A plan, a budget & a good life

Cariad71

Hi Tradcob,
Just wanted to say I've read all of your diary and I'll be following your journey. Hope you'll be very happy in your new home.

Tradcob

Thankyou Cariad, first mortgage payment is due next week, first step to the very long paying off journey!!! !!!55357;!!!56834;

Tradcob

Not quite sure what is going on with all of those numbers in my previous replys, i certainly didnt type them, must be gremlins haha

Cariad71

How much is the mortgage overall? I think the numbers may be emojis?

Tradcob

The first Mortgage payment came out today, I expect the first payments of bills to all start coming out over the next few days, so I'll be updating my spread sheet to make sure everything is all as expected.
We'll be getting the sofa delivered tomorrow that we ordered before we moved in, so it'll be lovely to have that room sorted. and means no more furniture spending needed!
Going to go food shopping tonight and stock up on some essentials, but other than that I shouldn't need to spend any money this weekend- yey!!!


We've been having a look at Wedding planning too- I thought we had found somewhere perfect but when we went to check it out they are not renewing their marriage licence- which is annoying! We are not wanting anything too big or fancy- just a relaxed day, ideally with the ceremony and reception at the same location. ah well.... we'll keep looking!

List_Maker

Hey!
Sounds like you have a lot figured out already.
Something that I have seen on MSE Forums, that I am going to start doing next month in anticipation to starting a family within the next 2 years is to put those specific savings into Premium Bonds. The reasoning being that you have to apply to withdraw them (takes around 7 days), so can almost use it as a monthly income for when you are on maternity. Obviously you are not getting any interest on it, and slim chances of a win. But in my head I would rather have them there rather than in a linked savings that is too easily accessed.
I have done some spreadsheet workings with OH salary, Mat Pay, PB savings at £200 pm and our monthly figure looks more than do-able!

Tradcob

Hi all!

Whoops, I!!!8217;ve not updated in a while! I did type out a long response to your post List maker, but unfortunately it wouldn!!!8217;t post at the time and I had a strop at the forum!!!8230;. I!!!8217;m over that now hahaha!

Well, we!!!8217;ve been in our house for over a month now, so have starting getting the first bills in. and the money saving has been ticking along nicely
We have had a water meter installed and the smart meter for the gas/ electric is booked in


We have now pretty much finished with furnishing the house, again just useful bits to pick up as and when, nothing urgent!


Both my partner and I have sold some shares we had, so those have gone straight in the Wedding fund along with a bit of a bonus from work J which I am happy to report is up to £4500, so definitely getting there!!


Unfortunately not been able to get any extra hours in at work as I!!!8217;ve been feeling poorly over the past couple of weeks, but on the mend now I think.


I!!!8217;ve topped up on supplies for the cats which I think should see us through the rest of March and April, I!!!8217;ve been trying to stock up on other essentials for the kitchen/ bathroom- wondering if switching to laundry powder instead of tablets might be the way to go, but I guess I!!!8217;ll make my mind up about that when I!!!8217;ve used up what we have.


Looking forward to a dry weather weekend as I really want to get out in the garden and have my friend popping over as well, so that will be lovely!

Cinny91

Loved catching up on your diary and wanted to wish you good luck!

selloptape

Wedding fund is nearly there - well done! Hope you find a lovely venue soon

Tradcob

Hello!

So an update from myself.

We have paid the deposit for the wedding and are half way there in terms of savings- I’m pretty proud of that!

Savings pot (Maternity savings) is now at £3166- I Tilly tidy into this account and am finding that I’ve got more available at the end of the month than expected- so its growing nicely!

I’ve made an extra payment to the student loan as I would love to get this gone for good- I think it should be about £3500 left to pay but I want to confirm that with the student loan company (that should be fun?!). this is the only ‘debt’ that either myself or my OH have apart from the mortgage so I want it GONE for good!

I’ll have some more shares available to sell at the beginning of July, so need to have a think about which pot they will go into.

Jobs list that will take up some of the spare cash in the next month:

Getting the trees in our garden trimmed- they are a bit wild!!! No idea how much this will be, but need to ask for quotes

Stock the freezer up with meat- we have officially eaten everything from our last stock up and I do like knowing that we have meat available- it makes skipping shopping/ just getting the basics so much easier as we know that we’ll have things in for tea.

Other than that its business as usual! Saving cash and allocating it to the right pot!!!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!!