The Anticipated Glee of being Mortgage-Free....NoraBatty's Quest Begins!

norabatty_2

ammonite wrote: »

well done for the baby! great news! lots of big changes for you ahead good luck with uni too

Thanks Ammonite, I've been reading your diary too! Must admit I admire you for doing those surveys - I wouldn't have the patience! If you want to keep the grocery spending in check, keep the other half well away from it! I've been so good this month, popped into Mr. S this afternoon with DH to pick up some bread, apples and chocolate after we did some shopping for garden furniture. I returned to checkout with one slice pan, 4 apples, and 4 pack of choc bars that were reduced from £1.87 to £1. Total for these came to £3.19. DH turned up at checkout with a magazine for £3.99 and a DVD for £4 and threw them into the basket!!?? New total £11.18 And he wonders why I insist on pushing trolleys around supermarkets when I'm 8 months pregnant!!!

norabatty_2

So had a big spending day today as we bought garden furniture, but I thought it was well priced. Went to H*m3base, bought a wooden table, 4 folding chairs, 4 cushions, parasol and wooden parasol base for £254.95. I had initially set a budget of £450 with DH as he would happily pick out the most expensive item wherever we went, so to get a nice looking set for just over half the budgeted amount was a great success. Although the table is meant for 4 people, I reckon you could easily seat 6 people at it so it was good value for me.

Bad news is that we popped into Mr. S on the way home and he threw a DVD and magazine into the basket which cost an extra £8, but considering we did so well at the garden furniture shopping, I'm more than happy to give him his little treats

We spent this evening trying to put the baby's travel system together. We figured it out after about an hour or so!! The instruction booklet was ridiculous - you know the types with no words, just images that make no sense. Ended up watching demos on y*utube to figure it all out. Starting to get a bit excited about the baby actually arriving now - have spent the last 8 months somehow assuming somewhere in the back of my mind that something would go wrong and that I'd wake up one morning and it would all have been a dream but as we get closer to D day, it's suddenly dawning on me that this is actually happening and in all probability, I'll have a baby in less than 5-6 weeks!

Getting car serviced tomorrow and hair cut too, so another big spending day tomorrow. Here's hoping it's not too horrendous!!

ammonite

norabatty wrote: »

Thanks Ammonite, I've been reading your diary too! Must admit I admire you for doing those surveys - I wouldn't have the patience! If you want to keep the grocery spending in check, keep the other half well away from it! I've been so good this month, popped into Mr. S this afternoon with DH to pick up some bread, apples and chocolate after we did some shopping for garden furniture. I returned to checkout with one slice pan, 4 apples, and 4 pack of choc bars that were reduced from £1.87 to £1. Total for these came to £3.19. DH turned up at checkout with a magazine for £3.99 and a DVD for £4 and threw them into the basket!!?? New total £11.18 And he wonders why I insist on pushing trolleys around supermarkets when I'm 8 months pregnant!!!

I agree. They are lethal and can't be trusted :rotfl:

The surveys do get on my nerves quite a lot but the review-writing isn't so bad because at least you don't get screened out like you do with surveys and the pennies mount up fairly rapidly on them. Dooy*o is my favourite, had over £150 in vouchers since I started and I'm very on and off with it, trying to be good and do at least one per day now.

Your garden table/chairs sounds lovely. We managed to acquire a table and 4 chairs (wooden) when my grandparents moved house, the previous owner had left them there and didn't want them. Grandparents didn't want them so we took them, painted them and they look brilliant. Very MSE :money:

Do you know if you are having a boy or a girl? You must be very excited!

norabatty_2

Ammonite, the review writing doesn't sound too bad - how many words do you have to write and how much do you get paid for the privilege?

I don't know if I'm having a boy or a girl - would rather a surprise! Although judging by the current weight of the baby, I'm guessing it's going to be a 8.5 - 9 pounder by the due date and DH weighed over 9 pounds when he was born. Therefore, I'm inclined to think it will be a boy but you never know...Had my first dream last night in which I actually had a baby, I was carrying around this huge baby boy that looked nothing like a newborn!!

