Getting a Grip on 2013

Dinah93

That's an exceptionally gorgeous house Cinny. I thought your plan was to buy the one you're living in off your family?

tinkerbel

That's what I was going to say.. I thought you were going to buy the place you're in now?
That place is lovely! Seems quite cheap too (costs about the same as my rented place sold for I think eeek!) I'm tempted to put the heating on today but have gone for some of the boyfs socks instead!

clearmydebts

Hi Cinny!

I found you

Wow - that house is outstanding!

alioops78

That house is gorgeous.

My hubby thinks I'm weird asking him to be me an iron and ironing board for christmas as he doesn't believe that they'll get used but the amount of times that I just want to iron is unbelievable - yep I'm a weirdo lol. I think he's also worried that I'll burn myself as I have a neurological condition that makes it hard for me to know when something's too hot or too cold.

Your plans seem to be coming together but I would continue saving the same amount each month just to have that extra building up.

I've already put the heating on *hangs head in shame*. In my defence though I'm still not used to it being so bl00dy cold all the time and I've been living here for 7 years lol.

Hope you've had a nice relaxing weekend.

tinkerbel

I would stick to the £70 savings too for as long as you can and if you beat your target, amazing and you can treat yourself/put it in your house deposit fund, otherwise if an emergency/something comes up you'll be covered no problemo. How come your outgoings are dropping? what does the £85 cover?

I dont think I can wait till november for the heating!!

Cinny91

My outgoings are just dropping because I'm saving a little each week to buffer the credit card a little, which'll be done on the payday for the 4th

You've got little ones too, CMD which makes it okay! I think if I had little kids I'd have had the heating on - then the first year they're 8 and can understand cold they'd be wrapped up like I am

I think 3 months of your rent would cover mine for a year Tink, which is insane. That house is my dream place, I just hope once we're ready to buy we can afford something like that. Ideally I'd want our first purchase and mortgage to be our only one.

With the house we're in now, I really don't know if we're buying it anymore. I've been watching house sales around us and they just aren't moving unless they're going for silly money. As happy as I am here, I know OH want's to be closer to family and I'd hate to be stuck here or even make a loss just to get away? If that makes sense? But we figure while we have cheap rent and a secure roof over our heads we mareswell make the most of it in terms of saving and getting the things we want (like OH's volvo) We're very lucky to be in the situation we're in, so I don't want to come off as bratty and "this isn't good enough" because that's not the case at all

We were actually speaking over the weekend about my car. It would seem Ryder has out grown it So once the sofa is paid off we'll be holding off on starting our house deposit until Spring. We want to get about £5,000 together to get something jeep-ish. OH will be insured on it too so he'll 100% be able to get too work on snowy days. Ryder will be safer when we travel, and I'll be able to give my Parent's my current car so my Dad has a little run around as and when he needs it. So it's win-win-win-win.

Had a spendy weekend regardless, it's nothing we couldn't afford and it all came straight from our banks. I know it makes OH happier when we do spend a little, I think he sees it as confirmation that we're doing okay. Although I did do some maths over the weekend - this year we've saved up for £3,750 worth of expenses. We've done a lot of work on the house and bought things we've wanted for a long time. We've kept our heads above water, and had some great weekend adventures. Just at the moment I feel like I'm constantly fighting on against getting us to a better financially, sometimes you just need to stop and take a little credit for what you've already accomplished. We've come an awful long way from the 2 kids that moved into our home 3 years ago, the ones that couldn't afford to have the heating on. I don't mean to get soppy, but I think we've done pretty good

I think the plan is to have October as a looser month budget wise, I've been pretty strict for August and September. Plus I need to get money together for my Sister's Wedding in November. So it's pretty exciting to see what we'll be able to get together in pure savings by the end of the year. I think at the start of this diary one of the goals was to have £2,500 in savings by the end of the year? No way we'll make that happen, but it will be nice to just have some!

Feeling very positive today, sorry for the long post Looking forward to finishing work, using the left over meat from yesterdays roast to make a pie - so I'm trying my hand again at puff pastry (can never get it right, ugh!) having that with lots of veggies and general niceness. Bought some apples this morning so I might make a crumble for afters too. So nice to have "proper" food again. Love this cold weather!

Dinah93

That is a brilliant post Cinny, it's fantastic to hear you so upbeat.

Birdie85

Hello! Just been catching up and there's lots of lovely positive stuff to read so I'm happy! You're right that sometimes you do have to take a step back and reflect on what you've accomplished and you're both doing so well! :T

As for the heating, we put ours on as soon as we got home on Sunday morning! The place was freezing! :eek: We haven't managed to turn it off again as we're just too cosy right now to go back to how it was!

I can't believe how quickly your sister's wedding is coming around! Very exciting stuff! That'll be a fabby trip for you!

Now I'd better get back to work... by which I mean making my shopping list for OH's party and looking online for decorations and free printables!

Cinny91

Birdie85 wrote: »

Now I'd better get back to work... by which I mean making my shopping list for OH's party and looking online for decorations and free printables!

Well that's just MSE if it means you'll save money :money::money:

Overslept this morning, by a full hour! I stupidly put my phone to update itself, thinking the alarm would just sound through after it updated but nope. Thankfully I was out for about 7 hours with Ryder yesterday so he was still tired when I padded downstairs. Was happy enough for a plod about the garden before curling back up in bed with his bone. Going to take him for another decent walk this afternoon to make up for it

Had a £15 voucher through the post so decided to do a stock up order from Sainsbugs which is getting delivered tomorrow. Spent £53 but the freezer and store cupboards (plus OH coffee addiction) is fully restocked so I won't have to buy much over the next couple weeks Also had a code for a free Graze box, so that will be popping through my door on Monday and cover my snacks at work :cool:

OH has caved, he keeps on asking if "it's time" for the heating. I think it's only really time for us once the bed is cold when we go to sleep - and it's edging on that way. Cold in the morning I can deal with, and the house is just naturally warm in the evenings, with cooking and baking in the afternoon it heats downstairs up. 12 days until October and it can go on guilt free!

I've accidentally stumbled across the car I want and it's a beast. I mean totally badass. But it'll cost £1000 to insure, road tax is £200 :eek: The MPG is about the same as Freddie - around 35 so I'll spend the same on fuel. I'll be able to buy a nice gently used one, insure and tax it for around £5,500. But equally, it seems a bit excessive when I only drive out of town about 3 days a week. It'll cost me £30 a week to run (break down of insurance, road tax and petrol - not including the MOT) which is affordable as realistically Freddie costs me £25 a week to keep. At the very least, we have a savings target.

Almost ready to make the switch with my bank! Called them up this morning to get the online banking sorted, will be one last payday into my old account then we'll be gone. Although I found out they won't be closing my old account, so I'll just need to go into branch and do that in a few weeks Will have a real headache when it comes to getting all my money back in one place, I'm owing from all different accounts right now with the bill money being in one place but the money coming out from a different account!

Birdie85

Oooh which car are you looking at getting?

Don't remind me that we're so nearly in October! It'll soon be Hallowe'en, then Christmas, then Baby Day! :eek: Where's the year going?! Hope the weather remains mild enough until October so you can stay away from switching the heating on!

Doing my sneaky printing for OH's party now... he asked me at lunchtime if I'm getting carried away or if it's going to be 'cool'. Errr, I don't think there was ever a risk of it being cool, but there are helium balloons so surely that counts as awesomeness, right?!