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

Homegrown0

teafor2 said:

Hi HG Well done on already hitting your savings target and the possibility of being able to add more before the end of the month is amazing. I feel the same as DIA about the holiday savings, that 14p is definitely looking very sorry for itself compared to all the other figures lol.  

I bought my first Christmas present yesterday but with only 17 weeks to go if I bought one gift every week I would only just about cover what we need 

Hope the boys have settled in well at school, especially the youngest and school clubs etc are up and running so you're back to some sort of normality. xx

Thanks for the encouragement Tea - we are keeping on keeping on. Nothing else for it! 

Well done on buying the first Christmas present! I have ordered a few small items this week and updated my spreadsheet. I've also been adding ideas to the spreadsheet for various people. Once the kids are back at school I always get Christmas on the brain. My eldest is already talking about a console that he'd like for Christmas. In fact, he was asking how much it cost because he'd like to save up for it and when I told him, his face fell... 

His birthday is just before Christmas and last year he wanted to ask for something for Christmas but knew that it was really expensive so he decided not to ask Santa for it. I was impressed with his understanding that Santa/ Christmas doesn't equal whatever you want regardless of the cost. So we decided to get it for him for his birthday from us and he saved up himself for an attachment for it. I was much happier with that than just playing to the stereotype of Santa will make/ bring anything you so desire. He didn't stop thanking us for a week and he takes really great care of the item now. I want to foster more of this behaviour and also figure out how to get it to rub off on his little bro... 

The boys have settled in great at school, thanks. Both are happy to go/ be back and that does make life a lot easier. 

It's so dull here today and it's been pouring down since I got up so it feels almost wintery. I'm such an Autumn/ Winter girl at heart, so i'm ready for us to move on from 'summer'. 

teafor2

Morning HG I love that DS was willing to save up for what he wanted himself. You and your husband have obviously instilled some good values in him and I'm sure youngest will follow suit. Santa gets far too much credit in my opinion If I could go back and do it all again he'd only bring one or two token presents. I'd make sure the DC's knew the rest were from us/family and because of that there's a limit to what they can expect to receive. Not that they ever really asked for ridiculous things, it was more the stress of me having to track down whatever the latest craze was. Much easier to say Mum couldn't find it in the store than Santa couldn't make it in his workshop lol. Have a lovely day. xx

Homegrown0

Yes, i know what you mean. It wasn't a question for me about what Santa brings until it was 'too late'. My husband and I were both brought up thinking Santa brought everything so we defaulted to that but I do sometimes wonder whether we should've done it a little differently. The outcome won't be any different, I suppose. And I probably only have a couple more Christmas days left of my eldest believing I'm trying not to think about that

Hope you also have a lovely day Tea!

Homegrown0

Morning all - hope you're all well? 

Today is the first day that I'm going into the city for a meeting since March. It'll be in a restaurant and I'm only meeting with one other person but I do still feel a little anxious about it. It's different being in the city centre than my much smaller town. However, I do feel like once I have done it once, I will feel better about it. There has to be some steps towards normality and this is a good one to take. Also, it's a work meeting so a nice free lunch is nothing to be sniffed at

Money-wise, things are ticking along fine. Pay day is imminent and I've been doing a little shuffle of funds and my spreadsheet in advance of that tomorrow. It's also my husband's pay day tomorrow and it will be the first week that he is paid normally after being furloughed and then on holiday pay (slightly less than standard pay). 

I spent some time yesterday working the numbers for our extension debt that we will be taking on at some point in the next couple of months. Because we have done so well with saving, it looks like we may not have to access as much credit as we expected. I'm not banking on anything at the moment, as we won't know the true figures until we actually start digging into the ground (there's potential problems underground) but once the ball is rolling, we will have a much better picture/ estimation of the final bill. We should expect the final payment in December which gives us three more full months of savings so I want to hit that as hard as possible. 

I'm also being a bit cautious about how we use the funds that we've saved. I'd be delighted if we could take out less of a loan and use savings that we have to top up the funds; however, i don't want to wipe out our savings completely so there needs to be a balance. And that's a balance I can't yet work out until I know the exact costings. 

As you can see, I don't deal well with uncertainty. I like to know facts and figures and plan ahead. 

It should be around 2-3 weeks until things start (although I'm not holding my breath). My husband told me last night to prepare for the fact that it might not be finished by Christmas. Although it's possible to finish it in that time, it depends on weather/ temperature etc. and some things could be delayed due to adverse weather. As long as it's watertight I don't suppose I can complain but I'd love it if the kitchen was in at least and we can work with the rest. Again, the not knowing is driving me mad.

I need to focus on something else haha 

teafor2

Hi HG DD went out for the first time last night to celebrate her friend's birthday. She had a great time but is now sat here worrying they should have stayed in one place rather than visited 3 different bars. I tend to agree with her but haven't said that because she's young and hasn't been out for 6 months and hindsight is a great thing! I can understand the worry though, I used to feel it every time I came back from my weekly shop but the more I've done normal things the less I seem to worry, although it's always at the back of my mind. So, as you say, I'm sure once you've done it you'll feel a little better, but it definitely takes some getting used to. 

