It's kind of fun to do the impossible

Sholly

August update

I don’t have much to update from an MSE sense (but I always say that and then waffle, don’t I!). No Spend September has arrived and I could really do with it going well after a few months of high Amex bills! I’ve been working on my FIRE plans too and it’s all looking healthy. I keep dropping hints to the teenager that if we move house, we could have some epic holidays over the next few years but he’s not buying it! But on the plus side, that gives me a minimum of 5 years to finish the house, declutter and get it ready to sell…and judging by the amount of stuff in my loft, I’m going to need 5 years! That is a job for this month though, to continue getting a box at a time from the loft, sorting through it and getting rid of it either via the tip or eBay/Gumtree. Let me tell you about the Big Purple Bus though…when I met my (now ex) boyfriend, he had a Big Purple Bus in his bedroom. Turns out, it was a gift from his ex-girlfriend. Given that it was so big and bright purple, it wasn’t a subtle little reminder of his past, it was like his ex-girlfriend was sitting there staring at us. I really wasn’t a fan of Big Purple Bus. When we moved in together, Big Purple Bus came too. So, along with our other belongings, it went into the loft when we renovated the house. It didn’t come back down. Fast forward to now - 10 years after our relationship started (and 3 years after it ended!), Big Purple Bus was still in my loft. With no sign of ex-boyfriend ever coming to collect Big Purple Bus, or any of his other belongings for that matter, I got it down from the loft, ready to take it to the charity shop, however I thought I’d have a quick look on eBay first to see if it was worth anything; boxed, that thing is worth TWO HUNDRED POUNDS!! Well, after that, I treated Big Purple Bus with much more respect, carefully dusting and baby-wiping Big Purple Bus to get it looking well again! It isn’t boxed though, and it is scuffed so it might not be worth that much, but still! Actual treasure in my loft! However, that day, my 2 year old nephew comes over, and I had no toys to hand for him to play with (guess where they are…the loft!) so I gave him Big Purple Bus to play with. The problem is now though, every time he comes over, it’s “Sholly house, Big Purple Bus!”. I have got the other toys out now, but still, Big Purple Bus prevails. So now I can’t possibly sell the treasure.

Sholly

Oh actually, I do have something MSE to share! My car insurance was due this month - my renewal price was £224 but I never auto-renew so checked out a load of different insurers and cashback etc. The best one went from QuidCo to confused.com to QuoteMeHappy. I got the policy for £212 with no excess, then £50 cashback and a free Hello Fresh box (3 meals for 2 people worth £30). So with the cashback taken off 🤞🏻 I got my insurance for £162 plus free food 🙌🏻 the joy of being mid-30s with a tiny car 😂

South_coast

Love the Big Purple Bus story 🤣 (although my mind is whirring furiously about just how big it could be 🤔) Don't worry, your nephew will grow out of it within your 5-year window, then it's time to sell, sell, sell! It may be deemed more vintage and therefore more valuable by then 🤣!

Sholly

😂😂 @South_coast it's one of these: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255121699171?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5338353466&toolid=20006&customid=s%3AGS%3Bgc%3ACjwKCAjw49qKBhAoEiwAHQVTozktehOKSLZRm27M9r-jdASrmJF5F0dDeBN3mtd804Z1AEgV1YE0HxoCjy0QAvD_BwE%3Bpt%3A1%3Bchoc%3A2&customid=s:GS;gc:CjwKCAjw49qKBhAoEiwAHQVTozktehOKSLZRm27M9r-jdASrmJF5F0dDeBN3mtd804Z1AEgV1YE0HxoCjy0QAvD_BwE;pt:1;choc:1&gclid=CjwKCAjw49qKBhAoEiwAHQVTozktehOKSLZRm27M9r-jdASrmJF5F0dDeBN3mtd804Z1AEgV1YE0HxoCjy0QAvD_BwE not humongous, but big enough 😂 this one is only for sale for £70 though! Fingers crossed for vintage 😂

Sholly

September update

What a disaster of a month for finances!

