Forever Home Fund

katep23

I didn't mean it like that sis

The decluttering continues. Printer was picked up yesterday, foks were sent home with lots of odds and sods and very old satnav has been listed on freegle.

katep23

Had a chat with OH and he has agreed that I can overpay any extra money I make such as TCB and £Co but all savings from salary go into the offset to save for work done to the house - a good compromise I think

Yesterday gave us a bit of perspective - we went to the funeral of someone he is related to who was in their twenties when they died and so we had quite a discussion about the need for living our lives now and finding a balance between paying down the mortgage to give us financial independence early and making sure we still appreciate life and do fun stuff.

We have the deposit back from our old rental house so most of that is going towards the credit card but we will hold some back and go out for a nice meal and a few drinks either tonight or for Sunday lunch

Sold another half dozen eggs at the gate yesterday, whoever it was obviously didn't have change so they left £1.50 instead of £1.30 we charge :T Egg empire

Found a local pool where you can pay per visit so need to go along and try that. They also hire badminton courts which OH and I enjoy. Just not going to fall into the trap of taking out a membership which I always then fail to use. Pay per visit is much better as I work / commute such long hours so can't guarantee how often I can go.

Have now had two blood pressure checks in the last month which have come back as raised. Having never had an issue with blood pressure, which is checked at least a couple of times a year, this has shocked me and I really need to do something about it. Seems like the way to do this is

• eat more healthily (trying)
• lose weight (also trying)
• exercise more (well I'm starting from nothing really so more is a relative term!)
• drink less (didn't drink last night, last Friday or last Saturday, on Sunday we shared a bottle of prosecco between 3)
• less salt (have been cooking from scratch less due to cooking facilities so salt intake has definitely increased)
• less caffeine (I did south beach diet before and limited myself to 4 lots of caffeine a day - combined with the diet my energy levels were much more stable)

So all things I should be doing anyway!

Right, better let the ducks out and feed them then another cup of tea to help me wake up.

katep23

Oh my - 10 eggs this morning :eek::D

Goldiegirl

You are so right about balance, and it takes a shocking event like the loss of a young person to put things into perspective.

Sorry to hear about your blood pressure, that must have come as a surprise if you haven't had problems before.

As you probably know from my thread, I follow a low salt diet for the Menieres, and I think my general health has improved.

A few things that have helped - a bread maker has been a godsend.i make my bread with Lo-Salt, to keep the sodium levels down. Also, I can make my own pizza bases, and top the pizza with things like tinned tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, pineapple, sweetcorn etc, and only a small amount of cheese.

I swear by Kallo low sodium stock cubes, as base for home made soups and casseroles.

You probably won't have to be as strict about it as me, but apart from an occasional craving for sausage and bacon, I wouldn't swop my diet for what I used to eat:)

katep23

Thanks for the tips Goldie, we make our own bread but I hadn't thought of using lo salt although we do have some. I also have low sodium stock cubes so will switch to using those.

Operation "usestuffoutofthecupboardsandthendon'treplaceitwithquitesomuchstuffsoallmyfoodmightactuallyfitinthecupboardsoneday" is going quite well.

Used up a fruit scone mix and a sponge mix yesterday (not so good for losing weight pledge though).

Epic fail on the "drink less" front last night but it's the first time I've had wine in two weeks so I'll forgive myself

Joined the library yesterday - there's a lovely communal garden at the back and the volunteer I was speaking to said the apple tree is laden in summer and no-one seems to take any apples so feel free to help myself :T

Only 7 eggs from the ducks today and none sold yesterday - will stick another box out today and see if we get any takers.

Not sure what the plans are today, hopefully get on with some stuff round the house and maybe go out for Sunday lunch

katep23

Ugh horrible day. Getting on with some jobs round the house.

OH has fixed the curtain rail in our bedroom so it is no longer in danger of falling down. We've put up some thicker curtains as our bedroom faces east so might have a chance of sleeping in past dawn in the summer.

