Finally I have a mortgage I can start to pay off!

Chiglepig

I think your 'calm feeling' tells you everything you need to know. This is the right decision right now.

Staffordia

Well done you for realising that your 'dream' wasn't the right one at this moment. It takes courage to take a step back 

Cheery_Daff

I agree your calm feeling shows this was the right decision. A difficult one I imagine, especially if DH is disappointed. But if you're already dreading the hassle and you've not even bought it yet... We pulled out of the first house we offered on, early in the process (no survey etc) - it was a lovely house, but definitely the right decision to pull out. I remember being SO apologetic on the phone to the estate agent, and she just said 'you can't just buy a house just because you feel bad about NOT buying it' - so true! 

Onwards and upwards. You'll find the right place for you eventually, I'm sure xx

Suffolk_lass

I completely agree with your decision. As things have progressed, the reality of what you were getting, was gradually being eroded by the short-cuts and "hiding defects" approach of the vendors. Well done.

themadvix

Afternoon all,

Thanks again ladies. SL, those were my thoughts exactly - the costs were already stacking up and that was before we found whatever the (excellent) surveyor might have missed. And it just wasn't the dream anymore. Cheery, I had a similar conversation with the estate agent! Ultimately it's a huge amount of money, but it's also our life, and it has to be right.

Moving on....

DH did shortlist a few on RM last night to look at more thoroughly (online). Expect we might do that this evening.

I have decided, as we won't be moving in November, that I'll join the uber frugal November crew. There are a few occasions that won't be included:
* dinner out with friends on 6th
* London to Brighton on 7-8th (but usually we struggle to pay for any of that anyway!)
* end of the month it's DH's birthday

Will also need to buy:
* a present for a baby that is due (another baby has already been bought for)
* cards for both babies (but birthday cards are all already bought)
* present for DH (although I have a budget and idea for this)
* petrol - I need some now, so this may be before the 1st, although I'll try to eke it out

Costs for a potential move will obviously be excluded, including any viewings. Christmas shopping (urgh) is also excluded as it has a separate budget.

I will go to the zero-waste shop on Friday (using EV to avoid buying petrol!) for my usual top up. We have a freezer full of food - a couple of lots of leftovers, loads of Olioed bread, veg etc. Veg box for this week has been cancelled and my aim is to not get one until 11 November. Going to aim to spend max £50 on food for the month (from 1st) - that allows milk, 2 veg boxes and eggs/extras. Otherwise it's going to be Olioed food, using stuff up and lots of beans and pulses!

I'm not planning on telling DH about this, as he gets a bit antsy (we can afford to spend more, so why not? kind of thing) - but I enjoy the focus these challenges provide and if I do it well, he won't even notice!

MS things:
* Clicks done (had a good day on HW - free roulette, so won a couple of £!) - have cashed out £5 from balance
* Comps - about to do
* Very little 'proper' work, but picked up a couple of decent jobs on the platform, which always makes me feel better (it pays the going rate, so it is 'proper' work, but different somehow!)
* YG survey - just 50p away from payout!
* Claimed a £25 JL/WR voucher from MM
* Free lunch from Olioed stuff
* R'frod recipe box produced an enormous meal - easily 4 portions, so more of that tonight! 

Gratitudes:
* Great time at badminton last night, including very silly last game with extra rules
* Friendly Olioers
* A vanilla crown for breakfast

Have a good afternoon all!

themadvix

Meal plan sorted until 11/11 (veg box day) using what we’ve already got in. Barely touching the cupboard stocks and I’ll need to freeze the cabbage that’s in the fridge 🙄 I recently treated myself to an Instant Pot veggie recipe book (Jenny Tschiesche) and it has loads of really tasty sounding recipes that use lots of pulses, so have mixed some of those into the plan. Lunches will involve free bread, some soup (bag of carrot batons in freezer may become carrot and coriander soup!) and other freebies from Olio (probably plus eggs). We have plenty of breakfast cereal in for DH and I’ll stock up on oats for porridge for me on Friday. Feeling fairly doable so far!

 It’ll get trickier later on in November but I’ll just have to make more effort to check for Olio stuff in the evenings and go out and collect it then if things get short. DH has been eating breakfast less recently so we may be able to reduce the milk spend as well, thereby freeing up some of that £50 budget.

themadvix

Morning all,

Several small bits of work done/to do this morning and then I'm going to Mum's for lunch with her, Niece and Sis and a walk in the woods (will test my new wellies!). Will contribute slightly past it french sticks for lunch but they should be fine freshened up in the oven. We'll take a flask of hot chocolate too for our walk.

Indonesian lentil curry from the new recipe book tonight, in the IP. Will use free (ancient) lentils courtesy of Mum (they may need cooking for a bit longer), the last shallot from my Olioed bag of them the other day and other bits (that I've probably paid for).

Did go through the houses DH had saved on Zoopla last night - a couple didn't get cut from the list, but equally neither of them shouted 'buy me'. Might go and look, but not sure it'll help. We seem to be looking at random places now - where we were moving to, while a way away, was near a town we know (a bit) and en route to the Norfolk coast... these aren't (although are still closer, being further north). They are closer to the A1 though, so possibly closer to 'home'.

