Our Patch of England

tootallulah

It has been fine weather for ducks Cinny, I felt trapped so having a LO must have been tough. I used to track the cost of the mortgage interest per day it is a good motivator to pay off as much as possible even if it is only a few pounds, you do see it going down a few pennies every month - makes you feel you are making real baby steps progress.

Cinny91

wishingthemortgaheaway wrote: »

If you have a current account that pays interest,
You could gain a few days worth of interest from the money just sitting there.

Oh, that is a good point! We've always just had our bills come out the same time our monthly wage goes in to have everything squared up. We have already changed our tv and mobile bills since I posted, but these don't amount to a great deal. Big one to get a bit more interest on would be the mortgage payment.

It was horrible weather wasn't it Tootallulah? LO is with my parents today, I've had photos of him in their garden/down at a cafe so hopefully he'll be cream crackered tonight. The last few evenings have been rough, we'd just been getting full nights sleep and thinking "oh, maybe another kid wouldn't be too hard" and then we're back to running on a couple hours kip

I really can't wait to see it come down. Will feel like such a big step to get it under £10 a day, I hope we'll be able to get a much better interest rate once our fixed term is up.

Spent £5 at the shops just now, £4 on shampoo and conditioner and £1 on some mints for my handbag. I've also returned a dress I bought with some of my birthday money, which'll be £13.49 back in the bank when it's processed. Will just leave it there to add to the loan repayment as I don't really need another dress.

Cinny91

Hey anyone!

Sorry for the unexpected hiatus. I'm not terribly great at this diary business. We've had quite a bit happen so in a nutshell:

• Mortgage stands at £120540.36 no OP as yet as...
• We had around £2,750 of unexpected "stuff" (cars, house things etc) pop up that we cash flowed a little as it's stalled plans but equally as we did manage the unexpected costs with our wages
• We still have a small amount outstanding on our loan because of the above too - but our monthly repayments are down from £472.78 to £175.40. For the time being we're letting this tick over as ~*manageable*~ so we can focus on some other goals
• DH was given a promotion at work, along with a salary increase and a whole new field to sink his teeth into. So lovely to see him excited about work again, he's started his new position this week!
• I, however, have agreed to cut my hours (and wage) in half as of next Autumn and job share within the family company with my Sister (who's due to have her first in December, and wants a change of work pace after her LO is here :T)
• Due to this we've been saving half of my wage each week, so our savings will slowly grow now we're over the hump of our busy birthday months/MOT season etc
• We've also had 3 quotes to replace our windows, something that does need doing but will take some saving. The cheapest quote came in at £5600, and I honestly don't think we can get what we want lower than that. Will obviously add a little value to the property too.

Phew! Plus we've had a lot of family/life smattered in there too, some heartache but the good memories we've made have 100% outweighed that. I have, in all honesty, felt a bit like a hamster stuck in a wheel in terms of our financial goals. I do know we're very lucky, we live comfortably and our only financial strain is put on us by ourselves - but it's still been a little niggling feeling. However, since DH has been paid this month I feel like hitting reset.

So, I've set up a meal plan for me and LO. DH is still on his diet, doing his own thing and has lost over 60lb now so I'm super proud, even if I couldn't stomach it myself. Bonus is as DH doesn't like tomato based dishes I'm getting to make myself and LO lots of budget friendly, frugal but healthy meals. It's still a fight to get him to eat his veggies, but it's a battle I'm slowly winning (Actually found a photo of him at about 8 months old eating avocado and peaches - where's that kid at?!) I did a huge shop last night, spent £90.07 :eek: but it'll be enough to keep us going for a while, I might just need to get the odd bits of fresh produce here and there.

Slipped into an old habit of forgetting to bring lunch to work - so either buying something, or gently starving through the day leading me to make bad choices when I got home. Today I've packed up a tuna sandwich, some strawberries and an apple.

Also had our utilities at their lowest last month. £31 on electric, £9 on gas. Getting our electricity down is definitely something to work on this month, this house just seems to eat it up! One thing I can do, and need to do, is turn the washing machine off when I'm not using it as the plug isn't as hidden as it was in our old house and it's just wasteful to not do it.

Managing to find a lot of fun locally, and cheap/free. Spending a lot of time in our garden, one draw of our home was the low maintenance garden (just hedges to trim!) so we're getting to do a lot of playing, sitting, reading etc. I've signed LO up to some groups on a Friday/Monday, the latter has a really small/reasonable fee but as we're holding him back from Nursery I want to make sure he sees plenty of other kids. Also discovered the best charity shops for books, LO loves nothing more than a good train book so I've found some beautiful ones for £1 an under, plus some vintage Enid Blyton storybooks. Had to draw the line and stop picking them up now, but I'm very pleased with my bargains! And also pleased to be reading LO stories where children are polite to their parents, and enjoy doing chores :rotfl:

Anyway! Goals for July are:

• Try to live off of DH's wages alone.
• Work on reducing electricity usage.
• Finally make our first OP of £200 (minimum)

Cinny91

Morning anyone!

Woke up early this morning to prep tea, having pasta and meatballs so needed to make the meatballs and get the sauce put together and on for a long simmer. Just need to heat the sauce up, throw the meatballs in to cook and we're rooting tooting on the trains. Leftovers tomorrow for meatball subs too!

DH is at the cinema tonight, free tickets with a friend so that'll be nice little break from routine for him. We're also at the cinema for a date night on Friday and my Sister is playing baby sitter, but we have vouchers from Christmas to cover the cost and I tend to eat a big dinner on Friday as I take LO to see my Grandparents so have no plans to be eating out

£25.28 TT into the OP pot this morning, very excited about this! I need to get a form together to set up a regular OP - I'm wanting to maybe have this somewhere between the £200-300 mark with the plan being that we save the OP amount up through the month via odds and ends until the payment date. Any overage from that we'll save up until it's a larger amount (£500-1000) and do as a lump sum payment. We're also saving for windows beside this, needing to find the OP/Living(aka: home improvements) balance in that sense.

Still, the sun is shining and I'm feeling very positive today :dance:

Cinny91

Woke up before the rest of the house again this morning, I've got back into my old ways of being an early riser this week and I feel much better and productive for it. It's great for fitting in more time consuming chores - like giving the bathroom/kitchen a good scrub. Don't have to keep my eyes on little hands trying to "help" with chemicals. Also just good for getting the washing out on the line early!

Pasta and meatballs went down a treat last night, really looking forward to our faux-Subw@y subs tonight! Although I completely spaced on having a meeting after work, was hoping to be home by 4:30 but will more likely be 6:30

TT of £13.01 Bank is looking very healthy too, sitting at £1000 with £235.30 worth of monthly bills still to come out (Council Tax, life insurance etc) and DH has taken my car to have the air con fixed today. My wages hit the bank every Friday, due to be paid a total of £913 through June.

Our goal, a bit of a switch, is to pay the loan off as best we can in June. I'm still going to maintain a £200 OP to the mortgage, but the merit in paying the loan off will mean we can roll the repayment amount into having a £400 pm OP This would help us pay the mortgage off 7 years earlier :j

Have a nice day planned with LO tomorrow, not terribly MSE as it would be cheaper cost wise to drive, but we're going to get the bus to see my Grandparents. A little apprehensive as, with having a car, I never get the bus anywhere but it'll be a fun adventure. Also taking him to a new playgroup before hand, I just hope it's not all a little too much for him. Sure he'll fall asleep on me if it is!

tootallulah

It all sound great Cinny - it's a marathon so cash flowing things will always happen along the way.

Kids do love the bus, me less so! N Notts looking very beautiful isn't it?

Cinny91

It's absolutely stunning at the moment! I always forget how green it is, we're very lucky to have such gorgeous places on our doorstep And thanks, it's hard not to get discouraged when things come up but it's bound to happen!

Bus trip was a success, however I did call on DH to pick us up as honestly - that thing was like an oven on wheels! LO was just getting redder and redder as the journey went on, I might save the next trip until cooler weather

Another success was LO's free trial music class this morning, was so well planned and the woman running it was lovely. I've signed him up for a 10 week block, so that'll be £40 to pay next Monday. Need to keep up my courage and take him to a play group at a local church on Friday mornings before we head over to my grandparents, I bailed on it last week It's just so warm!

