I am being upgraded from Mum to Nan - I need a plan!

beanielou

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

That is a pain re the way Halifax assign payments and yes it means paying £3700 to Halifax by November to avoid paying interest on the Halifax 2 deal. That looks unrealistic on your budget and income so inevitably a balance transfer will be needed unless you are happy to take your savings very low. In total you will need to pay £1317 by August to Barclaycard and £3701 to Halifax by November so £5018 in total.

The monthly £350 will clear the Barclaycard 1 by August assuming the whole monthly payment comes off Barclaycard 1 deal. That is an additional £180 you need to find though on top of the £170 you currently pay. You have £100 surplus though and if you cancel mortgage overpayment that is another £47 so just £33 monthly either to come from savings on other budgets or from your emergency savings. After August you can concentrate on Halifax.

Great advice.
You are a whizz.

Mum2Nan

Thanks for stopping by daisy_jean, yes I love my cats dearly; Laurel & Hardy, very appropriate really as they wind each other up every now and then.

Thanks for confirming the numbers Enthusiastic. Grim reading but like you say once Barclaycard 1 is out of the way I can concentrate on Halifax.

Agree Beanielou

So today has been a good day MSE wise. I haven't had to spend any money, in fact I am in credit (more below). My meal plan is working out well and am really enjoying not having to come home and decide what to have for dinner.

It was a salmon sandwich out of the freezer for lunch today and I have the same again tomorrow as there was enough for 2 sandwiches so didn't see the point in opening the tuna. I honestly cannot taste the difference from it being frozen.

Tonight, was veg masala, pilau rice and HM Bombay potatoes and they were delicious. Going to definitely be making them again.

Have decided Saturday evening will be prawn linguine as I didn't plan for the whole week.
Sunday I am visiting mum and dad and will have dinner there. Nothing like a bit of mum's home cooking and it's always a roast on Sunday.

Thinking ahead to next week and in my quest not to spend on food shopping, I have decided to cook a piece of gammon over the weekend in the slow cooker. There is enough there to feed the 5000 so will slice some for next week's lunch sandwiches, 2 or 3 evening meals and the gravy / sauce towards a soup, probably pea and ham to use up some of the peas that I must have heard were going to be severely rationed sometime this year as I have 3 bags of the little devils. I have portions of mashed potato in the freezer from the not so sad bag so will make use of those too. That combined with one or two prawn dishes (I have half the sea bed in my freezer) and a portion of HM shepherd's pie and the meal plan is almost complete.

The bad news:

The mortgage overpayment has been cancelled

The good news:

I have received a refund of £20 on a skirt I wasn't sure I liked and suited me and has been credited to my Sainsbury's card (note to self: this doesn't mean I can spend it!). It took almost 2 weeks to process.

After my unexpected trip to the opticians yesterday morning, I came home to find a letter advising my eye test is due in July. I don't need to budget for this as my company pay for eye tests and contribute up to £100 for glasses.

After the rollercoaster ride over the last few days and believe me I am still feeling the side-affects, I have decided I am having a date with Mr Pinot Grigio Rose on Saturday evening. This will come out of my entertainment budget.

Fingers crossed for another day of no spending money tomorrow.

One job for this weekend is to allocate payments to my various pots so I know what money I can use if I need to towards the Halifax 0% deal.

CapricornLass

I think you are doing really well, Mum2Nan. I really admire your determination to crack this.

just thought - I've made bolognaise sauce to store in the freezer until I needed it - then all I've got to do is heat it up and add pasta. I've also made curries and chilli con carne - but make sure you reserve some pots for the freezer that you use only for them, as they are never the same again afterwards (although perfectly alright for C-C-C and curries!)

Give a cuddle to Laurel and Hardy for me - I adore cats, but unfortunately I'm now allergic to them (sigh!)

beanielou

Love your cats names

Mum2Nan

Hi Capricorn

I had planned to make a Bolognese sauce last weekend but the mince seemed to have ‘gone off’. I understand what you mean about the containers as they discolour.

Sorry to hear you are allergic to cats. I would be mortified if I suddenly became the same.

I only intended to take on one cat initially but when I went to the cat rescue centre, Laurel & Hardy (I changed their names) had become ‘attached’ to one another. They both had a very poor start in life; one abandoned and the other orphaned. I took Laurel who was 10 weeks old home first and picked Hardy up 4 weeks later as he was still so very very small. Laurel genuinely seemed pleased to be reunited with Hardy, now some days I think he wishes he lived alone as Hardy winds him up!

Beanielou, I was toying with the idea of calling them Tom & Jerry, equally appropriate.

In MSE news, I have changed some of my savings pot categories and allocated the correct amounts to them.

Car: 415.50
Contents Insurance: £30
Presents: 120.00
Boiler: £45
Health & Beauty (not sure beauty is the right word but hey ho): £53
Savings / Emergency: £2,715.13

The bad news:

The remote control is still dead. I don’t think it’s going to recover from drowning going through the wash so will have to bite the bullet and replace it. I will convert some of my Nectar points to pay for this.

The good news:

I still haven’t been shopping but am running low on vegetables, other than frozen peas of course

Plans for this weekend:

As I won’t be going shopping tomorrow as normal, I intend to use that time between a lay-in and cleaning the fish tank

Clear out the airing / storage cupboard. I keep washing liquid and fabric conditioner in there. Shall we have bets now on how many bottles of each I will find? :eek:

beanielou

5 fabric conditioner
5 washing up liquid?

Mum2Nan

It's been another busy day organising things in the M2N flat after a lay-in until 8.30 am. A treat for me on a Saturday morning.

The airing / storage cupboard has been gone through and reorganised and can now actually find what I need. I came across 1 medium size 2 in 1 washing powder, 2.5 large bottles of washing liquid and the same for fabric conditioner so don't need to buy any of those for a while. I did buy them on offer though as these items are generally expensive. Curiously, I also have 2 unopened bottles of ironing water but I only have to iron the bare minimum so not sure why I have 1 let alone 2. These will probably last me the rest of my life.

Bedding has been washed (without any remote controls!), dried and is back on the bed.

One large load of darks is going through the wash as I write. I will put these on the clothes airer to dry overnight.

The gammon is cooking in the slow cooker with onions, leeks and carrots. I will add the peas a bit later as they tend to discolour if in for too long. I have made extra gravy / sauce to turn into a soup.

The bathroom and en-suite have been cleaned.

All floors have been swept / hoovered / mopped.

The bad news:
I have run out of fresh vegetables, fruit and salad so will need to go shopping for these tomorrow. I shall visit my local farm shop as you can buy all fruit and vegetables loose which means less waste. I hope not to spend any more than £7.

I have binned the remote control.

The good news:
No money has been spent today.

I decided not to buy a bottle of wine this evening, primarily because I don't want to spend at least a fiver (1/7th) of my already slashed entertainment fund. I am not even into a full week of my new month so need to be careful. Also, as it's raining heavily here, I can't be bothered to go out and buy one.

My meal plan for evening meals next week is complete:

Sunday: Dinner at Mum and Dads
Monday: Gammon
Tuesday: Prawn Linguine
Wednesday: HM Shepherds Pie
Thursday: Omelette and Salad
Friday: Gammon

Earlier this week I was feeling a bit resentful of my new MSE life but I am coming to terms with the new organised me.

Jobs for tomorrow:
Clean the fish tank. I didn't feel up to doing this earlier.

5 X sandwiches for work. Monday, Wednesday and Friday will be cheese and Tuesday and Thursday gammon. A bit boring but at least I can freeze them and save money. I might push the boat out and get up 5 minutes earlier to add mustard to the gammon and pickle or tomato / onion to the cheese. Exciting life eh? [FONT=&quot]:rotfl:

A job I am keen to do next weekend is to sort through my wardrobes and drawers if for no other reason than to free up a bit of space.[/FONT]

enthusiasticsaver

Well done on cupboard sorting. What is ironing water? I fill my iron with water for steam pressing but just use normal tap water.

PurpleFairy26

If it was onion or mustard I would put that on the sandwich before I freeze it. Maybe not tomato as I have a feeling it would go soggy maybe experiment.

You’re doing really well. Keep going.

Mum2Nan

It's a fragrant water you put into the iron to make your clothes that have already gone through the wash smell even fresher. On two separate occasions I must have thought I needed it. :eek: I know I definitely never had it when I moved in because I had nothing so at some point over the last 2 years or so I thought my life would be better off with it in it.