So another big spending day yesterday, DH reckons I've been fleeced. £218 for the car to be serviced, even though there was nothing wrong with it and the only thing out of the ordinary with it was that both front and rear wiper blades were replaced, which was definitely required. Does this seem excessive? Just looking through the itemised bill - £24 for engine oil, £38 for the wiper blades, £15 each for air filter and pollen filter, £6 for oil filter, £6.50 for oil and filter disposal, few other small bits for £2 each, £70 for labour, then you add VAT. How much does it normally cost for a car service these days???

While I was waiting for the car to be serviced, I got my hair cut - was great to get the vast majority of the dyed bits of my hair (from pre-pregnancy) cut out of my hair! Looks pretty decent too - £21.95 and got the eyebrows done too for £5. Another trip to the docs - they are weekly at this stage, nothing too exciting there. Rang student finance - they told me not to bother even applying for assistance as this won't be my first degree and I'm not doing Medicine/Dentistry/Veterinary Medicine. I said, "What, not even assistance with childcare costs?". "No." Great.:T

summerday

Congratulations Norabatty! I just read your thread from the beginning and it's amazing how so many things in your life have changed in just a year! All for the better, too.

Our 1st baby is 4 months old, time has flown and I love being on mat leave. My missy was over 9lb, I was measuring big like you and also convinced myself she was a boy for the same reason.

How fab that you've got a nice big savings cushion to tide you over any difficult times. It will be a big help with the uni childcare costs that you hadn't anticipated- goes to show how important it is to have these savings,eh.

Keep us updated, hope all goes well with the birth.x

Pinky15

norabatty wrote: »

Thanks Pinky, I have just read your diary. Do you work full time or part time and how is it working out with the 3 kids? Am hoping to pick up a part-time job after maternity leave is finished and wondering how realistic this is when I will be studying "full time" and having a 6 month old baby!

Hi there - I work part time and am doing my degree through the local college. I do find it really tiring and difficult to get motivated on an evening but am getting there - I just need a kick sometimes to get me moving lol. I think the key tip is organisation! eg meal planning, bags and homework sorted on an evening. I think once little one is in a routine things become clearer as a first your brain is usually not so good due to tiredness lol.
Really exciting not knowing what sex the baby is - I didnt find out with any of mine and it was such a lovely surprise!:)

norabatty_2

Summerday, thanks for checking in and saying hello! Went to my last antenatal class last night - our hospital loans out TENS machines for free - couldn't believe it! I think they cost something like £60 to rent out normally online. Also went to Mr A yesterday to pick up moses basket, baby monitor, baby bath, etc that I'd ordered from them online. Took them 30 minutes to get the stuff to the customer desk, no seats available, I was absolutely exhausted just from standing around so long. Anyway, before collecting this stuff, I picked up baby clothes and one of those Huggies Newborn Starter Kits for £3 while I was there, total came to £22 so the only thing I am now waiting on is the nursery furniture which won't be delivered until early June. Washed all the baby clothes last night - they are so cute, nearly started crying at the smell of them!! Hormones, moi???

Pinky, am seriously impressed - you have 3 kids, work part-time AND study?? Think I'll wait and see how I get on with uni/motherhood first and start looking at p/t jobs around New Year. Calculated that my maternity leave ends on Christmas Eve so it would be good timing!

Off to rent re-usable nappies for 3 months for £35 - will give me an idea of whether I'd be capable of doing it long term without the large initial investment incase it turns out to be way too much hassle, as DH suspects is the case!

norabatty_2

Am so annoyed. Wrote a really long update and when I tried to post it, stupid log-in message came up again and I've lost it! :mad:

norabatty_2

Anyway, original post went something like this:

Have decided to purchase 6 reusable newborn nappies instead of renting 15 of them - same overall cost but we plan on having more than one baby so will get to use them again. They look like disposables (all in one) so although they cost more than other reusables, they are more likely to be used by DH so will save money in the long term. If we like them and use them, we will probably end up spending another £350-400 to get a full time set that will last until the baby is 3years old and can then be used for other babies also. Even if we only had one baby, this would save us approx £800 in nappies alone over the next 3 years. Will also be reusing old clothes as washable wipes so more savings there.

