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

Starmummy

I can feel the relief through you post that things are finally being action-ed rather than just discussed.

I'm so excited for you.

Take care
SM

Silver_Queen

TOPM, that's an amazing extra chunk of overtime and it must feel so gratifying to be rewarded for your and Mr TOPM's hard work! I think it's completely understandable and acceptable that he wants to have some say on where the money is spent, and it's important for your mental health that you have a bit more "treat" money rather than endlessly throwing it at debt. Well done to the two of you!

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 85: Day 5

Last day of the working week! DH has been away a lot this week, so it's been about survival rather than epic overachievement, but nonetheless I'm reasonably pleased with what's got done.

I made two batches of apple chutney yesterday, some of which will go into Christmas hampers - I also have a big batch of marmalade made at the beginning of the year, so those will be added to. Need to think who we're doing gifts for at some stage and make sure we're organised. Still plenty of apples to deal with - I'll stew a massive batch and freeze in smaller portions, as well as juicing some, and I'm going to try some old fashioned canning in syrup if I get a chance.

I divvied out DH's money as planned, and it's nice to see all the budget pots looking so healthy for next month, and to see some money left in a handful of the pots from this month! There's even £4 left in the emergency fund pot - maybe that can form the basis of our first £1k emergency fund :rotfl: . Apart from the impending financial black hole of Christmas, things really aren't looking too bad, assuming we have no massive dramas (due to absence of decent emergency fund).

Ooh, and I renewed our home insurance and got it for a whopping £129 less than last year! I was rather chuffed with that. I paid for it in one chunk, which means I need to be disciplined about saving for next year. The car insurance is due for renewal in November, and I'm hoping for some saving there too, as we didn't shop around at all last year (because I didn't realise it was up for renewal as DH got the email and didn't bother to tell me :mad: ) and it went up slightly.

I made my income for October with my September contract work, so that's all sorted and ready to pay into the joint account on the weekend. My contract work has also covered November's expenses, but none of November's salary, so I'm in exactly the same position of needing to raise my entire month's salary over the course of the month. I would love to get a couple of months ahead again, but it's proving really difficult since I increased the salary I draw from my business account. I can't particularly see that changing, annoyingly, unless I have an unexpected bumper month.

To do this week
1. Arrange architect replacement to come for a meeting and start work.
2. Menu plan for the week, using up what's in the house already as far as possible.
3. Make chutney (some of this will be for Christmas gift hampers, some for us).
4. Stew and freeze apples.
5. Can/juice/do whatever I can think of with the remaining apples.
6. Contract work for next week.
7. Make granola.
8. Check the present box for a suitable present for DC1's friend's party this weekend (must order something if not - the first test of having a ready to go box of cheap presents!).
9. Check renewal date of home insurance.
10. Check renewal date of car insurance.
11. Plant bulbs for Christmas.
12. Plan any homemade gifts to make for Christmas.
13. Order essential oils for candles.

September money goals:
- £19.34/30 September rounding down pot.
- £3,812.12/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.
- £864/864 income for October.

Sea_Shell

Just one thing to bear in mind re: house insurance. Once the building work starts proper, you should tell them that the works are starting, and also they need to know once you have additional bedrooms. I don't know when in the build process additional bedrooms "count", but you don't want to fall foul of any "non-disclosure" issues, should you need to claim.

Suffolk_lass

That is a good point. We had a scaffold up when we were re-thatched and I had to pay an additional premium because of the increased risk to security. At our old house our garage was burgled the week after the scaffold came down too. The neighbours identified the scaffolder as responsible for this

Treadingonplaymobil

Yes, I gather that I need to phone them before any building work starts and let them know. I have no idea whether I'll need to pay more, but it will be a drop in the ocean compared to build costs I suspect!

Suffolk_lass

If you haven't tried bottling (canning) apples before, the thing I always find is that they float - so you have to pack them in, in military fashion and try to use a jar with a neck so they don't all bob up to the surface when you add the syrup.

It isn't the end of the world if they do, but you will end with a tiny bit of discoloured apple in the jar which could affect the length of time you can store them. I fill with syrup so that it slightly spills out as I secure the spring-form clip, and then mop that up before heating it all up. You can do that bit in an oven or in a pan. I think the steam in the pan is better personally, but both work fine. They look so pretty, well worth considering as hamper gifts!

CathT

Good progress over here TOPM. How soon are you looking to start the build? Ours was from Oct-April and as much as I'd have preferred a summer build (especially as we weren't watertight over the Christmas period) I'm glad we built when we did as didn't lose the enjoyment of the garden over the summer. We had to update our home insurance too and just let them know once the build was finished.

I haven't started budgeting for Christmas yet, hoping to keep it low key and inexpensive. Not easy with a 10 and 7 year old!

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 86: Day 1

It's official: there is nothing more satisfying than starting a new month and a new week at the same time :T .

