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

mouche

Expensive day today as bought my travelcard for next week and also topped up my Oyster to cover the week after. I normally buy a monthly but worked out this month - because my last monthly expired on the 11th - using a judicious combination of weeklies and Oyster prepay will be cheaper than getting a monthly. Am hoping to save £10 this way - travel is by far my biggest personal expense so anything saved is a bonus. Can't wait for the end of the month when I can see what surplus we have left in the accounts and overpay like mad! My wildly optimistic mini goal for October is to scrape together £302 more in OPs. I'd set something more reasonable but £302 more will reduce the term of the mortgage by a month. How exciting!

mouche

Ordered our bedroom carpet on Sunday. The one the previous owners left us is stained and stinky and we couldn't face the thought of keeping it any longer though mum pointed out that baby will add his own stains and smells to the new one! It was the second cheapest one in CarpetRight but the room is so big, it still came to £465 with underlay and fitting. Have only saved £130 towards it! I have the money in other funds but I hate having to borrow from myself - ruins my spreadsheets! Oh well, we really couldn't have lived with the current one so we'll just have to put off all other home improvements till we've 'paid off' the carpet. On the plus side, it tracked at £19 cashback on Quidco, which I wasn't expecting!

The phone has also finally been installed so hopefully we'll have internet in a few days.

Have to pop to bank at lunchtime to pay in £120 for mum in law. We save for her throughout the year by popping the odd £5 into a box - there was £200 in there when we counted but OH decided to give her what we always do - the equivalent of 10,000 rupees - and keep the rest for next year. We also give my dad in law money every year to help with household expenses - it will be about half of the normal amount this year anyway, and OH is going to have to explain to him that we may not manage anything at all next year. But dad in law is practical about money and will understand and adapt his budget. Mum in law is like a child in that she thinks just because we work in the UK, we must be millionaires! She's never worked or budgeted in her life and only recently got her first bank account so can't blame her really.

On top of that bro-in-law (OHs brother) upset me again on Sunday - as he always does. He and his wife live in Australia and are coming to visit us and to travel in Spain next year. OH was telling him that our travelling days are over and his brother said - why on earth? you can take the baby with you. So OH said it's not taking the baby that's the problem, it's finding the money to travel. And his brother just laughed at him - he seems to think the government will pay for our childcare and my loss of income will make no difference to our lifestyle. I hate to think how OH is going to explain to him that he will need to take more financial responsibility for my in laws for the period we can't do as much.

I don't know how they are so blase about the cost of living. They are both in banking so probably make more money than we do - plus they live in a low cost of living town. Plus, they don't seem to have any desire to buy a house. So probablt in a completely different financial place than us. It's just that he rubs our nose in it every time. My own sister is extremely well off but rarely makes me feel like the poor relation - his brother does it every time! Sorry, just needed to let off some steam.

mouche

Oh forgot to mention, went for a birthday party on Saturday but managed to get away with just £3.21 on a card as I found a nice spa kit in my unwanted gifts box and gave her that. The card should have been cheaper but sent OH to get it so I suppose I should be grateful it wasn't more! Also got the refund for our cancelled sofa order from Harveys. We'd got carried away when buying the house and ordered a gorgeous new set but fortunately on measuring we realised it wouldn't fit. We will have to get a new one soon as the old ones are on their last legs but need to save up for it properly. Ony got about £800 in the furniture fund at the moment so might have to think of second hand.

poorbutrich

mouche wrote: »

On top of that bro-in-law (OHs brother) upset me again on Sunday - as he always does. He and his wife live in Australia and are coming to visit us and to travel in Spain next year. OH was telling him that our travelling days are over and his brother said - why on earth? you can take the baby with you. So OH said it's not taking the baby that's the problem, it's finding the money to travel. And his brother just laughed at him - he seems to think the government will pay for our childcare and my loss of income will make no difference to our lifestyle. I hate to think how OH is going to explain to him that he will need to take more financial responsibility for my in laws for the period we can't do as much.

I don't know how they are so blase about the cost of living. They are both in banking so probably make more money than we do - plus they live in a low cost of living town. Plus, they don't seem to have any desire to buy a house. So probablt in a completely different financial place than us. It's just that he rubs our nose in it every time. My own sister is extremely well off but rarely makes me feel like the poor relation - his brother does it every time! Sorry, just needed to let off some steam.

Grrrr! I find that people who feel the need to put others down like that are often lacking in other kinds of wealth ie non material. Or even might not be as well off as they make out.

