A Ditherer's Diary (again)

Naomim

I declared March's tilly tidying at £32.19 so that's been shuffled over to a credit card overpayment.

MrM and I have also bought ourselves a new bed and mattress. We've had ours for 20 years. It was a tempur mattress so we've gone for the same again. They are expensive but someone once said to me, never scrimp on beds or shoes as if you're not in one, you're in the other.

Although we have spent a fair bit of our bonuses, everything is paid for and we still have a healthy emergency fund.

We both had today off work and took doggo to West Wittering beach. We all had a lovely time as the sun shone, we switched off and relaxed. Just what we needed.

I hope everyone is looking forward to Easter and hopefully getting a break.

Naomim

Hi All,

Well it seems our bonuses have been the hardest working ever.

MrM and I went to the Ideal Home Show last weekend and have bought a small arbor seating area for the garden. It will go in front of the broken fence to stop doggo trying to get to next door's dog and will be a place I can sit and look at my water feature and read my book.

Finally we are looking at a new front door as ours is shocking. It swells in wet weather and sometimes it's even hard to open from the inside!

We still have our emergency fund in tact.

In other news. Our main bank is now doing pots! This is good news as I'd run out of pots in Monzo 😂 I've converted three of my Monzo pots to instant access savings as they give 2.75% interest which is better than we had with Natwest. The new pots will be for glasses & garden so hopefully won't need the bonus for these purchases in future.

Everything else is bobbing along. Credit cards still coming down nicely. I have a 0% interest running out soon but all my current cards are not offering very long deals so I'll probably have to start look for another.

I hope everyone is doing well and staying frugal.

Naomim

Naomim

It's been too long….. ooops!

I was just doing my money shuffle as one of my 0% interest cards runs out on 31st July. I've applied for a Santander card 0% interest for 34 months. My current credit card balance is £12,196.00. I started with £33,220 + £5k overdraft that was fully utilised every month. That's a total payment of £26k over 8 years. I know people have done it quicker but as I always say, it's a marathon not a sprint for me. Unfortunately I haven't really been doing my tilly tidying and not managed to make any mortgage overpayments but I am managing £50 into my savings monthly plus added a garden pot to my savings although I spent that yesterday on a cherry laurel to block the bloomin' neighbours knackered fence.

My car has been making a clunking noise, it's been in the garage twice. I've spent jut shy of £800 and although it's better than it was, it's still not fixed. Not sure what to do now as I have no more funds in my pot.

We've been on holiday, we went early in mid-June and it was lovely.

Our garden project has been coming along, luckily where we are in the SE, we are not under a hosepipe ban so the garden is looking rather lovely. I am going to try and propgate my hydrangea as they are my favourite flowers and I'd like some more. I rescued an almost dead small wisteria from Home Bargains, I've put it in a nice big pot outside the porch and my brother has put some wires up for me to train it. It's started to grow and already looking quite happy. I've also fallen down a TikTok & Reddit rabbit hole on gardening tips.

It was also my sons 21st birthday. We bought him a couple of lovely chef knives and a leather roll to keep them in and safe and gifted him £4.5k which was from the £20 a month I stuck into savings for him every month. He's asked me to look after his money so he doesn't spend it on c**p!

Just need to get back on track with the tillies and small mortgage and cc overpayments.

I hope everyone is managing to stay cool and frugal!

Naomim

EssexHebridean

I feel your pain on the car issues - we're in a similar position and I'm scrabbling round for funds without hitting the EF too hard at this stage. Ultimately ours is also going to need replacing, so that's going to be another chunk of money!

Naomim

@EssexHebridean my car is 14 years old. I think we will need a new one within the next couple of years.

I think doggo has a UTI. Going to try and get her to the vets tomorrow morning. I was saving for her next insurance renewal but that will probably be used for this visit.

Just feels like I'm paying out left, right and centre at the moment and also trying to protect the EF.