Second Time Lucky

amycool

Thanks Giblet!

This week's meter readings are:
Gas - 1
Electric - 27
Water - 1

It will all change once we get the new boiler. The new energy tariff has quite expensive electric as it's 100% green so very much hoping to bring the electric down.

amycool

Leak news

The roofer has removed the old vent and replaced the felt and tiles. He's also cleaned the gutters. With a lot of luck, this will solve the problem.

However, he did say that the gutters, soffits and fascias are in need of replacement. He didn't offer to do it because he said I could get it done more cheaply by a specialist company. He thinks if the problem persists, then that's the next step.

£160 for the work and advice, which I'm happy with.

Next job is to dry out the ceiling and wall and see if the next heavy rainfall re-wets it all.

Looks like new guttering, soffits and fascias will cost somewhere around £2000 so definitely won't be doing the bathroom before Christmas!

giblet1979

The joy of houses!

Gutter fund it is then? x

amycool

Yep! Bathroom fund is now gutter fund. Doesn't sound quite so exciting.

Okay, so the plan was not to overpay for a month or two until we had an idea of the finances, and then I was supposed to wait until the 1st of the month.

However, when I saw that my £10.39 had come off the balance, I just had to make another payment. To round my bank account down to the nearest thousand I have paid another £276.30!

So hopefully on the 1st when the first proper payment comes out, it won't all be eaten by interest.

So, at the moment, we have an Emergency pot and that will not be touched unless something catastrophic happens.
That leaves the house fund with £9500
The boiler will be £2718, which leaves £6782
The guttering will probably be around £2000 so that leaves about £4700

If we can get all of the furniture we wanted plus fix the garage for £700, that still leaves £4000 in the bathroom fund. Hooray! :T

What needs to be done over the next year

1. Buy bedside cabinets, possibly at the antiques village
2. Get new boiler fitted
3. Buy a TV cabinet - still undecided on style
4. Go on holiday (£300 allocated for petrol, food and attractions)
5. Get quotes for guttering - Haggle!
6. Get guttering done
7. Buy a single bed
8. Fix garage
9. Host Christmas (buy a real tree!!)
10. Redecorate living room
11. Buy tiles and suite for bathroom
12. Get quotes for bathroom
13. Get bathroom done
14. Relax

There may of course be quite a gap between getting quotes and doing the bathroom as we might not have enough money. I guess we could dip into the emergency pot as long as we refill it quickly.


Okay, I'm feeling slightly more positive now. The big issue I haven't factored in though is the car fund. I would like to learn to drive, plus our car is getting on a bit and at some point it will need replacing. Hmmm. Needs more thought!

amycool

Fixing the roof didn't fix the leak.

So we definitely need to look into the gutter replacement soon although it won't be in the next few weeks as we're too busy. In the meantime I have the dehumidifer running constantly, which is keeping the wall dry but costing lots of pennies.

Start of a new spreadsheet today!! The thing I always struggle with is that we have 3 different banks, a credit card, an ISA and a normal account. So whenever I want to see how much we actually have it's a bit of a faff checking all three. I use the credit card as a debit card so as soon as an item appears, I add it to the spreadsheet and pretend that the money isn't there to spend. I tried just adding everything once the statement comes, but I prefer knowing exactly what we've bought straight away. The credit card actually gives so little cashback that we may as well get rid of it and make life easier. They're good for consumer protection though so maybe worth keeping for that.

Was disappointed to see that the mortgage payment hasn't actually come off the amount yet. Maybe it takes a day. I reckon we owe about £90 in interest so the balance should be around £69500, but we shall see!

Not very MSE on the electric front today. As well as having the dehumidifier on I did a mile on the treadmill. I know I shouldn't be treadmilling when the weather is okay but I was too lazy to sort out keys and mobile phone and whatnot. I had to stop running last year after a bad illness so I'm trying to start again. And on top of that the washing machine is on. It takes so much longer than our old one but it is ancient.

It'll be interesting to see what our first month in the new place costs.

amycool

Almost forgot to mention - I ordered a TV unit for £60 with free delivery. Much cheaper than the other ones I was looking at and probably awful quality (solid wood) but all it has to do is hold a TV up so what can go wrong?

amycool

I have just got myself a mega-bargain!

8 8ft scaffolding boards, delivered an hour after ordering, for £32. :money:

So now we just need to cut them in half, get some (or make) batons to nail the planks to, and buy some long nails. Then we can start chucking all of our greens and garden waste in ready for a layer of compost in spring!

I was just going to do one raised bed but now we have enough for two.

Been looking for good deals on fruit bushes. Initially I was going to take cuttings from wild ones and propagate them, but they're likely to be spiky and not necessarily very good value for the space in terms of amount of fruit. So it's probably best to invest in some good healthy plants. I can also get more variety that way.

Front Garden plans

1. Make raised beds and put on lawn
2. Weed the borders
3. Take out unwanted plants and move any in the wrong place
4. Late winter - prune roses
5. Buy/beg seed
6. Start seed in propagators
7. Add layer of compost to raised beds

I have a few books that I got from the library (withdrawn) about when to plant things in the veg garden so that will help. It seems wise to wait until Spring to buy and plant fruit as we may have a cold winter and things die before they get established. In the meantime I can be digging the soil and adding some compost.

hanging_on_in_there...

Well done on the scaffolding price! What veg are you planning on growing?

amycool

hanging_on_in_there... wrote: »

Well done on the scaffolding price! What veg are you planning on growing?

I'm such a wuss for phoning strangers that I was tempted to buy online at twice the price, so quite pleased with myself!

We're hoping to grow a little of lots of things in the first year. New potatoes, broccoli, onions, squash, courgettes, etc in the raised beds and then fruit in the borders. The plan is to get some free stuff from the in-laws' allotment and grow the rest from seed.

Mortgage payment has come off! Will update my signature accordingly!

Got 6p interest rebate!

amycool

Just by making that one mortgage overpayment I have saved £128 in interest!

I was trying to work out how much interest I have been charged this time but it looks like they added on the interest cost into the first payment (I think because it was in the middle of the month), so I'll have to see next month if my calculation was right.

The bargain TV unit arrived and it only took 2 days to make...:o A hinge-related nightmare.

I've also won a bid on a local collection auction item! £10 for a wooden standard lamp and shade. The shade isn't really to my taste but we can change that.

Meter reading news
Gas - 1
Water - 1
Electric - 32 :eek:
The high electric is because I had to run the dehumidifier for the leak. It hasn't rained for a few days so I've just been keeping the window open, but it doesn't really work as the air is so humid.