My DH's family always come round and start conversations along these lines which I smile at and then change the theme very obviously. One of them asked how much I earned and how much our mortgage was once, then another always tells us about the holiday home they have in Spain, lecture us on how we should have bought a house year ago, while also contradicting themselves and telling us we "have it easy"???. These are the people who then gave us a wedding present which I later discovered on sale in the pound shop.

Please don't take any notice of them - as they say, you can choose your friends, but you can't choose your DH's family :rotfl:

mouche

Thanks PBR - you're absolutely right. I can't get rid of them so should just thank my luck that I don't have to live in the same continent as them! I think I just have a touch of the baby blues and am taking evrything to heart. Need to snap out of it. Just 8 working days to go - yay!

On the (non)-MFW front, postman brought the pair of wine glasses I ordered using the last of my work 'points'. Had thought I'd team them with an unwanted wine rack someone gave me years ago and give them as a gift for an upcoming wedding. But the glasses turned out to be quite nice crystal glasses and I've decided to keep them! As for the wedding, I'm going with my parents in India and mum said protocol doesn't require me to give a separate gift and she's giving quite an expensive one so completely not necessary. SoI get to keep my wine glasses with a clear conscience. Oh and OH just rang to tell me he bought a bottle of champagne for £10 at a work auction for charity. Now I just have to wait till baby emerges till I can actually drink it out of my new glasses!

poorbutrich

mouche wrote: »

Thanks PBR - you're absolutely right. I can't get rid of them so should just thank my luck that I don't have to live in the same continent as them! I think I just have a touch of the baby blues and am taking evrything to heart. Need to snap out of it. Just 8 working days to go - yay!

On the (non)-MFW front, postman brought the pair of wine glasses I ordered using the last of my work 'points'. Had thought I'd team them with an unwanted wine rack someone gave me years ago and give them as a gift for an upcoming wedding. But the glasses turned out to be quite nice crystal glasses and I've decided to keep them! As for the wedding, I'm going with my parents in India and mum said protocol doesn't require me to give a separate gift and she's giving quite an expensive one so completely not necessary. SoI get to keep my wine glasses with a clear conscience. Oh and OH just rang to tell me he bought a bottle of champagne for £10 at a work auction for charity. Now I just have to wait till baby emerges till I can actually drink it out of my new glasses!

You really have got into the swing of this MFW thing! Very impressed with your inventiveness with the present and fab that you have DH on board. £10 for some champagne!! Not long to go before you'll be able to have a glass!

mouche

Just eating some lovely lentil and bacon soup from EAT. I've been such a skinflint lately that I haven't allowed myself any treats of any sort. But it occurred to me that I will be out of the UK for upto 6 months and I won't get the chance to do some of the things I can here. So am treating myself to a lunch today and will try to actually book a pregnancy massage on Sunday instead of just faffing about trying to find a mobile therapist.

On the MFW front, got two letters yesterday from the council - one the final bill from the last one and one the bill for the new one. Opened the new one first and nearly fell off my chair - I knew it was going to be higher than the old one as it is at least one council tax band higher, but it was a LOT more than I expected. Then I realised they were taking the first payment in December and therefore spreading 6 months of payments over 4 months. Phew.

The second letter was a credit, which I was expecting so no surprise. BUT it was a credit for £540 odd!!! I certainly wasn't expecting that! I've always paid my council tax every month at the 10 monthly rate so I knew I would get some credit but that's a fortune - to me anyway! I'll use some of it to make a lump sum payment for the new house so that I only have to pay the amount I had budgeted for, for the rest of the year. The rest I will divide into my pots so hopefully will get an OP out of it. But have to wait for it to be credited first!

Off to the midwife in an hour so early finish at work for me. Then just 1 more week to go. Am really looking forward to being off but yesterday had my first 'oh my god what will I do all day moment'. I've got about 3 months off before baby and it's the first long holiday I will have had in 10 years.

mouche

I’ve had quite a nice weekend – friends came over for Saturday lunch to say goodbye to me and we had a good time. Managed to make it relatively MSE as used a £25 gift card Pizza Hut had given me to apologise for a cold delivery a month ago. Sent OH to get them so he ended up spending about £12 in Asda on side dishes but still £12 for a meal for 6 people is brilliant! Plus got 2 bottles of wine, 2 boxes of chocolate and a gift for the baby.

The new carpet has been fitted and looks fabulous – not cheap at all! We had to pay the fitters £28 extra because we hadn’t taken up the old one. Well, they didn’t say at the shop that we had to and we’d never had a carpet fitted before so we didn’t know! Chalk it up to inexperience. That’s taken our carpet cost to almost £500 but it’s worth it. Suddenly the bedroom looks like a bedroom and we’re very pleased.

