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

mouche

Thank you TwinnyD and hurdler. Really appreciate your comments Twinny.

My first Mother's Day today! LO had a bad night (as did mum and I!) so our planned outing to the shops almost didn't come off. We did go in the end but LO was wriggly and wouldn't settle so we didn't achieve much other than lunch at McDonald's. Then again lunch out with a 2 month old isn't to be sniffed at.

Have to confess going a bit mad with the credit card today. I discovered the Grabbit board yesterday and have so far placed a 40GBP order at Boots (2 brilliant half price toys for two birthdays coming up + enough shampoo and shower gel for 6 months) and a 20GBP order with the Bookpeople for a 65 book Thomas the Tank Engine box set. Will either keep these for LO or give them as gifts. Have also spent 15GBP on a cross stitch pattern I have been longing for for ages - it's a mother's day gift to myself. Must put the CC on ice now.

In my defence, I got about 2GBP tracking on Quidco for that lot - apart from the massive discounts.

mouche

My friend at work has just written saying the office lease is running out at the end of the year (which I knew) and the new location will be on the other side of London to where I live. It will mean a 2.5 hour commute one way, which considering the hours that childminders work, will make it impossible for me to work. Not to mention the huge increase in commuting costs. Unless they agree to let me work from home mostly, it looks like I will be out of a job at the end of ML. Very worried.

poorbutrich

mouche wrote: »

My friend at work has just written saying the office lease is running out at the end of the year (which I knew) and the new location will be on the other side of London to where I live. It will mean a 2.5 hour commute one way, which considering the hours that childminders work, will make it impossible for me to work. Not to mention the huge increase in commuting costs. Unless they agree to let me work from home mostly, it looks like I will be out of a job at the end of ML. Very worried.

Oh my goodness that's terrible news. Have you heard about this from your work officially? Will your department (and you) definitely be moving?

I hope they will let you work from home - am I correct in thinking that they have to consider flexitime or flexible working if you've had a baby? Perhaps they could help with commuting costs for the days you have to travel in?

This is a very strange move on their part as it will obviously have an impact on all staff, as well as clients. FIngers crossed it works out - don't worry just yet....

summerday

Congratulations on your little boy

Really hope that they will let you work from home, the office move sounds like a major hassle.

I ended up with a c-section too, and have to say that I'm seriously considering an elective one for next baby (God willing), after being in labour for 3 days and failed pessary and drip induction hence ending up with c-sec anyway, so let's ignore anyone who labels us. With the longer recovery, it's hardly an easier option anyway, is it?

Don't feel bad about the formula feeding either- similar thing happened to me with that, too. I expressed for a while as well, but as long as baby is thriving, and I'm sure your boy is, then it really doesn't matter.

Take care x

Sepa74

Hi Mouche,

Your work have to compensate you for the move. 2.5 hour commute is unrealistic for anyone, but particularly for someone coming off maternity leave. There is a formal process they must follow legally in this situation, and I wouldn't rely on your friends for news, but contact your line manager or HR direct.

You don't want to be worrying about it while you're on ML, and the only way to get the information you need to stop worrying is to talk to HR.

I am sure it will work out for you

mouche

hello everyone ... thank you PBR, summerday and Sepa74 for your concern about my work situation. I'm really hoping they will let me work from home - I will get in touch with my HR once I am back in the UK and see what the official position is. In the meantime, 2 more people have quit and one of them actually lives closer to the new office than the old one. People are just so fed up that they are leaving as soon as they can find new jobs. I joined 5 years ago and there were 40 people in the company. Only about 15 of them are left now.

