Forever Home Fund

katep23

December 2014
Mortgage £346,545.00
Mortgage free date 2044
LTV 86.64%

3rd June 2015
Mortgage £341,672.69
Total paid off capital in last month £703.17
Total paid off capital £4,922.31
OP 01/04/15 to date: £372.49 / £1,800
Total OP to date: £755.20
MOS: £12,431.76
LTV: 85.42%

If we can continue with similar OPs and offset, we should be in the £330s at the start of September, go back into £340s over the course of the month, and then go permanently below in October.

katep23

£5.57 OPd this morning, interest from joint account and blue rewards from my account.


Sold a suit on eBay, money is on hold with Paypal at the mo but will OP that once available (probably about £8 after fees). Still due in the cheque from market research (£20) so will OP that too when it arrives.


This month will be tight financially, had to pay for study units and two exams.


Am budgeted to be -£80.73 at the end of the month in my account and +£280.63 in the joint account but this is dependent on pet insurance claims paying out (currently in my laptop bag so not very likely!) Otherwise will be -£116.12 in current account.


Should get back on track next month as not aware of any big expenditure planned.

katep23

As suspected, this month is very tight financially but this is purely cashflow due to paying £850 for studying. Should be back to normal next month.

Determined not to draw down from offset though, I have £10 ish on hold in Paypal which is due to be released 15th June so that will mean my account is £8 up at the end of the month

I do all my spending on the credit card to get cashback then pay it off in full each month so lack of cash is not too much of an issue.

Also still waiting on £20 cheque so that will help if it turns up soon.

Will add up anything I would normally OP and schedule it for 26th June when I get paid

Egg sales are going well, sold 5 boxes at the gate last weekend.

Last weekend was spendy though - the dishwasher failed so we went to buy a new one and then upsold ourselves into a more expensive energy and water efficient model. And we might have bought a washing machine at the same time. The wm is energy efficient too and holds an 8kg load so my hope is I can put the duvets through it and save £20 getting them done at the laundrette, so it was MSE after all :rotfl: Honest!

To be fair, we have "made do" for years with what we could afford (dw was second hand when we got it 6 / 7 years ago) and it was nice to actually buy what we wanted for a change.

Just getting final quotes for scaffolding and going to look at replacement wood for the dormer windows today and then we will book the roofers :T Got them down £200 on the price.

Booked the chap to sort out the path and bellcast which will hopefully reduce the damp problem massively OH got him down £100

So it's all starting to happen round here at last!

katep23

Had a long chat with OH last night - we are full of plans but have a limited budget to get on with things as we need to save up first.

We want to convert our van into a camper, add a proper conservatory (where if one of you is sitting down, the other one can walk past you without you having to put your feet on the chair ), replace the kitchen, put in under floor heating, put in new flooring throughout the house, sort out damp issue in OH's office which will also involve knocking down a wall and moving a door... you get the picture.

Everything will get done, and in the order it needs to, but it will take time to save up. The roof and path/bellcast is going to wipe out our renovation fund, just leaving us with emergency fund.

We both have, um, let's say hoarding tendencies. With me it's food, I have some sort of siege mentality, coupled with an Approved Foods habit - not a good combo.

With OH it's cars, bikes and IT equipment.

We're on annual leave in a week and have agreed that we need to do some serious decluttering. I'm going to start now with sorting out the cupboards and getting rid of stuff we aren't going to use, making a plan to use up stuff we can and just getting them into a more organised state.

During our week off we will tackle the bikes and cars - got an engine and gearbox to sell, that sort of thing. Hopefully we can also realise some money from this project to go towards improving the house

I just hope OH is as committed today when he hasn't got a beer in his hand

katep23

Yay, got a letter from HMRC saying I am getting an £80 rebate because I claimed for my professional subscription :j

Coupled with £25 JLP vouchers and £20 cheque for market research I will schedule an OP of £125 for next Friday when I get paid :T

Which is just as well because OPs so far this month are a paltry £5.57

katep23

Made it to the weekend - and this week we are on holiday (stay-cation!) so hope to get some stuff done round the house and have a good de-clutter, list on eB@y, may do a car boot etc.

£32.32 payable from TCB so have requested that and will add to OP scheduled for Friday - total OP will now be £162

Just checked grocery spends for the month and it's almost £300 - on a month where I thought we had done quite well for not spending much. This week I will sort out cupboards, fridge and freezer and write a proper inventory.

OH is not a fan of meal planning but if I can create a plan of choices he can pick from in the morning then we have a chance

Will also try and batch cook some meals for the freezer (and more importantly label them )

Have got some quiches for OH to cook on nights when I am at college but got me thinking that I should be able to make it for a lot less than you can buy it for.

Does anyone make quiche for the freezer and can it be cooked from frozen or is it better to defrost it first? Any good recipes / ideas for filling other than bacon and cheese?

Our apple trees are laden already so I can foresee lots of apple related food and drink this year :T It's so nice moving into a house where there are already mature fruit trees

Right, lots to do today so better get a move on.

ourcornercottage

katep23 wrote: »

OH is not a fan of meal planning but if I can create a plan of choices he can pick from in the morning then we have a chance

Our apple trees are laden already so I can foresee lots of apple related food and drink this year :T It's so nice moving into a house where there are already mature fruit trees

We meal plan get the food required but don't assign a day to the meal so BF can select the one he wants to cook each day. He didn't like the idea of meal planning but is happy with this :-)

Plus your house sounds like our house with the trees! Previous owners planted 3 apples, 5 plums, 1 pear, 1 walnut plus gooseberry and blackberry bushes. For apples try apple butter, yummy!

katep23

Thanks OCC, that sounds like exactly what I need to do

Managed to negotiate £150 off the cost of the scaffolder today and got that and the roofer booked.

Have discovered a potential issue with the double-storey extension this evening so might need to tighten belts for a while; not sure how much it is likely to cost so we need to rebuild the renovation fund.

Goldiegirl

Hope you have a good week off work, and the extension problem isn't too expensive.

I'm also interested in idea of quiches without bacon or cheese, as they are both on my forbidden food list. I used to buy a nice salmon and broccoli quiche from M&S, so that might be one to investigate. I don't know about cooking from frozen though.

ourcornercottage wrote: »

We meal plan get the food required but don't assign a day to the meal so BF can select the one he wants to cook each day. He didn't like the idea of meal planning but is happy with this :-)

!

That's how we do it - our meal plan is quite flexible, and also can be swopped if we decide to go out.

katep23

Thanks Goldie

OH's friend is coming up at the end of the week to take a look but based on the photos he doesn't think it's a complete rebuild job. There is a crack running from the roof right down to the ground, via the lintel above the study window.

Ah well, the study was next on our list to tackle anyway :rotfl:

It's my birthday today - my folks are coming up for lunch today and OH's folks are coming over for lunch tomorrow. Had a cup of tea in bed and OH let the ducks and chickens out. Didn't get up until 8.00 - quite a lie in for me :T It's the simple things which make me happy