I moved from EDF to Green Network Energy in January only for them to go bust two weeks later. I was moved back to EDF. They put GNE customers on a competitive tariff which was cheaper than the GNE tariff…but it took them months to sort out the billing and, until then, customers couldn’t set up a direct debit and didn’t have bills they we could pay, so the debt built up. I could have paid it off, but asked to spread it over a few months instead. I’ve paid 2 of 5 payments. The new tariff ends on Sunday, at which point my payment will go from £78 to £114. There was absolutely nothing cheaper to switch to, with a lot of comparison sites not even giving comparisons. I didn’t know whether to stick with the standard variable and fix nearer the spring, or whether the current fix offers would increase before then so I just decided to go for it and have fixed for 2 years at £121. £7 extra a month but peace of mind that if it goes up again in the spring (which looks inevitable), then at least I know where I’ll stand. I did have to pay off the debt though, but I did it on my Amex so at least I’ll get a bit of cashback from that (really trying to find the positives here!). There are no exit fees on the new tariff so if everything calms down, I can move again. I did need to check myself a little though – although it is a lot of extra money to pay out, I am fortunate – it is a frustration rather than a “heat or eat” situation. If this had happened when my son was a baby, this would have been devastating. So over the last week, I have been in damage limitation mode – how can I make a cold, potentially miserable winter a little more bearable?

Batch cooking - I have until Sunday to prepare for the increase so I have been batch cooking as much as I can and filling the freezer with lasagne, beef stew, soup, pasta bakes, brownies and cakes so we will have a freezer full of home cooked, warming meals ready to just reheat in the microwave. I’ll be working through the “things to cook before Sunday” list but I might run out of freezer space before then. I also ordered a one-off giant Gousto box with 60% off using my sister’s discount so I’ll cook those and add them to the freezer (hopefully!). I got my free Hello Fresh box from my car insurance and have decided to get the next 3 boxes with the £15 discount (makes it around half price) but I will only use it whilst it’s discounted – I don’t think it’s worth it otherwise, and there are missing ingredients far too often – in my first box, they’d sent the meat for one of the recipes but no other ingredients. They have been good at compensating for missing ingredients though and the recipes are nice, plus it has just been a nice change for us – I will be keeping all of the recipe cards and making the meals again, but just buying the ingredients from the supermarket. So after all the batch cooking, I did have to order plastic tubs to store all of this food in – I never thought I’d have to buy Tupperware, I thought it just multiplied on its own? We used to have loads but now we just have loads of lids – what happened to the tubs? They’re like the random odd socks! One last kitchen purchase – my kitchen scales have been on the way out for the last couple of years and literally fell apart after the baking sessions this week so I ordered a new set.

Cooking alternative and winter warmth - I had bulk-bought gas canisters for my camping stove a couple of years ago when we were camping a lot, but have loads left after COVID put a stop to our trips, so I will use these with the camping stoves before I use the super expensive mains gas. We have a fully stocked wood store for the log burner too so that will be the main source of heat this winter and we always have our hot water bottles and blankets in winter anyway for night time and when the fire isn’t on.

Making the house cosy - I had some wax flakes and wicks in the loft leftover from making candles a couple of years ago so I got those out and melted down all of my old candles and made new ones for winter cosiness. There weren’t as many flakes left as I expected so I ordered some more and will make those tomorrow – it’s much cheaper than buying candles. I’ve recharged all of our batteries so my battery-powered fairy lights in the living room will keep it looking lovely too. My son has to recharge batteries at an alarming rate for his Xbox controller – rechargeable batteries have saved me a fortune over the last few years. One thing I definitely need to do this winter is to get out for a walk at lunchtime – working from home, it’s too easy to not leave the house for days, but that’s not healthy and I need the vitamin D. Plus, it’ll be lovely to come home to the fire and hot chocolate.

Anything else I could do to lessen the gas/electric bill? Any tips gratefully received!

Before I realised that the gas crisis was happening, I had ordered tickets to the F1 in Silverstone next year which is a couple of days after my son’s 14th birthday so the tickets are his present. In hindsight, spending a few hundred pounds on that this month was not wise! But I’ll be grateful in the summer when his birthday is already paid for, and he will love it, and experiences are important.

Also post-ticket purchase, my washing machine stopped working. It just needed a new door lock so cheap to fix (£35) in comparison to a new machine.