Anyway, work seems a long way away at the moment. Am busy with looking after my LO and dreading the day my mum leaves us in the UK as he's a feisty little fellow and I don't know how I will cope with him on my own. Still, am really looking forward to going home - if for nothing else than to get out of this heat. We have the air conditioning on most of the time but can't go out at all. Plus, LO has developed white dry patches all over his face and one patch on his knee. He also has red raised patches on his neck. The doc said it's eczema and prescribed steroidal creams but I think he's over reacting. I'm not putting steroidal creams on a 12 week old! I am also not sure he's right about it being eczema - my cousin is also a doctor and said she thinks it's hives - which I am prone to myself. It could also be an allergy to his formula. So am trying him on another type of formula, have stopped using Johnson's stuff on his skin (am using olive oil, fragrance-free soap and an emmolient cream for the dry patches - thinking of using calamine lotion on the red ones) and have anti-allergy drops on hand in case he gets too fidgety and itchy. It's so hard to know what to do with a little thing but it seems to bother me more than it does him so I'm trying to use more natural remedies for now. Perhaps it will clear up once we get out of this hot climate.

...none of which has anything to do with MFW! A little update on that front - my maternity pay is less this month. I guess this is the correct amount and last month's must have included a day or two of my 6 weeks full pay. Oh well.

OH's big bonus had turned out to be a fair bit less than we expected. Apparently his boss had calculated wrong when he'd told him the approximate amount. It's still enough to cover getting a cloakroom installed on the ground floor of our house, and I've managed to fill up the contingency fund with it. After giving 500 to OH (it *is* his bonus after all!), I had a little bit left.

I wanted to start the new financial year with a large (well - large for me anyway!) OP so raided some other funds which are no longer necessary with a LO (the 'theatre' fund for example - I doubt we'll be seeing many shows in the next 5 years!) and scraped together a 500 OP. Once the regular payment went out, I found the balance was 1,88,000.88. So I promptly transferred a pound from my pocket money and so we've gone below 1,88,000! So that's the first 5,000 capital paid off. Yay! Only 37 odd to go :P

Our court case against old landlord proceeds - we have been given a hearing date and since we've opted in for the free mediation service, we may be settling out of court earlier. But only if they make a fair offer - which knowing them, they won't!

Have also been researching possible products to sell on ebay and have found some I can buy in India and sell there. So might buy a few and see how they do.

mouche

A long, long overdue update! I'm back in the UK and have been for over 5 months now. LO is now a feisty nearly-9 month old who is now pulling up and trying to stand on his own. He has been going to the childminder for 3 weeks now and I start work on the 29th. He started so early because I found a fab childminder (Ofsted Outstanding and genuinely lovely person) who does pick ups and drops which is a godsend as I don't drive. She only had one place for a baby so I grabbed it.

My work was quite good with flexible work options but they still needed me to go in at least twice a week which just didn't work for me as it would reduce my hours and therefore my salary. So have resigned and have found a new job in Central London which is 1 hour 15 min commute (far better than the 2.5 hour minimum commute to Watford!) Also new job seem to be quite flexible about working from home occasionally. So fingers crossed it all turns out well.

On the MFW front I haven't been doing that well as somehow we seem to be leaking money despite not doing anything expensive! This despite the fact that of the 5 months I've been back, my mum has been here for 3 and while she is here she pays for all groceries etc. This month my husband's brother comes to visit for 3 weeks with his wife - NOT looking forward to that either financially or personally.

This is also the month I haven't been paid any maternity pay (my 39 weeks are up) and though my old company will pay me for 19.5 days accumulated annual leave, they haven't done so yet, so we're skint. Fortunately the money I saved to see me through maternity leave is still not gone so we're surviving.

mouche

Regarding overpayments and status of mortgage. Since returning to the UK I have managed to overpay another £580.23 taking total overpayments for the year up to £1344.54. Still £667 odd less than my £2012 in 2012 goal and it doesn't look like I'll reach that goal now as I don't expect my first salary for the new job till the end of November and there certainly won't be that much surplus! But I suppose one can always hope. Maybe I should transfer my Paypal balance to the mortgage instead of spending the money I earn on ebay on random stuff!

