Changing digs and coming out of my cave... for a wee while atleast :)

elantan

well thats us had christmas and hogmany out the way ... time to get back to being financially healthy:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: oh how i make myself laugh

right the state of play is this

i have had to transfer another £5,500 to the visa so that takes it to a total of £8,000 plus fees transferred over, with another £650 to be paid this month

we still have to do more things regarding the fires, for example mr El whilst he has built a makeshift log store ( and done a very good job of it ) we need more log stores which we will build as the cost of purchasing is just stupid money, we also need to buy a new carpet for the downstairs, the cheapest quote of which has been £1,775 so far ( i think we will need to change what we are looking for) we also have to buy wood to burn :rotfl::rotfl: yeah i know that sounds crazy ... have ordered the fires etc and yet dont have the wood to burn ... Mr El wants to source a good value for wood so he is doing his research, we dont need to order it till just before the fires are fitted so we are not in a desperate rush for this.

now i am not putting the carpets or anything else on the visa so we have to find the money for these things ... we also have to find the money for the fitting of the fires £4,500 roughly ( but Mr El is planning on using his negotiating skills here) so we have the £4,500 saved in cash for the fitting and we will have the money for our holiday later this month ( our only foreign holiday for the foreseeable) but we also need to find the money for the car insurance in February

Add to all of that we need to pay off this visa that we have accumulated and save for Uni it is going to be one of those squeaky years ahead, part of me is having to look at myself here ... i noticed a good while ago and this current situation has reinforced for me that i enjoy a challenge ... saving money seems to bore me for some reason ... however, having the challenge of moving money about and seeing debt go down in some weird perverse way excites me, this is kinda worrying as we NEED to have savings as we approach retirement, we NEED to be able to stay out of debt if we are ever going to have any sort of a decent retirement.

Take the case of this whole fire situation just now, before the fires came on the scene i was bored but carried on plodding away with the mortgage payments ( i enjoyed paying the money off every month) and as the bank account showed savings i was like meh ... now i didnt particularly want the fires and had been fighting against them for a few years ( the fire/solar panel etc discussion has been going on for a few years now) i had stated that i wanted to be mortgage free before we spent any kindve money on the house Mr El agreed ... but as summer turned to winter and Mr El was stuck downstairs doing his computing stuff her constantly highlighted the fact our house is freezing ( and i cant deny that) ... he then applied the pressure until it was easier for me to give in than to argue .. so that left me ( as its me that deals with the finances in our house) with a whole " how are we going to do this" ... i found this to be very exciting, to be sitting not just looking at debt going down ( which i did like) and savings mounting up ( meh) but to actually be sitting planning and plotting ... " if we do this... what if we do that ... we could do this... we could take that from there " etc ...

And so i kept going, and one thing snowballed into another , i enjoyed researching which fires we wanted, ensured we got them at a great price ... researched all the other things we needed ( helmets, chainsaws etc) got them all as cheaply as i could ... then it was right how can we pay for all of this ... and my wee mind has been enjoying working overtime about it all ...

I NEED to get myself to a position where i get that same excitement from saving ... not just debt paying

skint_spice

Maybe if you think of certain amounts of money as meaning something? e.g. - £3000 or whatever will make up shortfall for one year of uni or something along those lines.


I know what you mean about house improvements v mortgage OPs or saving but you live there so better to enjoy it than suffer in misery when you don't have too, not like spending on cakes and shoes:D

elantan

phew well done if you read all that

That's one of the many things i like about having a diary ... yes i talk ( very occasionally ) about facts and figures but for me its more of a mental process journey about all my life ( not just money) i think and find that its making me think more about what makes me me ... and being an intrapersonal person who happens to be introverted it's good for me to get down in writting some aspects of myself that i am pondering over.

Paleo/Primal ( the other thing in my life right now) well thats's going ok tbh and i am happy with it so far, i have not had any cravings for sugar yet but i am sure they will come ... and whilst i talk about sugar ... i have sugar shuffled over the money for the week so far

i'm going to have to think about where i am going to put the various pots/ things i am saving just now... sugar shuffles/ tilly tidies etc i'm thinking should go towards the mortgage the sales of things towards the visa ... any other extra money i make towards uni ... this may obviously change ( and most likely will tbh) but so far it seems like a relatively good plan

elantan

skint_spice wrote: »

Maybe if you think of certain amounts of money as meaning something? e.g. - £3000 or whatever will make up shortfall for one year of uni or something along those lines.