Bad news is that my credit card statement this month is absolutely HUGE - close to £1700 and that's after I already paid £100. Motor costs (including my car service, DH's annual insurance and petrol) comes to over £800, we spent £300 deposit on an expensive, high quality bookcase, £255 on garden furniture, £135 on baby stuff, £38 on presents for other newborn babies, £17 on DVDs/CDs, £10 drycleaning and £225 on groceries).

Have decided to join the grocery challenge but can't locate the June 2012 board - don't think it exists yet although my statements run from the 17th each month so ideally I'd like to start on it this week. Having kept track of all spending since my January statement, my grocery spending has dropped by about £45 each month from January to April (£325.56 down to £177.92) but I had a bit of a wobbler for May (£224.56) because I changed from shopping weekly to shopping fortnightly and have had 3 large spends whereas next month I'll only have two. I also stockpiled on toiletries and cleaning products (£30) because it occured to me that I'm due to give birth shortly and I didn't want to send DH out to get these products because he would buy all premium branded products and spend a fortune!

Bank balance looking healthy - £43,999 with only one DD left this month of approx £65 so my balance at the end of the month should be over £43,900. Will then take a nose dive once the credit card DD comes out at the beginning of next month but hopefully maternity allowance backpay should cover some of it whenever they decide to pay me!

norabatty_2

Well, it's been a while since I last posted! Despite my predictions of having a boy, I was completely wrong and I now have a fantastic little girl who turned 1 a few weeks ago. I have now completed my first year of university, only another 3 to go! DH still owns the apartment, but at least the same tenants have been there for the last 18 months and they keep the place clean and tidy as well as paying when they are supposed to, so we can't complain. One year's tuition fees and creche fees, together with doing up the guest bedroom and putting down new floors in our own home have hit our savings, they currently stand at approximately £36,000.

I was reading another thread last week on the Old Style Moneysaving forum where the poster wanted to not buy anything except necessities (bills, food and other essential grocery items) for 6 months. This really got me thinking about how I've managed to really let things slip over the last year. Despite DH earning a good wage, we have really eaten into our savings and we could be doing so much better. So I have decided to do something about this.

The mortgage on our own home stands at approx £140,000 and we are paying 2.5% interest. The mortgage on the flat is £51,608 (we checked today) and paying 3.99% interest. As £16,000 of my savings is earning 3% interest, I decided to put £8,000 of this into the mortgage on the apartment, which we did this evening. This brought the remaining term of the mortgage from 17 years and 11 months down to 14 years and 2 months! Considering the monthly payments are £335, we paid £8000 today to cover £16415 of payments in the future!

Because I am on a serious mission to save money at the moment, I decided to up our monthly payments to £556.15, which will reduce the term to 7 years and 7 months! As we now have an extra £220 (approx) going into the mortgage every month, my task is to now find £220 to save every month.

Judging by how much we have been spending on groceries, I think we can make £100 a month easily here. We also spend a lot of money on petrol, so I have decided to only drive the car for the weekly shop or if my destination is more than 2 miles away. I am also cutting out all spends on clothes, make-up, visits to beauticians, toys for LO, clothes for LO, meals out for DH and me (unless funded by Mr T vouchers), concert tickets, etc for 6 months to see how I go. I will, however, give myself an allowance of £50 per month to cover presents for others, and meals out with friends (although this doesn't actually happen that often).

Before I decided to embark on this idea, I had already arranged a few weekends away. One is this weekend. However, I have managed to get DH to visit the inlaws with LO so I can have friends stay with me so no need to spend on accommodation! Still paying £60 for spa treatments though and we will go out on Saturday night but I get to choose venues so I'll be keeping it cheap! Me and DH also going to music festival in September. Tickets already purchased and managed to get accommodation nearby (too old for this camping and no sleeping malarky!) which was very reasonable. Apart from that, we have also planned a 2 week holiday where all of my family are from, so this shouldn't cost too much either, just alot of petrol to get there but no accommodation costs.

So there you have it! New balance as of today is £43,608. The best thing about this is that DH suddenly seems interested in overpaying ( perhaps because it's his aparment!:D). I have been trying to get him into this frame of mind for years to no avail, and because he had to call up the mortgage company today to make the overpayment (as the apartment is in his name), he is suddenly full of ideas as to how we can cut costs and make further overpayments! I actually had to hold him back to the regular overpayments of £220!