Balancing not just the budget

doingitanyway

EssexHebridean wrote: »

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!

I agree! I can't do this until I am debt free, but when I am I will

RosaBernicia

Sanity saved all round then

Curtains ordered yesterday, also bought new bedside lamps for my room which look lovely and have reshuffled the old ones to the spare room where they also look fab and enabled the desk lamp to come back to the study. In a strange balance to the expensive curtains, found a pair of stupidly cheap blackout ones in a gorgeous colour and silk look which will now probably end up in the bedroom (assuming the creases ever come out, they haven't with the cream cheapo ones that are doing interim duty in the kitchen, despite steam cleaning) but for now are in the living room til I find the ones I really like for there. I seem to be recycling things from room to room :rotfl:

Realised today that one reason YNAB appears to get confused with CCs is it counts upcoming payments out, but not refunds coming in... but have confirmed refund is definitely being processed, so all still on budget.

This means... drum roll and fanfare... that I can make my first mortgage overpayment this month :j_party_:dance: . But I completely forgot :rotfl: so will sort out checking the details and sending it soon.

One small step and one giant psychological leap towards MFW :eek: :rotfl:


Rosa xx

RosaBernicia

Well a belated update... I have been busy and spendy, as I also bought a monitor and keyboard and curtain pole and am writing to you from my new home office! :j Soooo pleased to have got this done... it feels like the house is now fully functional, even if it is still messy (all the stuff that needs organising in the office is currently on the landing, and that's quite apart from my seasonal clothes sorting that has been occupying the spare bed for weeks ). I now get to work from home on Fridays, which saves travel and petrol and carbon emissions! :j:T_party_ It's also a lovely quiet time and almost felt like an extra weekend day because it makes it SO much easier to do odd jobs like the washing that are then out of the way for the weekend. Plus I get to just close the door on it all, and my laptop has moved to living in the office instead of downstairs so there is less temptation to do online stuff when I should be on relaxation time. Totally delighted :T

It does mean I am over budget for this month at this point, but I've decided I'm going to make my mortage overpayment after all as everything will be sorted with the November paycheque, so technically it's all ok for the month. I am waiting to hear back from HMRC about my tax situation for the additional work, so that may be bad news, but could be sorted in December. The other bad news is I realised my electric bill is way behind - it never caught up after taking ages to get the flaming bill when I moved in - so I will clear than over the next couple of months too, ready for when the deal expires in February and hopefully I can move.

Tomorrow's :money:catch-up jobs are to get the switch sorted with my new M&5 bank account, and chase up the Clyde5dal3 one (which will have to be by phone, as their link doesn't work). I'm slowly working away at sorting stuff into the office and have already profited by a £20 M&S voucher I'd forgotten about - that will pay for lunches this week - and a Lu5h facial voucher I had somehow also forgotten about! Both from last Christmas! :eek::rotfl:Oh and finally received the goodwill payment from Curry5 over the washing machine saga... so that will pay for most of a printer!

Onwards and upwards still


Rosa xx

RosaBernicia

Oh and I wasn't going bonkers with the YNAB weirdness - they confessed in an update that they'd been messing with the CC calculations. NSS :mad: . Annoyed, but not quite annoyed enough to look for another solution - they better just behave now.


Rosa xx

redofromstart

Nice to find the vouchers. I found a birthday card with £10 in the other day, at least I checked before I recycled it.

I want to join you in mortgage overpayment land. Soon, my precious, soon....

EssexHebridean

That's pretty shoddy of YNAB Rosa - it is after all something that people rely on heavily for managing their budgets, so to mess about with it in a way that will throw people's figures out is not really a good plan is it!

Great work on the home office - sounds like that's made an incredible difference to you already!

RosaBernicia

redofromstart wrote: »

Nice to find the vouchers. I found a birthday card with £10 in the other day, at least I checked before I recycled it.

I want to join you in mortgage overpayment land. Soon, my precious, soon....

Hi Redo

I have literally just made my first overpayment - checked it's gone out of my account, and wondering if there's a way of checking the mortgage account online to be sure it's got there!

It's a fantastic feeling :j I feel very lucky to do this, in fact I'm back here to shout about it as I realised there aren't very many people I could tell in real life without worrying that it would sound smug. I hope you do join me soon


Rosa xx

RosaBernicia

EssexHebridean wrote: »

That's pretty shoddy of YNAB Rosa - it is after all something that people rely on heavily for managing their budgets, so to mess about with it in a way that will throw people's figures out is not really a good plan is it!

Great work on the home office - sounds like that's made an incredible difference to you already!

It's not very impressive is it? Though I had already been thinking that if I do need to sort out tax stuff then maybe I should look at something that would do more reports. They are on probation for now!

I am amazed at the difference it's made to have the office. It's taken me a while to get used to having so much space, it feels a bit ridiculous to have all this for me and moggies but it's psychologically so much better to have all my work stuff in one place and behind a door.


Rosa xx

RosaBernicia

Online viewing of mortgage account set up and awaiting passcode by post. I'll be able to track it like any other debt

ZTD

RosaBernicia wrote: »

Well a belated update... I have been busy and spendy, as I also bought a monitor and keyboard and curtain pole

Now I'm curious as to how those plug together...

RosaBernicia wrote: »

and am writing to you from my new home office! :j Soooo pleased to have got this done...

:T

RosaBernicia wrote: »

I now get to work from home on Fridays, which saves travel and petrol and carbon emissions! :j:T_party_

Just don't forget to budget for additional heating and electricity.