Forever Home Fund

katep23

Online via OH's phone data Broadband won't be in place until new year.

Hey sis, felt very strange waking up here. Lots of strange noises and the curtains which were left are very thin so let lots of light in Time to rifle through that big bag of curtains for something a bit thicker!

Hi Kansaskitty, thanks for stopping by

Went to local Sainsbugs tonight to stock up on a few bits and get some food for Christmas get together / house warming with OH's family.

They had lots of great reductions :T 10p for 4 jacket potatoes (got 3 lots), 50p for big steak pie (got 4 for freezer) and I had a £6 off £40 voucher as well

Have switched energy providers tonight via the energy club so will get £15 cashback.

Also brought over chest freezer on today's trip to the old house so now have most of my food moved over. Still have some stuff in the larder and a few bits in the fridge freezer at old house to bring over - have forgotten my herbs and spices though again!

Will be going online to do some money shuffling tomorrow hopefully and see what I can put in the offset.

FlacosFloozie

Just read your diary and wanted to say congratulations on the new home!

katep23

What a busy time it's been! Long days with trip to work taking about an hour and 20 minutes each way then weekends back at the old house moving stuff over and sorting out / cleaning. Still got this weekend and possibly next then we'll be finished there and can maybe spend some time at the new house

Have cancelled TV licence and due a £60 refund - we have decided to give up live TV which we hardly watch anyway, not had the TV on since well before Christmas and we're so busy we haven't missed it.

It has been a really expensive month so not much saving going on but I get paid next Friday which will include my bonus so we should get back on track then.

Have ordered heating oil - was quoted 43.95p from the company we used previously. They price matched another company at 38.95p but then I got a quote for 35.91p from another company so I ordered 1500l from them - thank goodness for credit card with 6 months interest free on purchases!

£100 in TCB and £co but not ready to pay out. Am going to look at bank accounts as YBS had one recently offering £150 to switch (didn't need to pay any DDs out of it) and I have an old Lloyds account I don't use so I could "switch" that one!

Our pusscat has been really poorly and ended up at the vets for a week and a half (thank goodness for MoreThan!) He's home now so I'm off today to keep an eye and OH worked from home yesterday and is working from home tomorrow. I had to book annual leave though

Today, am planning on doing some housework, popping into local town and to farm shop then sorting out various admin bits and accounting stuff which never seems to get done during the week. Am not feeling on top of finances at all and I really don't like it.

katep23

I've had some good news on the work front, I'm being allowed to work from home one day a week so that will reduce my fuel costs by 20% :T

Checked out the local town today and went to the butcher (similar price to supermarket meat and very friendly) and greengrocer (reasonable price and I got a free bag of carrot tops for the ducks)

Also got a very useful bits and bobs shop and a brilliant hardware shop (more expensive than Wickes etc but closer so less fuel costs and it's independent).

Got refund from BT (£55), council tax (£114) and awaiting £98 from energy provider (plus another £62 as DD went out after the refund was calculated). Just as well as credit card balance is huge with all the things we have put on it recently.

Glad we have 6 months interest free so we can pay it off gradually. Debated whether to pay it all off now as we have the money but it's better to have the money in the MOS and pay the card off over the next 4 months.

Am inspired by all the diaries on here where people are decluttering - have started by putting our spare fridge freezer on freegle. Tried to get rid of it before we moved but no-one was interested. Had one response so far, just waiting to see if they commit to a time to collect tomorrow :T

We'll test the upright freezer is working then that can go as well.

Might start trying to shift some stuff on eBay or Facebook as well.

Dinner will be homemade burgers with potato / leek bake and vegetables. We've got someone booked to come and look at converting and installing my range cooker - I'm bored of the camping stove now :rotfl:

Sold some duck eggs last week and got an order for another half dozen next week, it all helps towards paying for their feed.

Talking of the ducks, we let them out their pen to free range earlier and they took it a bit too literally, ending up going through the hedge into the field! The ground is so muddy in the field that they could barely lift their feet to walk when they came back in :D

katep23

Good news - we're getting all our deposit back from rented house so all the time we spent (and all the help from our families) was worth it. It was about £1,400 so well worth it; I had it in my mind I would be happy with £1,000 so that's a real bonus.