Put up a very thick floor length curtain at the door at bottom of stairs.

Put up bathroom cabinet and put everything away in it.

Unpacked another four bags of kitchen stuff which have been residing in the porch.

Also had to buy a new suitcase as OH is away all week and our old one is knackered as the handle fell off. Ordered from Tesco using clubcard points so it has only cost us £1 - and I did it through TCB.

FlacosFloozie

I agree it's really important to find a balance that works for you. Mr F was seriously ill when we were younger and, as a result, we tipped too far into the 'live for now' camp and ran up debts. When I started trying to pay them off we went too far into the 'total austerity' camp and would fall off the wagon in style.
We learned that having a modest budget for treats and eating out helps keep us on the straight and narrow. It will delay our deposit saving day but only by a couple of months which I think is okay in the grand scheme of things for us.
Re low sodium, once you cut salt out you really start to notice when it's added to things. I honestly don't miss it and adjusted surprisingly quickly.

katep23

Thanks FF, glad to hear cutting down salt isn't too traumatic! Once I can cook properly from scratch it will be easier. Made a pork casserole in slow cooker yesterday, was liberal with the herbs and added two low sodium stock cubes so pretty healthy and tasty too.

TBH, losing weight and exercising more will probably be as important. The issue I have with exercising is time - I leave home at 6.30 and don't get home until 18.00. By the time I have fed cats, ducks, fish etc I am too knackered to think about going out for a swim.

I am going to try early morning swimming on my work from home day and once at the weekend, that should be achievable. If I have a meeting and am at home in the morning I will try and swim that day as well so should be able to manage 2 swims per week.

In other news - just made by first OP :j £200 which is over 10% of our monthly payment. Spoke to BS and arranged that our payment is static so next year when they calculate our repayment they won't adjust it because of any OPs.

From now on, all OPs will come from money made (selling, £co etc) but this is just a random one, because I can

Heard from MoreThan that they are paying our claim for poorly cat in full so that should be in OH's bank by the weekend. This will be paid straight off credit card bill so we should be down to about £1,500 on it which is on 0% for another 3 months. Will get this paid down ASAP though as I want to be clear on exactly where we stand financially. I'd be no good at stoozing

Applied for M&S card to get £30 vouchers - have been referred to underwriter and am awaiting the decision. Plan is to pay council tax on it and then pay this down monthly as if it was a DD.

Worked out we have spent about £300 on groceries, toiletries and cleaning this month - how, when we have so much food already in have we managed that?! Really need to tackle this as I can't understand it. Will keep all receipts next month and analyse them.

With OH being away all week, I should be able to get this down a lot and then any surplus can go in offset.

jodles16

Well done on the OP! And congratulations on the house!

Jodles

katep23

Sold another half dozen eggs and got an order from work customer for Monday so that pays for 2 bags of corn

Whoever bought the eggs yesterday also brought my recycling bin in and tucked the money box inside the gate :j as I wasn't home until late last night (college straight after work).

Counted up all change to pay into bank (£21), plus got £10 for selling something to OH's brother and changed up some Chinese Yuan (£5.03) so will pay this all into bank tomorrow morning and either put it in offset or overpay it.

Still haven't listed anything on eBay or FB selling pages but I did see someone who is looking for a certain type of scooter which OH just happens to have in the garage (trying to decide if we should sell as non-runner or break for parts and sell it) so will mention that

Plan is to have a minimum £5k emergency fund which is difference between my salary (basic) and our outgoings for 6 months. Ideally we'd like this to be £10K which would be 12 months or 3 / 4 months if we were both out of work but £5K is the absolute minimum and we'll try and increase this. It will always be in off-set so will be working towards our mortgage-free goal.

Booked someone to come and look at our range cooker on Wednesday next week to find out about converting it from natural gas to LPG - I might have cooking facilities some time before the end of March