PinknSparkly's Mortgage Wannabe savings dairy

[Deleted User]

Hi pinknsparkly, I've just been reading about your holiday. Sounds fantastic. I think I would have used it as an excuse to go bonkers with spending, so well done on not doing that

bln

savingwannabe

OMG your holiday has cheered me up so much. I kept wondering how it was. You have seen giraffes in the wild. OMG and Table Mountain. How inspiring is that?????

Well done on the EON issue being sorted and them giving you some money. You are working with two good salaries now you are entitled to make some home changes and I am sure it will work out so don't worry about the lodger situation.

pinknsparkly

Thanks guys, it was incredible!! Giraffes in the wild are just so bizarre. You're sat there looking an elephant thinking about how blooming massive they are, and then a giraffe saunters by and is easily twice the height of the elephant :rotfl: And they are just such strange looking creatures, somehow seeing them on tv documentaries just doesn't prepare you for seeing them in real life. The noise they make when smashing their necks into each other is incredible! And the sight of them drinking water by spreading their legs ridiculous distances apart as they can't bend their knees is just mind boggling! I really fell in love with them :smileyhea

I've had some TopCashBack payouts from our holiday - not nearly enough to even slightly offset the cost of the holiday, but enough to send over to the mortgage as an overpayment and chop another month off our mortgage term :beer::beer::beer:

No moves forward on the lodger moving out / redoing the house front yet. Once he's found a place to move to, I'll start thinking about what to do to the house but for now it just seems like too big a task, and too far in the future, to start thinking about (even if future-me would appreciate me doing something about it now!!).

I've booked theatre tickets to see Only Fools and Horses in London on Boxing day as my husband's Xmas pressie, and have also bought him tickets for a The Legends Festival for his birthday next summer (in my defence they were early bird ticket releases!!). The festival is a one day event, featuring 6 really big tribute bands/acts (Queen/ABBA/George Michael/the Beatles/Elton John/David Bowie). It's quite a range of music so it finally means I've found a festival that we can both enjoy (hopefully!!) :rotfl: plus, it's walking distance from our house!

savingwannabe

You will have memories of this amazing time for the rest of your life. How amazing. I don't even think I have seen a giraffe in a zoo!I am sooo happy for you.:T:T:T:j:beer::D:):A

Hurrah for tickets for great things for birthdays. Again these are lovely experiences and are a reward for working so hard over the last few years. Well done on the Top Cashback very MSE!

You have the rest of your life to sort the house/lodger stuff and you are entitled to have a break.Hope you have a great weekend. :j

pinknsparkly

Thanks so much SW. You're 100% right amount the memories, it was an incredible experience. Although my husband's uncle has clearly been making some digs in conversation with my husband's nan (uncle's mum) about how ridiculously expensive safari holidays are and how much we must have spent. It was an expensive holiday, but no where near as expensive as a "normal" safari holiday would be, which is what I assume he's comparing it to. Plus he spent £20,000 on his wedding which he felt was a bargain but is several times more than we spent on our honeymoon. In comparison, our wedding came to about £1000, less if you don't include my husband's suit which he has worn repeatedly since then! Bless her, I kept reassuring her that it really wasn't as expensive as he'd been making out, but without putting any actual numbers on it that would make their way back to him....

I [STRIKE]ran[/STRIKE] completed a 10k on Sunday (a combination of walking and jogging at walking speed!). I signed up for this back in May as it was a long enough distance to want to do some training for it, and it would motivate me to exercise, right?!?! Wrong. I wasn't quite last, and my husband, bless him, ran the entire way with me and barely broke a sweat! I was aiming for 1 hour 30 mins, and managed to do it in a fraction under 1 hour 20 mins which I was quite pleased with! Two of my sisters met me at the finish line and we had a roast lunch (at 11.30am, but we had left the house at 7am!!) of a chicken that I'd put in the slow cooker the night before. Definitely feeling it today though, whenever I try to stand up. I'd also demolished my lunch by 11am this morning so will have to buy something this afternoon I think....

I finally started on my second round of PhD thesis corrections at the weekend. Which essentially meant I spent most of Saturday formatting the document, but it's one thing done towards it at least and I've STARTED. I'm aiming to have it all done by mid Dec, the deadline is mid Jan but I'd like to get done before Christmas! I've also managed to book out a few days in my work calendar over the next few weeks specifically to work from home on it, which is trickier than it sounds as my calendar is usually completely jammed full!

savingwannabe

How horrid that someone is complaining about your honeymoon cost. What business is it of his! It's your honeymoon and you are entitled to it as you are the one's who are paying for it. How rude of him!!!!

Well done on the run. My LL (lovely lodger) runs like you and he loves it. I am so unfit you both put me to shame. lol. It's great that it was a family occasion.

Hurrah on starting thesis corrections. Fantastic you have started it and this will make it easier to look at it again. I have several Master's Degrees but never had the discipline to do a Phd. That's really hard work. Well done Pinky.

pinknsparkly

Thanks SW! Shamefully, I've not been out for a run since that weekend, though with the clocks going back and signally the onset of autumn/winter/darker days, I'm determined to do everything I can this year to look after my mental health. I always struggle massively in the dark winter months, so this year I'm going to make a concerted effort to get outside in the sunshine every day and will also be taking vitamin D supplements. Fingers crossed I'll make it through the winter with a glimmer of a smile on my face and at least a tiny bit of energy!

I definitely have a LOT still to get done in terms of thesis corrections, but having made a start certainly makes it far easier to sit down and do a few hours work on it. I'm trying to be really strict with myself about leaving work on time in order to get a reasonable amount of work done at home, particularly on the two days a week that my husband and lodger are both out late so I have a quiet house all to myself (and the cat!)

Considering this is an MSE diary, I have very little MSE-ing to report. The credit card bill from our honeymoon is due at the end of this month so spare money from our salaries that would usually be put into savings and mortgage overpayments, is going to pay the credit card bill instead. However, I consider this a win, as I was expecting to have to also take money OUT of savings to pay the bill so not having to raid our savings is a win in my books :beer:

I also had a fab weekend, with my youngest sister coming to stay from Fri - Sun, a free firework display on Saturday (though we donated some money and bought quite a few churros between us! It was slightly muddy underfoot, but not the ankle deep mud I'd been fearing after the torrential rain we'd been having) and then my middle sister came over for roast beef on Sunday.

savingwannabe

Well done on being able to pay off your credit card bill from the Honeymoon. It is good you know that your moods are affected in the winter as it means you can take steps to prevent this from happenin.

Hurrah for nice sisters. Hope this week goes well. :j

Skint_yet_Again

Before we got the dog I was diagnosed as Vit D deficient and was quite poorly, but now I have no choice but to go out and walk her most days. My doc retested and said I don't need them anymore. It's harder to get out if it's dark morning and evening and you work all day unless you can go for a walk at lunchtime.

It's very MSE that you can pay the credit card without dipping into savings

ginnyknit

The giraffes sound amazing. I stroked one at a zoo once which was such lovely thing. I think a once in a lifetime trip is perfect for a honeymoon and nobodys bloomin business.