DD's accountability thread

DD265

I've been a little spendy the past couple of days. I don't think I said I ordered the third blind (the voile to make a double blind, and reduce sun glare in the office) and then some brackets to convert the two into one blind. Those were quite cheap, but overall it's cost more than buying a double blind; we wanted something interesting though and not just grey or white or beige (boring!). Though the voile is beige. 

I've also just bought a new air fryer. We were thinking ours was on the way out; non-stick coating coming off, noticed the handle was looking loose etc. Not great after 15 months of use but then we use it 2-3 times a week and it was only £50. Yesterday it started dropping the outer basket (the handle is fixed to the inner one, and connects to the outer basket) which isn't ideal when it's hot. I've ended up dropping just over £90 (saved £7.50 with a voucher code on eBay) on a Ninja one. They come extremely well recommended, plus it has a ceramic coating and no separate inner/outer basket, so hopefully that eliminates the issues we had with our existing one. I thought about getting the foodi multicooker thing, but those are £170 and very large, and I decided I'd rather have the space at this point as it sounded a bit heavy to be putting away in a cupboard all the time.

I was going to say no spends on myself, but I recently threw out all my nail polish as it was several years old and lumpy, so I bought a new bottle of Vinylux top coat and my favourite colour. I always feel better with painted nails, but I don't want to be paying somebody to do them so regularly, and I hate how my nails look after removing Shellac.

OH and I have the budget meeting tomorrow night where we'll decide about the fence, and whether we want to spend money going away in a couple of weeks. Restrictions might change and stop us, of course, but it's about setting the money aside. Part of me is tempted to spend it on the house (or I want a dishwasher, and a Christmas tree, and the remaining wardrobe parts and we will need some mattresses....) but I also know that I don't really truly relax at home, always seeing things that need doing, so it would be nice to have a couple of nights in an Airbnb.

On the bright side, but I won't know the totals for a while, as a team we smashed our target for September. Hopefully that means a decent bonus coming at the end of October! It was 100% bonus paid yesterday so that was great. Overall, I'm about £1400 down where I 'should' be taking into account the amounts not paid, and there's no word about back pay so at this point, I'm writing it off. Definitely no pay reviews this year too which is fine and what I expected, I just think they could've told us sooner instead of avoiding the subject. Still, I count us as very lucky to be in the position that we're in!

DD265

We decided that we were going to park the fence for next year, as the weather is in a particularly unpredictable phase at the moment. We figured we would go away, but not book until last minute and then my car insurance renewal came in higher than I expected. Then the media started talking about local lockdowns in Nottingham, and we aren't sure if we'll be affected as it depends on the criteria they use to determine the lockdown area. Then the boiler stopped working.

I managed to get the car insurance down from £680 to £495 - same company, but a comparison website price that they matched when I went direct. Still no idea about any local lockdowns, and not finding out until Monday. We had Direct Line send somebody out to look at the boiler (next day too, impressive) and they think because the control unit (that actually sends power to the boiler) isn't on an isolation circuit, that it might've sent a rogue signal and caused the circuitboard to burn out. It seems like we need an electrician to sort the circuit, and then a new circuitboard in the boiler. I don't know how much Direct Line will cover, but we also have British Gas cover and they fixed it before without us touching the electrics... The guy said in his opinion it was worth fixing, so we'll delay replacement rather than wiping out the entire emergency fund. We've got some other jobs we want an electrician to do, so I may bite the bullet and just get some done.

The plastering is also booked in at last, for a week on Monday, which means I can finally book the carpet fitting, but that means we need to buy paint and do DIY, so everything is rather pointing to 'don't go away'. I think we'll do a day trip or two, then we can spend some time prepping the office for painting.

It feels like all systems go, but I'm happy with that!

DD265

We've used the new air fryer for the first time tonight, and overcooked the chips  I think we just need to get used to the settings, as it seems much more powerful than our old one (heats up in 3 minutes as opposed to 10, for example). OH cooked but I washed up and it felt sturdy/good quality plus easy to clean, so no regrets at this point.

