Half a house

Silence101

Oh, how fun for you

Mr S had an unexpected day off work so he did the party runs instead. I got to enjoy the sunshine

Even though the girls are both exhausted, they're still not asleep yet. We took them for a walk to use the last of their energy but it's not quite worked.

Silence101

In an attempt to save money, I've switched from a premium brands of dishwashing tablets to a £1 box ones, but the difference is rather extreme. So now I'm wondering if I should try a supermarket own, so in between the 2 brands I've tried, or use the very cheap ones one month, and the premium ones the next. I guess if the supermarket own does an okay job it'll still be cheaper than the premium ones. I might experiment with the cheap ones we have currently and put them on the bottom of the machine instead of the dispenser, and see if that improves their performance.

We managed to find a free compost bin someone was giving away, so it's now standing proudly in our garden. I'm thinking of planting hollyhocks around it to hide it a bit.

We're a bit worried about our flower bed one on side, as the neighbours want to replace the fence, and I have no idea how they can do it without disturbing our flowers, especially as they're talking about doing it quite soon, so the flowers might be in full bloom and rather fragile to try and move to give them space to work. But maybe it's a less messy job than I think it is.

Silence101

NSD the last few days (apart for driving lessons, but those are basically a necessary bill, instead of spur of the moment spends).

Sending tiny amounts to the ISA, but our tax credits have been drastically cut this year, so I think we'll be dipping in our savings a lot more, instead of being able to save anything. The cuts are due to increase wages, but it means I'm the one who has taken a "pay cut" while Mr S has better wages. We don't have a joint account as he does the bills and most of the necessary spending, but it does mean I have to be really careful with what I buy. I don't really like having such a small budget as it quickly gets wiped out if the girls need anything, so I'm trying to figure out how I can bring money into the house, but I'm not having much luck at the moment.
There's also the stress of trying to build up savings so we can overpay regularly.

wishingthemortgaheaway

Maybe you need to renew the finances then, it doesn't seem right that he makes all the gains and you take all the losses. Maybe you could split the difference and he sets up a monthly standing order to your account.

Silence101

Yes, we probably should soon.
Although my spending is more the frivolous kind, and school related stuff, so maybe it's a good exercise to try and cut back on it. But the summer holidays are coming up, and they're going to be expensive no matter what we do. It's a tricky balance, especially as the wage increase was mostly due to a summer job Mr S took to be able to pay for the fees for the house, so it's not money we've got available to spend. I'm sure we'll get used to the new budget soon.

It is scary how the lifestyle creep has happened in the last year or so. I thought we'd be immune to it having had some very lean years previously, but no, we've been spending what we have instead of saving the difference. I think we're going to have to really knuckle down and be a lot stricter with ourselves if we want our money to go further.

Silence101

I would love to be able to get this mortgage paid off in the next 10 years. It means overpaying £5000 a year, which is basically impossible on Mr S's salary alone, but we can try to get as close as we can.
I was hoping to try and be self employed when the youngest starts school, but maybe a part time (or even full time job) will be necessary to reach that goal, especially as we will need to apply for another mortgage for the second half.
We also don't really know if our finances will be acceptable to try and get a better deal at the end of this fixed deal, so our mortgage payments may well go up substantially at the end of 2019. We managed to get our current deal thanks to them taking the child tax credits in account, and as these have been cut drastically they might not think we earn enough for another fixed deal. If the Universal Credits roll out between now and then, we'll lose all tax credits, so we need to start getting used to the new budget before then.

I've booked my driving test, and I think it means I'll be spending another £300 on lessons between now and then. I don't know if I'll be ready then, but I might as well try.

wishingthemortgaheaway

If you stay with the same provider you can usually refix for free with no fees. We've done that each time we've refixed. I just go on line a few clicks and it's all sorted. We may have been able to get slightly cheaper else where, but my time is valuable,
So with my time taken inot accounts and the fees we would have paid, I think it's probably about even.

Silence101

Oh, that's good to know! Thanks!

Silence101

Before moving, we decluttered a lot, but now things are piling up again, so I need to do another round. There's stuff we haven't used since we moved, so it is probably safe to get rid of.
The youngest is also growing out of clothes so I need to sort those out.

I'd like to do a carboot one day, but I don't think our stuff is worth the effort, but maybe we should try it one day.

I still can't believe how quickly things accumulate, and it's made worse as I'm so untidy, and so are the girls. Mr S tidies as he goes, but that good habit hasn't rubbed off on me yet...

Silence101

Lovely day seeing family today.

Spent far too much on picnic stuff though.

Eldest has been asking to do a craft activity for the past few days, but I keep saying no because the house is a state and getting the paints and scissors out will just make it worse, so the plan is to try and tidy up enough this evening so she can finally do the activity she wants.

I've got a driving lesson this week, but I'm going to have to think of free activities to do for the rest of the week in an attempt to avoid dipping into our savings next week.
I was hoping to take the girls to the kids cinema this week, but not sure we can afford it. It's frustrating for me, because we have the money sitting in our savings, but if we want to make a dent in the mortgage, we can't afford to spend it on other stuff/activities. But I guess if we keep dipping into it, we'd have less to show for it in a few years time. It's a difficult balance, and I'm not sure we're dealing with it properly. Maybe our goals should be less extreme, so it gives us more freedom for spur of the moment things, or maybe we should try to be more frugal on a day to day basis so we can afford to do these type of things on our monthly income.

Basically I just need to win the lottery and then I can have both the extreme goals and can afford spur of the moment stuff too. Easy!