Second Time Lucky

debtfreeoneday

Lol at the junk email - hopefully you've managed to recycle it now!!

amycool

Thought I'd check the bank accounts and spreadsheet before work (I'm not obsessed) and assuming my OH doesn't treat himself to anything today, we've done okay this month. Even taking into account the mega birthday present to my Mum I still managed to overpay £565. I'm being more strict now about putting some in the savings each month as I know we have some huge costs coming up!

March is going to be very expensive as we have the garage demolition, which will cost at least £600, then possibly the large gate and railings, which I have no idea about but I would guess at £1000 or maybe more. Plus we're going away, although the flights and accommodation are paid for so just meals and any ferry trips or bike hire. I wonder if it might be wiser to leave the gate for April, otherwise we will be dangerously close to dipping into the emergency money. The emergency money must never be touched!

And I forgot about getting someone to do some shelves in the back bedroom! Eek.

Oh well, after all of that (and buying a new shed) there shouldn't be any more big things to buy until the time comes to kit out the kid's bedroom, which ranges from never to 6 months time. I much prefer to know when things are happening!

Luckyinlife

Great job On the overpayment nothing wrong with being obsessed its how things get done in life :]

How come your knocking the garage down ? you building a new one or anything ?

amycool

Luckyinlife wrote: »

Great job On the overpayment nothing wrong with being obsessed its how things get done in life :]

How come your knocking the garage down ? you building a new one or anything ?

Hi Luckyinlife! The garage was here when we moved in last year and it has an asbestos roof and huge cracks in the concrete walls. It's also far too big for us. So the plan is to get rid and then put up a smaller shed and have a patio area.

They're coming to do it in 3 weeks - hooray!

amycool

Today I have been very brave. As well as sawing off the bottom of the drainpipe (it was fitted poorly with no room for any debris to come out of the bottom and we have about a foot of mud!) I climbed all the way up to the top to insert some chicken wire and wiggle the pipe back into place.

The furniture has been picked up too.

The bedroom has had about a million coats of paint now but one wall still looks a bit patchy so that needs one more coat, if we have enough paint. Then we can finally clean the room ready for getting shelving quotes.

Between jobs I have been watching Mark Watson's 27 hour show, which is mind blowing. I better sponsor now before I forget!

amycool

It's Monday, which means poring over spreadsheets day! :j

Here's some nice figures to start the month off:

To date I have paid £7230.03 towards my mortgage.
I have paid £972.82 in interest.
My daily interest, which started at £5.08 is now £4.63.
I have knocked 11 months off my term!

The last bit is exciting as it means that next month I will have knocked a whole year off.

The only bad news is that I'm £37.73 short of being able to colour in another brick on my house, but I've been a bit lax with the saving recently and can't keep taking the savings out to overpay the mortgage.

In saving news, I got some interest from the ISA. It's very tempting to put it straight into overpaying but I won't as we have a holiday coming up and that can be some spending money. We're staying in a hotel so no possibility of eating cheaply.

We are about £250 in credit with the gas and electric. We get 3% interest on the credit so I'm not too fussed about having too much in there but it seems silly to be paying £83 a month when we don't need to. Their suggested payment is £66 so I'll drop it down to that. I think £60 would be more on the mark but it won't let you go any lower. It was £35 a month at the old house!! Far less space to heat though.

Very quiet on the survey front at the moment. I don't feel like I've had any since I cashed my £15 in!

Right, must get on with the housework. Ironing is done and the bedroom we are renovating has been hoovered and cleaned to make it look more presentable. Next stop, more hoovering and then some tidying. I definitely will not be venturing outside today. We have had horizontal snow and then hail so far!

debtfreeoneday

Colouring in another brick on your house? Explain please?

Well done on your payments so far!!

amycool

debtfreeoneday wrote: »

Colouring in another brick on your house? Explain please?

Well done on your payments so far!!

I got the idea from on here. You draw your house and divide it up into bricks. My bricks are worth £1000 each. As your mortgage reduces more of the house gets coloured in and it's nice to see how much you own in concrete terms. I think some people have a spreadsheet house but mine is old-school sugar paper. :-)

amycool

In gas and electric news, this week has been remarkably cheap considering the cold weather. After consistently using 25-30 units of electric each week, now we don't need the dehumidifier it has gone down to 12! The gas is usually around 30 and we only used 15, which doesn't really make sense and makes me wonder whether I got the number wrong the week before.

Anyway, I've now managed to reduce our monthly bill to £57 and we'll see how we go.

I had a knitting related calamity yesterday when my bamboo circular needles snapped halfway through a row. I think I've managed to save the stitches from falling off but I now have no idea where I'm up to in a relatively complicated pattern. Should probably have invested in better quality needles to begin with. Oh well. I just hope I can save it as it's taken me 18 months (not constantly!) so far.

I'm feeling a bit anxious and pessimistic today, which tells me that I am in much need of a holiday, which thankfully we have coming up.

amycool

I'm back from our holiday to Guernsey and have just updated my spreadsheet for the first time in a few weeks. :eek:

In total, we spent over £900 on the holiday, which is quite a lot for 5 days considering most of the museums were shut. Food is quite pricey over there so that made up most of it. It was really nice though to get away from everything and have a bit of luxury. Unfortunately we had to come home!

A huge expense at the moment is OH's work lunches (having to do meetings at cafes and restaurants). This month has been particularly bad. We've talked about it and we can't see a way around it really. People often aren't willing to meet at his office and you can't really sit there in a restaurant with your cheese butties. Over £100 this month. Add that to the £300 train fares, £20 petrol, and up to £10 a month on coffee and milk, and that's 20% of his wage gone.

We had a chat whilst we were away about my OH going for more responsibility at work for more pay. After tax, student loans, pension, and probably more time spent travelling and eating out, we would only be a tiny bit better off and it isn't worth it for the extra stress. It'll be nice once the student loan is paid off but I think we have a few more years.

The garage demolition has been put back by a week, which is annoying. I was hoping to get it done whilst I was off and then get going with the quotes for sheds and gates. We've paid £120 deposit so another £480 to pay this month.

In other bank account hemorrhage news, I need to get quotes for the shelving and boxing in the pipes. I also need to book my driving lessons.

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with everything at the moment, what with the adoption application going full steam ahead and really not enjoying work at the moment. I know I just need to keep writing lists and working my way through them, but it seems like I tick one thing off and add another five.

The house is also a total mess. I've done the holiday washing but it all needs drying and ironing. The lounge and dining room are covered in bits and bobs that need putting away and the bathroom needs a good clean. I haven't even started sorting the cupboards in the bedroom.

I shouldn't panic really. I'm not back in work until Friday so I just need to allocate a few tasks to each day. And not get tempted to sit catching up on TV all day.

Some nice warm weather would help. Doesn't look promising!

Hmmm...think I need to think of some positives.

1. I'm not in debt
2. I have a nice house that is 65% paid for
3. I'm fairly healthy
4. I've just had a nice holiday
5. This time next year I might be a Mummy (fingers crossed)

That's better.