Light the fire...

lucielle

Happy pooch. I’ve just thrown my pack outside as they were annoying me. 

L

woodfired

February at last!  Gosh January seems to last forever and I hate it - roll on spring and the longer days on the horizon now.

We are plodding on over here, busy with DH's new work premises.  We have taken delivery of a new (to us) forklift and have purchased other equipment ready for the move.  We are awaiting a new roof on the property but all the materials are sourced and paid for - it will be up to the weather gods now.  Moving of the business will take place 1st week of April so hopefully the roof gets underway soon.

Elsewhere, the financial plans are ticking along.  I've set up a weekly OP on the shop business loan, this should bring the term down to around 4 years.
The original house mortgage is now withing spitting distance of 200k which is very exciting, I don't regularly OP this as the rate is so good but it's good to see it continue to decrease.

We splashed out last week on a huge treat of a holiday to the Caribbean for late this year.  It was expensive but we said we would travel more with the children before they get too old so this is our first step. It is also my 40th birthday next week so this is partly a celebration of that too. I'm very excited and so are the children, its definitely a departure from the wet caravan holidays we usually take!

lucielle

Holiday sounds amazing! Happy birthday for next week. Hope the business move goes ok which also sounds exciting!  

L

woodfired

Hello.

Long time no speak diary!

A few changes over here and a few changes of plan as a result (I seem to constantly alter our plans lol).

DH moved premises in April and all was going swimmingly until his biggest customer virtually shut down and no longer requires our services.  Eeek. This comes after we had just bought a new unit and spent quite a lot of cash on a new roof and some major upgrades so not ideal timing at all.
This means that we've had to have a huge rethink in terms of our short term goals and try to ride out this, hopefully, short lived blip.  

We had managed to get our shop loan down to £35k which is amazing but I've stopped these OPs for now as DH is not taking a wage from his business for a while and the shop is supporting us financially for now.

Dad's loan is also down to £35k and our house mortgage is £216k so all are dropping nicely and pressing pause on OPs isn't the end of the world.  We are lucky to have the scope in the budget to rearrange our finances to cover our wages in times like this.  Our emergency savings have been badly hit but -again- that is why we have them.  If we hadn't had them then we may have really struggled.

We have been lucky to still get away on holiday as we have our motorhome and lots of bbq-ing whilst away meant we had a really cheap and cheerful trip.  We had lots of fish and chip lunches which were cheap yet felt like a treat and to be fair the food in the restaurants wasn't great anyway.  We live in an area renowned for its amazing pubs and restaurants so always find when we go away that eating out doesn't measure up so we were happy to sit in the sun in the evenings and cater for ourselves.

Our holiday in October was all paid for before we lost our customer so we have a luxury holiday to look forward to despite our troubles.  Hopefully the furniture trade will pick up in the run up to Christmas and our customer may return.  Fingers crossed.

Hope everyone on here is ok, you will probably see more of me on here again as we have a financial reset and tighten our belts.  WF x

woodfired

Just reading back through my diary and noting the progress we have made.  
Business loan stood at £55k this time last year, now only £35 000.  Amazing when I stop and think about it.  If we hadn't OP'd the business loan we could have bought the new unit in cash, however, we are saving 10.12% interest on the shop loan as Dad isn't charging us any interest on his loan bless him.  Shop payments reduced from around £1200 (at approx 90k start of last year) per month to £470 as we overpaid it, giving us more freedom to use that saving for our wages. 

The house mortgage isn't really a priority but the original loan dropped from £205k last year to £196700, again, a good amount to have chipped away.  
We are so fortunate to have been able to reduce these figures and it will stand us in good stead during these slightly leaner times.  

In other news the weather isn't great today and I have lit the woodburner to help dry my washing.  Can't complain about summer though, it's not too bad compared to last year - although we did deserve a break after the horrendous spring!

Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and chillis are ripening nicely in the greenhouse.  Finishing the last of the strawberries now too.  Garden looks really nice this year, I've had more time for it and it shows.  I'm really happy with it.

All washing done and now drying.

Large batch of homemade soup cooked for lunch and I'm going to braise some steak for dinner with HM chips and perhaps a pepper sauce to use up some leftover cream.  

Work all up to date, I'm doing more hours at the moment and I feel more on top of things as a result.

Finally, I've gone back to keeping a budget spreadsheet like I used to at the old house.  Not counting my personal spends account though - just the joint account that the majority of spending goes through.  Interesting to see where money goes and I've culled a few subscriptions etc recently as a result of being more mindful.  It feels good to have a reset and rein in the spending somewhat.  DH is fully on board too which helps.

lucielle

Sorry to read that your OH has lost some business fingers crossed they come back or something bigger and better comes along.   I do like reading your updates from one Lancashire lass to another. 

