Preparing for the biggest move of our life

firesidemaid

Hi Bellvie.


We adopted our rescue pup just over a week ago - Mr L.


Think we'd forgotten what it was like to have a pup lol. He's lovely, if not hard work - but intelligent and learning fast. Hope to start a 6 week puppy socialization course next week

MuffinTops

When you go for car insurance, remember the cashback sites too as you can save quite a bit more there too. I earn most of my cashback from insurances and utilities. Sometimes up to £60 cashback on the lowest insurance quote.

Good luck with your 3-4 year plan. I know you'll get there (with bells on) and hopefully we'll be able to cheer you on along the way.

MTx

bellevie

firesidemaid wrote: »

Hi Bellvie.

We adopted our rescue pup just over a week ago - Mr L.

Think we'd forgotten what it was like to have a pup lol. He's lovely, if not hard work - but intelligent and learning fast. Hope to start a 6 week puppy socialization course next week

Ah Firesidemaid Congratulations on your new arrival. I had forgotten how much hard work it is, but so totally worth it!

I need to get Mr T in some classes but the local ones are evenings which we cant do. My first dog I took him to classes on a Saturday morning which worked brilliantly. Fingers crossed I'll find something soon.

Enjoy Mr L

bellevie

Thanks MT, I definitely will go for cashback this year. I ended up staying put last year despite an increase because of the high excess payments others requested. This year its fine as I know I will have savings and in the short-term I have a credit card I could use for excess!

bellevie

1 more sleep til payday!!!

Not sure why I'm so excited, my rent comes out same day leaving not very much! I think I'm just looking forward to having my safety net back, and hopefully transferring a few pennies to start this years savings.

I spent £3.50 in lidl on my lunch break, a few tinned soups, tinned mackerel and snacks to keep at my desk for lunches. I've lived off toast at work this week and its been a little boring!

Tomorrow when I get paid I will pick up some fruits. I also need to get a new duvet. I picked up the wrong one for me like 2 years ago, it hasn't got a cotton outer but synthetic and it gives me constant electric shocks week in week out when changing the covers. This weekend I lost it and threw it in the bin out of temper. I never knew different duvets existed until I unpacked it by the time the shocks started I could hardly return it.

Still waiting for Mr T's food to be delivered to the local store, I hope its in by Saturday. I gave Mr T his worming tablets just mixed in with his food and to my surprise he ate them! I last time it was such a struggle. I think he must have been so hungry he didn't take time to smell for anything unusual!

Work was busy but good, I really enjoy working full time now. I am always shattered by Friday - exactly as I was before DD arrived - nothing changes with me

bellevie

Car insurance sorted!!! I'll pay £19 per month less than I do currently!

I looked at cash back & standard comparison sites, and noticed they were adding at least double the cash back amount onto the final amount when compared to my individual or comparison quotes.

Training day today, whilst the man was good, and training in most roles would have made sense it didn't really make sense for our roles. 90% of our workload is reactive, so its very hard to plan our time when for the most part you don't know whats going to come in and when.
I could however use some of the tips in my home life, so all is not lost!

Savings started, not a huge amount but I'm hoping to add a little each week. I often find myself putting some in and taking it back out and putting it back etc. So I thought this time I would add a little each week. It stretches the fun out of seeing my savings grow and hopefully lessons the risk of me dipping into them!

Im not feeling 100% so am relieved its Friday tomorrow, looking forward to a slower pace weekend!

bellevie

Busy start to the day and a spendy one too, collected Mr T's food from P @ H - it sounds silly but I had no clue just how big the 15kg bag was!! Quite a big difference in cost per KG than the smaller 3kg bag though, so its all good!

I popped into poundland £7, then the range £7 then finally the weekly shop in Aldi. Aldi had a set of enid blyton books for £5.99, dd is getting into them at the moment so I gladly added those to our trolley.

I had also run out of foundation, I though Aldi had a range as I vaguely remember picking up a concealer some years ago which I really liked, but nothing. There is a Lloyds next door to it though which was handy.

I felt really tired by lunch time but I did manage to sleep for a couple of hours on the sofa whilst DD watch a film.

Mr T had a new extendable lead for weekends, we took him out for a good walk this morning, he loved that extra bit of freedom! Tomorrow we will go into the beautiful forest across the road again, he really loves it there.

Quite a bit of housework to fit in tomorrow, so need to wake up with a lot of energy to get through it.

MuffinTops

Happy housework day bellevie. I'm planning that today too. A massive downstairs blitz. Although, as you can see, my priorities aren't great as I'm on here having an undeserved break.

Enid Blyton and a few other children book authors are definitely not luxuries, are they? So glad they're a great price and to hear you bought them. An investment in childhood imagination.

MTxx

bellevie

You're not the only one distracted MT!!

I managed to get one load of washing in, make breakfast, set out a load of clothes to dry around the house then we went out for am hour in the forest.

I got some more done in the kitchen whilst I sorted lunch, and pulled the hoover out so that I can hoover as soon as soon as lunch is finished, but I just don't want to get back up

Good progress today, I've taught DD how to feed Mr T, shown her where to fill the cup up to, and this morning she done it all herself whilst I watched from afar. I've decided as he is on 2 meals a day now that can be her task at weekends. I do it every day in the week, she does it weekends. DD would like to earn pocket money, so I am thinking up of useful tasks that will lighten the load for me!

I've marked it in her calendar when to take her bed covers off, and showed her at last wash how to do it. I think she may struggle with the quilt but if she can get the fitted sheet & pillow cases off that's a start!

DD quite likes to help out when I hoover, but its quite a struggle upstairs, so I might ask her to do the living room where its just laminate, and the I will do the carpets.

I think I will let her make a chores checklist and decorate it, we can then stick it up and she can tick her progress each week!

Right back to it, before I change my mind!

bellevie

Mr T's insurance sorted, I can not believe he has only been with us such a short time, it feels like he has always been here! I was looking at him today thinking, we are so so lucky he chose us as his family. Our home really feels like a home with him, despite the constant dog toys & washing dragged out to be made into beds

I ended up booking a park for our holiday in Dorset, I used a discount code with AA, which reduced it by an additional £50, still more than I had hoped to pay, but I think my head is stuck in 2011 prices! Still, I opted small deposit then I will log in and make payments weekly / monthly. I have until of June to pay it, but my spreadsheet tells me it should be paid off by May. That would mean I have June July & August pay days to save for spending money.

This will be separate to my normal savings, I need to carry on getting those going. I'm going to switch to the help to buy ISA in April, set up a minimum standing order that I know I wont miss, transfer the rest into a normal savings and if its still there at the end of the month I'll add it to the ISA.

In the short term I also need to build up a pot for car works / emergency rental move (I hope not to have to move at all until Im ready to buy but you never know!). Touch wood car is running fine but I remember the shock of the bills last September!

So my thinking is:
Regular Savings :Car / major spends / emergency rental move.
Help to buy ISA - house purchasing deposit ONLY
Esave - interim pot - ie money pending ISA subject to not being needed in other pots.
Esave 2 - childcare for hols - I currently transfer £15 a week into this so that Easter & Summer holidays are not such a shock! This is working well so I will stick to this for now.

I need to play around with the figures before I commit to fixed amounts.

February will be a cheap month for childcare thanks to the short month, plus half term which I have off work.

I have a week off at Easter which is unusual as one week fell in this calendar year for annual leave, meaning I'll only pay 1 week childcare for easter, leaving myself extra AL to take this summer!

As I've been on and off typing for the past hour or so in between dd's bath etc Mr T has learnt how much fun fetch is!!! Im so happy, he doesnt always give us his ball right away, but when he does he tilts his head back and throws the ball into my hand! What a clever pup I have