Starting BEFORE I mean to go on

specialkaye

Hi Giblet back to my old self again now. Assessment is now only a week away, only just been given the co-ordinates for our route so quite a lot of work still to do.

New car tyres done at £114.50 including tracking as one was wonky and scrubbed on one side, turns out my two front ones were just legal at 1.6mm so got them done there and then as the weather is getting worse. Still got my service and mot to pay for on the 2nd, plus booked in to go to the dentist. Must of been 2 years since ive last been!!

Other than that not really spent much - bit more on fuel. OOOO STILL need to submit mileage claim with cadets - its ever increasing!!

No expensive meals/nights out and dont think there is really anything coming up. Still overpaying as standard but im not putting anymore to it yet as im going to build up a little reserve of 3k before i move and put 50/50 to each until i get to 6k.

specialkaye

Wow, so it's been nearly a year since I last posted so guess this is going to be a long one although I will try to keep it brief.


I passed my walking assessment so I am now BELA qualified, I am still volunteering with the cadets and they have finally persuaded me to start the process for going into uniform so I have my initial interview board the first weekend of October, fingers crossed! Other cadet news i'm going on a fieldcraft controllers course to expand the activities I can do with the cadets. Oh and I still haven't put in my mileage from.


Work update, still working on my accounting exams, 3 left to do now so will hopefully be finished by this time next year. My work have delayed my pay increase by 4 months until Jan when I get my next lot of results- im only taking 1 exam this time. Definitely getting more and more responsibility at work though so the delay kinda sucks although its my own fault for failing one of exams last year which pushed back my completion date. Still also working at the leisure centre although I have settled into a 2 weeks on 2 weeks off routine that seems to be working well.


Okay so other news: had another couple of lodgers since my last post. I issued notice on the accountant when my friend broke up with her bf, by the time she moved in though she had a new bf and spent a grand total of 2 nights in my house; she was effectively paying me to store her clothes lol. Well she moved out a couple of months ago and I have a new lodger of about 3 weeks, he is in A LOT more than any of my others which is taking a bit of getting used to.


I also have a new car as my completely died about 4 months ago. Cue additional loan form my Dad monthly payments to him are now £400.


Finances are a little chaotic, money saving hasn't really been happening but I am living with my means and im still paying £250 on the mortgage, overpaying by £74.pp a month. Not sure what my balance is though.


I plan on looking at everything properly tomorrow as I still have a few things to come out on the 1st. Really need to get my overdraft sorted as it expired next month and not sure if ill be getting charges.


Also no savings

specialkaye

No money making today but it has been a NSD, AND a gym day
Nor have a had any cake so I'd say I have had a pretty successful day. Same again tomorrow hopefully - just need to avoid the cadet tuck shop tomorrow night. Ha!


O O O I also cycled to work today (and back), national cycle to work day on Thursday.
Giving blood tomorrow and then swimming on Thursday and then a day at the races on Saturday. Looking forward to this week.


Right now though I think it's time for bed, it's been a long day and pretty sure this is a rather garbled post today.

specialkaye

Yeyy another NSD, had my Gran round for tea, usually we have fish and chips but I made tea tonight, t'was very tasty so ended tonight being £20 up for being a good grandchild.


Need to spend some pennies tomorrow as I'm out of milk and cucumber and then maybe a fiver at my local cinema - which I can walk to so no petrol costs.


Aims for tomorrow:
1.Cycle to work
2. Cycle home in time to log on to my 1pm class
3. Spend no more than £5 on groceries.

specialkaye

yeyyyy achieved all my aims for today.


1.Cycled to work (and back)
2. Groceries came to £4.04 (plus 50p for sweets at cadets)


Also I am in the process of switching my gas and leccie so hopefully in 4 -6 weeks ill be on my new fixed tariff saving my £170 a year (plus £25 cash back).


O I forgot about having a spendy day tomorrow - i'm going to the races - hoping it's not too cold. I don't have a good track record in picking winner for the grand national so im not holding out to come back with many pennies, although I will be on a strict budget.

specialkaye

Well it's been an age since I last posted, done a bit of lurking but think it's time I posted my own update.

Last time I posted I was going to the races, I remember having a fab day and best of all I met my now boyfriend. Things have been progressing steadily and we have just booked to go away together for a week to Gran Canaria in July, so excited.

Obviously this has had an impact on the finances as I wasn't really in a position to afford it , so much so in that I have just received a charge from my credit card for going £3 over my limit .

I am rather concerned by his and how it will affect being able to re-mortage in October when my 3 year fix runs out. Other than the 1 CC I have no other debt at the moment however I have occasionally dipped into my overdraft facility for major spends.

My aim for the next 6 months is to reduce the CC balance (£1803) so that I am paying it off IN FULL :money: every month.


Pressures on this months' income is car insurance renewal - renewal quote came in at £460, best comparison £270 with £42 cashback :beer:, costs next month will be getting the pennies for the holiday. Really not sure how much we will need - we have gone half board so I'm thinking 800 euros between us for the week.

Money saving things I have been doing - went up a pay grade at work in January for passing some more accounting exams - additional £3500 a year, still doing a bit of swagging, getting £5 Amazonian vouchers every few weeks which I just add to my account. Trying to go through cashback sites for everything and try to limit myself to new clothing spends from the love2shop vouchers I get from there.

Thing to do/be more mindful of:

Cycle to work more- My weight is creeping up and up
Meal plan better - double effect of money saving and weight reducing!
Make sure no more slip ups that may affect my re-mortgage application :eek: - really hoping to improve on my current 2.84% rate.

That's it for now really, still overpaying on the mortgage but until I finish paying back my Dad for the help with the deposit and more recently the new car the current rate of overpayment isn't going to change so will keep plodding on.

Hopefully I'll remember to post a bit more over the next few months.

specialkaye

Happy Sunday morning everybody, yesterday was a NSD and hopefully today will be too.


Just waiting on my bf to get back from a boozy night away with his buds, changed the bed and got the washing on - a little disappointed about the weather but hopefully itll have picked up by the time it has finished.

Jobs for today - go to the gym, Sunday lunch at my parents and then light tea from stores - thinking BLT sandwiches.

O and also a fair amount of revision for my impending exam next week!

Right keeping it short and sweet today - lots to do!

specialkaye

Couple of weeks away from my diary and a few (non mortgage related things) a-happening,

finished my exam so no more study required until new class starts in August,
had a lovely birthday but ate SOOOOOOO much trying to be very good now in the run up to the holiday.

My local supermarket sent me vouchers to use every week for 6 weeks so stocked up on loads of stuff to make sure they didn't go to waste however I haven't got anymore so its time to eat from stores and budget at £5 a week for the next 2 weeks. Minimal spends on fresh fruit and veg, I have enough meat in the freezer to last and trying not to eat as many carbs (not including Sunday roast at my parents each week ).

I have also had a nice little sale on a social media site of £40 so that is going to bring my CC balance down, got a few other little bits on there so fingers crossed I can add other few pennies to that pot!

Other thing I have noticed is that last month my DD for my gas/leccie has gone up by £12 a month , trying to make an effort to switch off and not leave stuff on standby draining my pennies.

specialkaye

Well my get up and go has gone up and gone! Feeling tired and headachy .

On a money saving note my grocery shopping has gone well and a lot of odds and ends eaten up out of the freezer. Can probably just buy fresh for the next 1-2 weeks if I plan properly but will need a bit more than the £5 I budgeted last week so i'll double it and aim for £10. Spent £5 on fruit and veg at the market today and will probably spend the other £5 on stuff at the county show tomorrow , thinking nice bread and some sort of pie and some cheese.

Pay day next week need holiday money and airport car parking out of that. other than that hoping for a cheapo month.

specialkaye

Argh, I am so annoyed; I went over on my credit card limit and then the minimum payments by DD didn't include the charge so I got another one!!!

Also ended with a £600 bill to fix my car after it blew up the day before my holiday, not the best timing.

I did manage however to get the euros I needed for both me and the BF before the Brexit vote came in - 12:30am as I had been on election duty. Got an extra 8c to the £ based on the rate 8 hours later so rather chuffed with that. Still deliberating what to do with the euros we brought home 300e worth. Might see if I can change it directly with someone I know.

Final bit of MFW is I have been gifted £1000 from my Grandmother which was very out of the blue. Not sure what my strategy is with it. It's still a small enough amount to be frittered away if i'm not careful which is why I'm hesitant to put it to my credit card (still 0%) - then I was thinking about saving it but rates are dire. Then my thought was to use it to do up my kitchen- need to look at costs for this, my Dad is going to de-tile the kitchen, then I need to employ someone to refit my condenser pipe for my boiler - the pipe has disintegrated where it goes into the wall so it needs picking out replacing and then replastering. Then to re-tile and paint and new lights. No massive spends - keeping the counter, cupboards and floor the same. Need to price it up but these things always cost more than you expect

Anything left will then go off the mortgage.

Talking of mortgages my 3 yr fix is over in October! I am now a bit worried due to my defaults on my credit card due to going over the limit . Might need to head over to the mortgage board to look at my chances. Currently paying 2.94% but there are some way better rates out there now. My LTV % hasn't changed much in 3 years - very disappointing-got a couple of household items on finance which end next year so will snowball once they are done to boost my overpayment.

Also put my spare room back up as available - short let only max 6 months as it's not being used for anything at the moment other than a little bit of clothes storage and £300 extra a month is not to be sniffed at!