Also ordered 2 more gifts to stash away for little dude for Christmas, have a balance on a gift card DH was given for 3 years with his company so will only be £9.34 out of our budget for the rest. We do already have 2 things hidden in the loft and a book preordered, so he's pretty much set. Just need to pick them up on Thursday. Feel a little too organised to be fair, but it'll give us the time and budget to have lots of fun days out through December like we did last year

£44.65 was also spent on a DIY project to paint the kitchen cabinets. My parents are having LO for the night on Wednesday so I'm hoping we can get the lions share of it done then. I'm really excited as while I love the design of the kitchen cabinets I'm not sold on the colour combination. A completely new kitchen is a long way down the line in terms of priorities but this will at least put our stamp on it in the interim Next job after this, and while the getting is good weather wise, is to attack the flaking masonry paint on the bay windows. But lets not get ahead of ourselves!

TT pot is now at £63.25 :j

tootallulah

The TTing is going very well. I am loving this weather and how beautiful everything looks I went to Clumber last week - GORGEOUS. Music sounds good, hope the painting went well.

Cinny91

Oh I love taking LO to Clumber, lovely and shaded too in this weather. Although I am happier it's a bit cooler now, so is our dog who's taken to an early shedding thanks to the heat!

Kitchen is painted, handles changed and I picked up some fabric from the market on Saturday to make some curtains to cover where the bins live. I'm really happy with how it looks, and DH commented that it turned out "much nicer than he expected" Such faith

I also painted the fireplace surround in the front room, as well as the TV stand. That room was furnished with odds-and-ends, which is fine as it's very functional but so many shades of wood was driving me a bit bonkers. Glad to have some continuity to it now, for basically free in that the paint was left over from another project.

Paid £40 yesterday for LO's classes. I also picked up one half of his "for Christmas" order, the other half has seemingly vanished from the system but I hadn't pre-paid so I'm not all that fussed to chase it up.

I used some money I had to one side to buy myself some dresses, however they were all a little weird so they'll all be returned today. Refunds will go in the OP pot DH was saying about maybe aiming for a £400 OP, but I'd still be happy with £200. Heck.. 1p is better than what we've been doing!

Feel like I'm semi coming here with my tail between my legs, however. DH's car sprung up a row of problems in a relatively short amount of time, and as he travels a lot for work it just wasn't working for him anymore. The bonus being we jumped the gun, sold the car (to a garage who know the faults, no shady selling!) and got enough to clear the loan. The downside is, we have a new fresh loan for the new car :doh: DH does get an allowance from work for a car, and we do have plans to pay it down quicker. We've done it before, so it's not impossible, but we will need to put bigger home improvements firmly on the back burner.

Oh! And I was given £30 over the weekend from my Grandparents for "fuel" for going to visit them on Fridays, it's completely unnecessary as I love our Friday mid-days together but they don't take no for an answer so I've popped it all into LO's money box. It'll be "his" spending money when he go on our little holiday, it'll probably be totally spent on trains and ice creams but hey ho. Such is the life of a toddler!

Cinny91

OP pot is now at £160.66, slowly squirreling it away! It's nice to be pulling the OP together from bits around the edges, it does feel like we're chipping away at things for nothing.

Only issue is that we can't even look at a simple mortgage statement online, so we'll need to go into branch to do the OP or one of us will need to call up. Easily sorted, just a smidgen of extra effort!

Started working on updating LO's wardrobe - things get a lot of wear and are just looking a little tired now. I've got 4 like new-tops from the CS's for all of £1.98, also found him some replica football kit shorts in DH's home team stripes for all of 24p. CS's never fail to amaze me! Also ordered him his puddle suit for this A/W making the most of the summer sales, and have some new trousers/dungarees stashed away from the post-Christmas sales.

Still sticking to meal planning, trying to cook bigger dishes so we have left overs of the main the following day. Like tonight we have left over cottage pie, tomorrow is meat loaf with left overs again on Wednesday. Easy peasy :money:

Not much else to report really! Looking forward to DH's payday, our new way of budgeting this month means we're rolling towards it with a few hundred still in the bank which feels like nothing short of a miracle. From next month we'll be working hard on savings so will have more to report there, we're both desperate to get this loan paid down again. I'm still getting waves of frustration when I remember it's back :wall: