New Year. New House. New Budget

Lurker1972

Why does time drag when you are coming up to 2 weeks off work, but the actual 2 weeks will fly past??

3 more alarm clocks & we have 2 weeks off. to say I am looking forward to it is an understatement.

Car Boot the return was good & we ended up with £90 each. so covered costs, cleared treasures & donated the left overs to charity. made payments to new oven fund and cc, so feeling fairly angelic.

Still looking around the house for more stuff to facebook/ebay etc - have another £5 coming tonight I hope from FB.

waiting for quote for some major work in the house - new boiler. There is an amount available for such an event, but I suspect that the quote will exceed the fund by a fair bit. plan A to reduce the impact is to look to convert clubcard vouchers to topps tiles ones as they triple the value. have found the ones we like, so just need to work out how many would be needed..... I just want the quote now as I have so many thoughts going round in my head, its exhausting! I don't like the thought of the upheaval, but it will mean the biggest jobs in the house are done & the rest will just be cosmetic and can be done as and when we save up for them.

all in all, progress is being made.

Lurker1972

Boiler quote came in and has been agreed, work starts in 4 weeks. It's not cheap, but we will soon have a nice efficient boiler, only heating the water we need and working valves on all radiators, which should reduce the energy bills. We are busy costing out the rest of the work, making sure we get the best deal possible.

Took my eye off the ball as far as food budget is concerned, but the new month starts on Saturday, and the eye will be firmly on the ball and the goal and the entire playing field!

Car insurance renewal time, had a quick search last night and although I can get it cheaper, and not sure that its worth it for £15 for the year.

BT went through without a hitch, and now have an empty card ready for the next one. Had an offer, but don't need it for another 2 months so debating whether or not to wait.

Need to phone previous energy supplier as they owe me money...I think! Can't check online as they have cancelled access now am no longer a customer. That sounds like a constructive job for the evening......

Lurker1972

Well, the (half-hearted) plan was to be in work for 8 and do 4 hours overtime. Given the time and that I'm not dressed yet, that's not going to happen.

Got a fair bit to do this weekend, spent last night checking finance figures in order to save me a trip to town (15miles from work) to raid the car insurance pot. Renewal is due Monday, but have a plan so MrL can do the raid during the week which will save an extra trip.

Then it's housework, supermarket run,washing, choosing tiles for the bathroom project, clearing the garage to create workshop space for MrL for kitchen project. Got my folks over for tea tomorrow.... The list goes on!

Not going to make it for 8.30 at this rate.......ah well, not to worry, I'll increase the overtime hours in October.......

Lurker1972

Hmmm the latest cc shuffle is causing issues. I didn't think to check what the new minimum payments would be. So it's belt tightening time but on the plus side at least the balances will be dropping quicker.

Had planned to start saving for holiday for next year too, which could now be ambitious, unless I can use that as the incentive to do more overtime!

I certainly need some sort of incentive, am getting increasingly lazy....or, having re-read this diary, maybe I always have been, just never admitted it!

Lurker1972

I dislike VAT.
Neither of us realised that the boiler quote didn't include it, so that combined with a few extras where the house fought back has put the project over budget and needing the bank of MrLMum to bail us out.

I can't express how disappointed this makes me. I am 41 years old, I should not be needing a parental bailout.

So, this and the increased minimum payments required on the cards means a full financial review. MrL is not concerned, his view is that we've got through harder things and it's just money. Bu he also knows how concerned I am, so we will be sitting down and going through EVERYTHING later. I admit, am a little scared!!

Anyway, less rambling, more sorting cats out and getting butt to work. My mission is to do 4 hours .....with the aid of iPod I hope to complete it.

But it's so hard to leave when a kitty is curled up with you rumbling gently... Shame I can't stay here and be paid to play with kitties!

The_Golden_Goose

*waves*

Lurker we've recently had a parental bailout too. I'm a touch younger then you. I put a spin on it and consider ourselves lucky that we are in a position to have generous parents who are in a position to actually help us out. I've been a bit of a mess this week due to money but I'm over it now. I'm back in control. It won't beat us. Need to generate me some income as currently it's zilchio.

Better to now what you are dealing with rather than guessing, that way your plan will be strategic and targeted. No point having a plan otherwise. Debt busting is a rollercoaster and, let's face it, there are quite a few of us on this coaster - have you seen how many seats there are on a rollercoaster?

Hope you managed your overtime.:A

Lurker1972

**waves back enthusiastically**

I managed the overtime, shopping came in as is expected and I put what was probably the last petrol of year into my car! I don't use her much but even so, that's a scary thought.

Today is housework n filing day. Yuck. MrL is mrDIY today and hopefully by the end of the weekend we will have a functioning shower cubicle. Assuming of course watching sport doesn't get in the way.

Pay review update at work, new grades and pay scales have been announced, but we don't yet know what grade we will be. There are 3 options.
1 = everyone will leave and the service will end up being run with costly temps. Therefore unlikely.
2 = pay rise for me! cuts for others.
3 = mega pay rise for me! smaller cuts for others but paid more competitively within the local area.

Fingers are crossed....I expect option 2, but can't help but think 3 is a real possibility.

Roll on January!!!

Lurker1972

I am sooooo tired, it's ridiculous.

I've not really slept well since we started project boiler/bathroom/kitchen.... And progress is s-l-o-w...... And going backwards. Boiler part is complete so we have heating and hot water.

But the shower fitting is proving problematic, and potentially costing more as we probably now need to replace some tiles. MrL has the next 2 days off so hopefully we will see some progress.

That means I have to drive myself and pay for parking which is not good for NSD. Hey ho..... Should still be a low spend week though

Very hard to not start mentally using potential increase in pay....

Lurker1972

Project bathroom took several steps backwards and it now looks likely that we will be gutting it, which is a scary thought. But, i think it will be necessary to ensure that we have corrected MrBodget (former owner) questionable repairs....but naturally means more expense.

This (and the return of moo & GG) is helping to keep me on track for overtime, am back completing 4 hours on alternate Saturdays & finding it suprisingly easy.

Today is spendy day - haircut & off to a friends for fireworks. then tomorrow will be meal plan (healthy options, am feeling chubby again) supermarket run (with voucher) and the gazillionth plan for project bathroom. and housework - i need to feel that there are a couple of rooms that are DIY free zones...namely living room, our bedroom & kitchen. thats the target for tomorrow, but I already suspect that i will be moving those goal posts....

right, back to work....thats what i am being paid for after all!

Lurker1972

As expected, I achieved nothing as far as housework is concerned at the weekend. Instead I spent most of Sunday wiped out on the sofa.

Yesterday was horrendously busy at work and lack of progress has me stress eating....hello Mars bar, bye bye NSD..... Having said that, I stayed under calorie target despite this, so not all bad.

The plan had been to swim today, but then I remembered, I hate swimming in the winter, so am making the most of being home alone and have curled up on the sofa with a cuppa and a purring furrbaby. However, will not be staying here all evening.

I will.....

Load washing machine
Find homes for all the piles of laundry dotting around the place
Make lunches for tomorrow
Make the bed
And most importantly, update spreadsheets & check bank account.

I need to pin MrL down to make then final plan for project bathroom so we can start making progress.....being in limbo doesn't work well for me at all.....serious domino effect.....