First up, let's start with a look at the big scary numbers...

Debt totals
£3,479.16 Barclaycard
£2,644.34 Virgin
£5,831.10 Santander
£19,910 parental loan
£31,864.60 total (down into the next thousand bracket, hurrah!)

Mortgage total is £191,0059.90.

This means that since 1st August, there's been a reduction in unsecured debt of £296.72. The CC debt total is finally UNDER £12K!! Inching down towards the £10k barrier, which will feel like a major milestone.

Our overall 'net worth' (house value minus all debts and mortgage) continues to inch up pathetically slowly, but I love seeing that number of our actual positive worth growing. It's an arbitrary measure, but feels nicer than a big negative debt number, even though it's based on more or less the same sum. Net worth is now over £2k, at £2,044.40

I know those numbers aren't wildly exciting when you see reductions of thousands every month from some diaries on here, but as always, I'm overjoyed to see them going down. The upside of being so terrible at this debt busting lark is that I'm completely thrilled every time we actually manage to bust any debt at all!

Savings totals
(last month in black, this month in pink):
£5 £20 annual insurances
£10 £20 school holiday kitty
£90 £380 holidays/weekends away (chunk of DH's overtime to visit his grandma is here)
£211 £61 birthdays (went into negative last month for DC1's birthday, so quite low here)
£95 £0 car maintenance (this was negative after MOT etc but I cleared it with DH's overtime)
£0 £10 football club
£10 £19 dentist
£6 £9 YNAB
£473 £1,103 extension
£50 £54 emergency fund
£100 £93 Christmas (bought essential oils for candles and a few stocking fillers)
£10 £18 National Trust membership
£60 £90 parental loan repayment pot
£30 £45 house maintenance - raided to make the budgets balance

I am delighted to see those numbers, on the whole, all increasing steadily, by the right amounts. As we know, my problem has always been resisting the urge to raid those savings pots, and I'm thrilled that September was actually pretty successful on that front. I'm well aware of the gaping hole around the Christmas funding, which is irritating, but there we go. The hoped-for Christmas miracle has not occurred , so it will be going on a CC once the serious shopping starts.

The busy issue
Well I have addressed this in large part by just massively cutting what I am expecting myself to do. I know that this has a knock on effect on my earnings and may require us to rejig the budget at some stage, but I feel confident that it's the only possible solution for our family at the moment.

I have tried to ease up a little bit where I can on things like weekday dinners (more frequent egg-based meals, or beans on toast type stuff), and it all helps. I am also just bumping things down the line once my to do list for the week is full, rather than just continually expecting myself to take on more.

It's a lovely place to be, but I have an underlying fear that something major isn't getting done!

My work
I am desperate to stop being client facing. I have absolutely had enough of it, and I don't enjoy it when I do have to do it now. I have clients tomorrow and again on Sunday, and I'm filled with low level dread.

I am in a position to make a proposal to my main contract work provider to increase my hours there, and if that comes off then I should be able to seriously minimise the number of clients I see, then hopefully stop entirely when the build starts in the new year.

I am also working hard on my website and the content there, and I'm hoping to be in a position to create even a teeny weeny income from that by the new year, although it's always the thing that has to slip when I get busier as it doesn't actually pay its way right now.

Extension update
We had the new architect (actually not an architect, but a architectural technician/technologist, but I'm not typing that out every time I mention him from here on in) over for a quick chat on Friday, and he seems incredibly on the case and much more realistic than the last chap. He is going to start work on the survey drawings later this month and get the technical design and buildings regs stuff done as soon as planning is (hopefully) approved at the end of this month.

We are still really liking the first builder we saw, although DH is arranging another one or two to come and quote so we can see how his numbers stack up. I need to sit down and make a firm plan about how to raise the necessary funds so we can see where we actually stand.

To do this week
1. Menu plan for this week and next, using freezer contents where possible.
2. Process the last of the fruit from my mum (a few apples and some pears).
3. Make a double batch of granola
4. Make sourdough.
5. Make oatcakes.
6. Check and amend food shopping delivery.
7. Clean and prep the house for clients on Tuesday.
8. Contract work for next week.
9. Plan any handmade Christmas gifts.
10. Renew car insurance.
11. Plan bulbs for Christmas.
12. Make candles for us and for Christmas gifts.

October money goals:
- £2.17/31 October rounding down pot.
- £3,971.02/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal. Almost up to £4k!
- £45/775 income for November.

PurpleFairy26

TOPM I think it's a massive well done on the progress on your 'pots'. It's really hard from a standing start of zero to get anything in these as it's so demoralising at the start as you won't have enough in them for what you need (like annual insurances) and so it seems a bit pointless (and easy to raid ) but as you know when you do have the funds in there it's just fab :T so well done for persevering with them, I too let mine go in a negative when we have peak birthday months :eek: