Mouche’s adventures with her first mortgage (while coping with her first baby)

BlueMoo

Just finished your diary - it's been a rollercoaster! :rotfl:

Your mortgage is similar to mine, though your end date is sooner.
Congratulations.

mouche

Hi BlueMoo, thanks for popping by - I've subscribed to your diary and am reading through - will comment once I'm up to date!

I made a whole pound on OnePoll today! Hadn't logged in two weeks so had lots of surveys pending.

Also managed to cash in £3 from Greenmetropolis. Another book has sold so hopefully will get another £3 next month. Once the first £3 turns up in the account, I'll split it four ways as usual and top up the funds.

Only a week till payday. I hope OH has filled in the necessary paperwork to get paid for this month - he seems to want an additional bit of info everyday.

I've spent a lot on taxis for dropping and picking LO off this week as OH needed to get in early 2 days in a row. The cost isn't as bad as the inconvenience of finding a taxi - but hopefully that will be sorted soon as the nursery owners have suggested a friend of theirs who is a taxi driver and would be willing to take on a regular fare. I think I'd better start keeping track of what I'm spending - I've budgeted £105 per month but need to make sure we stay within that.

On other MSE news, have finally posted OHs ISA transfer form. Hopefully it's not too late for the 1.91% rate. I am despairing of the gas bill as it's too cold for us already! We have the heating on for 12 hours a day and it will be more on weekends. Apat from that no news really. Did a small shop at Tesco - mainly fruit, milk and snacks for LO. Have £9 for the rest of the month and the fridge and cupboards are fairly full so should make it.

I have to confess to some personal spends though - a hot chocolate and cake at Starbucks. £5.25!! It's been so long since I've treated myself like that I was shocked at the price. Plus £4 on two ready meals for work lunch today - could have taken the frozen homemade meals made by OH but we had a HUGE row last night and I am in the 'I'm not eating your food' mood at the moment!

And that's all folks - have a good weekend!

mouche

Well how was your weekend everyone? We had a spendy Saturday as took the toll road across the river and in trying to make the most of the £4 toll, we:
1. Bought a Christmas gift for LO half price at £45
2. Bought gloves for OH (£8) and me (£2)
3. Rescheduled sofa delivery
4. Ate out at Taco Bell (I love it; OH hates it)

Total spends = £75 odd

To make up for that we had a quiet Sunday at home as OH had to go to work unexpectedly and he stayed overnight. As a result it was another £5 taxi ride to drop LO this morning and will be another one to collect him this evening.

Am about to place an order on Jojo Maman Bebe for some woollies for LO. They are horrendously overpriced but I haven't seen those items elsewhere and they are to replace the ones LO already has - and we get a LOT of wear from them. I am also very tempted to buy him a micro scooter as JMB are offering £10 off a £50 spend. But he already has an Ikea kitchen for birthday and kiddie tablet for Christmas. Maybe I'll buy and hide it till the summer.

On the income side - er - 45p on OnePoll! Roll on payday!

Tomorrow I have a day off as it is OH birthday so will be back Wednesday.

Courgette

You sound busy! Well done on all the OPs though :beer:

MoneyMission

Hi Mouche. Just catching up. Sorry to hear you've had labyrinthitis. I've heard its horrible. Hope you're feeling better now.

Well done on keeping such a close eye on everything and keeping up the OP's (even with sneaky sofa recliner purchases!).

MM

tootoo

hi mouche

Hope you're having a good week so far

mouche

Hullo Courgette, MoneyMission and tootoo....thanks for dropping by and reading my ramblings!

Had a nice but expensive day out yesterday for OHs birthday. Had an early lunch (snack according to OH) at our favourite Mexican restaurant. Had forgotten how good it was. It's amazing to think now that pre-baby we used to go there twice a week sometimes. Where has all that saved money gone? Oh I know - to the nursery.

Still it was a lovely treat followed by a film in Leicester Square. OHs choice since it was his birthday - we have notoriously different tastes but it was so nice seeing a film in the cinema that I put up with the film he chose. I love going to the cinema but don't think I've been since LO was born!