Got the refund from EDF(£98) but we had another DD go out after the account was settled so I need to call about that. Also got £15 from MSE club for switching our electricity here.

Not so good news, joint account credit card bill in - £3,500 It include about £800 worth of heating oil and nearly £700 for vets bills (which we will get back from MoreThan) but other than that it's all stuff under £100, just a lot of it!

So all the refunds are already earmarked to pay towards the credit card

Then my credit card will be due next month and I know there's another £1,000 vet bill plus our council tax for the remainder of this financial year (over £600!)

So beans on toast for the rest of the month

Was going to make lentil shepherds pie last night but didn't take into account that green lentils need more cooking than red ones. Stood in front of the fridge holding the mash potato and left over roast lamb in desperation, saying to OH "I don't know what I can make from these" - he thought I was being sarcastic and said "uh, shepherds pie?" My brain was so mushed it didn't even occur to me :rotfl:

Working from home today, just about to go and get dressed and log on - without an hour and 20 minute to commute before I even start :T

Goldiegirl

That's great that you can work from home one day a week. You can start early, without the commute, put in the right number of hours, and can be finished by mid afternoon, and the rest of the day is yours. Result! :j

katep23

Thanks Goldie; I enjoy the lie in of not getting up until 6.30 when I work from home

Sat here with a cup of tea waiting for the sun to come up; we have a fantastic view out of the bay windows in the kitchen and living room. As tough as it has been these last few months when I sit here and watch the sunrise I know it's worth it.

OH needed a prescription from the doctors so we registered last week; after a chat with the duty doctor, they wouldn't give him the tablets he had last time but prescribed something else due to his weight and blood pressure which is at the high end of normal.

I'm hoping this will give us some impetus to eat more healthily and exercise more - we have some lovely walks around here but need to find the time to explore :cool:

So planning to introduce more veggies and try and reduce meat which will hopefully also cut grocery bill. Having moved so much stuff from the larder, I am trying to make sure we use it up so our food bill shouldn't be too high this month. Just milk, fruit, veg and a few top up bits.

katep23

Crikey, just let the ducks out and there were 9 eggs! My parents are coming up for Sunday lunch so will send dad back with a couple of dozen but I need to sell some!

Sold 3 x half dozens in the last 2 weeks at work but really need to up that; wonder if I'm allowed to put them on FB selling pages?

katep23

Only 8 eggs today

Got my folks coming over for lunch, was going to head out and pick up a joint of beef yesterday and something nice for dinner last night but OH stopped me and reminded me we are eating out of the freezer

So we are having roast pork (the last joint from our friends' free range organic pigs) today and had fake-takeaway last night with some beef flank and roast duck I found in freezer Had our dinner watched the rugby on catch up and was in bed by 10.15, we know how to have a romantic night

Parents are bringing parsnips, leeks and cabbage and I've already got potatoes so saved some pennies there

Also haven't drunk Friday or Saturday night so probably saved £30 there Wine with lunch today will be a bottle of homebrew wine we made from dad's vine last year and a bottle of prosecco left over from Christmas.

I'm thinking I might make an overpayment from my own money this month: I know we are saving to start doing work on the house and anything I offset is helping with the mortgage but I would really like to see something paid off the balance and know I won't have to pay that money again.

I'm thinking of just over 10% of our monthly payment. I know OH is focussed on saving to do work - we need to get damp problems sorted (potentially £3K) and roof (potentially £20 - £30K ) but it's going to take time to save up for those and I feel like I'm not achieving anything in the meantime.

We took our mortgage out over 30 years to keep the repayments low as possible to start off with to allow time to pay for the work that needs doing then overpay it when we had done that - I'm just impatient and want to start that now!

Have asked on freegle for a roof ladder, not holding out much hope but that would save us a bundle if someone did have one going spare.

v1ckyt

katep23 wrote: »

Had our dinner watched the rugby on catch up and was in bed by 10.15, we know how to have a romantic night

too much info little sis :blushing:


Go for it on the little overpayments, will feel good.