Making savings before it's too late

tori.k

What an amazing trip LL, Kittie im keeping my fingers crossed that this is the one.
We are now officially broke, offer was excepted due to our position, so the clock is ticking,
Mortgage application is being done Monday this is a very straight forward deal as the property is only 10 years old and no changes other than a conservatory has been added (no building regs required)so looking to a 12 week completion date.
its a little higher than i wanted on a mortgage but it doesn't need a new kitchen or bathroom so that money we would have spent out on the house that fell through so its around the same but im unsure now if this will be our last move, being newer its bigger than we would require so would have the option to downsize one last time if we wanted.
Already told DH holidays are off the table for the next couple years to bring our plan back on track i still intend to be mortgage free in ten years or sooner despite the extra outlay. which is possible luck willing but will be tight for the first couple years.

lessonlearned

Hello everyone........I have a confession to make.

Today I was accepted on to my college course so I celebrated by buying myself a handbag I have been lusting after.

I know, I know, but at least it was on sale. £40 instead of £110. :rotfl:

Getting very cold here again, apparently more snow is on the way. :eek:

lessonlearned

Great news about the house. :T

Tough about the holiday but maybe you might be able to pick up a last minute cheapie or groupon deal.

As a solo traveller I struggle to find travel bargains at times but if there are two of you then you can get some really good deals.

Blackcatsreturns

Lessons learned - handbags at bargain prices don!!!8217;t need confessions, they need celebrations.
Tori that is great news about the house, really exciting and I am sure you will get that mortgage down really quickly.
I have a couple of birthday gifts to fund this month, one is a cash gift and I am waiting for suggestions for the other but will stick carefully to my gift budget as this was an area of ridiculously high expenditure last year. I know my family would rather we spent time together than getting expensive gifts and my change in spending habits is to help me retire a bit early.
I have a Mother!!!8217;s Day present already which I bought using vouchers from my credit card. I need to buy a card and I am going to attempt to make a cake to take to my mums on Sunday. I am not a proficient baker by any stretch of the imagination but I know mum will appreciate my efforts. Any suggestions for a foolproof cake recipe?

Blackcatsreturns

Drat - I tried really hard to avoid apostrophes in my last post but one sneaked in. Very irritating

lessonlearned

The apostrophes are an absolute nuisance. I wish they would fix the problem.

I am not very good at baking either - understatement of the year. :rotfl:

However I can just about manage a banana cake, it seems pretty foolproof.

pigpen

I am quite good at baking I just hate doing it.. I hate the mess and the clearing away and the time it takes and to top it all ... I do not like cake!

I don't buy for birthdays or mothers day or any of that commercial rubbish.. I get my children a birthday present for under £20 and OH for fathers day..

Today I turned off my heating.. until November.

Blackcatsreturns

Mmmm I love banana cake. Do you have a recipe?
I agree that there is too much commercialism associated with the various !!!8220;days!!!8221; valentines, mothers, fathers etc but I know that it means something to my mum. Neither of my brothers live in this country and they forget to even send her a card!
Easter is also highly commercialised now and is another excuse for the shops to try and extract our money from our purses. I shall try to resist the barrage of Easter offers.
Well done for turning off your heating. I!!!8217;m not quite ready to do that yet. Soon, I hope.

Gem-gem

Blackcatsreturns wrote: »

Drat - I tried really hard to avoid apostrophes in my last post but one sneaked in. Very irritating

Hello,I'm a lurker. I had the problem with apostrophe and onone of the forums someone posted a link o how to sort it out. Do you have an I-phone? I do and I had to going into settings ... the keyboard ( just going to find the crumb path then will hopefully give you the rest of the instructions).

Setting .. general... keyboard ... smart punctuation ( turn it to off) that should sort your issue with the ' out.

[Deleted User]

I check my bank accounts every morning, ever since someone took money from a cc, I see that my april statement has just been issued. I managed to keep on top of it and have just paid over the last £95 to clear it. So another clean start to the next month. I use cc online a lot, for added safety

Its time for me to cut back on electricity this month, used extra last month, keeping the house fabric and myself, warm. I filled gaps in the freezer with blocks of ice and that certainly lowers the running cost, they will stay in a top empty drawer. I have an unexpected bill of £400, should have noted it in m/s bills but forgot. I will be able to pay it this month and might even be able to top up the bills account to the right amount. It has been a fairly frugal month so far but march gives quite a good savings opportunity, probably the best in the year. I still have a lot of food so will use what I have during next month too

over 65 bond matures soon and I will be taking it in cash, £1200 in interest and must remember that I will be paying tax on any interest over £1000. I shall `save` an extra amount in my bills account, calculate 25% of any interest over £1000. All to easy to forget about interest and that extra bit over the right tax amount will add up to a small bonus at the end of the year