PinknSparkly's Mortgage Wannabe savings dairy

pinknsparkly

So we've finally managed to succeed in our efforts to do the least MSE-friendly thing possible.... I'm 4.5 weeks pregnant with a mini-Pink :shocked: :happyhear :shocked: :happyhear After so many years of one bad diagnosis after another, each one making it less and less likely that I'd be able to conceive, I'm in a huge amount of (very very very happy!) shock.

It's so strange having such a major piece of news in your life that you're not supposed to tell anyone about though. I have told my closest friend as, god forbid, if anything happens I know I'd need her support. She's been an absolute rock through the entire process, always 100% convinced that it was going to happen for me, even when I'd pretty much lost all hope. Over the last several months we've (I've!) really upped our game in terms of changing up our diets, taking stupid amounts of supplements, taing daily temperature readings to track ovulation but in the depths of my heart I was convinced that it wouldn't work. I was only adamant that we tried everything so if it didn't work, at least I'd know we'd tried everything we could!

In less exciting, more :mad::mad::mad: news, our bank account has been hacked and £1000 has been pinched. I am a bit paranoid, and always try to keep as little money in there as possible, but they'd managed to transfer the £500 float I keep in an online savings account attached to the joint account to the main account, and transferred that, plus the joint account balance plus the overdraft.... Grrrrr. Natwest have been great though, and said the money will be back in our account tomorrow so fingers crossed it appears. It does mean I've just had to change all of my banking details (as I'm not sure how they got the details, and would rather be safe than sorry!).

My most recent TopCashBack payout has pushed my total mortgage overpayments to another month chopped off our mortgage free date which I'm very happy about :j

savingwannabe

Congratulations on your happy news. Another Pinki to cheer us up. It's great to hear. :j:beer::D:):A

However it is v sad to hear about the bank account. I am so glad you will get it back from the bank. How scary.

JennyJukes

Aww pink, so happy for you!! Can feel through my screen how much it means to you!! (Or am I just hormonal too??) Is your PHD done?
Shame about your bank but glad it will be sorted - I have had my card details stolen before (someone from Mexico?!) and the bank were really good and I got it back.
Yay for another month chopped off!

Skint_yet_Again

Aw Pink such lovely news about baby Pink :j :T:happyhear

My bank card has been skimmed twice and the first time the transactions were stopped it was in the paper lots of people had the same after using a local petrol garage ! The second time one top up card £10 went through, two further £10 top ups were stopped and £3000 attempt to buy flights on Australian airłines :eek: thankfully also stopped. I also bank with natwest and they were brilliant. I got back the £10 next day. Hope you get yours sorted too.

kirtsypoos

Delurking to say HUGE congratulations!

pinknsparkly

Gah!! Just wrote a long update and then lost it all just before posting it!

Thanks all for your best wishes, and sorry for the radio silence. It's been a fun month filled with extreme tiredness and constant nausea (thanks pregnancy!), everyone in my house coming down with one heavy cold after another (despite all of us having had the flu jab) and trying to fit in doing my PhD thesis corrections around a full time job and the strong desire to retreat to bed at every available opportunity :rotfl: I'm 10 weeks pregnant today, and am keeping everything crossed that it's true that you feel a lot better in the second trimester!

I need to update my signature, but our mortgage overpayments have been trundling along steadily. I sent over another £100 this morning as we both got our £50 cashback for opening a Natwest Invest account. We've "owned" the house (or rather, been sharing ownership with the bank!) for exactly a year now, and in that time we've managed to shave off 21 months from our total mortgage term, which is just bonkers! However, that level of overpayments won't be sustainable long term with the arrival of a miniPink and our lodger moving out in January.

savingwannabe

I am so sorry about the morning sickness and the colds. Fantastic news on overpaying on your mortgages.

Skint_yet_Again

Hope the morning sickness passes soon Pink. I had vertigo when I was pregnant and still remember how ill I felt over 20 years later


Hope you have a lovely Christmas x

ginnyknit

Great news, and you have lots of time to get organised. Take care x

pinknsparkly

Thanks all! The nausea is still here, but I can't complain too much as I honestly thought we'd never even be able to conceive! We've got our 12 week scan on 3rd January, when most of my colleagues are still off work so I've had to do a mega rearranging of work locations to make sure I can attend the scan but I've managed to make it all work!

Hope you've had lovely Christmases all round. Ours was a very quiet one in the end, we'd planned on staying home in case my husbands grandparents couldn't make it to his auntie's for Christmas. That's what happened last year so we cooked Christmas dinner at our house and drove it over to them on the day. But, very happily, they were able to make it to her house and by all accounts had a wonderful day. So our day was spent playing board games with the two of us plus the cat. For "Christmas dinner" we ordered a very untraditional pizza with a side of cheesy meatballs and deep fried mozzarella and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! We then met up with my husbands family on Boxing day for dinner at a pub near them, which we do every year. I won't be seeing my family in mid January when we'll be celebrating my uncle's 60th. I finished work Xmas Eve and am back on the 2nd, and am spending all my time off work with my head in my laptop working on my PhD thesis instead :rotfl: I also couldn't face what is usually a five hour drive to my parents house each way when I know we'd need to stop every 45 minutes to stop me being sick!! The 60th celebration in January are only a couple of hours away and we'll have had the scan by then so will start telling everyone the news :T

I got a lovely financial end to 2019 yesterday.... A cheque for £3,750 turned up from HMRC, which is our stamp duty refund. We erroneously thought that I was not a first time buyer but it turns out I was. That will be going to the bank in the new year and into our ISAs