Half a house

Jessy103

Great to have you back! Well done on not touching your savings!

Silence101

Thanks! Initially we really thought we would have no savings left by now, but we managed to do things cheaper than planned, and Mr S had a summer job that paid more than I expected, so that really helped. I'm hoping the spending is going to calm down now, apart from the car.

Tomorrow is another spendy day out, as we have to take a few buses as we haven't got a car, and public transport really isn't very cheap when it's the whole family!
We'll soon be back to work/school/home so hopefully we can stick to a stricter budget.

Silence101

Mr S has bought a car on eBay, and as it happens it's just down the road from us, so he can pick it up later on. It does scupper my initial plans of using the deposit towards our savings/OPs, but at least we haven't had to touch our savings yet.
I'm hoping we can have a frugal month but we haven't yet started buying Christmas presents, and I don't even know what to get anyone. We have quite a strict budget as the family is so big, but even being cautious we end up spending quite a bit.

Silence101

We've got the car... after having to talk to the bank's fraud team. Between a new card, a change of address and getting a large amount of cash out of an ATM, it was bound to happen really. But luckily they managed to release their block as soon as they confirmed it was us causing the suspicious activity. I wonder what the ratio is between false alarms on the system and actual fraud.
Mr S has the day off tomorrow, and both children have school in the morning, so we're planning a leisurely stroll in town together.
I've just checked online, and it looks like we've almost overpayed £100 this month. It's quite a bit more than I anticipated for our first month, so hopefully we can match and/or beat that figure every month.

Silence101

So I was doing well with not spending much today, until we went to buy some work trousers for Mr S in primarni... Suddenly I ended up spending about £20 on cushions and throws. It's the first time we've ever thought of a colour scheme in our living room, and it really has been worth spending the money on "pretty things". We've repainted an old unit which has made such a difference, and now all the cushions "work" together. It just looks so much smarter than all the "make do" stuff we had before. We're probably not going to do the same in any other rooms, as everything else is still serviceable, so it seems like a waste of money.
The cushions from the living room were past their best, the covers had been stained and the inners were completely deformed, so it was nice to be able to justify a revamp. Usually we just buy the first things we find and then realise nothing goes together, so having a colour scheme really helped us. And it wasn't any more expensive either, as some cushions were on sale, the rug was on gumtree for next to nothing, and we just bought wall emulsion paint for the unit instead of much more expensive furniture paint. The priciest stuff was the paint stripper, but it was worth using it (and fun too)
We also finally did the charity shop run we have been meaning to do for a while, so that's 6 bags and boxes less in the house.
The new car is nice, but it's a semi automatic, so Mr S is getting used to having no clutch.
I've managed to OP over £100 this month, but will do a final tally tomorrow as it's the last day of the month. I think that because I'm transferring the same amount into the ISA, it doesn't feel like lost money, and I feel I've saved more this last month than in a while, despite all the spending we've had to do. It's no where near what I hoped it would be, (due to the return of the deposit) but considering the unexpected expenses we've had, we've done quite well.
As for my other monthly goals, they've been long forgotten. I will have to try again next month.

wishingthemortgaheaway

You have done brilliantly this month. You are already overpaying, that £100 is worth so much more paying it off in months 1 of year 1, than my £100 does with only 89 months to go (I hope)

I definitely think living rooms are the place to treat yourselves to nice things, it's the place you spend a lot of your time and where most other people vis too.

Well done
Wish

gallygirl

Silence101 wrote: »

It's the first time we've ever thought of a colour scheme in our living room, and it really has been worth spending the money on "pretty things". We've repainted an old unit which has made such a difference, and now all the cushions "work" together. It just looks so much smarter than all the "make do" stuff we had before. We're probably not going to do the same in any other rooms, as everything else is still serviceable, so it seems like a waste of money.

Well now you've unleashed your inner Kirsty Allsop :rotfl:.

Why not look at every room with a critical eye and see what you've got and what is needed. It might not be as expensive as you think - maybe a few cheap cushions, lampshades or rugs could pull together your bedroom for example. Make a list of things and keep an eye out on Gumtree and charity shops as well as Primarni.

Well done, exciting times for you :T.

Silence101

Thanks! The total OP for the month so far really surprised me, because most of the individual amounts were less than £10. I guess it explains why when I'm shopping all the small amounts of each impulse buy always ends up being more than what I expect once I get to the till. :rotfl:

You're right, we probably could do the same with the bedroom, but because it's the last room with a few stray boxes, I find it hard to see it as a finished room. I really wanted to coordinate the bathroom too, but as our towels have a lot of life to them it does seem a waste... Maybe once we reach a milestone on OPs or savings I will treat ourselves to a colour schemed bathroom and bedroom. We'll see.

Garden wise I've been planting bulbs ready for spring. I can't wait for it to be more established, as it's looking very sorry for itself at the moment. I'm planning on buying 2 climbing roses, so in a few years it should hopefully look very lovely. Most of the dead turf seems to have recovered, and come spring we'll plant some more seeds in the gaps. The neighbours garden on one side (who've been there since June) looks really healthy, as they were able to water it in the heatwave. The other neighbours have even deader turf than us, as they're in the process of buying the property and no one has been watering it since beginning of August. I'm not sure if they'll manage to get a deal with the HA to replace it, or if they'll have to leave it until spring, or pay for new turf themselves. It's a pity because it does ruin the look of the garden, and it should have been maintained by the HA during the whole process until keys had been swapped over, in my opinion.

Silence101

After another more expensive than planned shop, I've decided to give myself a challenge. In theory Mr S pays for everything we need, bills and groceries, so I pay for the treats, snacks and presents, but it's getting ridiculous, I'm spending a fortune on unhealthy foods and drinks, and buying cheap little things for the girls, meaning more clutter in the house. So I'm going to give myself £100 for the month (I usually spend at least twice that) and put the rest into the ISA. At the end of the month I'll transfer some back to the mortgage account, but just in case I can't stick to £100 I don't want to go into my overdraft. It's a safety net, but I count on you all to keep me from using it for frivolities Hopefully after Christmas I'll be able to cut that down even more, but it's a start.
We need to sit down and sort out a proper budget, but as long as I'm doing my bit, we should be edging towards our goals as Mr S is a lot more frugal than I am.

VDOT47

Hi Silence - have had a quick read through and it looks like you have a good plan in place. Good luck, and I will follow with interest. That original mortgage free date look scary!


Interesting to see your comments on your new garden - we had huge barren patches in our garden when we moved in (previous owners had two boys who played a lot of football out there) and through the summer I have managed to get the lawn looking much better through regular seeding and watering, but it is a long process and we may end up returfing!