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

Pearla*Merle

Glad to hear OnePoll is going well! 95p in one day is fantastic! :money:

You're doing great with MSE achievements (travel savings, alcohol & chocolate stock etc!), well done! Hope the injury claim comes good, what a thing to have to go through though

Good luck with your tidying/streamlining - we're doing some major action on that front here as well, it can be quite a business sometimes, eh!

mouche

Happy New Year everyone! Hope everyone had a lovely holiday and are now raring to go in 2014. I had quite a nice break though I now know that choosing not to be a SAHM was the right decision for both LO and me. I love the little dumpling to bits but we can't handle each other 24*7!

It was and wasn't an MSE time as the days OH was home I made him take us out as we were so bored at home. One of those outings was to a designer outlet mall an hour's drive away. Amazingly, the petrol was the most expensive part of the trip as OH and I don't really need anything and the one thing we wanted for LO was not available in his size. So we bought socks and other bits for a princely total of £10. Some more on food and probably £20 on fuel. But we had a nice day out, LO loved the play area and we saved our collective sanity so a good deal I think.

MSE hat on again now. New budget for 204 done and it seems we will not be able to put away as much as I had hoped for LOs education. So I have joined the Grocery challenge and the 'Make £10 a day' challenege to try and save/ earn some extra pennies for the pot. I think my main way of earning more will be ebay so really need to pull my socks on with that one.

As hoped for I was able to OP the mortage to £177,000 on 31st December and my target for 2014 is to get that down to £170,000 by the end of the year. MY OP calculator tells me this will need £103 per month which is very doable considering I have budgeted in £92 OP anyway. Anything over that will be great!

The payment to OH for his injury compensation should be made in 4-5 weeks. It will mostly go towards the trip we are making to India for LOs birthday in 2015. Apart from tickets, we will need spending money plus OH will need to give his father some money and also throw a big party for his relatives as they have never seen LO. I am fortunate that my own parents are well off and therefore don't need any money from me and will be paying for the party for my relatives! OH and I used to give my in laws about £1200 a year before we had LO and I know OH feels bad that we have stopped. So I have not objected to him wanting to give some of his compensation to them - it's his money after all.

I've done my taxes for the year as I received a payment for freelance work in the last tax year. Hopefully I won't be filling any more of those from next year.

My new year resolutions:
1. Focus on work at work and focus on home at home
2. Try to find something to compliment OH on everyday rather than nagging about things he hasn't done
3. Declutter/ clean the house one small job at a time until it is presentable by the end of 2014.
4. Lose a kilo a month.

I could have many more but I don't know if I can even stick to these (number 4 has made an appearance on that list since I was about 14!)

EDF had reduced my gas DD by £8 thanks to me putting my readings in every month. Yay! We're still in debt on both accounts but I think one more month will get rid of the electric debt and I will pay the £8 towards the gas debt every month anyway in an effort to reduce it by the time our fixed deal ends in April.

Anyone know how to get rid of unwanted old sofas for free? Gumtree and freecycle seem to be brimming with people trying to get rid of their sofas.

mouche

What rubbish weather we’ve been having. Bah! Makes keeping good resolutions very difficult.

Nevertheless, doing ok on MSE front. Spent Saturday in Bluewater – mainly as an outing, but also picked up a top for LO (£5) and two pairs of jeans for OH (£42 – reduced from £70). His old ones were falling apart so was a needed buy at a good price. In fact he got one pair for ‘free’ as he £20 of birthday money left. OH also persuaded me not to buy a smart top for LOs birthday until we checked the stock at home. Our parents have given LO tons of stuff – much of which was in larger sizes so we sometimes need to revisit them to see if they will fit now. I’m glad I listened to him because the designer shirt my mum gave him will fit now – and it matches the chinos we got him from the M&S outlet shop on New Year’s eve. SO LOs birthday outfit all done for very little spend. Also found loads more clothes that are only a little too big for LO now so I don’t anticipate and clothes buys in the near future – except PJs.

We did end up spending about £20 on food at Bluewater though – this is a weak area and we really need to control it. We went to Mr. A afterwards and were so tired, we just stuck to the list and got mostly everything we needed for £24.77. OH made frozen sweetcorn and on-the-turn bell pepper soup for my work lunches – it also fed LO last night. This week’s dinners will be from the freezer + the food OH cooked with frozen meat/ veg on the weekend. We actually have 1.5 empty drawers in the spare freezer now!

Sunday was a NSD as OH took LO to football and we spent the evening at home.

LO is developing such a strong British accent thanks to the girls at nursery and Peppa Pig! Sometimes we find it hard to understand him.  The other day he was coming in the front door and said ‘Mummy, cold’. But he said cold in a such a strong accent I didn’t understand. I said ‘What did you say?’. He repeated himself and when I still didn’t understand, he gave up in disgust and said ‘thandu’ – which is cold in our language! I can foresee the difficulties in bring up a cross-cultural child already! But I am proud of the dumpling – he is putting together 3-4 word sentences now and he’s not two yet!

Right, back to work today so back to work on the homefront as well. This week’s goals are:
1. Keep up with ironing (did a set last night)
2. Keep up with filing post (have fallen behind again)
3. Tidy downstairs again
4. Tidy spare bedroom wardrobes

tootoo

Hehe at your lo's accent

I find I always need to check the 'stockpile' off clothes too. Both of my girls are dinky and although my youngest is almost 2, some 12 months are too small so we have a lot of gifts that we have received waiting to be used. We also have a huge pile of her sisters preloved (hand me downs!).

I'm trying to keep up with my ironing too....i should be doing it now

mouche

tootoo wrote: »

Hehe at your lo's accent

I find I always need to check the 'stockpile' off clothes too. Both of my girls are dinky and although my youngest is almost 2, some 12 months are too small so we have a lot of gifts that we have received waiting to be used. We also have a huge pile of her sisters preloved (hand me downs!).

I'm trying to keep up with my ironing too....i should be doing it now

I have - or had - the opposite problem. LO was in 18-24 months by 13 months so we repeatedly told the parents how big he was for his age to prevent them buying anything too small. So we ended up with a stack of much-too-big things. I think the largest in the stockpile is in the 5-6 years size! Plus, LOs growth rate has slowed down and he is now more or less in the right size for his age (has been in 2-3 years since about 20 months but they still fit him fine.)

Good luck with the ironing - I hate it from the bottom of my soul but I find doing it regularly is less hateful than dealing with a huge stack every few weeks (or months...)

Pearla*Merle

mouche wrote: »

. I think the largest in the stockpile is in the 5-6 years size!

:rotfl: That's my kind of stockpile!

mouche

One day without posting an update and I go on a splurge – naughty mouche! Well it wasn’t really a splurge but it was unnecessary grocery shopping that spoilt a perfectly good NSD and still didn’t eliminate the need for more groceries on the weekend. On the bright side, I got lots of YS pastries and spent 15 minutes clingfilming them individually last night so that I can bring them in for breakfast at work. I’ve gone off muesli at the moment but the usual winter craving for porridge hasn’t kicked in this year. So choc croissants it is – nummmmy as LO would say. Also homemade sweetcorn and bell pepper soup for lunch – colleague asked if it was curry sauce and I have to admit it both looks, smells and tastes like curry sauce. But it’s nice, filling and cheap so who cares?

£5 on taxi on Monday but OH was home in time last night and will hopefully be tonight as well. Really need to book some more driving lessons.

OnePoll up to £32 - £8 to go!

Progress on chores:
1. Keep up with ironing (none generated yet)
2. Keep up with filing post (completed last night)
3. Tidy downstairs again (will do today)
4. Tidy spare bedroom wardrobes (not touched)

LOs latest – went to supermarket to buy biscuits for him. OH handed him a pack of jam and cream smiley biscuits that he has eaten before but aren’t his favourites. LO took the box, looked at it for a bit and said ‘Oh’ in a considering sort of tone and then said ‘Yes’ and dropped it into the trolley. Doesn’t sound so funny written down but OH and I were falling about laughing at the way in which he said it!

mouche

We now have confirmation that the personal injury payment has been finalised at a little higher than was earlier discussed which will give me an extra £400 to play with – ooooh what should I do with it? I think it will have to go in the holiday fund to be honest as we are definitely going on a holiday in summer and the pot is pretty bare.

OHs brother rang to offer a new bed for LO for his birthday (they have no kids yet and earn well in a low cost city so plenty of money to lavish on their only nephew!). We don’t want a bed as LO has a cot bed and it will last him another year or two I should think. So we gently suggested a Mini Micro scooter instead and he said ‘right, I’ll order it straightaway’. I don’t like OHs brother but I do appreciate his generosity. Only downside is they’ll expect us to be as generous when they eventually have kids. Ooops.

OnePoll earnings going well – up to £32.85 – can’t wait for that payout!

OHs job says he can’t have childcare vouchers till he completes 3 months in the job so we won’t get them this month. I have my December voucher so can wait till the January one comes in and use both to make up for it.

Chores didn’t go so well yesterday as my back pain was really bad and I was exhausted. Tonight I must do laundry (which will generate ironing for tomorrow/ weekend) + fold and put away the last load. I would like to also tidy the downstairs as there isn’t that much to do – just bitty stuff. Then I can try to attempt the wardrobes tomorrow…I get so disheartened when I’m not doing well on this goal and so excited when I am. I need to keep it in perspective!

mouche

Happy Friday all! Last night started as a bit of a disaster but turned out ok – our home train station was closed so we had to take a train to a different station and then take a taxi to the home station (to pick up the car) and then go pick up LO. The train was delayed anyway so we got there 20 minutes late, but a) the nursery manager didn’t charge us (he had said he would) and b) we were able to share a taxi with another couple (strangers) who wouldn’t let us pay half the fare (we offered repeatedly). So what could have been a bad delay and an expensive one was salvaged.

Today will not be an NSD as we are going to go to the supermarket as soon as OH gets home and get the weekly shop out of the way. Tomorrow is set to be sunny so we want to spend as much time as possible outdoors with LO – perhaps the playground followed by a trip to feed the ducks.

LO has not been letting me read to him for a few months now (he grabs the book and ‘reads’ to himself – usually offers me a book as well!) but last night we had some success with his Peppa Pig books. Have been scouring the internet for more reasonably priced Peppa ones but they are expensive! Have put in bids for a few on ebay and will be taking him to the library on the next wet weekend.

Ordered a birthday gift for a friend’s daughter who has the same birthday as mine –about £13 spent but got two puzzles for that price so that should be ok.

Up to £33.75 on OnePoll now.

On the chores front, got most of what I planned done last night. Tonight it’s ironing and beginning the wardrobe. I may still make it!


Oh and the most exciting news of all! I've just found out that you don't pay tax on personal injury settlements - so OHs compensation will be 20% higher than I had assumed (I had mentally deducted it from the amount the solicitor mentioned to avoid getting too excited). But now I am excited!! We can have a lovely holiday now without raiding any other 'pots' and I may even be able to save a bit to OP!

tootoo

good news on the 20%!

We have so many books, if you need any peppa ones let me know and i'll happily send you some as they won't be missed! My mum must buy the equivalent of 2 a week (all year!).