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

gallygirl

mouche wrote: »

At least we made a decision instead of dithering.

Completely agree. I ALWAYS make a decision. Even if it's deciding to not make a decision right now .

mouche

GG you crack me up!

Really tired today as LO woke up crying for mummy and wouldn’t go back to sleep until I took him into bed with me. Normally OH does this as he can fall asleep easily after waking up. I have a hard time sleeping at the best of times and having LO in the bed meant I slept very badly. Hope he doesn’t do it again today. He has also kindly given me his cold so am feeling fairly miserable.

Weekend was ok. Lunch on Saturday was McDonald’s but under £10. Don’t think we spent anything other than that. Sunday also I think was an NSD.

Today I spent 55p on a packet of biscuits and ate them all by 10am. Comfort eating!

On the tidy house front, all ironing done, all post filed, all Xmas gifts wrapped. AND managed two evenings of cross stitch. Hooray!!

Goals for this week:
1. Keep on top of laundry and ironing
2. Keep on top of filing post
3. Tidy living room thoroughly
4. Identify and buy storage solutions to help hide mess

tootoo

Hi - just popping to say hi.
You're missing an item off your list - a lovely long bubble bath

mouche

tootoo wrote: »

Hi - just popping to say hi.
You're missing an item off your list - a lovely long bubble bath

Ahhhhh tootoo wouldn't that be lovely! Even thinking about it makes me feel better.

mouche

Working from home today with a bad cold. LO was good last night and didn't wake up so got some sleep.

The nursery owner gave us a lift home last night so saved £5. He doesn't live far so he's offered us a lift whenever he's leaving around that time. Which is very nice of him. Am keeping fingers crossed that OH can leave work on time tonight and pick LO up - then I don't have to leave the house! Have taken tomorrow off as have some errands to run. After that just 3 working days to Christmas! Oh and the good news is that OH has taken Christmas and Boxing Day off! So barring disasters, we will have Christmas dinner on Christmas day - yay!

Money-wise a friend of our has just haggled his bank down from a 3.29% fixed mortgage rate to 3.09%, I didn't know they were open to haggling - must give it a shot when we move our mortgage.

Nothing else to report really - a few surveys done on Onepoll and that's it.

One thing that happenned yesterday was a colleague at work asked me what tablet I got for LO as they were thinking of getting one for their son. I told them and out of curiousity checked how much it was going for now - the cheapest I could find was £63 - I got it for half price at £44.49 a month ago! Apart from patting myself on the back, I am kicking myself for not buying two and selling one to her at £55 or something! Next year if I spot a bargain, I may well do that...

On the tidy home front...did a load of laundry last night - it's drying now. That's about it - I get some leeway when I'm ill don't I?

BlueMoo

Money-wise a friend of our has just haggled his bank down from a 3.29% fixed
mortgage rate to 3.09%, I didn't know they were open to haggling - must give it
a shot when we move our mortgage.

I never knew that either. Very interesting, will definitely keep it in mind.

******

I think the downside of these forums and of the internet in general is
that there is too much information and too little time for our poor brains to
process it all.

Indeed. Sometimes I get a bit carried away looking at all the options - some don't even apply to me! But nonetheless, it good that there is all the information out here. Though seeing other people's interst rates sometimes makes me a little green! *sheepish*


*********

Definitely leeway if you're ill. If I'm ill, I do the bare minimum. Try and get some rest and nip it in the bud is my motto
:coffee:

mouche

LO was sent home from nursery yesterday as he was sick after lunch. Can’t go back until 48 hours are up. He hasn't been sick since though he is a bit under the weather with his cold. I hate this 48 hours rule – I understand why it has to be there but I hate it anyway. Had to go and pick him up yesterday and we both just watched TV most of the afternoon and evening as I wasn't too well either. Then he came into bed with me again around 4.15 am – which wasn't as bad as I’d gotten some sleep by then.

OH and I were planning a sneaky day off together today but I've moved mine to tomorrow so that OH can look after LO today and I will do it tomorrow. Only trouble with that is I am confined to the bedroom while working from home as if LO sees I’m home he won’t stay with OH.

So £5 on the taxi yesterday and about £10 on groceries as I don’t normally have milk and things for LO at home during the week. Today it was £40 on the osteopath for me though I have insurance for 75% of that. I found £50 in an old purse so didn't have to part with my stash of fivers at the osteopath. Before you wonder about me having old purses like that lying around – it was a gift from my mum (the money not the purse!) many years ago that was hidden away and forgotten about. I’ll transfer the £50 to my son’s account and pay for the osteo out of my own.

OH just told me his boss has asked him to work Christmas Day – it will be about 10-3 but that means he’ll be out the house from 8.30 to 5ish. So I guess we’ll be celebrating Christmas on Boxing Day instead – if he still has that off. We've done this before as it’s normal to work bank holidays in his profession - plus we’re not Christian. But with a LO, somehow it feels different. At least he’s not old enough to understand.

No MSE activities to report today – unless it is resisting the temptations of the Grabbit board! My salary should be in the bank tomorrow but the month doesn't end till the 31st for me so I won’t be touching it (sitting on hands). I am going to get my mortgage down to £177,000 on the 31st though so I can start 2014 with a round number.