Mortgage currently stands at £184,582.11 meaning in 1 year we've paid off £8,418 - hmm, drop in the ocean really! Still, at least it's under £185,000. Plus, our final repayment month has moved to April 2036 so in one year of overpayments we've reduced the term of the mortgage by 6 months. Getting there slowly...

poorbutrich

mouche wrote: »

Regarding overpayments and status of mortgage. Since returning to the UK I have managed to overpay another £580.23 taking total overpayments for the year up to £1344.54. Still £667 odd less than my £2012 in 2012 goal and it doesn't look like I'll reach that goal now as I don't expect my first salary for the new job till the end of November and there certainly won't be that much surplus! But I suppose one can always hope. Maybe I should transfer my Paypal balance to the mortgage instead of spending the money I earn on ebay on random stuff!

Mortgage currently stands at £184,582.11 meaning in 1 year we've paid off £8,418 - hmm, drop in the ocean really! Still, at least it's under £185,000. Plus, our final repayment month has moved to April 2036 so in one year of overpayments we've reduced the term of the mortgage by 6 months. Getting there slowly...

Wow! So much has happened in the last few months! COngratulations on the new job and reducing your mortgage term by six months is pretty good while you've been on maternity leave and busy coping with a new baby! I am in awe of you finding a new job in that time too!

Just paying anything at all is an achievement. Great that you're back and keep posting - I've found that I'm much better at finding ways to overpay when I'm posting on here!

mouche

I have decided to reboot this diary – even though OPing is not a feasible option at the moment, perhaps if I use it as a diary, it will help me identify ways in which I can save money and also let me let off some steam/ stress about the way life is going.

In case anyone reads this, a quick update from my last post – nearly a year ago!

I am still working at the same job and doing quite well. No chance of a raise this year though – all pay rises have been frozen. OH quit his steady (but boring) job where he was doing really well to go to Europe where he was offered a fantastic job opportunity. It was twice his salary plus really good in terms of career growth. I wasn’t keen as I didn’t want to leave my job and become a SAHM but I agreed to go after three months if he was happy with the situation. Unfortunately, his bosses there were certifiably mad and were in no way competent to run the business (it was a new venture for the parent company in a new industry and none of the senior management had any experience in that field). After three weeks he said there was no way he would be able to stick it out for one year and there was certainly no point in my moving. LO was missing his dad terribly so I suggested he come back home as with his qualification and experience he would easily find a job here. So he did. Unfortunately, it turns out I was too optimistic about his job prospects here – he’s been back a month and though he’s applied to all suitable jobs, there has been limited response so far. I’m hoping it’s because people are still on holiday but he’s getting depressed and the three weeks wages (equivalent to 6 if he’d stayed) is starting to run out. My parents are visiting which has meant they are helping with the bills a lot but they leave at the end of the month and then the financial burden will be entirely on me. We have savings and can manage for a fair bit but not forever!

On the other hand LO has had to leave his child-minder whom he has been with since he was tiny and whom he adores. It was unavoidable and no fault of her or me but I wish it hadn’t happened. He is on day 3 of settling into the local nursery (which is rated Outstanding and has a great local reputation) but at nearly 20 months, he is far more aware than he was when he started at the childminder and he is crying at drop off, pick up and often in between. My husband is handling it as I am at work but it breaks his and my heart to see it as LO is such a happy friendly child otherwise. I know it’s normal and we have to stick it out – but it’s awful nevertheless.

Right, venting over, some money updates. Till recently (aka while OH was still in work) we were managing some sort of OP every month even though rising prices have made them smaller. But now, we are trying to tighten our belts and OPs will have to be put on hold for now.

So what MSE things have I done/ plan to do today:
- Brought in my own lunch (thanks to mum cooking it) so saved the £2 on a sandwich
- Restarted this diary for motivation!
- Take the bus home from the station today and not ask my husband to waste fuel on picking me up.
- Order some supermarket vouchers through my company discount website (I get them at a 5% discount so that’s a saving on regular grocery shops)
- Resist buying anything online in my lunch break
- Give my OH some free time in the evening so he can do some more job hunting; and try to help him after LO goes to sleep

Don’t think there’s anything else I can do really.