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

mouche

Update on spend this weekend.Was quite a spendy Saturday as we went to the supermarket twice for various things. A total of £85 including £12 on sleepsuits for LO - he is growing so fast! My mother is paying for all supermarket spends so have got the money back in cash. We will have to be far more careful and thrifty once my parents leave at the end of the month.

Sunday we spent at home as everyone was feeling a bit low in health.

Today I am working from home as we went to see another nursery that is opening. We had been to the open day and really liked it but it's further away than the one we chose for LO and I didn't want to be taking a bus there and back in the winter. But we decided to give it a go there as well and see where LO settles better. It may mean we lose the registration deposit at one of them but that's ok if it means LO is happy.

Hopefully he can start settling at the second one from next week. So £50 registration fee paid at the second nursery today. A supermarket visit may also be needed as we are out of bread and butter. Hopefully we can stick to buying just that!

poorbutrich

Hi Mouche
How lovely to see you back! Glad to hear everything is going well, despite the hiccup with DH's employment and the pain of dropping DS at nursery - I totally understand that as my DS is doing the same at the moment, making drop-offs unbearable.

Much like you, our OPs are proving difficult at the moment, so I'm looking forward to reading your updates for inspiration!

xx

mouche

Lovely to see you pbr - it's tough being a working mum isn't it. It seems we're running as fast as we can just to stay still. I had a non-mummy friend visit the other day and the conversation was very much:

Friend: 'So what are you reading these days...do you get time?'
Me: No...we don't hit mummy...um...I do get time on the tube...I'm reading...no, don't eat that off the floor...the highway code for my theory test...I need to learn how to drive ...NO!....so I can drop LO to nursery.'

It's a wonder I still have friends!

MSE updates
- Brought in lunch yesterday and today; yesterday's was a supermarket soup but only £1.10 on offer; shops near work are £3 minimum
- Had a good driving lesson - not MSE but I guess the faster I learnt the fewer lessons I pay for
- Bought an update for a game on my mobile - 79p and it will keep me amused for a month. The original game cost £1.15 two months ago and I'm still playing it everyday.
- My dad agreed to pay for my new trainers; he bought me the last pair 3 years ago and I have worn them down till they have holes in them. I got the new ones (same as the old - I loved them) in a clearance sale so £28.99 including delivery for a pair of Reebok trainers. The last pair cost £100 roughly. Saved dad some money!

poorbutrich

mouche wrote: »

Love

Friend: 'So what are you reading these days...do you get time?'
Me: No...we don't hit mummy...um...I do get time on the tube...I'm reading...no, don't eat that off the floor...the highway code for my theory test...I need to learn how to drive ...NO!....so I can drop LO to nursery.'

It's a wonder I still have friends!!

:rotfl:I completely understand that! I've turned into one of those women I used to hate!

mouche

Brief MSE updates today (am spending too much time on here!)

1. Spent £52.50 on chocolate order from Lindt shop; Mum will give me £45 of that back and the £7.50 is on chocolate for work. One guy used to share his choc everyday until I felt guilty and bought a few bars. Now we have a sort of chocolate club and I’m long overdue to contribute. But the trouble is this is a ‘posh’ choc club and I really shouldn’t waste my money on it. I think I will give up chocolate from 1st October – if I don’t eat I don’t have to contribute. Plus it will help me lose some weight. Will be hard but I have given up chocolate for a year once and I will survive.
2. Spent 10 min yesterday on doing surveys for OnePoll and ‘earned’ 30p – after several years of membership I have £18.30 in my account. They don’t let you withdraw till £40. I’ll look forward to 2022 then shall I...
3. Worked out that once OH is in work again, we should apply for a remortgage with the same mortgage lender for the same mortgage except that we will now be in the next LTV bracket meaning the rate will go down by 0.6% meaning we’ll shave 2 years off the total length! Looking forward to that.
4. OH going on a night out today but has promised to limit his expenses and will wait till I get home from work so he can use my monthly pass to go into town – that will save £8 or so.
5. Tilly-tidied £1.11 to the mortgage account. Can’t actually afford to do this as I’m budgeted down to the last penny but just found out what Tilly Tidying is and couldn’t resist!

Things to Do Today & Tomorrow
1. Find and fill up insurance claim form for osteopathic treatment (but don’t post it till second treatment on Saturday – save on stamp!)
2. Go to bank and pay in all the cash mum and dad have been giving me when I spend on the credit card otherwise it will get frittered away and I’ll be hit with the CC bill and no money to pay it with
3. Sit down with OH and sort out car insurance renewal

tootoo

Hi there
I look forward to reading your progress.
I am a (part time) working mum of two girls - 3 and 1. Its hard as we have limited income too and dh is self employed which is rather quiet at the mo. Our OP's aren't huge but we try and a do what we can and even £20 a month makes an impact!
I hope your son settles at nursery soon. DD1 was the same to start with but it soon passed as soon as they get used to it and it becomes familiar

newgirly

Hi Mouche , I saw you popped into my diary so thought I would return the favour. sorry to hear its got harder financially, hope something comes along soon for your dh.

Can you do online banking as when I have no money to op I make a tiny token payment of a few pennies and it makes me feel as if I'm doing something however small it may be.

Anyway best of luck with the diary re start

mouche

Thanks for dropping by tootoo and newgirly. Hope you had a lovely weekend - haven't caught up with diaries yet.

My weekend was ok. Saturday was quite nice except that the £40 osteopath treatment was wasted as I spent most of the day walking about in Ikea – resulting in immense pain and bed for as long as I could get away with it. OH was supportive and I was quite crabby to him so must try to make it up to him.

Ikea trip was fun and, if not frugal, not as expensive as it could have been. Bought a play kitchen for my son (Bday gift), another toy he liked, a thingie to put your iron on the wall when you’re not using it and a few other bits and pieces. We also had a lovely lunch for less than £20 for 3.5 people. A nice day out apart from the agony afterwards!

Sunday, OH took LO to soft play so £5 spent there – otherwise no spends.

On the income front, I made 35p on Onepoll. And I brought in lunch again today. LO had his first play session at second nursery today and OH said he seemed to enjoy it more than the other one. So fingers crossed.

LO slept at 9pm yesterday (as opposed to 11.30pm the night before!) so OH and I did a quick blitz trying to clean our bedroom. It was a real tip and though not sparkling yet, at least you can now see the carpet. Plus we found 1p! We are going to try and do 15 min blitzes any day that LO sleeps before 9.30.

mouche

I got a bonus! At work. I'm not on a bonus plan or anything but for 'good performance' I have been given a bonus of £1,500. I don't know how to do the animations but please imagine several dancing icons here!

It couldn't have come at a better time financially and I am going to make a sneaky OP out of it after topping up the emergency fund and all the savings funds that have gone without since OH has been at home.

If good news comes in threes, please god can I have OH get a great job and LO settle into nursery quickly as number two and three?

MallyGirl

Great news for you