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

Homegrown0

Morning all! 

It seems like an age since I've updated but I'm a week down the line and not a lot has changed really. Things always go slowly through the month and not much going on to report. No news is good news, i think! 

Things are progressing with the financing for our renovations - just waiting on the paperwork. I haven't had any calls to discuss any issues so i'm hoping that means there's no issues! Need to speak to the builder to make arrangements for getting started. 

Looking on the bright side of the COVID-19 situation, it looks like I won't be travelling for work for a while which is nice. A little less upheaval for the family. If schools are closed for 2-4 weeks (all speculation, i know but I'm trying to be prepared), it's going to be tough juggling working from home and dealing with the kids. Not sure how I'm going to manage, but needs must. My husband has to go to work. Although if my husband's work has to close, he won't be paid so we'll need to be careful with money on that front. I guess we'll just need to wait and see what happens. 

Savings
As i mentioned, we're prioritising savings at the moment beyond all regular debt commitments. It's looking like our savings should hit £6,100 by the end of this month which would be great! The next few months will be a lot more moderate in terms of savings but we'll just keep on keeping on. Savings are for contingency for the renovations, as well as spending money for our summer holiday (if it goes ahead, that is). 

Annual price increases in April
I know it always happens at this time of year, but it doesn't make it any nicer to see an influx of notifications for price increases in the new financial year. 

So far, we have: 

• Swimming lessons increasing by 70p per child per month (not bank breaking, but another annual increase)
• Nursery fees increasing by £60 per month (which is a lot, but #2 finishes nursery early August so just over 4 months at this increased rate) 

I'm also expecting council tax to increase significantly and a few other bills so i'll add to this list as things come in... 

Days until pay day: 18 
Nursery payments left: 4 

teafor2

Hi HG It's all sounding really good and I'm sure the paperwork will come through soon - then the really exciting and messy part starts   

Schools closing will be a real problem especially for those with children at nursery and primary but I tend to think that while it will happen eventually, it will be put off for as long as possible, although I might be eating my words in a few hours after Boris has made his announcement. You can only hope employers show some understanding while working parents get through this as best they can. We just had our Council Tax bill through the post and it's gone up by £5.60 per month. 

Have a lovely afternoon and stay well. xx

Homegrown0

Hi all, how are you doing in these crazy times? 

I haven't updated in a couple of weeks, mainly because it's been an absolutely insane time trying to adjust then readjust then readjust again. 

We are now all at home - husband 'unpaid' for now (until the Government initiative hopefully kicks in), I'm working and the kids are at home doing a mixture of work and play. It's quite the adjustment for us all really. 

Financially, we will be losing out on husband's wage, but I earn more so if anyone is going to be out of work/ unpaid it should be him. Plus, the Government grant should cover 80% of his wages when the time comes. We are, however, saving on things like after school club fees, nursery fees and various clubs that have cancelled/ reduced our direct debit and for that reason, we aren't too badly affected right now. 

We have put our renovations on hold for now - of course, because the lockdown dictates that we do so, but we had made that decision anyway because it's not the time to be committing to many thousands of pounds worth of work over 5 years when the immediate future is so uncertain. 

We are also landlords, so need to take into account the possibility that our tenant can't pay his rent and that'd be a problem that we'd need to cover. 

It's a scary time all round, with many people affected in many different ways. My office in my house looks over a main road and it's normally busy throughout the day. Today, i've seen one car pass and an empty bus which is just so unusual. I'm glad that many people appear to now be taking it seriously. 

I'm spending some time this morning going through our finances and adjusting what I know will change to make sure we're prepared. Another thing to consider is that our monthly 'expenses' (which include food, fuel, spends, activities, going out etc) will not be s high as normal. Although our food bill will be higher, we will save over £200 per month by not driving for 3-4 weeks alone so we can look at some small positives. 

I'm doing daily workouts with the kids to keep fitness levels up and we're practicing daily gratitudes too which i hope will keep the spirits up. 

How are things with you? Interaction means more now than ever and I'm determined to stay in close touch with my loved ones (even teaching my grandmother how to use WhatsApp video calling). 

Homegrown0

Extra money
Ooh, i just checked in on my Topcashback and had £133.51 finally payable! 

Assigned the 'change' to a children's charity and have lifted the £130 to my bank account. When that arrives, I will likely pay it into the credit card (providing we don't have any changes to our financial circumstances over the next week i.e. we find out husband doesn't qualify for being paid while he's off or something). 

My parents also just changed energy supplier and used my referral link - got an email yesterday to say I've had £50 credited to my account and so have they Happy days! 

Bills going up
Although some things are frozen at the minute, I want to add to the list of bills going up in the new financial year. Council tax is rising by another £9 per month; nursery is rising by almost £60 per month (but that finishes in July if the little guy ever gets to go back, that is). Swimming lessons has gone up by a couple of pounds and the kids' martial arts class has also increased. Waiting to see what's next. 

Days until pay day: 5

Homegrown0

Morning all! Trying to get through my work as soon as possible so that I can spend some quality time with the kids today. I figure if i can knuckle down from 0800 until 1300 then i should be able to take the rest of the afternoon off and go back to it a couple of hours at night if need be. My husband is doing everything with the kids while i work, which is great, but I think this is also an opportunity to spend some time that we don't normally have with the kids so going to try my best to make it work. 

Days until pay day: 4 

I'm heading out to the supermarket later. We have a list that we've been adding to over the last few days and said we wouldn't go out until we needed bread or milk. I haven't been out the house (aside from a couple of local walks) since picking up my son from school on Friday and it feels like a lifetime already. I'm actually looking forward to a change of scenery in the supermarket. 

Extension
As I mentioned, i have put our extension/ renovation on hold at the very last minute. Thankfully our builder completely agreed with our decision and wasn't peed off at our decision to pull it with a week's notice. A sensible tradesman who cares about his employees, thankfully We will do it, but once we have a bit more certainty on what's going to happen. I'd imaging it'll start late summer and be into winter before it's complete depending on what happens. We have our mortgage funds approved and ready to draw down and we have until August to draw down those funds to use so we are in no rush. It seems a shame as we've been waiting five and a half years to do this, but I'm 100% sure it's the right decision for everyone and it's a luxury that we can wait another 6-or-so months for. 

Motivation
Motivation to work is low right now, i'm really having to force myself to focus and get through some things. It's a combination of things, including uncertainty in my company for a variety of reasons, no direction and of course everything that's going on right now and the uncertainty that creates. Also, having the kids at home is a complete distraction and I feel guilty that I should be doing more with them rather than being holed up in my office. Anyway, I'm trying to hammer the work in the morning and take some time after lunch to do some fun things with them, so i'll see how that pans out. 

Hope you're all keeping well? 

teafor2

Evening HG I think the morning routine of work followed by family time sounds a good balance. How did you get on at the supermarket. We didn't get everything delivered bu we're OK for this week and could probably eke out a few extra days of eating if we needed to. DD is home now though so that's an extra mouth to feed and she's a bit of a gannet lol. 

It's frustrating about the extension but to be honest I think you're better off waiting. What if they started and then the builders got ill and you were left with unfinished work. Best to get all this done with and then go full steam ahead. 

Are you as busy with work as normal? It's strange times for us all isn't it. I'm working to a rough weekly plan of what I want to achieve, which is nothing much lol, but actually taking each day as it comes. Take care of yourselves. xx

Homegrown0

Thanks for the lovely message teafor2 and apologies for my tardy response. It's been a rather busy week! 

You're right about the extension - I feel comfortable about our decision to delay. And although I do wish it was underway (impatient is my middle name) I'm looking on the bright side. 
1. We have already waited five and a half years to be able to do this, another 6 months or so will not kill us 
2. Delaying will push the cost of our additional borrowing down the line. Where I'd budgeted to start paying 'extension debt' from this month, that money has been redirected to our savings account. We should be able to build up a nice additional amount in the coming months. 
3. We are delaying the massive upheaval to the garden so while the weather is dry (as it is now), the kids have freedom to roam the garden without restriction and if they'd started demolishing and digging then forced to stop, the kids wouldn't be able to be outside without supervision. 


I am really busy with work Tea. There's a lot going on with my company right now and I'm in the thick of it, so it is a bit of a juggle. I'm so lucky that my husband is home and I have some peace to work but trying to also make the most of this time with us all at home. It's a unique time and I am enjoyng spending more time with the kids. 

The shopping trip was actually ok - I had to queue for a little while and I managed to get almost everything I needed so i'd count that as a success. I'm going once per week (as we go through a LOT of fresh stuff) and while I'm there, i pick up things for a few family members and do doorstep drop offs to save them leaving more than they need to. It's not a lot, but it's three less people in a shop and if everyone was able to do this, then it'd make a big impact. 

I'm going to do a finance overview next - not sure if i did one last month or not! But i want to keep up to date with how things are doing. Monthly reviews are a good way of doing that. 

Hope everyone is safe and well! 

Homegrown0

March 2020 ROUNDUP!

Balances and paid amounts
Loan: Paid off 
CC1: £4,175.66 / £4,736.59 (£560.45 or 12% paid off)
CC2: £3,224.58 / £5,031.14 (£1,806.56 paid off - 36% paid)

Total: £7,400.24 / £25,619.44 (£19,706.29 paid off, 77% paid)

Savings

• £5,210 in savings (saving hard for extension contingency, hence why payments above are less than usual)
• Aiming for £6,500 in savings by the end of April 
• £300 in clothing/ gifts account - not been using much, particularly because of lockdown... 
• £250 in Christmas saver (restarted in November)
• £301 in credit union (restarted in November)

Days until pay day: 23
Loan payments left: NONE!!! - Yes, I'm still going on about it! 
Childcare payments left: Technically three, but possibly 0 depending on lockdown...

monz

Not in a bad way but hope lockdown lifts by mid end May (safely obv) so we get some normality back,... not for nursery fees but xx

Homegrown0

Yes, that'd be nice Monz. To be honest, i'd take the lockdown lifting and resume paying fees just for a bit of normality! Bu tneeds must - and i'll stay in the house as long as it takes to see it through. 

Hope you guys are doing ok?