No further forward with the boiler; I need to speak to Direct Line in the morning and find out a) whether they'll cover putting the control unit on an isolation switch and b) if that is done (whoever pays), they'll cover a new circuit board in the boiler. I have started the ball rolling with our electrician, as we want him to do some other work too; removing the electric fireplace in the living room and replacing a couple of light fittings.

I've been sorting things out ready to move out of the office so we can decorate. I've managed to empty one of the sets of drawers, and there's just one drawer left on the other set for now which is full of 'bits'. I've bought a clothes rail which will eventually go in the loft (when it's boarded out) to hold our smarter coats, dresses, suits etc. I have been through and decluttered clothes as much as I can, and these pieces are all worth keeping, but having dedicated hanging space in our wardrobe just isn't efficient. Long term one, or both, sets of drawers will go into the loft to hold seasonal clothing, but for now the main thing was to empty them so they can be put in the garage out of the way.

The wall paint has been decided, but I'm still not sure about the ceiling. The testers are on two walls and I'm struggling. One looks too similar to the wall colour (despite being a lot lighter on screen/on the tester itself) but the other might be quite cold. It doesn't help that the first isn't covering very well, though I gather that often the tester is simply the right colour, rather than the right formula so the actual paint would be OK. I suspect we'll go for the warmer one and that when it's all done, there'll be a noticeable difference. One thing that does concern me is whether the room will be too bland, as we're now not having any furniture on one wall at all. I suspect we'll either put lots of pictures up or look for some bold canvasses, but that can wait until the room is actually done.

I'm not working this week, so tomorrow I've got a chiropractor appointment, I need to collect some dry cleaning, pick up the clothes rail and I may plan in a sneaky trip to the garden centre as I'll be passing to get to the dry cleaners! Later in the week we'll go to IKEA (we've got room for another two drawers in the wardrobe now), plus I think there'll be a couple of tip runs and a charity shop drop off, so it's shaping up to be a fairly busy week.

DD265

The boiler is fixed, and the house is warm and it is lovely. It cost us £50 in the end; Direct Line would've sent an electrician from the sounds of it, but ours was already booked. It was also good to get an unbiased opinion; he doesn't think the lack of isolation switch on the unit would've presented a problem, which leads us back to it possibly being the boiler itself. Said boiler coped last winter, so here's hoping it gets through this one, too. I think we'll probably aim to replace it next year though.

We've been through clothes, got the clothes rail up, an extra drawer in each wardrobe and ordered some hanging organisers to make use of the free hanging space. OH did a tip run this morning, so the spare bed is gone, and we've dropped some bits off at the charity shop too. We've got to get the remaining seasonal clothes packed away and either under the bed or in the loft. I'm currently debating whether one, or both, of the chests of drawers should go in our bedroom, and we'd get rid of the dressing table and a tall set of drawers we have in there. My main concern is making the room feel more cramped.

The carpet fitting is booked for the 23rd November - should hopefully give us time to get all the decorating done! By the end of this week we'll have moved everything across into the spare bedroom, so hopefully I've been overly generous with the timescales, allowing a week in between every task.

I've got somebody coming to quote us for boarding the loft next week. It might be something we could do ourselves, but I'm not sure how confident I feel about it when I don't even like climbing the loft ladder. Will get another couple of quotes, and have asked for advice elsewhere on here about the DIY option. There's an element of biting off more than we can chew timewise, though, given we've got the office to decorate, and the spare bedroom is planned for after that.

DD265

The quote for boarding some of the loft and adding shelves in the trusses came in at £250, so we've decided to go for it. We've agreed that when the boiler is replaced and the water tank is removed, we'd board out the rest ourselves but would prefer to have the first bit done professionally. Having moved everything we are coping better for storage space than I originally thought, which is a nice feeling.As it stands, the dressing table is in the conservatory along with the clothes rail and some other bits) as it's too cold to use now, then we have three sets of drawers - and a short bookcase on top used for shoes - in our bedroom. Initially it felt very cramped but it's funny how fast you get used to these things, though I'm not sure it's a long term solution.

If I can lose weight then I'll have fewer clothes to store, as right now I basically have L that I'm wearing, M in storage and a bit of S too - really I should be in S/XS. Whilst I could get rid of some of it, I'd prefer not to rebuy and things like the jeans are all Levi's so not cheap to replace. I could potentially downsize on shoes, but I can't quite bring myself to do it at this point. I can't wear the heels as I don't have jeans long enough (or I'm not wearing dresses at all right now) but again the cost of replacing them.. Just need better storage solutions. 

The prep in the spare room is well under way. We've removed a tv socket and started the process of filling that in (in hindsight, an oak baton to put behind it wasn't sensible but they were all out of pine!) plus I managed to get all of the old plugs, both plastic and metal, either pushed through into the cavity or out, and only made one significant hole in the wall. I don't understand why they'd just filled and painted over some - hadn't bothered getting them flush with the wall at all. Just totally half assed the whole lot. Frustrating!

What we will need to do is cover a middle-of-the-wall tv socket and power socket (for wall mounting a TV) as we've decided not to remove them. Turns out you can get coloured sockets but the range is limited and very expensive. The plan is to get a big canvas which will sit in front/over them. I'm probably going to DIY it because I think for the size we'll need this will also be pricey. Due to the layout we have planned we won't be able to hide the sockets with furniture or shelving as I'll need the width to walk past, but I'd forgotten the sockets were there as they were previously hidden.

I'm actually really enjoying myself; as long as I'm feel as though I'm making progress I'm happy.

DD265

A second lockdown wasn't unexpected. For us, it'll likely be no different to the first, and the only real question is whether OH's company furlough him for a month or he continues working. We need to understand whether the carpet fitting will go ahead, and I'm guessing my hair appointment in a week and a half will be cancelled so I'll probably wait until January.

My brother in law will be spending Christmas with us, which means we need to put a bed back in the spare room (once we've moved out back into the office). We have the bed, and planned to get the mattresses in Black Friday sales if possible (or around then, anyway) so no change there. We were hoping to get the ceiling plastered and decorate the room, inc new carpet, before putting the bed in, but a second lockdown may prevent that. It would've been a tight timeline and as the bed is from IKEA, we can carefully dismantle and reassemble anyway.

I was pleased to take home over £3k again this month; as that's the second time I've managed it. It does give us a reasonable amount of disposible income for November which is useful given the mattresses etc. We did overspend in October on DIY supplies, but have also noticed an increase in our food bill plus all the unnecessary trips to the local shops for snacks. The plan is to nip those in the bud, and I did this week's shopping for under £45, both the butchers and the supermarket. We're using a lot up from the freezer which helps and obviously we can't do that every week, but it's a good time of year to get more into batch cooking. With another lockdown that should help avoid some spending, though I did just buy some new (to me) UGG boots on eBay to replace my worn out (also bought second hand) pair, and some running leggings/a light harness as I've started running again, so a tad spendy.

The decorating in the office is taking a lot of preparation, and I think we're heading towards settling for 'good enough' rather than perfection, particularly on the walls. Every time I look I seem to spot another ding or drip that wants sanding, which I suppose means they can't be that bad or I'd have noticed them first time. We've got to lift the carpet to properly sand the skirting, but I've changed my mind on removing it completely, just in case the new one can't be fitted. I think we should be able to roll the edges back without causing any issues. I've seen people put something thin between the carpet and skirting to get at it, but I think the carpet is too thick for that to work.

I think the next few weeks are going to be interesting, and woefully dull all at the same time...

beanielou

Where are you thinking of getting the mattress ?
I have just got a new bedframe for my spare room but need a mattress. Sigh.

DD265

beanielou said:

Where are you thinking of getting the mattress ?
I have just got a new bedframe for my spare room but need a mattress. Sigh.

I'm not sure yet. We need two Euro Small Singles (well, 80x200cm, varies what these are called), but not too deep (for a day bed) and we're not keen on the IKEA options though those - plus a mattress topper which I think I'd do regardless - might be the easy out. I don't want to spend more than £350-400 total as they're for the spare bed, but in a typical year we'd have guests at least once a month, all adults, so maybe it's worth stretching the budget.

DD265

It's been a busy month..

The office is decorated, ready for the carpet fitting tomorrow. It has wound up costing more than expected; we could've bought less paint (and I used online calculators) and buying the equipment to do it all added up. We've also not finished the desks; the boards needed additional time to dry out, so we still have at least ~£20 to spend on stain for those. We're going to use some of the leftover office paint on the ceiling of the spare bedroom so that's a small saving, and I think we still have enough for the wood work too. Unfortunately we'll need whatever it is we need to hang wall paper in there - feels like it never ends! We have agreed though that after we've done the office and spare room, that'll be it for a few months whilst we regroup and re-prioritise.

I've been digging into our finances generally, trying to work out why we can't seem to afford to massively over pay the mortgage, whilst quickly building significant savings, alongside getting the home improvements done which we want to do. I feel as though on our combined incomes this should be possible so I wanted to see if my expectations were unrealistic. The answer was pretty much yes. We do have a decent amount of disposable income, but it can only go so far.

Since August (my sister moved out in July) we've averaged £80 a week on the food bill between the butchers and the supermarket. We average an additional £25 a week between us on snack-related spends at the local shop and takeaways/fast food. £80 doesn't sound too bad, but £105 a week sounds like a lot. The deal we had was that on a Wednesday, we'd go to the local shop and buy lunch, but we've gotten into the habit of going far more often. We don't normally go into the reports in YNAB during our budget meetings, but I think we need to do that and see where we want to cut back, as well as areas where we're potentially not budgeting enough.

DD265

The carpet was fitted and we're back in the office - I am really pleased with how it's turned out. We've learned some lessons along the way which will be applied to the spare bedroom; that's already underway, with the plastering booked on Friday. The aim is to do all the prep before then if we can, so all we have to do is clean the dust, wipe off any plaster drips and let it dry out. I'm also leaning towards doing things a bit out of sequence; woodwork first, then ceiling (after the plaster is dry, obviously!) then walls, just so we can fit it all in before the next carpet fitting on the 21st.

In the mean time, we've started joining the boards for the desks, so hopefully we'll have those done by Christmas too, and generally have less stuff every where. The loft is partially boarded with some shelves in the rafters and it's brilliant, so we've a great opportunity to get things put away. There'll need to be a good clean before Christmas, particularly the garage which is dusty from sanding scaffold boards (OH's dust sheets were not effective at all) and needs a good sorting out. We've bought another drill in the Black Friday sales after ours couldn't get through the lintel and we had to borrow one from a colleague. Got the exact same drill for £47.50 (sale price £50 down from £70, then 5% discount through work scheme) and OH has already put it to use this evening doing the boards.

We've replaced the house number, as the old one had the house number plus seemingly random words on it - think 123 Meadow Hill, when the address is 123 Long Walk (both made up!) - and caused no end of confusion. We'll also replace the door mat (another Black Friday offer) as ours which we originally really liked hasn't worn well, and then that'll be it for a while. When the electrician comes replacing the outside light is on his list - we've had the new one for months but neither of us want to play with electrics.

I've just paid for OH's birthday present; his birthday isn't until April, but I saw the perfect thing with 25% off this weekend. I've put it on the credit card so I can pay for it in January (the gift budget is spent up on Christmas and recent/upcoming birthdays - I think I need to set more aside next year) but also for the protection as it's an experience day. I'm not worried about rebooking, but these days I find myself nervous about companies going under. For the same reason I'm not giving any gift cards/vouchers at all for Christmas and will instead just hand over cash if that's what the person wants.

It gets harder each year to buy for others but also to answer with what I want; usually if it's affordable I already own it! My suggestion to my side of the family - but it's not feasible this year for obvious reasons - is that instead of buying each other gifts we go for an expensive meal, the kind we couldn't usually justify. It was a popular idea, and just a shame that we can't do it!