Mortgage freedom..Shala_moo's attempt at a diary..

shala_moo

Thanks HDK, it's nice to find some new "wins" on the money saving side of things.. usually we've already got the cheapest of everything, haven't we, so it's great to find some cheaper deals again!

Completely relaxing day today, late morning get up due to having a very late night after the theatre got home just in time for the thunder and lightning to start :eek: which scared the be-jeezus out of me!

A NSD today due to not leaving the house in the horrendous down pours, but, the weather has highlighted the fact we really desperately need to get the guttering fixed think it'll be about £250..


xx

in_need_of_direction

Don't reflect the guttering. It really is a false economy.

shala_moo

Bit of a mixed day today.. got up, went to work, got bored and came home again at lunchtime so I could be more productive here! :rotfl:

I've spent the afternoon clearing out my wardrobe - 3 charity shop bags and a beautiful Mons00n dress to the MIL later and I have no clothes left :eek: I do have 6 pairs of jeans and 4 pairs of work trousers that don't yet fit me though :rotfl: hmmm better getting dieting pretty darn quick (weigh in tomorrow so fingers crossed for the 3 stone!)


Other MFW stuff

• signed up to free perfume trial
• found some new work trousers that do fit - thankfully as my others have just about had it
• made lentil shepherds pie with all the manky veg from the fridge
• the cat brought in a free toy from the garden, poor little mouse had to be rescued and the cat got a stern look
• 25p off youg0v pymt for my sister - I will get £25 of it once it's come through
• nanny nap also had - not money saving but needed after the wardrobe clear out!

I believe we have free breakfast tomorrow at work so i'll be going in for that although I won't be having it if it's too many calories..


Off to check out some sales, see if I can buy some cheap clothes!


xx

shala_moo

shala_moo wrote: »

hmmm better getting dieting pretty darn quick (weigh in tomorrow so fingers crossed for the 3 stone!)

Well I didn't quite lose 3 stone but I did lose 2.5lbs so really pleased with that!

I'm getting to the point where I'm struggling to fend off sugary goodness now but must press on. I won't be upset when I get nice clothes to fit me. Talking of which ...

I've bought some new tops, a tunic, leggings and some pumps for my revamp - it all came to about £80 (using vouchers). I feel really weird in my tunic and leggings as i'm a jeans and t-shirt girl, still not braved going out the house in it though :rotfl:

Had a bit of a busy end of the week, had a girls night out to see Wicked in Birmingham and then another night gossiping with a girlie friend.. it's been an enjoyable few days and i'm glad I feel a bit more positive again. :j:j

Off to get tea ready & sit by the firepit for the evening- OH and I are sharing a sweet potato, it weighs in at 885g :eek::eek: it's the biggest one in the world!! It'll do for my lunch tomorrow as well hopefully with poached eggs.. mmmmmm


xx

shala_moo

Lots of money news today

It's second pay day shuffle so the car loan is now down to £2300 and Family loan £2380 :T

Very exciting money news - we've applied for the new mortgage :j We were Agreed in Principle pretty quickly so hopefully everything else will go through smoothly, i'll be gutted if we get rejected. I forgot how much the fees add up though once you start!! :eek:

We should be saving £100 on our monthly payments and as it's an offset once my ISA's are up the money will be moved over.

In not so exciting news, I've just found out OH has a substantial amount outstanding on his credit card :mad: so once the mortgage is sorted we need to get a 0% CC to transfer it too!

Hope everyone's ok, I haven't had much chance to get on the diaries and my brains fried now with filling in forms... xx

shala_moo

Forgot to post the grocery budget for July - although it wasn't good ended up having to go to the butchers for extra chicken so an extra £20 spent.

Monthly spend for July £251/£231
Year to date spend £1816/£3000 so £85 over where we need to be

To make up for it we've gone shopping at Ald1 this morning, only spent £22.50 on the weekly shop :T including two lots of chicken thighs for OH's lunches.

We'll be eating out of the cupboards and freezer for the rest of the month as much as possible to save some money!


Other money stuff

• free icecream trial from the 0rchard Tesc0 site
• surveys up to date
• perfume trial arrived, 5 mini bottles although it's not to my taste it's a bit potent!
• TCB payout £10.22 - will move to car loan
• work trousers split the other day so have sewn them up instead of buying new ones
• £20 tesc0 clubcard vouchers received
• 6 hours overtime done - work have decided not to change our pay grade after all *big sigh* so will still be getting overtime although won't get an enhanced pension etc

Have had a mass catch up on diaries today, I don't post a lot on them as i never know what to say but I do always read them, thank you for all your inspiration x

shala_moo

Had a day in the kitchen today..

OH and I made some ravioli using the pasta recipe from the Hairy Bikers - Butternut squash, onion and feta - it made loads! We ended up with 6 portions even though it said the recipe was for 4.. so 2 eaten and 4 in the freezer for a quick tea at some point. They were lovely and I can't wait to make some different flavours, but will be investing in one of these http://www.lakeland.co.uk/12104/Ravioli-Press to cut down on prep time.


We also fancied a roast dinner, (although it's gone a bit warm now :cool:) yorkshires, chicken, roasties, stuffing and veg cooked. Sneakily baked some cupcakes too, i'm way out of practice and I have to bake 70 next week for a wedding!! :eek:


Must sit down and do a meal plan later - OH is under strict instructions that we're not to go shopping again this week, so we'll have to make do! We'll see if we manage...


xx

shala_moo

Morning all,

Having a lurgy day today I seem to have picked up a bug from somewhere so haven't gone to work in fear of being sick on my laptop! TMI... sorry..

Instead i'm doing admin-y type things at home..

I've received an email from Np0wer this morning saying they're sorry to lose my business so I guess the swap to new peeps has begun :j it's asking me to ring them to "finalise the account" but I'm thinking it'll be more of a sales pitch to get us to stay so I shan't be doing that today!

Also sorted out all the paperwork for the new mortgage and sent it off with OH to post, hoping to have it sorted asap as we had a letter telling us our payments have gone up to £940 :eek: that's an extra £63 a month in interest. If we're lucky we may only have to pay one lot of this before moving into our new mortgage which will be £100 less a month (less any offset too :j)

I need to sort out a new mortgage spreadsheet for the offset actually, i'm not sure the old one will work anymore, so it's probably a good day for doing that.. cheer myself up with spreadsheets :rotfl:

Other money stuff

• £10 payout from mysurv*ys
• £10 payout from CP
• unexpected bonus received from OH's work - it will pay towards some of the mortgage fees :T

Off for a lie down and then some spreadsheets later! xx

Goldiegirl

Hope you are feeling a bit better now

shala_moo

Thanks Goldie, much better today...


Sorted my new spreadsheet out yesterday afternoon so that kept me occupied :T and made a new a graph too! All very exciting :rotfl: