Can definitely do better!

Moneyfordreams

It's great to catch up with your diary ( I commented in 2016 :eek: ) you seem so organised. I'll keep an eye out for more updates:)

new_mortgageeee

Ah thank you Mfd! I don’t feel very organised really!

Happy to report all NSDs this week :j I knew that I was wasting so much on lazy food purchases. Away with my OH from this afternoon until Sunday evening; mainly at his house painting and decorating (getting it ready to sell), so unlikely to be anything to buy until Sunday evening/Monday morning :j

Happy to see that all my standing orders and money moving happened over the last couple of days so savings pots are now slowly creeping up

Annoyingly have depveloped a very stiff upper back; no idea what I’ve done - but going to be resting it as much as possible this weekend (no painting of ceilings!).

Time to get up; fairly hefty to do list for this morning! NMx

new_mortgageeee

Lovely weekend away (I can’t believe it’s Thursday already!). We did bits and pieces of painting/sorting to OHs house and garden, and have a snagging list for the rooms that are finished. Also managed a lovely walk around my old stomping ground (used to live and work over there) in the sunshine on the Sunday.

Did my weekly shop on Sunday evening - a whopping £45 but included bulk of tissues and dishwasher tabs. Which added £12. Still a million times cheaper than a normal weekly shop, so I’m not going to be too cross with myself for going over my £40 budget with those items.

Had to top up with a leek and a bag of spinach on Wednesday, but that made a fish pie that will make 4 meals for me. Otherwise NSDs since Sunday :j I do have to pop into town today to post a birthday present so that’ll be a couple of pounds. Also need to buy three birthday cards and pick up my library card - looking forward to getting ebooks and audiobooks for free again.

No other spending planned until weekly shop on Sunday, though I do have to go into Wickes on Sat to get the quote for the bathroom works _pale_ hope it is reasonable!!

Better get up and ready for work. Hope everyone has a good day. NMx

new_mortgageeee

A busy week! Have agreed the Wickes bathroom: £3k fully fitted apart from the floor which I'll arrange separately (it's extending out into the hallway). Funnily, looking back through posts I was only intending to do the tiles in the bathroom!! :undecided and it has now morphed into a complete renovation, but its all so tired and cold an inefficient. So, I'm looking forward to having that done. That'll deplete my house renovations fund a bit (will pay most of it tomorrow or Sat), but there's not much left to do here otherwise. I plan to paint the kitchen cupboards when I find the time/energy. But I did a lot of filling/caulking/sanding and painting of walls and skirting boards last weekend so it's all looking quite nice! :j

In bigger financial news, I've been approved for and accepted an additional £30k borrowing against this house. This will be invested in a joint property with my OH together with my current 'new house fund' - hopefully totalling £40-45k depending on when we buy.

Feels like it's going the wrong way re MFW!! But I need to keep this place for work for a year or two at least (plus long term ambition is to run it as a holiday let), and having an extra £40-45k allows us to buy a much nicer house. It's all a bit complicated and involves legal agreements to have me financially involved whilst not being a stamp duty liability! But we'll get there :j

Another pot to OP on :eek: the additional borrowing is at 2.29% for 25 years - a very affordable £130 a month, so I'm looking to OP this down (a slightly higher rate than my main mortgage) as a priority; will see how I go, but aiming for the £3k 10% maximum OP in year one. And I'd only just sorted out my new spreadsheet for 2019!! :rotfl::rotfl: Time to do a new one......

new_mortgageeee

Oh, actually I can update on my monthly spending too! Two NSDs yesterday and today :beer:

Happy to report that my total non-bills spending stayed within my £500 budget. Total for groceries, care (haircut, medicine, yoga class etc), fuel, clothes, and gifts: £460 for Jan :j plus £30 of 'fritter'...:mad:! Hopefully there'll be None Of That in Feb

c.£70 on house things - paint etc., an electric sander (I got so sick of sanding skirting boards by hand!), some tile samples for the bathroom, and a new smoke alarm.

IF all my spreadsheets work out (I don't think I've missed anything) I should have £250 spare this month :j:j Annoyingly there's a huge lag because I put most day-to-day spending on a credit card with is paid in full each month and runs 12th-12th. And the direct debit is ages after - late Jan spending will be paid off at the beginning of March! :wall:)

new_mortgageeee

Lovely weekend with the OH. Used up some of the batch cooked chilli and a fish pie from the freezer. Did a week's shop and sorted the spreadsheets. Little OP of £29 in total - a cash out from Prolific and the interest from TSB and Nationwide accounts as they're paid monthly and don't earn further interest in that account - may as well whip it out!

Not much more to report at the start of the month. Hope everyone had pleasant weekends. Off to do some yoga!

new_mortgageeee

Bathroom booked and paid for :eek: so house renovations fund looking a bit depleted. Waiting for installer to arrange a date now - suspect it will be a month or two away, but exciting that it is definitely happening now.

Looking forward to credit card direct debit coming out tomorrow. Clearing the last of my 'pre-budget' spending - not huge but £800 rather than the (hopefully) now usual £500.

Had to get some cash out today to get change for parking as I'm off to a course with work tomorrow. Spent £2.50 on a big block of cheese (which I did need; forgot it at the weekend) to get the correct change! Otherwise nothing bought in addition to weekly shop so far. Cooked a couple of salmon fillets this evening with sweet chilli sauce - a bit of a classic. One is in the fridge for tomorrow's dinner.

I've recently signed back into Prolific after a break of about a year and haven't had any studies come up yet. Bit of a shame, but I suppose it takes a while for you to get back into their regular system.

Just in time to settle down for Silent Witness part 2!

NMx

new_mortgageeee

NSD today credit card cleared for Dec/Jan so officially on my new budget spending :j

No spends planned until weekly shop on Sunday. Not much news financially or otherwise - plodding along! I’m finding work pretty overwhelming at the moment; it makes me long for a time when I’m less reliant on my income. I very nearly earn enough through my private work (which is done in spare time) to cover my outgoings - so it is everso tempting to take the leap to full self-employment. But the perks (annual leave, pension, sick pay etc) are so generous at my current employer it is holding me back.

Has anyone here taken that leap? What was your tipping point? Did you save up a financial buffer?

Have to do some of that private work now actually - but reading diaries is a terrible distraction!

NMx

new_mortgageeee

OP of 71.00 this morning. Did some maths and decided I comfortably had that as spare within the month, and it rounded the second mortgage down to my 00.00

Feb OPs now £178.41.

new_mortgageeee

Did my week's shop a day early today as I'm off out for a walk with a friend tomorrow and back here for dinner, so needed to have something in the cupboards!

A couple of annoying or at least unplanned expenses yesterday - the door of my meter box blew open in the wind we've had and snapped in half! After much research it is clearly my responsibility, so I've ordered a replacement one - £45 was the cheapest I could find online (annoyingly it is a non-standard shape). OH has also asked if I can order allotment infrastructure supplies, which will need to be here for next weekend - so £65 on hunks of steel and wood! Should make for a nicer environment to grow veg though (it is a very, very steep allotment) so worth it in the long run.

Looking to book a short break in rural wales over Easter for the two of us as a reward for getting through a trying time with OH's house and both under a lot of stress at work. Enjoying perusing the little cottages in the middle of nowhere

NMx