julicorn's journey

EagerLearner

julicorn wrote: »

Hello Twinsie! :j :beer: That's actually a pretty incredible list of similarities! And there was me thinking I was one of a kind :rotfl:

:T:rotfl: Now you just need to admit to loving crime drama, Thai being one of your favourite foods and a slight and random TV crush on Jeffrey Dean Morgan and we were officially separated at birth :rotfl:

Great progress on your goals!

julicorn

EagerLearner wrote: »

:T:rotfl: Now you just need to admit to loving crime drama, Thai being one of your favourite foods and a slight and random TV crush on Jeffrey Dean Morgan and we were officially separated at birth :rotfl:

Great progress on your goals!

Only 1 1/2 of these are true for me.

Thanks you! :heart2:

julicorn

The weekend definitely went way too quickly! We went out for lunch yesterday with some friends (but managed to scrape that money together from a few remaining categories, and also from some Tesco vouchers I got on the weekend), and are now well and truly YNAB broke for the rest of the month. Well no, actually, I just put £20 aside for some drinks with colleagues on Thursday, but that will be it!

Just received some money a few weeks earlier than expected which is awesome, so managed to make another £600 OP, bringing our total for the month to £2,000! This also means we'll "only" be able to overpay by £600 or so next month, rather than our usual target of £1,200, but I guess paying it a little bit early will save a teeny tiny bit of interest. Every little helps! That's us done for the month though unless I suddenly win the lottery.

julicorn

The regular payment and overpayment has just gone through, and we're now down to 70% LTV according to our online account :j

(August has definitely been a milestone month)

We're also going to Center Parcs with Mr julicorn's family on Friday, I'm so excited. Wave machine and pancakes, here we come!

greent

Hope you've had a fab time at CP! We loved the rapids there
x

julicorn

Thanks greent! We just got back from Center Parcs, and had an amazing time there. The rapids were awesome, also the spa was unreal! Went their yesterday with my MIL, and there are so many rooms you can barely see them all in 3 hours. Loved it!

We're even thinking about going back there for a mid-week break for Mr julicorn's birthday in February, that's how much we enjoyed it. Will have to see whether they let me take a few extra days off at work for that.

greent

julicorn wrote: »

Thanks greent! We just got back from Center Parcs, and had an amazing time there. The rapids were awesome, also the spa was unreal! Went their yesterday with my MIL, and there are so many rooms you can barely see them all in 3 hours. Loved it!

We're even thinking about going back there for a mid-week break for Mr julicorn's birthday in February, that's how much we enjoyed it. Will have to see whether they let me take a few extra days off at work for that.

Ooh - book soon, if you're going to go - they do a deal for booking just after you've been

Glad you enjoyed. I never made it to the spa!

julicorn

greent wrote: »

Ooh - book soon, if you're going to go - they do a deal for booking just after you've been

That's really useful to know, thank you very much! We've got money put aside for holidays already, so will be able to book later this week I reckon (after checking with work about booking time off that week). Just looked it up, we need to book within a month - without your advice we may well have left it longer. Thanks again! :j

julicorn

Hi everyone!
Quick update, as we're currently in Germany for a wedding (flew put yesterday at stupid o'clock in the morning, flying back tomorrow). This is wedding 3 out of 4 this year, with the final one also being in Germany and also a day before my birthday - how dare they! :rotfl:

Anyway, the start to this month has been a bit of a car crash as far as the budget goes, but we're "rolling with the punches" as YNAB likes to call it. The little trips away meant we're eating out more than we normally would, and somehow we ended up at some outlet center yesterday and blew the clothes budget as well. All on stuff we kinda needed anyway though, so I don't feel particularly guilty about it.
We should find out whether my husband is getting his holiday approved for February, and will then hopefully book that Center Parcs trip for his birthday. It's funny how that is lots more money, but entirely guilt-free because already budgeted for!

Either way, I hope you all have a lovely weekend

julicorn

Just a little updated, because it's been a while (for my standards at least).

I'm off ill today. Caught that annoying cold that's been going round last few weeks. I dragged myself into work Monday and yesterday because we had some important project to finish up, but feel like I should really get some rest now.

In terms of overpayments, nothing much has happened this month. Made a small overpayment of £50 at the start of the month, but that's it until pay day next week. It's been a difficult month so far, as mentioned previously, and we've been shuffling money around a lot. But it's ok, I think we'll make it work (and not every month can be a walk in the park like August was!).

Mr julicorn just got his holiday approved, so we're off to Center Parcs for his birthday in February! Just booked it and can't wait. (What I kind of love about 0-based budgeting is that even in a month where I'm shuffling money around I can still book a holiday without feeling guilty because we budgeted for it and have been saving for it for a few months. This one will be fully funded including the accommodation, train tickets, dinners, spa and spending money in November, 3 months before we actually need it!).

Finally, I've decided to slowly start putting some money aside for the long term (aside from the pensions we already pay into) and want to open a S&S ISA next month. I was a bit reluctant so far because I want us to overpay the mortgage as much as possible and use that as a way to save up for a deposit, but at the same time that's probably not a good reason to ignore longer-term investment entirely. Will start of slow with £100/month and see where we go from there

Hope you're all having a lovely week x