Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

Sometimes it'd extraordinary how much can be fitted into one day! I was at work (sleep in) overnight and only DH was up DS was at work and our guests hadn't emerged, so DH and I went for a run, then everyone had breakfast and sunscreen and we headed out to the car boot sale (£3.50 on cookery books). While we were there the weather went from hot to cloudburst! We all rushed for shelter and the cars packed up double-quick, so I didn't finish going round, which probably won't do me any harm. We then wandered round an antique shop and found a nice place for lunch (DH paid).

In the afternoon we went to some gardens (DF paid) then on for coffee and cake (DF sneaked in paying for that too) before looking round a ruined castle (DH's turn). The castle turned out to be lots of fun, with a magnificent landscape and thunderstorm adding oodles of atmosphere. Three of us braved the rainy battlements and were rewarded by a magnificent, fluid view as parts of the land disappeared and reappeared in sheets of rain. Eventually we saw sense and got indoors again and I bought a gift for my niece and a card for FiL in the gift shop.

We then drove the scenic route home - wow. Miles of empty moorland with rain and occasional lightening, followed by beautiful green countryside.

Stopped at 2 supermarkets on the way home and spent quite a bit (feeding 7 tomorrow) but entirely failed to find the diced lamb for tomorrow's recipe so chilli con carne it is, instead. This means I have some veg for the original dish to use up elsewhere.

Home = warm and dry! Also found the storm had blasted various bits of the garden. Compost from a wall basket is splattering a nearby window, lightweight chairs are tipped neatly on their fronts, a rose in a pot was toppled over. No damage as far as I could see.

A couple more things: my phone has been playing up and will no longer read the SD card. I need to try to take it to the phone shop in the week, meanwhile several of my apps won't work. Also our fancy waterfall tap has a screw loose! A neighbour found the same thing with theirs: it looks as though calcium build-up is forcing it out and despite soaking it in limescale remover we still have a problem.

Spends:
Books £3.50
Greetings card £2.00
Gift £6.99
Housekeeping £16.34 + £6.90

MS stuff:
Light lunch
Various nice treats from other members of our party
The dress I bought at the car boot sale the other week turns out to be perfect.
Posh tomatoes marked down to 25p so got a box each for DD and me.

Cherryfudge

This was supposed to be an NSD with no run, and I managed the 'no run' bit. We realised we hadn't planned lunch so I got soups and bread rolls and tea and fruit and stuff - if I had had more time and energy I could have made these myself and been awesome but energy is not boundless and time is thin on the ground, so the score is shopping one, Cherry nil. One the plus side, I discovered the delights of pea and mint soup, which I should be able to make myself.

I don't know where the rain went, but it didn't come to us and while it's a bit cooler than yesterday, it's still warm and sunny. Well, not now. Now it's dark and cool. Daylight hours were warm and sunny though.

Church this morning for DH and me, then the energetic ones went for a walk in the afternoon. I cleaned out the guinea pigs and did a bit of weeding then made dinner. Turned out we had 8 to feed this evening but that all worked out well: there is so much to be said for bulking out a chilli... I also did a big tray of veg which we'd forgotten to put in the freezer yesterday so needed to be used up.

After dinner we all went to see DD's new place: it's gorgeous. We had a walk round her village and a country drive afterwards, and when we got home DS was in from work. He's off tomorrow, our guests are going home, DH has the day off too but I'm in work, which might just lead to an NSD on my part.

That's about it really. Happy bank holiday one and all - I'm only missing part of it and I get time and a half for work so that's nice.

Spends:
Housekeeping £13.63

MS stuff:
Discovered basics rice. Note to self: try to avoid getting it again.
Got favoured cheapie liquid soap and posher soap on offer.
More on-offer cappuccinos. I am solely responsible if there is a national shortage.
Used the defrosted veg quite successfully.
Off to make tomorrow's lunch in a minute.

My new slot:
Confessions:
That posher soap wasn't such a bargain really. Own brand is lots cheaper, I'm only trying to keep up appearances.
Defrosted veg. Silly me.

Cherryfudge

I know I should be headed to bed as I'm on an early shift but DS is in the bathroom so here's what I'm thinking...