LO moment: LO has a best friend at nursery and though I have seen the little boy, I didn't realise how close they were until I went to pick LO up yesterday. Since LO had been ill, his friend was hovering around him and as soon as I got in, he ran up to me and said ‘<LO Name> sick. Mummy come.’ Then just before we left LO went over to him and said ‘<Friend Name> hug. and gave him a hug and then ‘Kissi’ and gave him a kiss. It was so cute!

mouche

This month has been super for keeping the taxi costs down for picking LO up from nursery. I dropped him off at midday yesterday by bus and OH managed to get back in time to collect him. I will need to collect him tonight and Monday but OH is off on 24th so will pick him up at midday when they close for Christmas. And that will be that till January.

OH has got a funny working pattern over Christmas – one day off and one day on till the 29th. After that he doesn’t know but likely to be the same. We have invited a few friends round for mulled wine and mince pies tomorrow so supermarket run is needed tomorrow. We will probably pick up the non-perishables for Xmas as well and then get the perishables on the 24th while LO is at nursery.

Spent £4.80 on a hot choc and cake at coffee shop yesterday afternoon – it is never as satisfying as I think it will be but I keep doing it as a treat – must stop and find something else to treat myself with. Also £5.60 on postage at the PO – one for an Xmas gift and one for a book that sold on Greenmetropolis. It was a book we got free as part of an experience day so 40p profit! I’ve also taken some photos of our old sofas so must find time to get them onto Freecycle/ Facebook/ ebay – we are struggling with space with them still in the house.

Tidy house project has lost some steam this week but not too bad:

1. Keep on top of laundry/ ironing – A couple of things to iron but would like to do another load of laundry first and do the lot together – so scheduled for Sunday.
2. Keep on top of filing post – DONE
3. Tidy living room – partly done; have to tackle the little table and the ‘stuff’ in the TV table shelves.
4. Identify storage solutions – have done this but not buying right now as no space till sofas are gone. Till then the sofas are the storage solution!

Chinese meal with colleagues this afternoon – just had a look at the menu and looks like it will cost about £7. Oh well.

Some good news financially:

1. Our pay rises were suspended this year due to difficult trading conditions – we have now been told that we will get raises in March (six months late) and these will be the raises till Sep 2015. So one raise over two years but apparently the amount will be a bit more than normal. I’ve only been here a year so don’t know what ‘normal’ would have been. Still, something is better than nothing.
2. A personal injury claim against one of my OH’s previous employers (negligence by them led to him being injured and off work for six months) looks like it’s going to be settled out of court – and the figures being mentioned are for more than I had hoped for. Not mortgage-paying-off numbers but certainly nice-holiday numbers or big-boost-to-car-savings numbers. Let’s hope it materialises. No amount can compensate for the levels of stress and pain OH went through but thankfully he has now fully recovered.
3. Thanks to a great tip by Pearlamerle, my OnePoll earnings are up to £28.60 with 95 of that earned today. I WILL get to my payout!

mouche

Howdy all! It's been a very expensive weekend - I'm not sure how much we spent but it was lots! Still, we've got all we need for the Christmas meal and had a lovely mulled wine and mince pies evening with my friend and her toddler. Her LO and mine ate all the flavoured nuts and most of the mince pies! Hopefully we can manage on the contents of the fridge and freezer till the 31st though OH made ominous noises when I mooted that idea. Oh well, we have £14 in luncheon vouchers that will expire on the 1st so that will be our budget for any last bits we need.

I got the £3 from Greenmetropolis and the £18 odd from Amazon sales in today so have saved some of it and also made a £5.37 OP.

OH has bought an annual travelcard at this years prices so what's left of our easy access savngs will go on paying off that CC bill. He will pay it back to the savings month by month as I am doing with mine. This has saved me £26 per month since I bought mine two months ago and will save both of us £32.10 per month each next year thanks to the price increases.

I am giving myself a Christmas treat this evening and taking a taxi to the nursery as well as back. I had to wait 20 min with LO for a taxi Friday night and don't want to repeat that tonight in this weather. It means the taxi costs this month have been £30 which still leaves £60 in that budget that I will put towards LOs education.

OH has been given a bottle of champagne, a bottle of vodka and an ENORMOUS hamper of chocolates by various suppliers and his boss. Also, I was given 4 bottles of beer from work (leftovers from event). Being lightweights, that will take care of our alcohol needs for a good while though I have already made big inroads into the chocs.

Haven't done that well on tidy house front this week as my back has really been troubling me (posted off claim form for osteopath on Saturday but think I might need another session soon). OH is at work Christmas do this evening so if LO goes to sleep on time, I will;

1) Do the ironing.
2) Tidy the last bits in the living room.
3) Wrap box of chocs for staff at the nursery.

Actually, thanks to the efforts made earlier this month, our downstairs is actually not too bad - maintaining it is a lot easier now. In 2014, I will tackle the upstairs.

I may not post again till after New Year, so if I don't - Merry Christmas from the mouche-family to all my MSE friends. Hope you have a lovely Christmas and many windfalls in 2014!

poorbutrich

mouche wrote: »

I may not post again till after New Year, so if I don't - Merry Christmas from the mouche-family to all my MSE friends. Hope you have a lovely Christmas and many windfalls in 2014!

Happy Christmas to you and your family too! Looking forward to more Mouche adventures in 2014!!