New Year, New start.....

liltdiddylilt

Hello!

Sorry I disappeared, the end of the week melts into 3 solid working days, travel, spending time with Jellytot where I can before bed and then I have been going to bed early as she has a stinking cold!!

Cannot imagine twins, although again I was lucky as it comes in line from both sides of my family. Phew! If I had them, there would be no way I could afford nursery. Jelly has 15 hours free as a 2 year old as my earnings for 3 days a week are not huge. What makes me both grateful and angry is that I am stuck doing 3 days whilst she is at nursery in order to keep the house running. Tax credits & co make up more than I would earn if I went back full time.

You have my sympathy on teeth. Jelly was 14 months and 1 day old when she got her first tooth. She is still missing about 8, when (at nearly 3 years old) she should have a full set by now! We regularly get the teething cheeks, temperature, sore bottom & she goes off her food! She was always in 25th percentile from birth but has graduated to 50th in weight although still 25th for height. Midget child. She takes after her nan who is 4ft 11

Hope you get a peaceful night!! xx

HarrysMummy

Another night sleeping on dudes bedroom floor! To be fair its starting to get quite comfy.
Very MSE this morning, unfortunately it was for mum and not me rang sky for her and her tv package and phone line and signed up with another company for phone as she doesn't need the tv. Saving of a massive £840 a year. Why she had such a ridiculous package in the first place is beyond me and I only found out. As I saw a bill she left out.


I cant save that for myself as I dint have sky but have also switched my phone line and will save £130 in the next 18 months as its a free broadband deal


yay for me. My savings will pay a chunk of the card, mums saving would nearly clear the MNBA by the end if the

HarrysMummy

*stupid phone posted before I finished!*
year. Also got a fee bids on eb*y listings and also did some quotes through TCB and have signed up to a free trial for more cash back, I'll cancel before I need to pay and have marked it in the diary to make sure I do cancel!
so all in all about £20 cash back so far

liltdiddylilt

Well done on all the cashback and savings!! Shame it is your mums saving rather than yours for the most park but at least she will have a lot more money each month... yikes on £840... I don't have Sky either but relented and switched from the worlds cheapest broadband to BeeTee and got youview and sports. I'm still working through the credit from their many muck ups 7 months later

Good job on the free cashback! I need to go and have a look today but have my super organised head on so best I get some other stuff done first!

Hope little man gets better soon... xx

HarrysMummy

Well I posted a lovely long post yesterday before I headed off to bed..... and it failed to post!!!

So, after sorting Sky for mum and switching about with our phone provider on Saturday, I don't really have much MSE things to report.

We went for a nice little family day out yesterday to the local Horse Welfare place which is free entry. Little dude loved all the horses and even managed to pet a couple! We then stopped by the cafe on the way out and had a sneeky cake and cuppa (£6) so not too much of an expense, plus hubby paid so....

Then home for a nice home cooked Sunday lunch, lots of chicken left over that made my lunch today plus probably some dinner tonight!

Also made bread in the breadmaker, and it was the best loaf so far. I may try just doing the dough in there and baking it off myself when I have a bit more time. But it's getting better with each attempt so I'm happy.

Money things, not doing too bad, I've got a little list in the back of my diary of whats been earned so far to keep track then I can pay it off when it actually lands in the accounts. Realised today that when I've made little overpayments to MBNA card it seems to be reducing the minimum payment, so takes less, even though it says it won't affect the DD payment. Will have to remember to wait till they've taken their payment then add the extras on.

So far this year:
Eb*y £3.56
Cash4Clothes £8.50
MusicMagpie £14.71
Phone £20
Tbc £20.26:T

Total = £67.03, not a bad start for January, so far the eb*y, cash4clothes and phone have been paid as extra payments, TCB is pending at the moment and Magpie is due to land in the bank in the next week or so.

I've also got a stack more items to list on eb*y so hopefully they will make a bit extra.

Rounded down my account today so just paid £5.32 to the MBNA (which is how I found the minimum has reduced from earlier payment)

Enough rambling for now, off to read a few diaries

October_Starter

Well Done!

Keep going and little by little you will get there

October xx

HarrysMummy

Well nothing much to update today... one of the items that I sold on eb*y hasn't been paid for and they now sa they don't want it as it's the wrong model! It's a play mat for goodness sake, it clearly states which playmat and has a picture. Just waiting to her back from the last message I sent.

Other than that I have sorted the mortgage details out so I can now easily make overpayments when I have a bit of spare cash, theres no limits so can make bits here and there. I've also been playing around with the mortgage calculator thing and once these cc are gone, if I pay the minimum payments Ive been paying for the cards to the mortgage (just short of £100, so will round up to £100) then I can reduce my mortgage by 8 years and save £18,300 in interest!!!

Now that is something to seriously get my backside moving at clearing the cc, as thats a massive amount to save. I can't remember exactly but I think our mortgage was over 35 years, (we got a mortgage just after I turned 21) so would be 56 by the time we pay it off, but to potentially be mortgage free when we are 48 is quite a happy thought. Even better if we can through some extra money at it once I'm back at work properly and little dude is at school so no nursery etc......

Off to ponder where I can scrape extra money from

liltdiddylilt

Hello HarrysMummy!

Well done on all the overpayments piling up. I too have an MBNA card, and it states at the bottom of my statement that once the statement has been printed (or produced online) the amount it states on the DD (minimum payment) will definitely be taken even if you make a payment. So the perfect time to do it is when you receive the email about the statement. Because then they will take the DD payment anyway. HTH!!

I am amazed at the mortgage figures! Then again when I got my mortgage, it stated that we would borrow £74,995, and pay back £147,850 over a 25 year term. Shocking!

I never thought I would bake bread from scratch without a bread maker but it was other people on the forums giving me the courage to give it a go. Greying Pilgrim makes these amazing things called piadinas, which are halfway between a pitta bread and a naan bread. You can flavour them with anything you want really. I have made them, flavoured with rosemary and they were beautiful. I am getting more confident by the day following recipes from people like Greying, Maddiemay, Supersaver1000 & co - at the end of the day it has to be something that fits in with your life. Juggling a baby, housework & a job is a nightmare to cook around, let alone the rest!

You're doing fab!

HarrysMummy

Thanks lilt, I'll take a look at those diaries when I'm on the pc. And thanks for the heads up on the MBNA card, the last little payment was after the statement so hopefully that will actually be I overpaid! I'll chick the extra but that had been budgeted for the minimum payment over at some point too.


oh and I have decided to set a £10 payment for the mortgage as an overpayment. Its not a huge amount but in the long run will make a difference and we will increase it when the cc are paid off. I've checked properly and we have 28 years and 1 month left to pay on the mortgage. My aim after the card is to be mortgage free by the time I am 40! I'm 28 (29 this year) so that will be quite an achievement but its a goal to aim for.

liltdiddylilt

SO many of us on here are 28!! CreamTea, Sholly, OctoberStarter... All at around the same point in life.. I'm 29 in April... 30 next year

Except the house I own, I don't live in or go near. And the mortgage is in my name but none of my business these days. These weird lives we lead Your OP will mount up. There is a calculator somewhere to show you what £10 a month makes... I think someone said they would save £18k in interest!!

I am so impressed with your song choices for little un as he was bumping along. Nothing wrong with a bit of Rammstein, although if you did A Level german like I did, some of it is a little creepy when translated!! 'Sonne'... Ahhhh the memories.

I really need to sleep!! xx