Sunday was a bit more iffy – had a very old friend staying over and he said some things which really hurt me. He didn’t intend to but he did. But he was still with us all day and we had to entertain him when I really didn’t feel like it. So we ended up going to IKEA where he bought us lunch and we bought some lamp shades to replace the hideous ones in the living and dining space. Just changing the shades has created so much more light in the room, it’s amazing. We also saw some brilliant units in IKEA which has given us lots of ideas on what to do with the dead space between the living room and the kitchen. We have a huge kitchen with a lovely space for a dining room so the old dining space has become a bit of a corridor – well it won’t be once we have the cash for some units and a bar! We hadn’t intended to spend any more on the house having bought the carpet but it only cost us about £20 for the lampshades and a little white enamel jug for flowers. And those 3 little bits gave us a lot of joy at the end of a not so nice day that it was worth it.

Salaries have hit the accounts so have to find some time today to get the cash moved around and decide on an OP amount – how exciting!

poorbutrich

mouche wrote: »

I’ve had quite a nice weekend – friends came over for Saturday lunch to say goodbye to me and we had a good time. Managed to make it relatively MSE as used a £25 gift card Pizza Hut had given me to apologise for a cold delivery a month ago. Sent OH to get them so he ended up spending about £12 in Asda on side dishes but still £12 for a meal for 6 people is brilliant! Plus got 2 bottles of wine, 2 boxes of chocolate and a gift for the baby.

The new carpet has been fitted and looks fabulous – not cheap at all! We had to pay the fitters £28 extra because we hadn’t taken up the old one. Well, they didn’t say at the shop that we had to and we’d never had a carpet fitted before so we didn’t know! Chalk it up to inexperience. That’s taken our carpet cost to almost £500 but it’s worth it. Suddenly the bedroom looks like a bedroom and we’re very pleased.

Sunday was a bit more iffy – had a very old friend staying over and he said some things which really hurt me. He didn’t intend to but he did. But he was still with us all day and we had to entertain him when I really didn’t feel like it. So we ended up going to IKEA where he bought us lunch and we bought some lamp shades to replace the hideous ones in the living and dining space. Just changing the shades has created so much more light in the room, it’s amazing. We also saw some brilliant units in IKEA which has given us lots of ideas on what to do with the dead space between the living room and the kitchen. We have a huge kitchen with a lovely space for a dining room so the old dining space has become a bit of a corridor – well it won’t be once we have the cash for some units and a bar! We hadn’t intended to spend any more on the house having bought the carpet but it only cost us about £20 for the lampshades and a little white enamel jug for flowers. And those 3 little bits gave us a lot of joy at the end of a not so nice day that it was worth it.

Salaries have hit the accounts so have to find some time today to get the cash moved around and decide on an OP amount – how exciting!

Sorry to hear about the extra carpet charge - still better than you overdoing it and tearing it up yourself.

And what is your friend doing saying hurtful things to you? You seem to be on the receiving end of far too much of that behaviour!

mouche

Hi PBR...thanks for stopping by. Hehe ...I do sound like a right moaner don't I? It wasn't anything major - perhaps I'm just being over sensitive. Basically he prioritised another friend's demands over promises he made to me - and it isn't the first time he's done it. He's also made excuses for it in the past saying that having gone through a bad breakup, he finds it helps him to be with single people rather than married people like me. He has also said in the past that he has so many friends either pregnant or with new babies that he's a bit bored by it all. He denies he said this to me but he did! But on the other hand, he dropped everything to come and take care of me for 3 days when I was really suffering with morning sickness. SO I guess I should focus on the positives. It just that the negatives have been piling up. Anyway, I have decided not to let it get me down. It isn't good for me or the baby to brood over unkind people.

Anyway, had a pretty good month for OPs. Managed £135 from the money leftover in our accounts at the end of the month. So in total have overpaid £268.90 even before our first official payment goes out this Friday. After poring over the mortgage calculator spreadsheet, I have found that by doing this I have brought forward the date when my interest payments will be less than my capital payments by 1 month. Yay! Next target, bringing forward the mortgage end date by a month - need to overpay another £165 by the end of December to achieve that. Since maternity budget starts this month, don't know how practical that will be - but I do have £550 odd coming as the council tax refund of which at least £100 will go as an OP so just have to find another £65. Perhaps Quidco will make me happy...