L

woodfired

Thanks Lucielle, fingers crossed!  I have spent some time reading back through a lot of my diary this past day or two and one recurring theme seems to be worries about DH's business lol.  Every time I have worried in the past things have resolved themselves so hopefully this blip will be no different.
Hope all is well with you.

We have had a productive weekend and a nice weekend too, the house is fairly clean and tidy, the last of the washing is on the line drying - and bleaching some stains out of my tea towels in the sunshine.  We went out yesterday and got all the school shoes, trainers and football boots required for back to school.  The uniform is on order to be delivered this week sometime, I just need a new lunchbox for DS and back to school is organised. 

Popped into our local town for the annual food festival yesterday afternoon; £2 each on the bus over there and only £1 each home on the last bus of the night.  We had a lovely day with friends and watched another friend of mine singing in one of the pubs which was fab. Whilst there I had a gorgeous Chinese chicken skewer dish with hoi sin fries that I have recreated for lunch today - subbing some slow cooked beef for the chicken that I had in the fridge and using some cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes and chillis from the greenhouse.  That may be a new favourite dish, yum.

We are currently meal planning & prepping for a family friendly festival that we travel to on Thursday, there is lots of food available there but I believe the prices are on the high side so we are trying to plan and cook as much as we can before we go.  We are thinking burritos, roast beef for sandwiches and with a potato side for an evening meal, steak/burgers/kebabs to BBQ and the meat sauce for spaghetti bolognaise.  Breakfast can be cereal/toast or bacon/eggs cooked outside on our little camping stove.  We are taking the motorhome so will have a comfy place to sleep and our modern conveniences, I'm not convinced about tenting with no electric etc, it's not for me!

Plans for the rest of today, however, involve an hour or two in the garden swing, reading my kindle in the sunshine.  DH is treating us to a take-away tonight so no cooking for me.  I do need to bring in the washing and fold/put away but that shouldn't take too long.

Happy Sunday everyone x

woodfired

Phew, just got soaked on a bike ride around the hills, it was fine when we set off and I had two loads of washing out on the line.  Half way round the loop the heavens opened and ourselves & the washing are now soaked.  It was seemingly just a heavy shower so I am going to leave the washing out and hope for the best.

We have been away this week to a family festival and then at a wedding on Thursday so the house is a bit disorganised.  I have piles of clean washing needing to be put away and more in the baskets ready to go in the machine.  I've already done two dark loads this morning and I am hoping to get the lights done also today.  I have dumped all the clean clothes on our bed so I have to sort those out before tonight at least and will tidy our room at the same time.

Other plans for today include a hot shower and clean clothes shortly and the fire is lit to have a cosy Saturday afternoon catching up on diaries.

I've got some chicken out of the freezer for homemade flatbreads, salad and marinated chicken for dinner, probably with a glass of wine.

Ill pop back later and report on progress (accountability might help motivate me!) happy Saturday x

woodfired

Hot shower & clean clothes - done
Tidy our bedroom, put all clean washing away - done, wiped down ensuite too.
Complete rest of laundry - final wash in now, most stuff that was on the line is dry & folded

Kitchen tidied & cleaned
Dishwasher unpacked & re loaded
Rest of house tidied through.

Relaxing with laptop now, just need to prep dinner 
Oh and the sun came out 

Happy Saturday indeed x

woodfired

Ah a wet bank holiday Monday.
Poached eggs on crumpets for breakfast and now enjoying a coffee whilst perusing the bank accounts.
I've sent a small OP to the business loan to drop that into the £34ks, we have paused the regular OPs but I cant resist the occasional one to drop us into the next bracket down.  
Paid £1000 to the family loan this week too so that now stands at £35k, I can't wait to clear both of these loans.  I was aiming to clear in two years but at the moment that isn't looking likely.  Chipping away bits will still have an impact though, however small.

We have had a nice bank holiday weekend, lovely wedding on Thursday followed by a lazy Friday which felt like a Sunday.
We went out on our bikes on Saturday then DH met his friends for a couple of hours whilst I pottered about at home.  Bike ride again yesterday, 10 miles over lots of hills and healthy foods including air-fried smashed new potatoes with poached eggs for brunch and then chicken wraps with lots of salad for dinner.  Unfortunately, we then ruined a  good day by joining friends in the pub for a drink (or 6), said friends got married on Thursday then his Dad sadly passed away on Saturday - expected but still very sad - so we felt we should join them, we had a lovely night but I am a bit tired this morning.

I need to do a food shop but may wait until tomorrow, I have a cote de boeuf I picked up cheaply from the wholesalers this week so I may cook that tonight with HM chips & pepper sauce. I can rustle up a pasta salad for lunch from stores so the shopping can wait.  I may just have a quiet day before back to normality tomorrow x