Ruby's Bought a House, Now I want to Own It!

mathilde

Well done, a nice reward for all your efforts!

ruby_eskimo

Merlin's_Beard said:

Looks absolutely magnificent! Well done on the extra money in the US pot as well.

Thanks @Merlin's_Beard - still can't believe a) I was there and b) I took that photo.  And yes the money is going to make me feel a lot more comfortable when we're in the states as it's been a while since we've had to take a trip where there's no food included 😆

ruby_eskimo

VintageHistorian said:

That's a beautiful shot. Just needs a nice hot chocolate to really seal the deal XD

I agree, but we had to make do with some homemade cider that a farmer sold us from his shed 🤣

ruby_eskimo

mathilde said:

Well done, a nice reward for all your efforts!

Thank you, definitely a much needed break!

ruby_eskimo

Right first day of the month so here's a round up of where I got to on my August goals:

Mortgage | Goal: Make £5000 in OP's this year | Current: £3122.16:  £3512.43 so just under £1500 to go

LISA | Goal: Max out this year | Current: £1382: £1652 - still a way to go...

Car Fund | Goal: Hit £10,000 this year | Current: £8623.52: £8924.08 

Tech Fund | Goal: £1000 | Current: £111.07: £176.76 - need to try and do a few more surveys I think 

No Spend Days | Goal: 15 in August | Current: 1: I managed 13 in August (or 18 if you don't count each individual day on the cruise and instead the 2 days where the charges actually left my bank account!)  which I'm still really pleased with.  Going to aim for another 15 in September.  

Emergency Fund | Goal: £10,000 | Current: £7867.96: £8154.62 which I think is pretty good progress for not really focusing on this.

Overall very pleased with progress in the month, considering that my focus has been elsewhere, but will continue to push forward on these into September and beyond.

Yesterday we realised we had a wasp nest in our gutter / soffits at the back of the house so a lovely local guy has just been out to do the first treatment for £60 and is going to pop back Monday to see if it needs treating again.  Money for this has come out of the house pot and will be winging it's way over to him when the invoice comes through.  Tomorrow I have to be up early to take the car in for it's MOT and major service and the money for that is coming out of the car maintenance pot.  Really hoping that it doesn't exceed that amount in there but we'll see.  While the car is being worked on, I'm going to pop into town to drop a couple of dresses off that need to be taken in and shortened that I bought on Vinted (one I'm hoping to wear to a wedding in a couple of weeks time!).  No idea how much it's going to cost but needs to be done.

Hope everyone has a good weekend and I really can't believe that we're now in September 🤯

ruby_eskimo

Weekend was pretty quiet really.  Had the car MOT'd and serviced and needed to have 2 new tyres fitted.  Luckily the car pot had enough money in it to cover - think there's about 98p left in there now 😆  Dropped dresses off to be altered and paid cash because I had it there so that's something else I don't have to worry about.  Then went to my parents for the rest of the weekend.  You may remember my dad had some health issues earlier on in the year, well he's now got the all clear 🥳  Will be monitored for the next year but it's such a relief all round.  

Oh and the wasps are still causing havoc so the guy's coming back Wednesday to do a repeat treatment.

South_coast

So glad to hear your Dad is doing better ❤️

ruby_eskimo

It's been a busy few months over here in the igloo, and it certainly feels like an igloo right about now in this weather!  

Since I last posted there's been lots of travel (NYC, Arizona, California, NY State, Canada and Devon), lots of celebrations (MiL's wedding, best friend had a baby, our 8th Wedding Anniversary) and some sadness (DH's grandma passed away).  Work has also not been great but I have presented at a couple of conferences which is something I'd never thought I do.  

I've been feeling more than a little overwhelmed with frankly everything and things need to change.  However we all know, trying to go too hard means that nothing happens so we're going to take this slowly.  As we're pretty much sorted for Christmas with all the presents bought and wrapped and food budgeted for and slowly accumulating in the freezer, I thought what better time to think about what it is we want to achieve in the next 12 months or so and start a soft launch of the goals right now.  I also know I can achieve my goals better when I have some outside accountability so be prepared for almost daily updates (which will make sense in a minute):

Goal 1 - Stop Buying Stuff, Declutter and Track it All!
I am surrounded by stuff and it's one of the main reasons I feel overwhelmed.  I don't want to keep creating a whirlwind of chaos every time I leave the house because I need to search for things and then end up leaving things on the bed because it's too difficult to put them away and then I forget until I'm about to go to bed so they get dumped on the floor and then stay there for all eternity.  I'm not a minimalist, that's just not my personality type, but I want to reduce my belongings to a manageable level.  I also want to stop bringing stuff into the house, not only from a volume perspective but a monetary one too.  So from today, I'm literally going to track everything that enters and leaves the house (within reason), and how much money the spending equates to.  I said I like accountability, well I love a spreadsheet more.

Goal 2 - Reduce the Mortgage and maybe move house?
Other than the mental load of all the stuff, another driving force is the possibility that we may move house next year.  Both of our industries have moved to working from home for 80% of the week and while we've managed up to this point, we'd both love our own office space which is difficult in our current place.  DH wants a bigger garden so he can actually have a proper vegetable plot and I would like a slightly bigger kitchen.  Talks of more space seems at odds to the clutter in the previous goal - surely if we get rid of stuff then we'd have more space?  But we've optimised the space as much as we can within the constraints of the room layout and it's time for a change.  Plus the parking situation is starting to grate on me 😆

So with that talk of moving comes the goal of trying to put ourselves in the best financial position possible.  I had a goal to get the mortgage below £200k by January and I think we can do that with the extra money I'm now being paid (actually got a pay rise last month after 5 years in the same job band).  But I also want a pot of about £10k to go towards moving expenses etc. and get the mortgage as low as possible so we're in the best LTV position we can be.

Goal 3 - Project Me
Pretty much every year I've had a goal to lose weight or be healthy and it never really works.  I'm in a much better place than I was a few years ago, but I can see old crutches starting to creep back in.  Also it's more than just weight and appearance, it's who I am as a person.  I'm having a bit of an identity crisis at work where my role has expanded so much that I and my manager have lost sight of what the original goal was.  This is also the longest I've ever been in one job role since I left uni so I might also be having itchy feet and feeling this need to move on to something else.  This isn't really a quantifiable goal with something I can really measure but I want to get back into moving my body regularly in a way that makes me feel good, eating food that excites me as well as being nutritious and getting out there an exploring the world and doing new things. 


There may be more goals that come to light over the next few weeks and months but that's most of it all out on the table for all to read.  As I said, I need accountability so be prepared for almost daily updates tracking what goes in, what goes out and all the fun in between.

LadyWithAPlan

Glad you had fun travelling and the new house with 2 offices sounds like a great goal 

I also travelled a lot this year but whilst on my last States trip this month also was able to have a think on next years goals

Did you get to Niagara Falls from either side? 

I was v near this year - like a 30 min cab ride and didn’t get there so that’s on list for next year 

ruby_eskimo

LadyWithAPlan said:

Glad you had fun travelling and the new house with 2 offices sounds like a great goal 

I also travelled a lot this year but whilst on my last States trip this month also was able to have a think on next years goals

Did you get to Niagara Falls from either side? 

I was v near this year - like a 30 min cab ride and didn’t get there so that’s on list for next year 

Travelling is great for contemplating life's big challenges and making plans for the future.  Yep we were in Buffalo primarily for an NFL game but made sure that we actually got to see Niagara this time.  Last time we were there, they were doing loads of work on the US side and therefore couldn't actually see the falls.  But this time we spent a lovely morning on the US side followed by a walk over the bridge and managed to get on a boat trip on the Canada side where we got absolutely SOAKED 😆  Would thoroughly recommend though!

So day 1 of tracking:

Spent - £9.75 on Christmas cards
Saved - £0
In - 4 Christmas cards
Out - 4 Christmas cards
Balance - 0

I did also receive a pair of shoes that I ordered in the Black Friday sales but they've sent me the wrong size so those are going straight back and I might not even re-order them.  Maybe this was the universe's way of telling me that I didn't need them.