Getting it together...one £ at a time!

Homegrown0

Good for you - I'm the same in collapsing in a heap with hubby of an evening but I'm not nearly as productive as you beforehand Something to work on!

Today
I have a really busy day today so have started work early this morning (at 7am) so that I can finish at lunchtime with a clear conscience for my Christmas work do. I'm hoping that my spends will be minimal - £7 on a train ticket (return) and I'm hoping the company will cover everything else. Last year they paid for the lunch and put the CC behind the bar for drinks but we are a bit bigger this year so don't know if that'll happen. Either way, I'm really hoping to not spend a lot. We have a busy weekend ahead (again) and I don't want this to ruin our month's spend.

Nipped into M's yesterday to buy aunt's birthday present but they only had one left and it was in the wrong size so now i either need to trail Ms in my area to find another or try to find something else... I should've just bought it when I first saw it!

£300 should've gone into my savings yesterday but instead it went to pay our mortgage broker for sorting out our new deal. It's a five year deal and is on a good rate so was worth switching lenders. The amount that we're spending on the broker pays for itself in 6 months because of the amount we're saving on our monthly mortgage payment.

I might not be on much over the weekend, so i hope you all have a lovely one

Homegrown0

Well, what an expensive weekend that was!

We needed a top up of fuel, which I was hoping to eke out (£30) then my husband treated BIL and his gf to a takeaway on Saturday night (£unknown), a couple of taxis for my Christmas night out with work (£6 although the rest of the night was on the company so can’t complain). Yesterday we spent £30 on a lampshade and photo frames for family gifts, then probably £40ish at the Christmas Market last night. We took the kids to see the lights and ended up with hotdogs for us all, paid them onto a few rides and paid train fares. We had a lovely time, but it has now all add up… I do have £100 contingency that we can use to save us dipping into pots so that’s something I suppose.

The only thing I have left to buy is something for an aunt’s birthday (the thing I wanted is out of stock, annoyingly).

Our remortgage is almost sorted – just at the solicitor stage, since we’re changing lenders. I know the first payment will be a big payment, but I need to find out when that will be so that I can schedule it into the spreadsheet. I don’t want a surprise to almost double the tune of our current mortgage payment!

In good news, our house was surveyed last week and the value has gone up by £45k in the 4 years we have lived there so it’s nice to see it going in the right direction.

I’m off out tonight for a festive movie with friends and looking forward to it. I have driven so I won’t be drinking and will be able to take everyone home.

Days until pay day: 11
Days until I finish up for 2 weeks holiday: 4

Homegrown0

Also, i thought I was getting £17.99 refund from a voucher site for an incorrectly sold item, but I got notification today that they're refunding postage too (unusual!) so I'll be getting £20.98 back in 3-5 working days.

That'll go straight into the credit card to chip another little bit away.

doingitanyway

I don't think there is a way of avoiding the overspend at this time of year even when we budget. The pots get used and we all want to say 'yes' to friends and family. It's okay, you'll get back on track.
Yay for the house price increase and enjoy the movie

Homegrown0

doingitanyway wrote: »

I don't think there is a way of avoiding the overspend at this time of year even when we budget. The pots get used and we all want to say 'yes' to friends and family. It's okay, you'll get back on track.
Yay for the house price increase and enjoy the movie

You're right DIA - it is an expensive time of year and this year is the first we haven't used a credit card to get through December so we're making progress at least! :rotfl:

Homegrown0

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with the volume of things to do over the coming week so today's post will be fairly simplistic.

Good things:
- I added £2.60 into my sealed pot
- £526 paid to our loan today
- No more travel into the office for work so not spending any more money on travel to work this year
- I have finished my Christmas shopping - just need to buy aunt a birthday present
- Planned a frugal rest of the week so shopping should be around £25 mark this afternoon for meals until Sunday.

Not so good things
- I have a lot to do and am behind...must make a list
- Slightly overspent so feeling a bit cagey about spends
- Still lots of work to do before Friday

Days until pay day: 9
Days until i finish work: 3

Homegrown0

Balances and paid amounts
Loan: £6,843.33 / £15,792.30 (£8,948.97 paid off - 57% paid)
CC1: £4,454.97 / £4,804.97 (started from scratch in July 18) £350 or 7% paid off
CC2: £4,011.14 / £5,031.14 (£1020 paid off - 20% paid)

Total: £15,309.44 / £25,619.44 (£10,318.97 paid off, 40% paid)

Good things:

• 40% of total debt paid off
• Loan is into the £6ks!!
• Credit card is £11.15 off dropping into the 3ks :j If i can spare the cash before the end of the month I'll pay it in
• We have paid off over £10k of debt so far

Not so good things

• We had some setbacks this year and added a little to the debt
• Our 0% has run out on one CC and we can't BT it until our new mortgage goes through at the end of January
• We could've been more committed to paying debt off this year but we chose holidays with the kids instead (which is a good thing but also a not so good thing)

2018 financial goals

• Be more focused on paying down the debt
• Stay focused on planning the month ahead and being more realistic with budgets
• Pay off the loan by the end of the year
• Clear one of the credit cards
• Pay another 10k off the debt in 2019

Homegrown0

This morning's win
I wasn't able to get the birthday gift for my aunt in law last week as it had sold out in her size and was unavailable online. I tried another branch today and not only did i find it in the right size, but it was 50% off so got it for £9! Got her a bottle of her favourite wine too.

It's beginning to come together - got about 80% of my wrapping done yesterday and going out tonight/ tomorrow afternoon to get the food shopping in. Phew.

I'll be glad when we can chill

doingitanyway

Homegrown0 wrote: »

This morning's win
I wasn't able to get the birthday gift for my aunt in law last week as it had sold out in her size and was unavailable online. I tried another branch today and not only did i find it in the right size, but it was 50% off so got it for £9! Got her a bottle of her favourite wine too.

It's beginning to come together - got about 80% of my wrapping done yesterday and going out tonight/ tomorrow afternoon to get the food shopping in. Phew.

I'll be glad when we can chill

Result with your aunt's pressie

Homegrown0

I know DIA - I'm particularly pleased about that

I also just checked my bank account to find that my phone bill was £40 more than normal, accounting for some roaming charges in Norway (I've never been to Norway). Apparently when I flew to the US
last month my phone managed to connect to a 'ship' signal in Norway which charges £6 per MB and my phone automatically used it up to the £40 per day limit (????). Anyway, i talked the lady through my travel and she could see from my account I used my phone in the US not Norway so she has agreed to refund the £40 to my phone bill account which means that although I'm out of pocket this month, my phone bill will be lower next month.

Note to self - turn everything off on my phone before boarding!!