My first home &I want to OWN it!

Katzen

Home from our birthday day out and a good time was had by all. Not quite as low spend as I hoped, £10.40 for two train tickets (still cheaper than petrol and parking I think) then £3.55 for emergency coffee and lunch was £18.75 even with our voucher. Annoyed that I didn't check prices there in advance as I could easily have got us at least another £10 in vouchers for the lunch if I'd known it would cost so much. Never mind, still saved ourselves a good bit. Full price day would've been about £75 but we spent £30 + £15 Clubcard points so I guess that equates to £30 saved.

Katzen

I am stuck in a quandary. I've been shifting 'spare' cash from our current account into a saver. We are supposed to be getting some windows replaced on our rental house but DH has done nothing about calling the bloke (I can't because he doesn't deal so well with me and DH is much better at getting discounts). This means that that money is sat burning a hole in my pocket! I'm sorely tempted to make this months OP out of it. I know that if I do that it will just delay the windows but I could be waiting weeks for that to be sorted and it's doing my head in!! I also want curtains for our bedroom, that could come from that fund, and I've a load of discount vouchers for boots also tempting me! Must keep busy and out of the shops today.

Katzen

Decision made- I'm going to OP £400 at some point today. Calculations are based on getting it paid each month, delaying only ends up costing more, and DH is going to get his finger out anytime soon!
This month started badly with some mega shopping trips but I've pulled it back and will only be a smidge over on the grocery budget. I've started shopping at the market for fruit and veg. Seem to get a lot more for my money there and I like supporting local business. Just wish there was somewhere I could get my store cupboard and dairy from so I didn't have to pop into the dreaded supermarket. If I had more fridge space I could stock up on most of it each month and get milk delivered but I doubt we could store enough cheese to last a month!
OP plan looks good for te next month as my CC bill is lower due to limited Amazon spending, plus there's the council tax free month, but really that should go on as an extra so I'm aiming to chuck £500 at it. Fingers crossed for me please

Katzen

Made that OP :jump: but our mortgage statement at the end of the year has my balance at about £300 over what my calculations show. I've had a fiddle with dates in the calculator and it's a bit closer but still around £80 out. I'm going to assume that it's due to the fact the spreadsheet works in whole months but our mortgage actually started on 19th. Never mind, won't make much difference in the grand scheme.

Was meant to do cheap shopping to get us through the end of the month today but sleep has been terrible this week so I gave up and just went to the supermarket. £82 lighter now! Don't even know how I spent so much, not like it's all cakes and treats. Going to be online shopping the next few weeks as things are busy and I need to take things a bit easier. Hopefully that will help keep budgets under control.

Katzen

Popped to Boots today to make the most of some offers. Got 3for 2 on my mascara and some post natal vitamins. Used a couple of coupons and it was triple points day so got the lot for £50 instead of £80 plus £9 worth of points. Pretty happy as it's all stuff I would've bought at some point anyway.

Got another £400 sitting in slush fund again, could chuck that straight at the mortgage too. Might do that tomorrow...

Katzen

Made that OP this evening. Was a bit conflicted as I like to have a bit of 'buffer' sitting around but I need to remind myself that's what the emergency fund is for!

Intend to sit down at some point and use the last couple of months to work out how much we could OP each month before my pay drops. Would be great if we can get a good way there before we have to really think too much about it. £865 so far is 19%, want to get past 20% by the end of Feb.

Katzen

Managed to remember my memorable information to get into the mortgage online banking again :rotfl: and the double OP and monthly payment for Feb is in. Its currently showing just a little over £140k. Think the Feb interest may still need to be added to this (still not worked out how the online banking calculates and displays all that). But, either way, we are close to being in the 130's :j That's a nice little interim target to aim for

Katzen

MOT & service today, passed with no extra cost but advisory on tyres and rear suspension. Recommended to do both well before next test and looking likely to be around £400-500 :eek: Need to get saving for that then. Have paid for today with current account, leaving me about £100 'spends' for the rest of the month. Will be tight but do able.
Need to look at money in the joint account and planned expenses to see when I'll be able to afford the car amongst the other costs as well as keeping up OP schedule.

Katzen

I've finally worked out our mortgage online banking! Looks like interest is added daily so balance just keeps creeping up across the month. Might explain why it never tallies with my spreadsheet. Does mean I could attempt to OP each day to keep the balance the same. As fun as that challenge sounds it's probably not that sensible!
Finally got my union fees refunded so that helps my current account a tiny bit. Did have to fill the car this week-over £50! Hate that fuel is so expensive. Hoping that will see me for the month though, even with a trip up North. Have realised that we need to get DS a next size car seat soon so I'll aim to do a trip to the baby shop whilst visiting my folks next week so I can choose one then buy online for the cashback. Sadly that might eat up all of the surplus next month

Katzen

Wow! Nearly a month since I posted. Feb has been so busy, and unexplainably spendy too. Got nearly enough left to make the OP this month so I'm going to do that now then try to make March a better month. It's the small spends that need to come under control, but there's just so much else to think about right now too.