I increased our 'food shopping money not so long ago. DH does more of it than I do, so he gets £50 and I get £40 a week. That's to include cleaning materials and food for four adults, more or less. We don't have consistent numbers. Sometimes DS2 fends for himself and I take a meal to work so the only 'proper cooked dinner' is for DH. However during the week we feed DS1 and his fianc!e about once in three weeks, and for Sunday dinner we feed between four and eight. DD, who mostly catered for herself, has now moved out but comes home for lunches as we're a lot nearer her work and she can just walk here. That's going to change when she starts her new job and has to travel a lot more. I think we'll end up asking her and her partner to tea once a week, and in the summer when DS1 is less busy, he and his fianc!e may be able to come a bit more often.

I'm wondering what changes to make, if any. £90 a week is a lot of money and when I'm around enough to cook the evening meal, it's cheaper. (I like salmon but not every week with a whole jar of sauce: I would thin the sauce with tinned tomatoes for a start and make it do for 2 meals!)

Perhaps I should just aim to cook a meal to leave in the fridge for DH once in a while? That would save him trouble as he now has quite a commute. I did do a meal plan but so far it's not come to anything!

Cherryfudge

29th:
NSD (no run).

30th:
NSD (no run).

Eating out of the larder but that's okay - things in there need using!

I have been moving money around: the Executor's Account owed us quite a lot and I'd been putting off moving it as I'm afraid of making a mistake. I've decided to do chunks so I sorted out how much was owed to H account and moved it over - then paid it off the mortgage! Oh jubilaceous day! There is about £146 left in that account which in theory belongs to the mortgage overpayment too, but I'm a bit reluctant to empty the account until I've seen this month's pay safely in.

Once the pay has gone in and what's left from last month is freed up, I should be able to have nearly £1,000 overpayment towards the mortgage in May! I didn't expect that, though I knew there was quite a lot to come.

I'm struggling with whether to keep on with the overpayments or look to fix the rate again. We are paying a lot for the privilege of overpaying.

I then took a chunk of the payments owed to N account and put them to the holiday fund (if needed urgently we still have instant access but it gives us something to aim for).

Well, it's been a very full week - I'm too tired to run but I now have a couple of days off to recover.

Cherryfudge

A very, very lazy morning here - slept till gone 10.30 but I really needed it and am feeling better for it. Soon I'm going to head out for some discount shopping at the other end of town - must be about 3 weeks since I've been there and surely even my stocks of tinned tomatoes must be running low! (Will check before I go, though).

I paid a further £120 off the mortgage this morning, and from the sums June won't be anything like as good an overpayment month so this is likely to be the last big payment month for a while. So the sums for the last 12 months show I've overpaid by £2,294.14 which is great (tax refund helped a lot, as did reclaiming estate expenses). However, I'm still overpaying because I'm on standard variable rate or whatever it's called.

CC spends paid off yesterday but while it's showing as going out in two parts, which is right (paid off different pots), only one of them is showing up on online banking. Puzzling but had better not worry as it's probably going to come through later in the day. That's why I haven't put as much to the mortgage as I'd hoped yesterday, though.

I've put the unused bit of DH's last month's salary into savings (still haven't read the paperwork to start the savings account I'd spotted and am no longer certain that's the one to go for). I've had a go at the sums for what our emergency fund should be based on 6 months' joint income and we are at 37.5% of what we should have - however as we are currently earning more than we need, I think we could be okay with a bit less.

DH had a bit of a wobble when I told him about money going into the mortgage (he knows in his head that this pays in the long term but his heart still likes to have it in our account). I pointed out the account is okay. Also while he's right and there are loads of things we should be doing to keep the house up, we don't have time or energy to do them. If we did, we could take from savings without too much impact unless we both are out of work for more than a couple of months.

Well, tonight we're off to a BBQ and our contribution is going to be burgers, which I can cope with but it won't happen if I don't get a move on, so here I go!

charlies_tribe

That's a great amount to pay off the mortgage! I was playing with an interest calculator yesterday and it was scary to see we would pay £67000 just in interest! With your overpayments you will have saved quiet a bit of interest.

It's also a great amount to have in a savings fund. At least if anything happens you know you would be ok for a good few months.

Cherryfudge

Here is my list from 3rd March when I'd just started this diary. How nice that all but one (Mum's house utilities) are sorted.