I know what you mean about house improvements v mortgage OPs or saving but you live there so better to enjoy it than suffer in misery when you don't have too, not like spending on cakes and shoes:D

I think you are right Skinty as i can remember when i was saving to go to Thailand i was excited and did so much research about Thailand ( i do love researching things that interest me) ... where as before i was just thinking emergency pot/ retirement etc , which whilst its always great to have an emergency pot and money in retirement it didnt excite me, maybe having something specific to save for ie a holiday somewhere i want to go to ( i love traveling and having new social experiences etc) maybe that would work ... where as saving for a boiler whilst it is the bread and butter of life ... it aint exciting me

i am hoping to be able to carry on working for a year for my first year of uni that way i will have ( and esitmated) second years money for the house so just need to work out the third year ... however i will b e working the second year as well ( just doing bank nursing etc) so that i can ease off in third year as i think third year in nurse training is the most pressurized one, if i can get myself to a stage where i dont HAVE to work if i am struggling with studying that will be brilliant

how are you finding the whole study/work balance ? i cant really compare my last uni experience tbh as ... well we all know how that went :eek::eek:

skint_spice

elantan wrote: »

i am hoping to be able to carry on working for a year for my first year of uni that way i will have ( and esitmated) second years money for the house so just need to work out the third year ... however i will b e working the second year as well ( just doing bank nursing etc) so that i can ease off in third year as i think third year in nurse training is the most pressurized one, if i can get myself to a stage where i dont HAVE to work if i am struggling with studying that will be brilliant

how are you finding the whole study/work balance ? i cant really compare my last uni experience tbh as ... well we all know how that went :eek::eek:

Just remember that a uni year isn't a whole work year anyway so there's always summer hols to bring in a bit more cash:)


It's going ok for me but got exams next week and I've hardly done anything:eek: ahhhh it'll be fine...

elantan

I'm sure it will be Skinty ... And you will probably be surprised at what you remember ... Our academic year will be 38 weeks so yeah plenty I time to make up the money


In other news ... How glad am I that we don't have the TV anymore ... It's been heaven to put it mildly... No crappy Xmas tv no Hogmanay bol10x to watch and mr el and I are finally using the kitchen table for it's designed use

I have missed the royal institute Xmas lectures but I will watch them at some point

I would say to anyone thinking of going for it ... Just do it ... If you don't like it you can always go back

I am grateful to virgin for putting their price up ... I will say this though ... I thought I would have more time to do stuff ... But it hasn't worked out that way ... When I finally get into bed at night I still have a huge list of things that I haven't managed to complete ... No doubt it would be bigger though if we still had the tv

elantan

In preparation for going to uni I have decided to change my ISA to a passive investing account ... I am passive investing in my SIPP and it suits me ... I do enjoy being an active investor and researching various funds etc but I won't be able to devote as much time to it when I go to uni so have decided to go along the index tracker route ... I currently have tha vanguard life strategy for my pension so wanted something different for my ISA ... I have decided to go for the HSBC ftse 100 acc tracker ... I think it meets my needs and it seems to do what I'm looking for ... Yes I know I will be paying £4 a month in fees between the two and that I need to have £10k in to make it worth my while having ... And unknown that I won't have that £10k for a few years ... But as my other funds grow I will slowly sell them and add them to the tracker ... Eventually in a few years I will have the £10k saved and I can let it slowly build up to be a much more profitable fund

dawnybabes

Have you looked into the governments green deal ? You might be able to get the log burner/ solar panels through that ?

elantan

Hi Dawny babes ... Welcome

Have looked into the government green deal their F.I.T and their R.H.I schemes ... We very nearly took part in the R.H.I scheme as well ... I'm not sure if you know much about these schemes or not ( or if anyone else does ) but for us it was a case of ten foot barge pole with a twenty foot one attached and I still wouldn't go near it ... Each to their own but for us ( well more me than Mr El tbh but I found it to be an even more expensive way of working than what we are currently trying ( although I may not be saying that by the time I'm finished lol )

elantan

No sugar shuffles today

Must try harder