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

mouche

Thank you smlsave - I have subscribed to your diary so I will now know what to expect from DS in a few months! And also to reminisce about how he was as a baby when Smllet2 comes along.

What can I update you with today?

Should it be the naughty £1.49 I spent on honey covered nuts on top of a perfectly good lunch?

Should it be the £5 I spent on a taxi last night for LO? And a proper sweetheart he was too on his own with me as dad was working late. Not a tantrum in sight.

Should it be the fact that the monthly budget will have to be rejigged to allow for £20 more petrol per month?

Should it be the fact that I am keeping on top of the chores so far this week and the downstairs is now tidy.

Or should it be the £1,012 OP I have just done with OHs lump sum? <does a little dance>

It will have to be paid back to the car fund but oh what a nice sight it is to see the balance fall. When the DD comes out next month, it will go below £175,000 – which without any OPs at all would be a milestone scheduled for Feb next year. <does another little dance>

tootoo

well done mouche!! wow what a milestone going below £175!

£1 per minute for lateness?! Is that the norm? dd1 didn't go to nursery until almost 3 so its a preschool type from 2 years old.

SmlSave

Well done on the OP!


£1 a min is normal tootoo. we've already used up our free pass this year already!

Pearla*Merle

Fantastic milestone bashing!

Good grief on the £1 a minute late fees, I didn't even know they did such things! :eek:

mouche

Yes £1 a minute seems to be fairly standard. They say it's because Ofsted required them to have two members of staff present and they need to be paid 1.5 times for overtime. What with childcare, savings for him and spending on him, LO costs us almost half our joint incomes every month - and we don't mind for a second! He really is the light of our lives. :smileyhea

It feels like it’s been years since I updated but it’s only been a couple of days!

This weekend was not moneysaving at all – a big grocery shop done for about £50 (forgot cheese for LO so needed to top up – that cost not added yet) which contained all sorts of treats especially fruits. Still, the pleasure LO is getting out of the strawberries is worth the price. Last night I gave him two while I ate dinner and he polished them off post haste and asked for more. Seeing as he’d had his evening meal at nursery I said ‘Only one more’. He thought about that and said ‘OK. Big please.’ He certainly knows how to use that vocabulary!

We also spent a third of our eating out budget on the weekend thanks to OH wanting KFC on Saturday on top of our Sunday Bluewater trip. But then from last night onwards, OH will be working every evening, including weekends, so I suspect we won’t be eating out very much in the near future.

In other spends on the weekend – a fitted sheet for the upstairs bed. I can report it fits beautifully and has converted me to fitted sheets forever. Also, it matches our old flat sheet so I’m going to convert the flat sheet into a duvet cover – then I’ll have a proper matching set.

On mortgage news, we are now under £175K so we are probably at 30% equity now – but will wait to take out a fixed deal until we are at 30% equity based on our purchase price.

OH made a couple of baked potatoes and egg mayo for me this weekend so have enjoyed a very nice frugal work lunch yesterday and today.

I was very good with the chores last week so will do a similar breakdown this week and see how it goes – am on my own with LO in the evenings now so may not be as good but will make a stab at it.

• Tuesday: Laundry, ironing, tidying downstairs including packing up LOs playmat
• Wednesday: Declutter/ tidy bathroom shelves
• Thursday: Prepare two items for ebay listing (did I tell you one of my items from Sunday has a bid; I’d never have imagined it would sell!)
• Friday: Declutter/ tidy one shelf of study table

BlueMoo

When the DD comes out next month, it will go below £175,000 – which without
any OPs at all would be a milestone scheduled for Feb next year. <does
another little dance>

Can I join in please? :dance:

Great news! I have just creeped over the 170k barrier (though it will go back up on 23rd Feb), but still, very exciting

mouche

Thank you BlueMoo...I was quite chuffed with getting under that milestone.

The £43.50 from incahoot turned up today so made an £11 OP and put the rest into the private school fund. By my calculations, if we can save £350 to the private school fund every month, we should be able to pay for LO through primary if he starts at age 5. I could only squeeze £250 out of the household budget so any extra income up to £100 is allocated to it (apart from the first £11 which goes on an OP to make me happy!). I doubt we'll ever have more than £111 extra income so will decide that if it ever happens.

Poor OH got home around 11.30pm last night - it's going to continue like this till at least March due to shortage of staff. He doesn't think he'll be able to have a day off this week though he is still hopeful he can be home Saturday and Sunday morning. Dear readers, never let your children grow up to be chefs!

LO moment: The other day I overheard LO talking to one of his toys 'Excuse me lion, <LO name> sit there now.' It is now possible to have a sort of conversation with him. He told me the other day that he had kicked his best friend at nursery. I asked his key worker about it and she said it did happen but it wasn't LO doing the kicking. Whew - but also, how cute is it that he's trying to tell me about his day!

Chores update: Who is magically filling my laundry baskets while my back is turned? I have been washing and drying almost everyday (no tumble so have to wait for clothes to dry on racks) and the baskets are still full. Aaaagh! Still, managed the items on the list yesterday so going ok so far.

Onepoll is up to over £10 again but I still haven't received the payout from my first claim. They say to wait 28 days so I have another 14 days to go before I can raise a query.

mouche

Since I am working from home, I have done the chore on my list for today in my lunch break. I cleared the bathroom shelves and cabinets and my god! I have enough shampoo and shower gel to open a shop! And that's not counting the trial versions of brands I don't use plus the bits snaffled from various hotels.

Had to throw out loads of expired face creams etc. I also found a brand new Avon day cream in the box - such a waste. I am not a beauty person and will never be - remind me of that next time I express any desire to buy beauty products.

<bit shocked by the waste>

Pearla*Merle

mouche wrote: »

Onepoll is up to over £10 again but I still haven't received the payout from my first claim. They say to wait 28 days so I have another 14 days to go before I can raise a query.

Onepoll always takes ages to come through I was up to around £10 again before I got my last payment come to think of it

I've been there with the beauty products! At least you won't have to buy anything new for quite a while

tootoo

I sorted one of my drawers the other day - 10 tubs of lovely body cream (not including the few that were passed their best!), I am now creaming on a daily basis, although as they were all gifts I'm starting to wonder if people are trying to tell me something!!