Cherryfudge wrote: »

Here is my financial must-do list which I will update as I think of more:

cancel Amazon Prime
change BACS so wages go to other account
set up DD for insurance on house
research changing utilities for our house
research changing utilities for Mum's house
have discussion with DH about overpayment on mortgage

I think I have a later list somewhere which isn't as well sorted. Perhaps for June I should have a reassessment of 'to-do's.

Cherryfudge

charlies_tribe wrote: »

That's a great amount to pay off the mortgage! I was playing with an interest calculator yesterday and it was scary to see we would pay £67000 just in interest! With your overpayments you will have saved quiet a bit of interest.

It's also a great amount to have in a savings fund. At least if anything happens you know you would be ok for a good few months.

Thanks charlies tribe

I love overpayment calculators! One can dream and put in stupid amounts but in reality even a little bit makes a difference.

We have come quite close to DH being unemployed this year. He says he just wants to hang on a few more months so he's eligible for the biggest redundancy payment! Every few years the scythe of cuts comes past again but next time it's more likely to be my post which is at risk. It was the layer above mine about five years ago in my department, and management haven't said recently about not worrying because cuts won't affect us. That does put a bit of an edge on saving for a rainy day.

Mind you, I have so many jobs to do around the house and garden that I might enjoy the opportunity to catch up a bit!

Cherryfudge

So, today:

Lazy morning as I mentioned before, in fact I didn't get out till late afternoon. I bought DD a present for her new house and new job. It was funny really because as I was looking at flowers in the supermarket a voice behind me said 'Excuse me, can you tell me where the carrots are?' - it was DD creeping up on me! I confessed I was trying to choose her some flowers so we both looked at them and she chose for me. There is a vase and a scented candle to go with them.

We bought burgers to take to the BBQ tonight and there are a few left over for other meals.

Spends:
Housekeeping £6.16
Entertainment £6.48
Gifts £19.48
I did go to get my phone looked at but there was a long queue so I left without doing anything about it.

MS stuff:
5 burgers that didn't get cooked and are now in our freezer.

Confessions:
I'm planning a big-town shopping trip tomorrow for the bits and pieces I still need for the wedding - we are now counting the days!

Cherryfudge

Plans changed: I did loads of shopping without leaving the High Street let alone going to another town. That may be a job for another day. I've also had a run, then two walks into town followed by a short countryside walk with DH - so I will have topped 20,000 steps by bedtime and will probably ache tomorrow.

I haven't yet found The Bag for the wedding outfit but I may have The Shoes. If I decide to use the ones I found today, they were indeed a bargain - I saw them in a charity shop and had the staff spoil their colour-coded window display so I could try them on. They are very pretty but DH thinks they look like flip flops! :eek: (That's because he can't tell wedge heeled sandals from flip flops). I think he means they look too casual. 'Aren't you going to wear court shoes?' No - it's a beach-side wedding in a hot country! I will ask DD's opinion - if she doesn't like them I still get to keep pretty shoes and I'll go for white instead.

I wanted some bits of makeup for the wedding and think I have all I need after today's foray, plus various other things including a large supply of hayfever drugs, mostly for DS's benefit.

I also tracked down that toothbrush the dentist wanted me to get, marked as half price which was how much he said I could get it for. Bought it - and found it £4 cheaper in the next shop! The till receipt says I can take things back if I've changed my mind so as I'm reluctant to spend £4 unnecessarily, I might just do that.

Other than that I'm investigating a garden shredder/mulcher as we now have to pay if we want green waste taken away. Where would I store it, though? I also read elsewhere on the forums about offset mortgages and fell for the idea. However, they seem hugely expensive to set up even though as far as I can see they would save us money. I wish I was good enough at Maths to work out compound interest so I could tell whether it's worth persuing.

Spends:
Toiletries/makeup £42.04
Clothing/jewellery £7.74
Medical £4.75
Gift £0.17
Housekeeping £7.37
Pets £3.00
Garden £3.00

MS stuff:
Shopped near home saving a train fare.
Bought fresh plaice for tea at half the price of the frozen ones!
Resisted the urge to get a coffee in town.
Bank payment (for keeping account in good nick) £3 plus interest £0.07

Confessions:
Still need to update my signature for May - as housekeeping is weekly I have a part week to start with which to start June.
Also need to set up a June signature and do more money stuff apart from spending it.
Bought a plant as a treat to myself.