Balancing not just the budget

RosaBernicia

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Frozen veg rocks - but, Zed - 45 minutes?! Do you put your sprouts on for Christmas in March, too?! :rotfl: Another vote for frozen fish too - I love the bags of mixed seafood or "fish pie mix" as well for giving a bit more choice in a dish!

Plenty of fish and meat in the freezer already, just need to get back to keeping the veg to hand as well. I buy quality stuff and freeze it when it's on offer or yellow stickered, as I try to buy ethically produced British meat and I have a bit more faith in Wa1trose than the other options when it comes to quality standards (I did look at Ald1, but they usually say EU and I'm not sure the standards are consistent - certainly the Danish farming practices have attracted attention for the wrong reasons). Not fond of prawns though so I tend not to buy the seafood mix!

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Rosa you're looking at the mortgage in absolutely the right way IMO - and celebrating the milestones is definitely a good thing! The spreadsheet we used to track ours also enabled us to see things like when we reached the "tipping point" of paying off more capital than interest with each payment - that's one I remember specifically as feeling like a real "win"!

Thanks EH, that's good to hear from someone with practice . It's looking like that number will change with the December payment and I'm hoping by then I will be able to start overpayments to help it along.


Rosa xx

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RosaBernicia

Sunday shuffle report... all looking ok, though not sure if YNAB had a CC wibble again as I thought the washing machine payment was covered and somehow now it isn't. Never mind, will just stop using the darn thing :rotfl:. Washing machine will be covered and some of buffer pot borrowing repaid with paycheque later this month.

I went to a wedding this weekend and stayed over in the hotel after all - but managed to share with a friend and wangle discount so cost was much lower than it could have been and it was worth it to be able to spend the whole evening there and not worry about driving back. Was supposed to be going to a conference this coming weekend but don't really want to and also don't want to spend the money, so probably won't.

Doing ok with ShopNScan, should have £20 worth of Ama50n vouchers with next points credit and that can go towards a textbook I need, so very welcome. Also some returns to make, which may help adjust everything again.

So plodding in the right direction still


Rosa xx

ZTD

RosaBernicia wrote: »

Sunday shuffle report... all looking ok, though not sure if YNAB had a CC wibble again as I thought the washing machine payment was covered and somehow now it isn't. Never mind, will just stop using the darn thing :rotfl:.

If you don't mind them poking around your finances, why don't you take up YNAB on their offer to do tech support?

RosaBernicia wrote: »

Was supposed to be going to a conference this coming weekend but don't really want to and also don't want to spend the money, so probably won't.

What's the conference about? Why don't you want to go? (apart from the money aspect)

RosaBernicia wrote: »

Doing ok with ShopNScan, should have £20 worth of Ama50n vouchers with next points credit and that can go towards a textbook I need, so very welcome.

Anything interesting?

RosaBernicia

ZTD wrote: »

If you don't mind them poking around your finances, why don't you take up YNAB on their offer to do tech support?

Mostly because at the minute I don't want more emails to worry about than absolutely necessary. I'll get them to look at it if there's a wobble once I get things sorted. I remembered that I did put in my next paycheque and budget it as if cleared, then pushed it to the real date, so I may just have remembered things wrong.

ZTD wrote: »

What's the conference about? Why don't you want to go? (apart from the money aspect)

Too many weekends rushing around the country and not enough chilling or keeping myself on track. I need a bit of time to just do very basic things like sort my winter clothes out and shop, and I really don't want to be driving across the country or staying in a hotel again this weekend.

ZTD wrote: »

Anything interesting?

Sort of... mostly needed for an exam for work, so all depends on what you call interesting


Rosa xx

RosaBernicia

Belated Sunday shuffle...

Nothing unexpected, I have to cover the washing machine from this coming paycheque and have spent [STRIKE]too much[/STRIKE] a lot on food (mostly due to being out of the local office a lot and spending evenings organising the house). Less spent on books, oddly - I have been watching TV instead which is free with my Pr1me membership

YNAB seems to be mostly behaving but did annoy me last night when the mobile app decided I was exactly twice as much over budget as the desktop said. Since this included the washing machine, that was enough to make me :eek:. Half an hour later it decided they both agreed :mad: .

Plans... well as I haven't got house things scheduled yet after all, and it looks like I can't escape to the far north any time soon , I will look at everything again on pay day but hope to make my first mortgage overpayment. Our 'cost of living' (:rotfl: - not meaning to be ungrateful for this, I'm very grateful to have my job and any extra will find a good home, but it really doesn't manage to serve the intended purpose) pay increase has finally been sorted so there will be that in my next payment plus a couple of months backdated, that should cover most of a 10% extra payment. I will also sort out a letter on potential refund for mis-sold insurance, and call an electrician to look at sorting a couple of things including the meter issue as that could potentially help drop my bills.

So wobbles and all, still in the right direction


Rosa xx

doingitanyway

Wobbles maybe, but you are already set to make your first mortgage overpayment. Sounding good to me

RosaBernicia

Very true DIA... also, I have just received a totally unexpected refund cheque for over £100 from the solicitors who dealt with my house purchase. So I think it's only right that should go to the first overpayment


Rosa xx

doingitanyway

Put your intention out into the universe and wait for it to deliver. Glad you did not wait long

RosaBernicia

Sunday shuffling... I'm officially over budget as I'm waiting on a cheque to clear and a refund for boots I ordered and returned, but those should turn up shortly. I have also been spending on house stuff as I had a sudden Can Do feeling and decided to make the most of it . I have been feeling that there was so much to do and it all cost money... and then realised that it doesn't all have to be perfect, I can do things little by little, and it felt doable again.

I have reshuffled the kitchen table to become a desk upstairs (for now - it will be replaced in the longer term, but it means I get the study sorted sooner), and bought a new kitchen table and two chairs. They look SO much better, the whole kitchen is improved, and they were just what I was looking for and still under £100 in total. The table was Ar7os and the chairs 1kea... I am realising I have very unsophisticated tastes as even in 1kea I often find the things I want are the plain, simple and cheap options! Really pleased I've done this as I just love the results. I was going to also pick up ready made curtains for the kitchen but decided I didn't really like them after all, and will order made to measure ones in the fabric I love iinstead - it will probably be nearly £200 as they are full length, but considering the amount of material the additional cost isn't outrageous and I don't think it is worth even trying to do them myself. I am beginning to accept that I can't have both a full time job with travel and also time to do much DIY... so I will just be grateful that I can afford to pay someone to do it who is rather more practised than I am.

I also managed some gardening and tidying today, and to cook from scratch for the first time in ages. Plus Blue Planet II... so all good here


Rosa xx

EssexHebridean

We have learned to take precisely the same approach - and feel a lot better for it. There are people out there making a living from things that yes, we probably could do for ourselves, but on the whole they will make a far better job of it, and the process will be far less stressful!

The table & chairs sound like they've made a real difference - brilliant idea to use the old one for a desk too!