22 Foxhole East

kerri_gt

Mulberry bushes are indeed a thing, I bought one for a friend when her son was born...oh dear, I hope none of the kids or dogs eat the leaves and start hallucinating... I should've prob stuck with an Amazon voucher instead....

I would love my car issue to be just dust but the fact the engine temp was also going up and it happened when I turned off the heating (didn't know it was the wrong thing to do, apparently the heater draws heat away from the engine so you should turn it up full pelt if the engine is getting too hot) would suggest otherwise. Garage chap now knows it's there and has agreed to look at it, obv didn't have time today which is fair enough as I dropped it on him without a word of warning.

f0xh0les

I have the image of a poor mechanic lying splatted under your car now, kerri.

Dh's air vent had flames coming out of it. I was terrified. We pulled over and it just stopped.

My car part is supposed to come tomorrow - it is in the system and currently in Birmingham.
My bank balance seems very low, I think I may have moved too much about the place too soon - I have £400 in the car budget account, which might just include the full service and mot cost and the insurance for next year if I am lucky.

I have £430 left for the month - I have not bought a single present for anyone.

Volunteering is done and over until Thursday. Will spend tomorrow catching up on house cleaning and enjoying my dh. It is all coming out of February's paycheque. All 8 strike days. February will be a lean month.

I am now behind schedule with my mortgage overpayment challenge. Boo! but still, each overpayment is less for them to charge interest on.

I am utterly unprepared for Xmas.

f0xh0les

My bags of reindeer poo are extremely realistic!

apple_muncher

If it's coming out of feb paycheque, doesn't that make March the lean month?

f0xh0les

There is 6 weeks between Dec and Jan pay cheques, with Xmas, and 2 car insurances to be paid for, then a hard February with DS3 birthday, half term and remortgage costs, and then an even harder March - you are right - combined with house insurance.

But April should be ok!
Now I feel sick.

kerri_gt

f0xh0les wrote: »

There is 6 weeks between Dec and Jan pay cheques, with Xmas, and 2 car insurances to be paid for, then a hard February with DS3 birthday, half term and remortgage costs, and then an even harder March - you are right - combined with house insurance.

But April should be ok!
Now I feel sick.

Ouch! That is a hard one, not that there's ever a good time for such things. I am sure you will be treating it as some challenge when the time comes and do marvellous things that leave the rest of us money mortals in awe.

Yikes to the flames coming out of the car! :eek: thankfully mine was 'just' some rancid smoke :eek: mechanic as far as I know is not squashed under my car....though since I haven't heard from him....:eek:

I have posted most of the Xmas cards, and delivered my first lot of gifts but still feel unprepared too, I think it's a general state of anxiety linked to 1st Dec onwards.

Fingers crossed for all things car part related.

f0xh0les

All the beds have been stripped and remade.
All the kids got to school on time. No thanks to them, they were 15 minutes late into the car. Made the journey in 10 minutes exactly. One more red light on the way, and they would have been in detention.

The car parts have come!

The mortgage is currently £94,579.45.
So the interest this month was £79.46
bizarrely only £2.65 a day.

Last month (November) it was the traditional £4.04 a day, but if you remember in October for no good reason it was £2.51 a day. I dunno.

How are you supposed to work this stuff out? It does not make any sense.

Anyhow, lunch is going to be mushrooms on toast (simple, but lush) and then a spot of recreational hoovering (3 floors speed hoovering) and then the house (up to the kitchen door anyway) will be clean and tidy.
Right, lunchtime, and a bit of money jiggling.

I can afford 2020, but I don't really want to have to delve into the savings to do so, but if necessary, I can. That is what they are there for (as well as a new roof and extension)

Remortgage bods will ring tomorrow to discuss what to do in February.....

apple_muncher

In March, can you simply just not put any money towards savings? So you aren't spending your hard-won savings, just not adding to them that month...

kerri_gt

I think they just randomly use a bingo machine f0xh0les our monthly mortgage papyment has gone down by a couple of £ a month for the past couple of months for no reason whatsoever. I've made some overpayments but they've always come off the balance, not to reduce the monthly fee.

Well in other news the car is off to the big scrapyard in the sky, it's done my well for 13yrs but the problem (which is to do with a temp controller behind the dash for the heater) is likely related to other more expensive issues, and whilst th mechanic said he could temp fix it to bypass the heater a) it is not the time of year to be driving sans heat b) it will only be a matter of time until a bigger problem occurs so all things considered, I need to say bye to it now. So brilliant (not) car shopping just before Xmas...just what I didn't have planned in. Hey ho, first world problems and all that.

f0xh0les

I bought my car in a January, and it has been brilliant, except the MOT being due late December. I think they do some quite good deals trying to get people in around/ after Xmas. At least you will have the time to look. I love my 10 yr old Nissan Micra, But then it is my first car, and it is a totally different drive to DH's 15 year old Renault 7 seater.

DS4 brought home his school newsletter, so all the dates are in the diary (as well as the 2 changed ones from the last news letter) and the Mayday bank holiday is Friday 8th rather than the first Monday. My wedding anniversary is May 1st, and next year is the 22nd Anniversary - which is copper. Any suggestions greatfully received! otherwise he is going to end up with a green circle somewhere on his body! Can't believe they are trying to sell copper jewellery.

The cough is well and truly gone, and no sign it was ever here. There were only 2 or 3 proper coughing sessions a day, and the rest of the time I was totally fine. I think I had a part time cough.

Smoothie for breakfast, mushrooms on toast for lunch, supper was 5 chick-free nuggets (ys), baby potatoes (free) carrots (free) Black Kale (ys) and sweetcorn. Snack was a bowl of (ys) black/straw/rasp- berries and 2 lush fresh figs. All I want right now is a h0bn0b. The kids helpfully ate all the biscuits for me over the weekend. All we have is dark chocolate lebkuchen hearts. It is simply not good enough as a biscuit.

So all in all I have got quite a lot done today.
DS4's head has shaved sides - saving me £10 at the barbers. The house is 75% tidy and hoovered, I have Mount Zanussi to scale tomorrow - got 4 loads done today but there is at least the same again to be done.

Tomorrow my list of things to be done is much smaller, so will try and steam through it all.

Wish me luck! I'm going in.....