a cake.Requested £6.06 from TCB which was the magazine cashback offer (that was quick!) so that should be in the account in the next day or two. No spare cash for OP's or savings due to new financial plan!

Requested the £6.06 from magazine subscription

yukkibear

Cancelling Lovefilm is on my list too after going through the budget last night

CathT

Completed everything on my list now. Have updated mortgage balance but still need to work out WIOTW for June which I usually do on the 1st but the days seem to be disappearing.

Have had updated gas and electricity bills and have requested a refund of £59 from the electric which I should get next week. Gas seems to be on track with current direct debit amount. I am shocked at how much we are spending though. We have a new boiler and are super careful but gas spends are high!

Updated tax credits last week so hoping for positive news from them in next couple of weeks. Also chased up some backpay and may get that this month!

Am sure I have a big 'to do' list somewhere but seem to have mislaid it

fothers365

We were using 10 units of gas a day when the heating was on this winter. The boiler is only a couple of years old and we had the heating thermostat set really low. I hate being cold so spent months wrapped in loads of layers and a dressing gown on top. Goodness knows how many units it used the winter before when we were less frugal!

It is down to 1 unit a day now the heating is (finally) off.

That is a good idea about checking up balances, I need to submit a reading and check ours. We have solar panels so should have a good electricity credit hopefully.

CathT

I think our thermostat may have been a little high over the winter so have to be more careful next time.

Managed to find my list so writing here to prompt me to actually do the things on it!

• Find dd's birth certificate so can change bank account next week
• ring water board
• cancel a couple of direct debits saving almost £20 a month
• carry on getting things together for carboot sale this weekend
• Renew some memberships
• Have a lovely week off next week :j

CathT

CathT wrote: »

Managed to find my list so writing here to prompt me to actually do the things on it!

• Find dd's birth certificate so can change bank account next week
• ring water board
• [STRIKE]cancel a couple of direct debits saving almost £20 a month[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]carry on getting things together for carboot sale this weekend[/STRIKE]
• Renew some memberships
• Have a lovely week off next week :j

Car boot sale wasn't overly successful, I guess we don't have much decent stuff to sell . Only made about £20 profit and DH was really tired and the day was wasted. Ah well charity shop/friends and family for the rest it is.

Had a wonderful lump sum from tax credits so putting it to one side as have plans in the very near future for which the money may be needed!

CathT

Busy morning so far today. Went to the bank again to sort out the children's accounts. Between them they have £1000 so hopefully can keep adding to the accounts and keep getting them a good interest rate. Goodness knows what level of financial support they will need in later life but after doing everything myself at a young age I would like to lend a hand.

Have cancelled the magazine subscription I took out for cashback and a free gift.

Have had a free trial offer from Cost*o today with some fab freebies so I think that may be worth a go.

Haven't done as much around the house as I planned this morning. Was relieved of cutting the grass by last night's rain though! Have done a few jobs but totally lack motivation and energy for much else - I blame the lack of sun.

CathT

Have managed to increase our OP's to £240 a month for the rest of the year as am entitled to some TC I wasn't expecting. I have amended the DD and judging by my spreadsheet will be at around £95k when come to change deal in April. At that point we will have almost 16 years left on the term but I think it will be possible to reduce that to 10!!

Still keep going round in circles mentally with the whole move/stay debate but have managed to rationalise it by thinking 'we could move, have a mortgage of around 160k and then in 5 years it wouldn't be so new but we wouldn't be able to afford to do anything to it!!' We are thinking of having a bit more work done to the house. Some essential things like more maintenance but may also tick off a few of my 'wants'.

Planned to do a top-up shop a few days ago but didn't get around to it and through being more inventive we have managed to survive. Nice bit of moneysaving there. Will be popping to the supermarket at some point today though to buy wine :beer: