DD's accountability thread

DD265

I'd say I know what's going on with the house but I actually don't! :rotfl: I believe the mortgage application is in the queue for processing (though I did correct some details on the copy of the application we were emailed..), and the solicitors are conducting the searches.

I've had a skim of the 'awaiting mortgage approval' thread and it's stressful in there so I think I'm going to stay clear. A few people saying it's taking a while, and I honestly have no idea where we're up to in the process anyway so it could be quick or slow for all I know - and a few others saying they have been offered less than they needed. Shouldn't be a problem for us as we've gone in £30k under the AIP, but obviously if the house is valued lower then we'll have to renegotiate that I guess. I think it's fairly spot on though, fingers crossed!

In other news, mogs are booked in for their jabs next month, and my car is booked in for it's service. Unfortunately October/November are quite expensive times of the year bill wise. It is what it is.

DD265

Had a busy day today. Personal trainer cancelled due to a family emergency but we may train tomorrow instead as we're on a roll so that's not necessarily a saving, though this is one of my 'free' sessions anyway. I met a friend for brunch and she treated me (I paid last time) then I walked back via the charity shop and got a scarf for me and two cookbooks for my sister for Christmas. That's £3.50 of her £10 spent so far!

This afternoon we went to Kirkstall Abbey for an outdoor screening of Hocus Pocus - really enjoyed it. Before the film we had a brief wander around the Deli Market which was closing up (probably for the best as what we saw of the food looked amazing) and I found a large merino wool baby blanket, reduced to £20, for our friends who are expecting their arrival in just under a month. Similar blankets seem to be £75+ online. We'll get a couple of other bits to go with it.

Then tea at TGIs; OH paid and I scanned the receipt so I now have about 180 points and can get some awesome freebies. £20 more to spend and we will get £25 off the next bill after that. It's one of our favourite places to eat so that won't be an issue. :cool:

When we got back, I flogged some Ugg boots that I needed to eBay (bought on there in my usual size but they came up small) to my sister for £25. And won a pair of Ugg boots which are the same as the ones I need to get resoled for £26 inc postage; I think I'd posted on here that I'd seen several pairs which were going for £90ish and these appear barely used. So either my resoled pair will be fine and I have spares, or it won't matter if the resoling cost is ridiculous/it doesn't go well. Winner :rotfl:

DD265

Went out this morning to do the food shop as I couldn't fit it in yesterday. I planned a week without anything from the butchers to keep costs down and because we have a few bits in the freezer. We've come in under £250 this month which I'm pleased about. I filled my car up too at Sainsburys - £173.85 spent on fuel this month which is the highest since May and more than I'd hoped but I did put a £120 expenses claim in last week which is also higher than the last few.

I also nipped in to town for some 'new baby' wrapping paper (really naff choice, everything is Christmas related) and a birthday card. Then I went up to TK Maxx and bought OH some pyjamas as most of his are past it, and I went into a big Sue Ryder charity shop where I got a(nother) scarf, the fourth Christmas present for my sister (£4.50 spent in total so far...) and a couple of books for OH. Sainsburys didn't have OH's coffee in stock but luckily for him, Asda had one bag left so he's a very happy bunny.

Interestingly at some point this weekend I thought 'ooh, it's pay day next week' as normally I'd be counting down the days. I still have over £450 available in my current account (less on my budget as it's allocated) which is a huge difference and I haven't touched my £100 buffer. I really feel like I'm starting to get to grips, though next month will be a challenge due to the cat sitting/vets bills/car service costs which I expect will take up all of my disposable income.

beanielou

Still a good place to be at the end of the month.

DD265

I have had a couple of expensive days, buying presents. The first was a £75 gift card for a coworker; a lot of us have chipped in though so it's effectively covered, but it was nice seeing the money in my account. Then today, £105 on TicketMaster later, my grandparents are going to see Professor Brian Cox next year. This is a joint birthday/Christmas present for my grandfather, and some other family members are chipping in. I went through our work discount scheme so it cost just under £100 in total, which works out to £25 each. It's just getting the cash off the other family members; my sister thankfully is very good!

That has left the category very red in my budget, but as it's pay day tomorrow I'm not bothered. I am looking forward to updating my budget! I checked last year's vets bill and want to put £100 to one side. Then a pot of £200 for the car service, £154 for the cat sitter, £200 into OH's help to buy ISA, £100 into the holiday fund if I can swing it... Gonna be a fun month! :eek:

I'm going to a tack sale this weekend, with the hopes of selling off the rest of my horsey stuff. I expect I might price some of it too high for that kind of sale, but it's worth a go as there are a few things that probably will go better in person than on eBay. Sharing a table with a friend so it'll be <£10, plus a bit of fuel. Once we get back from Dubai I'm gonna have to get selling everything else online. I'd really like to avoid moving it all if I can, but at the same time I don't want to just donate it all, so that's my aim for the run up to Christmas. :cool:

DD265

Got paid, budgeted everything, and without the money even leaving my account I felt skint again. It's funny really because I finished October with the highest bank balance I've ended with in years. nYNAB has a lot to answer for! :rotfl:

Unfortunately I haven't been able to put extra into savings this month - just my usual £50 - but OH is going to put the £200 into his H2B ISA himself. However, the HMRC bonus has been paid into my LISA today so that's ready to go.

Usual £100 off each credit card - again I can't stretch to any more at the moment as the priority is the house buying. I'm looking forward to a few months time when I can make larger payments on those again. £3700 on the MBNA card is going to start charging interest in a year; the remaining balances are interest free to May/June 2020. If I can't quite swing it I'll have to balance transfer again but we'll see how things go.

On the joint account side of things, I've budgeted the usual plus extra for the vets bills, cat sitter and additional food/litter for the mogs. The cat sitter is very generous with the biscuits/litter and we can't risk running out whilst we're away. I'm also building up a buffer in there (it's about 1/3 of the way to target) and setting bits aside for contents insurance etc. Slowly getting the hang of this budgeting-over-12-months-for-annual-expenses malarky, hence the higher-than-normal end of month balance.

House wise, the valuation should've taken place today and I assume it has. The mortgage broker asked for latest bank statements/payslips yesterday and sent over an expected outgoings form today. No other movement that I'm aware of, but I'm hoping we might have the mortgage offer before we go to Dubai next week.

Tomorrow is as much about getting rid of stuff as it is about making money to be honest. The fees for the mortgage are £71, so that'd be a good start. Then I've got to find/make another £1700 for the broker, survey and solicitor! It's all a question of timing... The longer it takes to exchange the more salary I can put into it.

DD265

I've made about £80 - less if you count the pitch fee but I paid that last month so I conveniently won't. I got rid of a few things I was glad to see go but a few things I really hoped would sell didn't so whilst I did OK overall, I don't plan to do another.

I have just ordered a paying in book for my bank account; I may still have one but the name on the account will be wrong. This means I'll be able to pay in cash at the post office (we have one within walking distance now, and the same at the new house) rather than trekking into town/paying for parking to go to the bank as they closed our local branch earlier this year. I'll be able to put the £50 float back into my 'spending money' category and the rest will go to house-buying fees.

Another job on my list for this weekend is insurance; our cat insurance is renewing, plus we need to look at life/IP/CI insurance. I started a thread about it on the forum here to get some input so I feel like I have a better idea of what I'm looking for now. I think ideally we'll take out all of it, but I need to see what feels affordable and offset that against the likely outcomes if something were to happen to either of us.

DD265

My car has been serviced; £160 as it needed a new CV boot. My mechanic was otherwise very pleased with it, and I'm happy that it came in under budget though given the nature of my commute (long/motorway) I'd never risk not getting the work done and would just have to find the money from somewhere.

I was naughty last night and impulsively spent £59 on a pair of jeans. I wanted them on Sunday really, as having put some weight on, my long-enough-to-wear-with-heels jeans were too small. I might return them, but on the other hand, several of my old jeans are wearing out between the thighs so I probably won't. I basically used the cash from Saturday for these so it hasn't affected my budget at this point.

We've agreed that we're probably going to borrow an additional £2k from OH's step dad. It'll be interest free, repaid at £100 a month (faster, if I can manage it) and it'll be to cover the fees associated with buying the house. It takes the pressure off me, and means I can save up for the appliances instead, and also not decimate my emergency fund. Whilst I'm doing well at building up my budget categories, that's still early days for me and I certainly don't have the funds in place yet.

I'm thinking of reworking my budget categories. Obviously we've a fairly big change in spending coming up as we shift from tenants to owners, but as well it might be good to have a separate insurance or pet category for example. That would be easier if all of our money is in the same account, though I still don't trust myself to keep my fun money in with all our bills money. On the one hand I think I'm at risk of over categorizing the budget but on the other, if I put say £150 a month to insurances, which covered pet, car, buildings and contents, life etc... how would I be able to report on the breakdown? Do I even need to report on the breakdown?!

beanielou

Good news on the car service.

DD265

Thanks to Suffolk Lass and XSpender I know now what TTs are. I already do something a bit similar with the Lloyds Save The Change function, where it rounds up the day's transactions to the nearest £1 and transfers the 'change' to a savings account.

Like XSpender I use YNAB so the suggestion was to round down budget categories rather than accounts (though I could do both). The initial issue I have is that moving money from the YNAB categories means that I'm not hitting my goals for the month. For example I budget £15 a month for our TV license but it's £12.83 so there is money left over in that pot, but if I move some, it takes it out of the amount I budgeted this month and therefore I'm down on my goal. Then I have categories like contents insurance where I'm trying to save a specific amount by a certain date, and that isn't a round figure every month, though I guess I could change the goal. Need to give it some thought!

I used to budget all of my categories down to zero - i.e. I was desperate for cash so never let any balances build up - but now I'm gradually growing each category, some faster than others. I'm aiming to get to the point where we have a month's payments in the budget. I think once we're settled in the house and I have a bit more discretion over where money goes, I will put lump sums in some of the categories to speed things up. When we're ahead of ourselves, the focus will be on building savings and paying off the credit cards.

Longer term, I need to be looking at saving a year's payments for maternity leave should that be an option I want to consider; we're still undecided about child(ren). I'm the kind of person who likes to keep my options open whilst I'm deciding something, and I don't want 'we can't afford maternity leave/childcare' to be the deciding factor.

We're off to Dubai tomorrow. In hindsight, booking a morning flight without any time off work the day before might not have been the smartest idea. We have a lot to do this evening but as we'll be getting up at 4am, we need an early night too. Or maybe we just shouldn't go to bed. :rotfl: