Pavlovs_dog starting as she means to go on...

nattypants

Morning Pavlov. Your January goal results are pretty darned excellent:T
I really need to up my water intake, I just can't get into that 'zone', although as it looks like I'm able to continue with my current abstinence throughout February so maybe, maybe I'll give the litre of water a day, a go:)

Sorry about the car bill and good luck with the council contributing to the repair bill.

NP:D

Lois_E

Wow pavlovs, that's amazing. You have done so well in January. :T

Good luck for Feb!

moneycurious

Well done!!!

pavlovs_dog

Thought I'd best pop in and let you know I'm still alive. Real life got in the way this year, and I've had a pretty crappy few months. Taking care of me, OH and our financial affairs has been on a complete backburner as we have sought to sort out family issues. Cue me reaching the end of the school term on the edge of physical, mental and emotional burnout. It has taken 2 weeks of down time to get back to feeling vaguely human and get back the mental strength to sit down and focus on the finances. Thanks to the groundworks last Christmas, the finances aren't as horrific as they could be under the circumstances. That said, the realisation that I haven't got a clue what's been happening to the mortgage in the past 6 months has given me the kick up the bum and get things back on the straight and narrow.

When I wanted info on the mortgage progress, I came back here. I do enjoy having this diary as a record of the progress we manage to make with fairly humble means. I'd like to think that I can get sufficient grip on things over the next four weeks to be able to cope with weekly updates once school kicks in (even though we are awaiting 'visitors' imminently and chaos and stress reigns even more than normal).

So that's where I've been, and now to where I'd like to go...

Whilst I was otherwise engaged, the mortgage took itself down into a new bracket. Currently standing at £118,443, this means we are only slightly off course from our MFI3 target to have mortgage down to £105k by 2015. At £892, OPs are lower than normal for this stage in the year. I am confident that I will hit the 2013 target of OPing £2k, although I am less certain of the probability of being able to exceed it by any significant margin.

We've been in the house for 3 years now this September, and it is becoming ever more obvious what jobs need doing. We're also ready to start putting out own stamp on the place. We're fortunate that my mum's partner and father in law are both pretty handy at DIY, so with their help we're doing what we can ourselves to keep the costs down. So money needs to be siphoned off for this as well as other savings projects.

For those of you who [STRIKE]stalk me[/STRIKE] keep me company along the way, hope all is well with you. Looking forward to sitting down with a brew and catching up with some diaries.

PD

abouttimetoo

Hi PD, good to have you back round these parts again

I used to read your diary when you were saving up for your house, is that stalking

Glad to hear you're feeling a bit more human now, time focussing on you and your family and away from posting here is never a bad thing

Good luck with your plans

Regards
ATT

pavlovs_dog

abouttimetoo wrote: »

I used to read your diary when you were saving up for your house, is that stalking

stalker with a good memory... they're the scariest kind Thanks for dropping by ATT.

A key theme for August is getting back to basics. Yesterday I

* complained to a company about appalling service. By means of apology, they have said that they are going to provide their service (almost £200) free of charge and refund what I have paid.

* Found Christmas money that I'd put in a drawer for safekeeping and forgot all about. £300 there, which we're using to buy 2 velux compatible blinds for the attic bedroom and a wooden blind for the spare bed. These are the only rooms in the house with no form of window treatments. As we are south facing, this should also help stop the carpets from fading. We'll put the remainder towards new railings and a gate for our front. FIL has kindly offered to repoint the front garden wall and install the railings for us when the weather picks up. Hopefully if there is a little bit left over I can call on my mum's greenfingered help to get some planters out there and have some greenery that is not in weed form

* Quidco paid out for our car insurance and other random bits of shopping. £59 promptly OP'd.

*my sim only deal was out of contract, so I've chosen a new tariff. Should save me a bit of money as I have a better data allowance, and that's what I normally go over on. Stayed with o2 as I get good use out of Priority Moments.

*Home insurance renewal details came in at £191 with Aviva. Ran the comparison sites, going through Quidco where possible, but struggled to beat it. Saw on Quidco that Aviva are offering £40 for new policies. So applied in OH's name with me as joint policy holder (instead of other way round). Then increased our excess to £500, as we'd only ever claim for something major. That dropped the premium to £160. Even if the cashback should be declined, we've still knocked £30 off our premium and it is by far the most competitive quote we had found.

*Whilst the store cupboards aren't overflowing, there's lots in them that has been lurking a long time. So we're making a conscious effort to run them down and shop from home. This is reducing weekly food bills. Once the freezer is emptier I can defrost it, which should also save a few pennies on the leccy bill too.

* getting back into swagbucks and my 30Sb a day target. These I cash out amazon vouchers which I'll use towards Christmas shopping.

pavlovs_dog

comparing yesterday's mortgage balance against today's suggests daily interest of £13.58, down from £13.89 in January. It was nigh on £15 a day when we took out the mortgage, so it is nice to see this figure coming down.

It looks like August's payment will take us down into the £117k bracket.

pavlovs_dog

last week off before school starts again. Am on a mission to get rid of as many niggly little jobs as possible. On the hitlist (in no particular order)

* cut back garden
* replace sealant in bathroom
* replace sealant in kitchen
* check school 'uniform' and shop for any essential supplies
* defrost main freezer
* finish cleaning and de-junking kitchen
* big food shop
* set goals for September and new school year
* give house a good clean

aliasojo

You do know it's not Spring, don't you?

I wish you luck and strong vibes to help avoid procrastination.

pavlovs_dog

aliasojo wrote: »

You do know it's not Spring, don't you?

lol. My mum did ask if I was certain I'm not preggo the other day, seeing as I'm obviously in nesting mode

I told her not to panic. Soon as school starts I'll inevitably end up going back firmly into sloblady mode for another year. My belated spring clean is merely damage limitation

Hows things your end?