So all of this means that September no-spend month did not go well! October will be a quiet month though; we have very few plans at the moment so hopefully general outgoings will be lower, but I have finally also given the go-ahead to the electrician for the work that needs doing at the rental. I wanted to get a second opinion before starting because the original report and the quote that I got were so different, but one electrician came to the flat and didn’t get back to me, and the next guy didn’t turn up for the first appointment and then when he did come, the quote was suspiciously cheap! I hate just having to take a leap of faith with contractors. That’ll be around £750 when it’s finished. I need to look at the rents for my flats – I hate increasing rent, but one of them in particular is rented at way under market value and I’ve had to spend a fortune on it over the last couple of years. The tenants have been there for almost 5 years and I’ve only increased the rent once (by £5 two years ago) so they are due an increase.

A more positive update - I had always planned to make a start on sorting the woods out between late autumn and early spring when the foliage has died back a bit. It’ll be good to get outside and it’ll keep me busy. The first thing I want to do is make the paths through the woods and create a parking space. My dad gave me a big roll of weed membrane and I’ve been on the look-out for people giving away free gravel, and collected some locally. However, I have new neighbours who are renovating their house and garden – the garden was covered in slate chips which they don’t need so they’ve given me loads of it – that will allow me to make such a good start on the paths for free. It’s just really heavy so I need to work out how I’ll get it there – Fiat 500s are not designed for that!

All of this planning and organising has got me out a bit of a lull – I have been having a bit of a tough time feeling motivated to do anything for a while now so maybe I needed this kick. I have started decorating my hallway with leftover paint. It has needed doing for years, literally. I’ll continue with that over the next month or so (I’ll put off glossing the woodwork for as long as possible though, it’s the worst job!). Hopefully getting the house decorated will help me to love it a bit more rather than wanting to move! But if not, it’s getting closer to being finished for when I do sell it so it’s a win/win really. I also need to sort the garden out for winter – I have wildflowers that need cutting back - and I want to try the no-dig method for my veg patch so I need to do that soon. I neglected the veg patch this year because of my lack of motivation, but it seems like it might be necessary with the way things are at the moment so any prep I can do now makes spring easier.

I hope everyone is doing well! Happy autumn!

South_coast

Wow, that is big 😳! Shame you can't use it to transport some of the chippings! Loving the sound of your autumn planning x

Sholly

Ridiculous, isn't it 😂 the colour doesn't make things better either! A tiny bit bigger and I'd get all the chippings in it 😂 thank you, it does make me happy everytime I open the freezer - it's never looked so organised

Sholly

What better time than January 1st for a diary update!

2 years has flown by. Really flown.

In terms of my finances, things are good. Which is really lovely to be able to say.

I moved jobs since my last diary entry...twice!

After 15 years at the same company, I decided to spread my wings and chose another big organisation to move to, and it was awful. Terrible culture - a big, perfect-looking apple with a totally rotten core. I searched for another new job for about 6 months and considered asking for my old job back, when I finally got two offers which luckily included the one that I was most excited about. I went from a salary of £46k to £63k to £69k in 12 months. I bought a new (to me) car with my old car as deposit and a £7k loan which I paid off in 12 months. I got the car loan just after I got my first payrise, so I didn't get used to the extra money, and paid it off in October 23. Then my tenants moved out and Christmas happened, so my finances don't feel like they've settled yet but I do now have a couple of regular savers, overpay my mortgages and don't have to think about money all.the.time. It is such a relief to be moving into a more comfortable position. Once my money settles (probably after I've paid my next tax bill in Jan), I'll be able to really see where I stand, and can start making a plan for my pounds.

I'm also selling one of the two rentals - when my remortgage is due, I'll make less than £50 per month if I keep it rented - it's not even close to worth it. I want to sell the other one too, but there's a tenant in that one so I'd feel terrible if I sold it, so I'll keep that one for the moment, but I'll make very little on that one too from August 24. I might pay off a chunk of the mortgage when the first one sells.

But...there may be some big life changes coming this year. My son will sit his GCSEs this summer, and wants to go straight into an apprenticeship in a field that he's very passionate about. It's a very competitive area, so we will cross our fingers. If he does get it, it will mean relocating a few hundred miles from where we live now, which I'm okay about - the joys of a one-parent/one-child family!

Everything does feel a bit up in the air at the moment, but hopefully it'll be a great year.

Happy New Year, MSE!