MS things:
* Comps entered, clicks done (no HW win today)
* 1P surveys done (£21.50 now)
* Chased BP pulse about the fact they've stolen £5 of my money! I tried to charge the car in MK on Saturday but the app told me I needed at least £5 credit (even though it would only have cost me about £1.40 to charge), so I topped up. The money came out of my account straight away, but *still* hasn't been credited to my BP Pulse account (should have been instant). Very unimpressed - I was lucky I was driving a hybrid as BP have a virtual monopoly on charging in MK (which has hundreds of chargers). Spoke to the wettest of wet weekends on their helpline and she has 'written the case up' to be escalated. Apparently it's been quite common in the last couple of weeks - so do something about it then! No real apology from her either.
* Heating still off here... amazingly. Normally I've reached thermals and three jumpers by now (and given in and put the heating on), but it's just not been that cold!
* Cancelled OJ delivery tomorrow as we've an unopened bottle in the fridge and other non-alcoholic drinks available from our top up due to guests at the weekend (£1.35 saved).
* Had our water bill - £16/month. Apparently we use the equivalent of 1 person's water! 😮

Gratitudes:
* Sunshine for our afternoon out
* Work
* The glorious colours of the leaves on the trees!

Have a good day all!

themadvix

Morning all,

Was terribly dreary here first thing, but the sun has come out now and it's looking much cheerier outside. Have done a small amount of work (because that's all there was 🙄), entered comps and done clicks.

Inspired by Cheery, I've also taken a good look at the bills and my savings pots this morning. I've dramatically tidied up the spreadsheet I use and updated the figures and made sure they align with what I put in the pots themselves in my Starling account. I've also upped budgets for presents and holiday to more accurately reflect what I spend on these (not so much the holiday - but I was beginning to realise £400 might be pushing it for what I'd like!). 

I've also looked at the 'joint' bills I pay - i.e. the household ones which are my responsibility (most of them, as DH pays the mortgage). I've suggested we get a joint Starling account for those that are annual/we pay into and take out of irregularly (cat bills), leaving just the DDs in our Natwest account. This would mean we could more easily see what was available and remove slush funds to savings/mortgage. I've also started a 'bulk buy' pot (just £10/month) for the toiletries that I tend to buy in larger quantities from eco-friendly places.

It's all rather tricky as my income varies somewhat from month to month, but it would be good to have some things on a firmer/clearer footing. We'll see how it goes as my liabilities to my bills pots have gone up by £150, but with the benefit that some of my random lumps in spending (from presents/bulk buying/holidays) will be reduced on a month-to-month basis. I've also added the gas and electric back into my budget (DH took it off me when I was struggling) - we'll see about that, but at the moment we're still on a fix and £109 in credit.

While we're still looking at houses, I don't think either of us think we're actually going to find anything in the next couple of weeks... We received the contract for the sale of our house yesterday - not signing that at the moment! 😮

MS things:
* 1P surveys
* Clicks, comps done
* Eating to meal plan (am going to top up a few bits today ready for November - but only onions, loo roll (necessary!) and eggs

Gratitudes:
* Lovely walk in the woods with mum, niece and sis yesterday
* There was sunshine... it's disappeared again!
* IP dinner recipe was tasty, even if it wasn't a looker (DH thought it looked like cat sick! 🤣)

Have a good day all!

themadvix

Evening all,

Some more number crunching has been happening here this evening and I've even made a loose budget based on what I quite often pay myself (unfortunately it's not what I've been paying myself for the last few months though). I've been through the last three months' credit card statements and categorised my spending, which was interesting. Food was about where I thought it was - £220ish/month. Health and toiletries were higher (~£40), but  in these three months I purchased some Neal's Yard stuff which will last for a long time and quite a bit of medication for when DH had food poisoning, so generally I think this would be lower over the year (I may also use Christmas/Birthday money for NY stuff in future, or ask for it as a present). Social/personal spending was about £75/month, which seems fair (and suggests that DH pays for quite a bit of the food we eat out). Clothing, ~£21, but I did buy wellies, which were an anomalous purchase. I tried to ignore costs that were related to viewing the house and/or getting ours ready for viewings, but there were a few that I wasn't sure of.

I will keep an eye on this going forward and my aim is definitely to reduce the food costs without reducing the quality of what we eat - the idea behind the Instant Pot and it's recipe book is to help with this as pulses cost a lot less than Quorn or other meat substitutes.

Happy Friday evening all! I'm off to make a stir fry and have a glass of wine!

themadvix

Forgot to say that I channelled SC yesterday in Sainsbury’s and used the SmartShop thing to get the loo roll at a reduced price (£2.16 instead of £3) - quite a decent saving. Also checked the nectar offers first and qualified for a couple of them with the bits I bought.
I spent £48 in the zero waste shop yesterday, but £20 of this was shower gel which is very expensive from there compared to getting an offer from Ethical Superstore, or as I’ve just discovered, Lloyds Pharmacy which is even cheaper (sis and I have agreed to go halves on a 5l bottle from there). Apart from that (and the also expensive chocolate that slipped into the basket), it was a very average shop there - about £25.

Currently thinking that I may get a medium veg box from R’ford on 11/11 - general consensus is these are better value for money and I might then be able to eke it out until end of the month…