Then dimsum in Chinatown and a hair-raising journey home as London Bridge station was shut due to signal failure. We eventually got to the nursery half an hour after closing time but they were very nice about it. A lot of their parents work in London so we weren't the only ones delayed.

I think I spent about £70 all in and I haven't even got OH his birthday gift yet. Oh well, the gift is budgeted for and I think I have just enough in my personal spends to cover the day out. On the good side OH dropped and picked up LO yesterday so no spending on taxis.

My salary has been paid but OHs hasn't yet. My money shuffle day isn't till the 30th so am sitting on my hands trying not to log into online banking.

mouche

Hullo all...making a daily post keeps me going but not always anything interesting to post about. So I thought I'd record a nice LO moment every time I post so that in years to come I can look back and remember. LO is now 22 months and I fall in love with him more and more each day. He has recently discovered TV and now evenings are peppered with requests for 'Bob', 'Pig' and 'Die-saw'. He loves pointing out body parts and will complain if his trousers have got rucked up by saying 'knees'. And his favourite thing is the 'Bus' song which I have to sing while he does the actions and joins in to say 'Alldaylooong'.

Right, on the MSE side, I saved £5 yesterday by bringing LO home on the bus. It wasn't cold, rainy or windy so I thought why not. It wasn't too bad but I do find it difficult to carry my backpack and LO at the same time. He does walk quite a lot of the distance but I don't like letting him walk when crossing the roads. And of course sometimes he just stops and lifts up his hands for ‘Gadu’. (The correct word in our language is ‘Godi’ but LO prefers his version). Today is supposed to be similar weather-wise so am debating whether to do it again. I am feeling quite tired so not inclined – but it would be £5 saved….

Have researched how to fight a parking charge notice from MSE so need to fill in that letter and send it off to the parking company – don’t want to pay £60!

Apart from that – no news on the money front. OH still not been paid but his ISA has moved over to Virgin Money so will now earn a bit more interest.

MoneyQueen

Mouche, good luck with the parking charge fight.

Good idea to write about LO's moments here. I let my mom read your post and apparently she used to call it 'godu' when she was that age

Nice to read that OP's are going on fine. Enjoy your new sofa.

MQ

mouche

Thank you MQ - how cute that your mum used to say the same thing as my LO! I got a lot of requests for 'gadu' yesterday as I did take him home on the bus in the end and he was a bit more under the weather than I realised. His cough is back and much worse. I had hoped the antibiotics would have fixed it but clearly not. We'll take him to the out of hours doc tomorrow and see what they say.

Today OH got paid so I did the money shuffle and I will put tomorrow's spend on the December budget. OH got paid a bit less than I expected because I'd forgotten his first day at work was the 4th. So I've saved £200 less than I'd planned but otherwise it feels so nice to have enough money to do a bit of everything - save, OP, spend. After three months of a single salary, having two to play with is so nice!

Did an OP of £55 (budgeted in) and another one of £20 from my personal spends. Once the official payment goes out I'll try to level it off a bit. I'm only £126 from dropping another month on the term so am very tempted to pay that off! Will definitely do that by end of the year.

I have also opened another Instant Access savings account that pays a lot more interest than my existing ones. It’s only 1.5% gross but it’s better than the measly 0.1% I was getting. I normally have 2000-3000 in instant access accounts so best that it earns me something.

I am wondering whether I should save some money in the name of my LO. I haven’t done so far because I was under the impression that I cannot withdraw any money saved in his name. Is this true? Or is it that I can save in his name and withdraw before he is 7 in order to keep control of the money. I have saved quite a lot for him already in my own name but the fact that it is ‘for’ him is visible only on my spreadsheet. If I can save tax free in his name that would be great provided I don’t lose control of the money. Any ideas?

Right, LO moment for the day. After going this long without any particular favourite soft toy, LO has suddenly got very attached to a stuffed puppy and to his blanket. He calls the blanket ‘Na-nam’ and gets very distressed at bedtime if both dog and blanket are not available. He was sick on the blanket last night so I extricated it and washed it after he fell asleep so that he could have Na-nam again tonight!