Shortie's DFW Diary

Shortie

So, with the potential equity release with the house sale, the *plan* is....

1) Sell the rental house
2) Pay off the two big loans
3) Pay off the 'Top Up' Mortgage product - I have a staff rate on a percentage of my mortgage but the remainder is on a really high 6.29% :eek: - I'm planning to pay top up product off in one go instead of doing a load of building work at once
4) Sort the annex - this requires builders - the concrete roof needs to come off, and walls out so that we can make a sensible space and get a decent sized kitchen back (you can't swing a cat in ours!). Plus the space right now is single skinned so sucks up all the heat in winter
5) Save up the defecit to get an extension done - this was previously planned to come out of the money that is now paying off the top up loan
6) Start up a savings pot for emergencies and replacing cars when they pack in
7)Start overpaying the mortgage, or saving into an ISA or equivalent if the rate is better (and whack the savings off of the mortgage if and when needed) - I've never in my life been in a position to start thinking about that

lurvlyloz

that sounds like a good plan

Shortie

Thank you x. It's been such a relief to finally see some light, even if I'm sacaraficing hw eental house for it

Shortie

So, I've just rejoined the Take Your Lunch to Work thread as I used to behave quite well with breakfast and lunch during the week when I was on before

I have very little left in my account to last until payday . I'm so depersate not to go into my overdraft this month as I've gone into it every month recently, however I have to top up on petrol to get to and from the station (it's not a walk-able distance) and I'm working away next weekend and will need possibly a full tank for that which will take all my remaining money... sigh...

I think I might need to be quite inventive (read skint and spending nothing) until I get paid on the 20th!

Shortie

Ah bottoms.... I've just remember my brakes need sorting too next week so I need to order the parts tomorrow. I think I'll need to dip into the 'annual payments (ie mot, tax, insurance) pot for them. There is spare in there as I haven't spent on the Mini road tax that I had budgetted for as I sold her, but still, I'd rather have not needed to!

lurvlyloz

yes you'd rather not have to use that extra money...but at least you have that extra money & its not going on your debts or into your overdraft

Shortie

True Loz, ta - that does make me feel a tad better about spending it now

Will need to have a nose at lunchtime to see how much I do have spare in there as my road tax is due the end on this month too! Mind you, I now have my lunch break back - I was going to meet a friend at lunchtime to take our lunches with us and sit in the sun, but my boss has just gone and sandwiched a 30 minute meeting in between two 1 hr meetings either side of lunchtime today, so that's my lunch with my friend out of the window!

(Not literally, we have no opening windows on my floor and it would be a waste of my salad to lob it out. It might hit an unsuspecting passer by too :rotfl:)

Shortie

I'm feeling pooped but inspired... I've been nosing back on the OS board and spotted next week's meal planning thread. We're off out shopping tomorrow (Mr Shortie suggested I use up some of the Mini sale money as my work clothes are getting moggy and I haven't been to a big enough town this year yet to get any carrot, beetroot and spinach seeds - yes, this year really has been THAT busy!)

We're going to a big enough town to have lots of cheapie shops (Primarni, Poundland, Wilkos...) but also has an indoor market (something I miss from where we lived in London) so would like to try and have a cheap top-up shop while there

But I need to suss out what we have in the ever depleted freezers before hand, and in the pantry

Off I go!

Shortie

Today was a productive day Got some more weeds up in the kitchen garden, Mr Shortie turned left over bolognaise into a dinners worth of enchiladas and 2 portions of topping for nachos, I made pizza dough and split into 2 dinners worth for the freezer, with leftovers to make 2 portions of dough balls, so one night on two different weeks we'll have a 'dip in family meal of nachos, pizzas and dough balls with garlic butter, mmmmm.

I also made 2 batches of scones to use up some double cream we had in. Yum!

Need to make my lunch in a mo to save money tomorrow on food at work :cool:

Shortie

*Blows the dust off the cover of her diary and scratches the biro on a corner to make sure it's still working*


Gosh, how bad am I for not keeping my diary up to date? It's partly due to the fact I feel I've not been on the DFW bandwagon and that just feels cruddy, and partly because I was never very good at keeping a diary when I was a kid (actually they became more of a comedy element where I'd open it some evenings to find my older sister had graffiti'd on more of the pages :rotfl:)



So, where am I at? Where have I gone wrong? Where do I improve? Where am I going? I think it's time I had an honest look at things and start updating my diary much more often. Maybe not daily (my life isn't that exciting) but definately not bury my head in the sand


Money's still pretty pants and causing me mucho agro at the moment. We're meeting all our payments, we have food on the table, I see our debts go down a little bit more each month. I know there are people who are not as fortunate.

Problem is, I finally admitted to myself and Mr Shortie on Sunday that I put too much pressure on myself. I don't have to repay my Dad as much as I do each month but I've started so hence I carry on (plus I now know he's ploughing the repayments into decorating their own house so I don't want to let him down there). This also extends to non-money though. For example, on Sunday we got up a little bit late and I wizzed off food shopping as I didn't get to go on Saturday. Mr Shortie has damaged the tendons in his foot so I shot off on my own. I got back 20 mins before a friend's little one's birthday party (thankfully local) so I told Mr Shortie and the kids to go and I'll catch them up. So I set about unpacking and making myself presentable for the party. We helped them tidy the hall afterwards and got back home. There was then only 1.5 hrs left between that and me going out on Sunday night (to something I do weekly) and I promptly got annoyed ay myself that I'd run out of time to get a cheese and potato pie made, and trail run some choc-drizzled marshmallow & strawberry skewers, and only had time left for us all to pitch in and roll out and top our own hm pizzas, dough balls and nachos

Now for some, having the hm pizza, dough balls and nacho mix ready made is a major achievement and I know I should be thankful that even though we were busy we ate well - but flipping heck - I still burst into tears that I hadn't go the other two bits done.

I seriously need to take some of the pressure off myself, but I've always been like this

So, moneywise, last month I paid for a years membership for both my boys to go to an activity centre that they both love. I didn't have the money spare so it shot me well into my buffer this month, which again has now caused me a major headache this month - 3 days after payday and I have already forecast that I'll be £100 overdrawn by next payday (that is including the fact we have parties and therefore petrol etc every weekend this pay month, and they're close friends so we're going to go as we'd all be gutted to just sit at home and miss seeing everyone). However, on the plus side, the kids will make and have been making excellent use of the activity centre, and there is a really decent market nearby that one of us can nip into and stock up of cheap fruit and veg while the kids play. Plus the cinema next door do the £1 kids movies, so we should start having some lovely, much cheaper family fun finally


So, the immediate changes are that I'm forcing myself to bring lunch into work (and have rejoined the thread on the DFW board). To the point where I have today left my purse at home so that I physically cannot spend any money in work. I have my monthly train pass, I have spare money in the car (back near where I live) for petrol. If I'm not organised to pick up my food, I go hungry (well, until I remember to pick up an emergency tin of soup and a bowl for my work drawer that is!)

The longer term plan is that we are in the process of selling our rental house. The equity release from that will cover the income tax for it, pay off my two loans, pay for building work to sort out the bloomin' awful single-skinned side building we have that is attached to the house and pay off the horrendous interest rate 'top up' product on our mortage.

But the rental house sale feels a million miles away, especially as it's taken the buyer 1 month to pay for the survey (are we the only ones who a survey within the week of the offer being accepted? I'm normally hugely keen to get this done incase there are issues with the house we want to buy!) and the survey date has yet to be set..

I just hate living each month in my buffer and feeling so disorganised

One day at a time eh?