DD's accountability thread

beanielou

Good news at last

DD265

I won't lie, this week has sucked a bit! But we exchanged yesterday after jumping one last hurdle and will be completing on the 1st February. Now sorting out the van for next weekend as we're still intent on a DIY move.

I took a car full of stuff to the charity shop today, including all the glass bowls we'd had at the wedding and the weights. Whilst there I bought myself a top for £3 - a little snug right now but it'll be lovely when I've lost a bit of weight. I'm glad I tried on though as there were a couple of others that I liked but just weren't good on me. Almost bought a fridge-freezer; a Samsung (check), in grey (check) and the right spec (check) albeit an older model. However we dithered over it - I wasn't 100% sure, and OH was at work not responding to my messages quickly - so when I went back for it about 30 mins later it'd gone. Was £180, we're looking at spending £600-800 if we go brand new so it would've been a big saving even if it wasn't perfect. I'm watching one on eBay though!

I did however get a Vax carpet cleaner for £40. It's about £23 for 24 hour hire, then there are time restraints, and we know we'll want to do the house before we move in and the flat after we move out. That model is selling for about £100 refurbished, so I reckon we can sell it for what we paid for it if we decide we don't want to store it.

The worst thing about today though was having a tooth extracted this morning - the one that made my life miserable over Christmas. It didn't need a surgical extraction, and the dentist was excellent; very gentle and supported my jaw so my neck/jaw muscles feel fine. I feel absolutely rotten though even on pain killers, so it'll be a sleeping pill tonight and hopefully on the mend tomorrow. We've got too much to do for me to feel rough! Luckily my appointment was first thing today, so I'd come home and loaded the car for the charity shop then gone on to do the food shop and into town. I think if I'd stopped at home this morning I wouldn't have gone out again.

As today was a spend day (I'm up to 16/20) the weekend doesn't need to be. We've got all the food for the week, and all the cleaning supplies for next weekend (needed a few bits on top of what we already had). The packing begins in earnest tomorrow.

DD265

Packing is well underway upstairs - even to the point of dismantling our Ikea wardrobes and hoping they'll go back together at the new house. Worst case we'll need new frames, which is the cheaper bit anyway; the doors and innards will be fine.

Today has been a spend day; kettle and iron from Amazon and ironing board from Dunelm using a gift card we got for Christmas. It's been really hard to choose these things; there's just too much choice! I can spend hours looking at specs and checking reviews and still not be 100%, but we're happy with the ones we've chosen. Hopefully they'll serve us well for a number of years as they aren't cheap, but not massively expensive either.

I managed to confuse my budget somehow. The budget itself was as I thought/wanted, but my account balances didn't match it by £144 so I've had to transfer money out of savings to square up. Not quite sure how I managed it, but never mind. To some extent it matters less where the money is as long as I'm not gonna dip into my overdraft, as I work to the budget, but it makes me worried that I've missed something or worse, over budgeted in such a way that YNAB hasn't flagged it.

Got some deliveries coming tomorrow so I'm working from home. Last night was quite rough - woke up in pain at 1am and 4am, despite having taken a sleeping tablet - so I'll be glad not to have to get up early. The pain now is better than it was around lunch time, so depending on how I am tomorrow I may go to the dentist to have them check for infection. I do not need to be feeling under the weather this week!

DD265

I'm not quite going to manage 20 no spend days this month and will end on 18. Yesterday was a planned spend day, but today I needed a prescription and I bought a new toaster, as the one to match our new kettle went on sale with 30% off. My finger slipped. Tomorrow I am meeting a friend for tea and whilst I could go today to get the cash out so it doesn't count, it's cold and icy. :rotfl:

That said, I'm really pleased with how the month has gone. Trying to achieve 20 no spend days has really made me focus, plan ahead and stopped a lot of the unnecessary spends that would normally trip me up. I've managed to keep my discretionary spending (excluding hair/beauty and gifts which are all properly budgeted for) to £220, plus I've a meal out tomorrow which will come in under £15. It's felt about right, I think. I'm going to try and keep the same focus in February but I will aim for 15 NSD - it's a slightly shorter month plus I'm expecting some surprise purchases for the house. I might be the Queen of Lists but I'm sure I will have forgotten several things!

My savings account feels very low now, threatening to dip under £1k. It's because we've already bought some appliances, and they've come out of the money I had set to one side. Plus all the fees etc have been paid, and aside from the original money towards the deposit, and a few hundred into OH's ISA, everything has come through my accounts. We've talked about it though, and whatever's left out of the cashback we get will probably go to replenish some of what I've spent.

OH's account is now on my YNAB, though still keeping his funds separate. We'll gradually merge things together, I think, but we want to keep separate current accounts for now so that we can take advantage of better savings rates once the credit cards are paid off. I was looking at the MSE newsletter earlier and all the switching incentives you can get, but I think right now it's just too much to manage. This time next year though we'll be in the perfect position to set all that up!

I ended up back at the dentist on Monday, but am finally starting to feel on the mend now. Upstairs is pretty much packed and we're down to one bathroom in use! Downstairs we've made a start but having eaten tonight we can now pack up the kitchen, and dismantle the table. It's going to feel very strange. I am however finally starting to get excited; the end is in sight!

rawr_

Hey DD265, I hope the move went well! Have subscribed and look forward to reading through your diary

DD265

We're in!

Let's see how far I get in terms of an update...

House first. We got the keys (only an hour later than anticipated so mid-afternoon) and went out more or less straight away to buy appliances, having measured up. We didn't compromise on the fridge/freezer, went cheap but decent on the washer/dryer and held off on a dishwasher. I used vouchers through the work discount scheme for an extra 9% off too.

The house itself was filthy, still is in places. I'm not going to say it has gotten me down but I think it (literally) took a bit of the shine off. It also made our DIY move harder than it needed to be, as I wasn't available to help with the physical move because I was rushing to get things cleaned. We had a great team of helpers though and couldn't have done it without them. We didn't have to pay van/fuel/time so forced food on everybody - it's cost us a lot but cheaper than removals.

I ended up booking professional cleaners to do the oven, hood, en suite and main bathroom. I just couldn't face it and felt my time was better used doing other things. It was worth it, but we shouldn't have had to. I would be so embarrassed to hand my house over to somebody else in that state. By contrast, we cleaned the flat yesterday and it is immaculate. OK the carpet could do with replacing due to the mog-and-moth damage, and it wants a fresh coat of paint, but they won't need to clean it.

We love the house, and it does feel like home. I've already had to remind myself that we've only been in a week - it shows, given the amount of unpacking left to do. And whilst I am complaining about the amount of cleaning required, it's quite satisfying bringing it up to my standards. I really enjoy deep cleaning (as opposed to the day to day stuff) but could never make money doing it as I'm too much of a perfectionist. Currently taking the en suite shower apart to get in all the nooks and crannies. :rotfl:

For some reason the vendor had ripped out the wardrobes they had said they were leaving on the inventory? We do only need another single wardrobe though. They might've done us a favour really, but they didn't fill the walls or add the skirting in. The kitchen is a space saver and not the most efficient storage wise, so we've got some MDF and are making three new shelves to put in.

The no-spending focus that I had in January has gone by the by, but there are so many bits to get. Some of them, like the appliances, we knew about and had budgeted. Others, like a new oven door seal (wouldn't use the oven as it was so gross, then tried to use it and realised the seal was gone so it wasn't heating up properly!) or three shower heads, are thankfully one offs as where I can't clean something up or it's damaged then I'm replacing it. I did that in the flat to a point as well, but this is ours and I'm going to be so proud of it when we get there.

I reckon we've spent just short of £1800 on the moving including appliances. Affordable and within budget, though I hadn't necessarily planned to budget it all quite as we did. The spends are definitely lessening now though!

Initially we've stayed with British Gas for gas and electric. We do have a smart meter and need to get to grips with the console. I've put us on a tariff with no exit fees though so we aren't stuck and will shop around soon. Already paid the council tax bill for February and March (and had our refund from the flat) so just waiting on the final bills for electricity and water.

Debt wise, I'm on track to pay off £1000 in total this month - £200 has already gone out but I've got to wait for the mortgage cashback before I can do the rest (I covered the other stuff). The budget actually looks quite good on the whole, but we won't be making an extra mortgage payment this month. We don't need to, so it's fine.

I've not had to raid any other budget categories yet, and I think we're getting there now. As far as the rest of the month goes, we've plenty more cleaning/unpacking to do plus some DIY - I expect several more Amazon/eBay orders to go in over the next couple of weeks - and a trip to IKEA is in our future too.

ETA - forgot to say that we're both absolutely shattered!

beanielou

You are in
Enjoy the next chapter

DD265

Thanks Beanielou

Tonight we've fitted a new fixed shower head (the old one was worse than I thought when I could inspect it up close) though there's a slight dribble at the back and we can't get it any tighter. Will have a Google, might want to seal or grease it. Also replaced some tatty panel blinds for the conservatory door with some old curtains from the flat. They are way too long, but the width is good, and we had the same track system in the flat so it was all compatible. I'll ask Mom to bring her sewing machine down and we can shorten them. They don't look great, better than the blinds, but it's a short term solution until we decorate.

Also sorted out the recycling for tomorrow - a dustbin full of the sellers rubbish they left behind. Definitely not all recycling! We took enough out (that'll need to go to the tip) to fit all ours in at least. There's a charity collection tomorrow too so I'm going to quickly whip round as I can think of a few bits to put in it.

Changed a few more addresses tonight; it's funny how financial institutions actually seem to be the easiest to do!

DD265

Decided we aren't keeping the curtains in the lounge; the blind panels are £8 each (we'd need 4) or we kept the originals so we might be able to make our own using those fittings. The curtains there are just a faff and we'd need some tie backs of some kind. Still an improvement on what was there though!

I've put together an IKEA shopping list and it comes in over £300. This includes a new single wardrobe, replacing mesh baskets in our existing wardrobes with solid ones (they mark clothes), another chest of drawers and some shelving/shoe storage for the utility. It doesn't include replacing the hinged wardrobe doors with sliding ones; that's a couple of hundred on top. Suffice to say we won't be buying it all at once.

I suppose that's a bit of a downside of bringing things with you from a different home; trying to make it work and if you need to add to it, whether to get things that complement what you have or have mismatched until you can afford to change the lot. We probably have a similar amount of space but used differently, so our new bedroom is a lot smaller than the old one, for example. I think the spare bedroom here is actually bigger but ours is the one with the en suite.

We did start some DIY last night. There aren't enough shelves in the kitchen units (and some of them aren't placed brilliantly) so we had some MDF cut to size at B&Q. I bought some sticky back plastic (magnolia, slightly paler than the existing shelves but not bad) and covered the MDF. We got some little shelf brackets similar to what you might get from IKEA with their bookcases, so by drilling new holes we can have adjustable shelves. We have put a halt on proceedings until tomorrow as wanted to get some drill stops (it's amazing what you find out about when you start googling) so we don't drill too far. But one shelf is in and it's going to be loads better.

We're still waiting on the cashback from Skipton, but once that is in I can make my credit card overpayments and I am looking forward to that. :beer:

DD265

Our drill stops arrived last night, so the shelves have been adjusted/new ones added. Everything fits, but I think we're gonna remove the in-cupboard recycling and gain another cupboard for pantry stuff. Have also tidied up the utility as it had become a dumping ground - I think we have enough packs of cleaning wipes to rival a supermarket. :rotfl:

I need a few baskets for the utility (got some from Sainsburys but need a few more) and we need to sort the shoe/coat storage I mentioned before. That then leaves two 'big' jobs - flatpacking all the cardboard in the garage, and unpacking all our clothes. In theory, virtually all of the clothes could go away now as we've not lost that much wardrobe space, so I'm not quite sure how they don't look as though they'll fit.

Plumber is coming on Tuesday to do the odd jobs we have. This includes changing the traps in the main bathroom sink/bath (they smell, even after 2x drain unblocker and a vinegar/baking soda concoction), capping off the shower-hose part of the bath tap (there's a separate shower), changing the wastes on the en suite shower and sink (both damaged) and changing the hose in the en suite shower as we can't get it to budge. Figure the right tool and a bit of confidence will do the job!

Despite not being totally unpacked, and obviously wanting to make our own mark on the house, we feel really settled. When somebody asks when we moved, it takes a few seconds to work it out as we feel like we've been in a while. I think that makes it all worth it

We went to the cinema last night, and TGIs for tea. We got £25 off our food bill through their points scheme, then my cinema ticket was free as I had Vitality points. Parking was also free, but we bought a drink/popcorn - they do a little munch box thing that works out just the right amount and 1/2 the price of the 'special offers'! We need to get back into going to the cinema more, it's great when the tickets are free!