£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

Suffolk_lass

One of the things you might want to consider for September is paring that to-do list back a bit. I remember the person who was going to have three things on their list. I can't help noticing there are 17 above this post.A good journey for you to get back to, even if it is three work, three family, three house, three work, just to start that trip to a calmer existence.

Re seeing friends and family - we went to a camp-site this year where there were about four parties of us. As we get older we are across three generations with this group. Some of our peers have migrated to camper vans (bought or rented). Others have previously come and stayed in cottages and B&B locally. I mention this because it offers a range of options for friends and family to get together and if you planned a short get together (we do a long weekend with various comings and goings at different points) it could serve as a bit of a friends/family reunion. If everyone did a bit of buy some make some you have your feast, and a great social reunion. Combining it with a camping trip it could multi-task as a holiday and free you up from the long-trip visiting a bit. This year there was a VW camper-van group in our field and on the Sunday they all dressed up against a prehistoric theme (some of the vans were mark 1 split-screen jobs) and had a games afternoon with races a bit like "Wacky Races". It was very funny to watch and they were clearly having a riot. Just an idea.

Suffolk_lass

Oh yes, our weekends. Last weekend we hosted a three day celebration for up to 40 people (fewer on Saturday and Monday) with curries, BBQ, walking trips and pubs, all organised by us.

Our ambitions for a quiet one are thwarted this weekend. Today DH is marking his year 10s into 11 Mock exam papers ready for the school year, we need to take his car to the garage, do the beginning of month shop, I have three pieces of work to do, all the bed-linen from all the beds (and the usual laundry) after the visitors and we are running the Bar in the Village Social Club this evening. Tomorrow I need to get a card and gift and we need to leave just after mid-day to get to a surprise 60th Birthday Party 50 miles away that will go late and we are staying with friends, then back on Sunday. DH must finish his marking, set up his planner and other prep for the school year, while I will cook, clean, garden and pick in the margins. I also hope to go foraging for berries at some point. I want blackberries but there are loads of damsons and sloes and they are all ready now. Then back to 14 hour day including travelling for Monday to Thursday.

arsenalbarnie

Just a thought ( lurking out of lurkdom), how will you manage if the car fails the MOT? Would you still be able to visit everyone? May be a blessing in disguise for a while.

Btw am using the funky soap shampoo and conditioner, really like it :T

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 81: Day 6

New month! Finally! What a relief. Many updates below...

Extension
Well, our architect has just dumped us, which I must confess is a relief. I feel sad that he feels hard done by and obviously feels that we have acted badly, but equally relieved that we don't have to continue with a relationship that just isn't working any more, and I personally don't feel we have acted remotely inappropriately. Hopefully we can find someone good to take the baton to get us through buildings regs.

Work
I invoiced for my contract work today, looking forward to getting paid for that. Not a lot lined up yet for September, so slightly stressed about meeting October's expenses and salary. I managed September though, so hopefully October will come together too.

August spending round up
Disastrous. Started badly with the inadvertent £422 overpayment and went downhill from there. Overspent on food (although not horrendously, when I look how much is still in the cupboards), on fuel (unsurprising given all the travelling for camping hols etc), on family entertainment (cafes, fish and chip dinners, trains for DH to meet us when he was working while we were away), on books for the summer holidays. General crazy spending all round.

Well, I say disastrous. If we'd been prepared for it it actually wasn't totally and utterly awful. Something like a £400 overspend for the month (maybe £500 at a push). Which is obviously epically bad, but given that I gave up entirely on any pretence of frugality by mid-August, not as appalling as it could have been.

Savings update
All the pots are, unsurprisingly, not looking as pretty as hoped, because of crazy summer overspending and debt overpayment.
(last month in black, this month in pink):
£30 £0 music lessons - DC2 has decided to give up for now and just enjoy playing with the keyboard at home. I've said he can restart any time but I don't get the feeling he's that fussed about it.
£0 £5 annual insurances
£0 £10 school holiday kitty
£0 £90 holidays/weekends away (all camping paid for for the summer though)
£197 £211 birthdays - lower than it should be as pot raided last month to balance the budget
£0 £95 car maintenance - MOT on Monday though, so this will be in the red again soon.
£10 £10 dentist
£6 £6 YNAB
£695 £473 extension - raided to balance budget, and £287 paid to architect for amendments to drawings.
£18 £50 emergency fund
£162 £100 Christmas - raided to balance budgets last month
£20 £10 National Trust membership
£60 £60 parental loan repayment pot
£110 £25 house stuff - raided to make the budgets balance
£60 £30 house maintenance - raided to make the budgets balance

Debt totals
£9,550.22 Barclaycard
£2,671.05 Virgin
£19,940 parental loan
£32,161.32 total

The mortgage stands at £191,003.72.

This means that since 1st August there's been a reduction in unsecured debt of £683.48 and a reduction in the mortgage of £319.05. Those numbers make me slightly less horrified about the spending last month!

Those big debt repayments mean that our net assets (house value vs debts) have gone up just over a grand, to £1,775.01.

The numbers aren't stunning compared to lots on here, but at least they're going in the right direction.

Busy busy busy
I really don't know how to address this issue, as discussed in recent posts. The current scenario is a bit mad. I think we have to keep working towards that end goal of me not working weekends. I was so relaxed at the start of the year when I was working fewer hours, but financially we couldn't maintain it, so the reduction has to come in social stuff I suppose. Not sure where the balance lies.

Likewise, I was a lot more relaxed in the short term when I had fewer items on my to do list, but in the end got frustrated at stuff just not getting done, which was infuriating. So I have to balance out my desire to slow down with my desire to get stuff done!

To do this week
1. Tidy all the camping gear away.
2. Update YNAB with the new SOA I posted the other day.
3. Clear emails and respond to all client queries that came in while we were away.
4. Confirm balance transfer to Santander and transfer additional balance to Virgin. This has been showing as pending on the Santander card for over a week now, but not actually cleared from the barclaycard. DH is going to phone and check what's happening.
5. Check birthdays this month and write cards.
6. Research alternatives to current architect and get some quotes.
7. Batch cooking:
(a) granola
(b) vegetable soup
(c) soft bread rolls[
(d) black bean chilli
8. Look through the calendar for this autumn and see how busy it's getting - we need to think about how we will manage commitments already made if we don't have a car (cancel or manage by public transport).
9. Next week's contract work.
10. Contract work for the following week. Made a start.
11. Clear the laundry backlog from camping (not actually too horrendous as I used the expensive campsite washing machines and dryers, which was a rare treat).
12. Tidy the DCs' room.
13. Reassess pre-build costs for the extension and establish what still needs to be paid for and how that's going to happen over the rest of this year.
14. DH to phone a handful of additional builders to get more quotes in.
15. Pack orders for smaller business.
16. Order stock for smaller business.
17. Figure out some sort of plan and incentive strategy for weight loss - I usually motivate myself by buying clothes or similar every time I lose a pound, but can't exactly do that at the moment! Any suggestions?! I am struggling here.

September money goals:
- £0/30 September rounding down pot
- £3,684.18/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.
- £0/864 income needed for October

Suffolk_lass

A couple of suggestions from me

re weight-loss
Read the 8-week blood sugar diet by Dr Michael Mosley - it has really inspired me, and a tribe of my work colleagues and friends who have done it and lost weight and kept it off. You don't have to have a problem for it to have an impact and at the end of the day, it is for 8 weeks and it works. Your diet is very close already I suspect, so this might be the tweak for you, before the winter. For me, it means my body metabolises food differently, after the 8-weeks and I have not gained any weight since stopping, even after pigging out on holiday.

You have lost your architect. I know that is hard but if you reflect back on what you have reported on here, he never followed your brief and cost you lots without adding value. Part of his expertise should have been to research with the planning department what they would and would not accept; before spending your money on submitting plans that they turned down. I strongly recommend you ask the builders about building regs - lots of them do their own, and could do yours, as part of their job. Others will have a view on good and bad architects in your area. You could also spend an hour looking at your local authority planning portal and just do a five bar gate of local architects associated with planning approvals - especially in your specific location, so you go for one with a track record of getting plans approved. The plans will all be available to view and you may find you do not need more input if you lift elements from others' successful planning changes.

I know you are busy. Try 3 work things, 3 personal development things, 3 chores, 3 house-related things, or similar. You will be surprised how much more manageable the lists feel in categories. Then you can time-block your time so you don't ignore things. I always do washing overnight so it is on the night rate electricity - so it goes on with a time-lag and I deal with clean washing first thing.

And a massive well-done :T:T on the improvement in debt and household value in August. Step back and reflect on that improvement which is fantastic, and stop beating yourself up about your pots deficit. You managed, you did not break out the cards and you actually added over £1000 in value. Well-done Team-TOPM! :j:j:beer:

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 82: Day 1

New month and now a new week too! Feels like a proper clean slate.

Managed not to spend too ridiculously much on the weekend - less than I was expecting anyway, even though we went out for dinner and the wedding had a paying bar (I don't really drink, which makes that a lot cheaper). Was lovely to spend some time with DH (my parents looked after the DCs) and we are resolved to continue to try to make time together in the coming months. DH has also been getting more involved in the budget and is inputting his spends into YNAB rather than me doing it once they've cleared the account, which I think is helping him stay in touch with reality in a way he hasn't been thus far.

Suffolk lass thank you so much for all your thoughts and ideas. Definitely going to ask builders for any suggestions of people who might be able to get us through building regs. As you say, it's hard to get too upset about the loss of the architect after the performance it's been thus far.

Only two more days of holiday then the DCs are all back at school, including DC3 starting out! A couple of weeks of settling in half days though before she goes full time, so I won't be able to ramp up the work too much initially. But I am so ready to get back into the rhythm of school again.

Taking the car in for its MOT and service this morning. Fingers crossed! I know it's going to be expensive as it obviously needs a service, and at least two new tyres, and the MOT. So I guess £350 even if nothing needs doing? I'm going to get them to try to make an educated guess about the work that needs doing beyond that to get it through the MOT before they get too far into the service though. I'm thinking anything up to £300 on top of the service/MOT/tyres is reasonable (well, not reasonable, but better than the hassle of being carless), £300-600 and DH and I need to have a serious conversation about keeping the car, and £600+ is a total waste of time, considering the £950 already spent on keeping it on the road this year.

DH is absolutely flat out (again) at work this week, then away next week, but then things should return somewhat to normal for him, thank goodness. It's been an added stress with how massively busy he's been at work. It's another reason for remembering to slow down my work over the summer holidays actually - he is always horrendously busy in August at work, it's a real peak time for the industry he works in. I think life will get a lot easier once he's around a bit more.

To do this week
1. Try on uniforms and triple check the DCs have everything they need for the new school year (I am 99% sure they do, but panicking nonetheless as I haven't actually yet opened the bag of new uniform).
2. Check birthdays for September and write cards.
3. Make veg soup.
4. Make rolls.
5. Confirm balance transfer has actually gone through after DH phoned on the weekend.
6. Find a couple of alternatives to current architect to obtain quotes from.
7. Read planning officer email regarding drainage and establish how much of a rush we are in to sort a drainage query raised on there.
8. Properly clean and tidy a few rooms that are looking particularly grim:
(a) sitting room.
(b) dining room.
(c) kitchen.
(d) our bedroom.
(e) utility room.
9. Go through cupboards and menu plan appropriately - SO MUCH food in the house right now, although not much fruit and veg. Plan in food shopping deliveries/top up shops in town.
10. Make tealights (I saved all the empty tealight cups from the last batch we had, and bought some little tealight wicks, in an effort to reduce, reuse and recycle!).
11. Get rid of charity shop stuff lurking in the utility room.
12. Shop local for DC1's birthday presents, leaving time to order online for anything I can't find.
13. Pack orders for smaller business.
14. Contract work for next week.
15. Update work mileage tracker with journeys last week.
16. Restart social media for work, even if it's just one or two posts this week to get back in the swing.
17. Clear work email enquiries - lots of enquiries coming to nothing at the moment, but hopefully some clients will confirm work soon.

September money goals:
- £0/30 September rounding down pot
- £3,684.18/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.
- £0/864 income needed for October

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 82: Day 2

Not doing a mega catch up this morning, just a quick stop by to share the good news that the car got through the MOT! Only £30 of work needed on top of the MOT and service cost (so still £273 all in, but a lot better than I was expecting).

Last day of holidays and I am flat out trying to get the house into some kind of order, get some work done and generally get on top of life!

To do this week
1. Try on uniforms and triple check the DCs have everything they need for the new school year (I am 99% sure they do, but panicking nonetheless as I haven't actually yet opened the bag of new uniform).
2. Check birthdays for September and write cards.
3. Make veg soup.
4. Make rolls.
5. Confirm balance transfer has actually gone through after DH phoned on the weekend.
6. Find a couple of alternatives to current architect to obtain quotes from.
7. Read planning officer email regarding drainage and establish how much of a rush we are in to sort a drainage query raised on there.
8. Properly clean and tidy a few rooms that are looking particularly grim:
(a) sitting room.
(b) dining room.
(c) kitchen.
(d) our bedroom.
(e) utility room.
9. Go through cupboards and menu plan appropriately - SO MUCH food in the house right now, although not much fruit and veg. Plan in food shopping deliveries/top up shops in town.
10. Make tealights (I saved all the empty tealight cups from the last batch we had, and bought some little tealight wicks, in an effort to reduce, reuse and recycle!).
11. Get rid of charity shop stuff lurking in the utility room.
12. Shop local for DC1's birthday presents, leaving time to order online for anything I can't find.
13. Pack orders for smaller business.
14. Contract work for next week.
15. Update work mileage tracker with journeys last week.
16. Restart social media for work, even if it's just one or two posts this week to get back in the swing.
17. Clear work email enquiries - lots of enquiries coming to nothing at the moment, but hopefully some clients will confirm work soon.

September money goals:
- £0/30 September rounding down pot
- £3,684.18/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.
- £0/864 income needed for October

Homegrown0

Great news about the MOT! Your car lives to see another day!

If you have any lightning bolt ideas on how to generally get on top of life, do share!

joeyjimbles

Phew, what a relief about the car. That's one less thing to worry about.

ellen_vannin

Oh I am soo glad about your car , I was worried that you would have to make a difficult decision.

Keep up the good work, should all settle down when the little ones are back at school.