Getting a Grip and Saving towards the mortgage

EatingTheElephant

I’m sorry but I did have a little smile at the image you described of yourself this weekend.

Sending you big hugs and some strength to get through the coming weeks x

shangaijimmy

Let me know a time and i'll follow you and pocket those crisp notes...

try_harder

I was so pleased to hear the humour in this post BusyMee1 , it brought a smile to my face .I especially liked the part about Mr Mee getting on your nerves by wanting to look at new cars in times of turmoil and busyness ,my husband often does things like that its infuriating .
It has been the same in our house the last two weeks money going out right , left and centre i am afraid i have given up on my usual very carefully kept outgoings book and thrown all caution to the wind as i just cant keep up with it all ,im not going to look now until the last day of the month and work from there i will still be happy with whatever is left but like you i will definitely be budgeting even more for Christmas next year.

shangaijimmy

Whatever tactic we try, we always seem to come unstuck! This year i've put all Christmas money into a separate current account...week 1 Mrs SJ forgot the pin number! Whatever we all do though, by being MFW's any wayward spends wont be anywhere near as bad as those folk that fly by the seat of their pants. I think last year we over did it by about £150 so not too bad at all.

Busy_Mee1

So Christmas has finally arrived at Mee Towers .... I put the tree and decorations up but then promptly decided I didn't like the tree decorations and sat and ordered some new ones. To be fair we changed the decor in the room with the tree this year and it just didn't go. We haven't had any new decorations in about 8 years, so it was time. I have kept a number that are the right colour or have sentimental value and it looks great now.

The fireplace is now in and I love, love love it:) Mr Mee is just just going to paint the wall around it this weekend as it got marked during the installation. It feels like it has been money well spent.

Things have felt slightly less manic this week, or maybe I just feel a bit more in control.
Elderly Step-Parent was discharged from hospital, although the hospital didn't bother telling us. My DC arrived to visit their Grandad and found him all packed up and ready to go home, to a cold empty house with no food in it :mad: Luckily we were able to sort out some shopping quickly for him. He is now back at home, a lot more comfortable with his own telly ( he could not watch in hospital because he is deaf and couldn't hear it. He has carer's going in four times a day and I am having a weekend off visiting this weekend- the journey has been killing me.

In MSE news I have got back on top of the spending ( well I have added it up !) Things aren't as bad as I thought and I have a chunk of expenses to claim back from work. I also bought Peter Kay tickets and the tour has been cancelled, so I am expecting a refund there.

I agree with Jimmy,that although every Christmas it feels like we go a bit mad on the spending, actually it is not as bad as other people I know and we can actually afford it because we are careful the rest of the year. It makes me cringe to hear people funding a lavish Christmas on their credit card.

And finally I managed to make a gorgeous minestrone soup mid week to use up all the veggies in the fridge. It went down a storm, so I will be doing that again. I feel like I am getting a bit of balance back in my life, but I do need to get back to exercising again. It is the first thing to go when life gets too busy.

I am doing the big Christmas shop tomorrow and then will just need a few bits and pieces next weekend. I already have the turkey (from @ldi). We have done all the expensive, organic, bronze free range etc etc Turkeys and last year I just bought a frozen crown from @ldi for £8.99 and cooked it using the Phil Vickery method (basically sat on a tray of stock,wine and veg and enclosed in a foil parcel. It was gorgeous and everyone said it was the nicest turkey they had ever had ! To be honest I think Christmas dinner is one of the easiest meals to cook. My lot don't want anything fancy and you are not allowed to deviate from tradition, so no fancy stuffing required. As long as there are lots ( and I mean lots) of pigs in blankets they are happy:rotfl:

michelle09

Oo... just the right time of year to have a fireplace!

At least the step parent is out before Christmas, and hopefully there's been no issues since?

try_harder

So pleased to hear that things have settled down slightly for you ,i dont know when you finish work but guessing it may be friday .How long do you get off work ? Hopefully it will be a nice few days at least.
So sorry to hear about the problem you had at the hospital ,that really isnt good enough .How on earth do situations like that happen thank goodness your son had gone in at that time ,so glad that hes home now again there is nothing like being in your own home .
Good news that you love your new fireplace even though it wasnt the one you had chosen how lucky was that i definitely thought you were going to have it all taken out again how funny .

themadvix

So pleased to hear elderly step-parent is out of hospital and that you have a fireplace in time for Christmas BusyMee!

We love a good homemade minestrone here - it's a very filling soup and great, as you say, for using bits up!

Busy_Mee1

Happy Christmas, I hope everyone is having a good one. It is all quiet at Mee Towers as no one else is up. I have both DC here at the moment...the 27 year old DS asked if he could come home to sleep Christmas Eve and Boxing Day (he only lives 5 minutes away !). I was obviously delighted, my world under one roof makes me very happy

We had a lovely day yesterday- lots of laughs. Mr Mee got an "Alexa" for Christmas and I think was looking forward to having an obedient woman for once in his life. Unfortunately she isn't that obedient either :rotfl: I think she will take some training. We also had the usual competitive board games - Game of Thrones monopoly this year and Mr Mee wiped the floor with the rest of us.

Mr Mee bought me a new IPad, which was a real surprise and gratefully received. I use mine all the time and is had got sooo slow. I am not sure how he has paid for it though, as nothing has appeared on any of the bank statements or credit card bills ....he normally moans that he can't get anything financially past me. :cool:

Our unlucky streak is still with us, we had a burst pipe on Christmas Eve .....water pumping out everywhere and the prospect of Christmas with no water and heating. Thankfully the insurance company were brilliant (M@rethan) and sent an emergency plumber within an hour who fixed it. It is as times like these that paying insurance seems worth while, although we did have £200 excess to pay. I am now hoping that we will get to the end of 2017 without any more mishaps and that our luck changes in 2018.

Actually although we have had a run of rubbish stuff over the last 6 months, I still feel very fortunate. I have a lovely family, we are all healthy ( well the younger generation are) and thanks to this forum we are more financially secure than we would have been.

We have a day visiting today and a meal out with the in-laws but in the meantime I intend a morning sitting about in my PJs. I might do a bank account patrol and some spreadsheet fiddling so that I can do the final month end and year end updates. I might also start working on the 2018 targets

Busy_Mee1

So the final bank account patrols have been done and there will be no more financial movement in December:

Saved in December £682.38
Total savings. £60,016.00 :T
Mortgage. £ 242,181.35
Savings offset mortgage to. £181,165.35
Savings:Mortgage. 25%
Average monthly savings £1500.12

Very happy with this, the £60k target has been achieved and we have averaged £1500 savings a month over the year