I like to know where I stand as well - that line from Monty Python 'nobody expects the Spanish inquisition' is just not something I can relate to at all lol. I never ever run out of 'what, where, when, why' questions.  I can understand you wanting the works done by Christmas and I hope it pans out that way for you, but even if it doesn't I'm sure most of it will be done by then and you'll be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. 

Can the loan you're taking be paid off whenever you want? Maybe you could keep a chunk of savings and then if you don't need them for anything in particular, pay the loan off. Have a lovely day and enjoy the lunch. xx

Homegrown0

Creeps back in after almost six months of absence...

Hello! Hope all is well in here. Where do I begin? 

So much has happened since I was last on the forum in August, and my busyness is the primary driver for my absence. We haven't 'fallen off the wagon' as such, just been wall to wall busy, juggling all the things that most working parents are struggling through right now. 

I was thinking about the forum the other day and thought now would be a good time to return and continue where I left off now the dust has settled on our build and I know where we stand. I'm going to post an update below with some of hte key things and take it from there. 

Building work on the house
The last time I posted in here, we were a few weeks away from breaking ground on our extension and building work and I'm pleased to say that bar a couple of tiny delayed items, the building work is complete. We did all the work that was intended to be done and it was finished on 22nd December (eek!). You can imagine, the house was just entirely upside down but we managed to have a quiet Christmas in our new space. 

We still have LOTS to do in here - floor installed, furniture to be picked and all the usual finishings but I'm ok with that happening over time. I'm in no rush! I'd like to think we'll tackle this in an orderly fashion by working from a list in terms of priorities and then ordering as and when we can afford them. Furniture is not cheap! And we want to buy things that will last. 

Our builder is truly wonderful and although some things cropped up during the early stages of the build (as it always does) he covered the costs with areas that he managed to save on. So the quote he gave us almost a year ago was exactly what we ended up paying him. We were so worried what contingency we'd need but it turned out we didn't need any.

Debts
As you know, we managed to pay off our large loan this time last year (and more debt previously) which allowed us to hammer savings to contribute to our building work. We still have two small (ish) credit card balances which haven't been added to for some time and are both being paid monthly and both on 0% deals. 
We knew we'd be taking on additional debt to complete the building works and were prepared for this. Thankfully, because we focused so hard last year on savings, we managed to optimise how we were going to pay for this and it resulted in us taking out a much smaller loan than planned. Our debt total now looks *wow* but we have a good plan for paying it off and it's all affordable. 

Here's how it looks right now: 

CC1: £3,189.87 on 0% interest 
CC2: £2,577 on 0% interest
New loan: £26,085 (including all interest) 3/60 months down
Couch: £1,595 on 0% interest for 0/12 months down
Total: £32,823.97

We will be bringing the total down at a rate of £800 per month minimum and i'll chuck additional at the CCs as we go along. We only took the couch out on credit because it's 0% interest and we have a lot more furniture to buy so wanted to keep our savings for that and emergencies. 

Savings
As i said before, we worked really hard to save for the build and once we paid the final bill, we had some savings leftover. Don't get me wrong, it's all going to be accounted for in all the things we still have to do in the house but it's nice to know it wasn't entirely decimated in the building process alone. 

Right now it looks like this: 
Credit union (used for Christmas and pays out in Nov): £300 
Savings account: £6,302 (£2,150 of that will be paid next week to flooring company so technically £4,152 savings)
Gifts/ clothes account: £100 in there (reinstated that account this month for when the kids need kitted out or someone has a birthday)
Add to savings account in Feb: £550

Overall picture
So you can see, things are looking ok. We're home schooling the kids, I'm still working full time and work is manic. My husband has been furloughed part time which means I'm juggling half the week and he's able to cover the rest. His wages have seen a dip due to the furlough, but nothing we can't manage. 

There does still seem like a lot of money going out these days, but we do need to get the new space properly liveable. Flooring going in next week, sofa should arrive shortly after then we have a job to decide on furniture etc. We'll get there, not in any rush, but i'd like for something in this house to feel finished after six years of living in a dated mess.  

So I think that covers the main parts of where we're at right now. We have to keep an eye on our spending, although we're at home and should technically be doing ok our monthly spending is still quite high. Amazon + supermarket shopping + a bunch of hungry gannets that live in my house makes each month pretty expensive still. Need to keep a closer eye on things as I'm sure we could siphon spending money into the savings, particularly on short months like February. 

Anyway, I'm hopeful that some of my old forum buddies are still around. I'll need to check in on some of my old diary favourites too. Take care all! 

Homegrown0

Topcashback
I don't have much time for a lot of additional income streams like I used to (no surveys for me, I'm afraid) so Topcashback is really the only additional free cash for us. 

I tried to remember to use it while purchasing bits and bobs for the house during our build, as well as Christmas and have managed to rack up £19.56 payable + £28.78 confirmed + £2.88 pending (Total £51.22) which is not too bad at all. 

I've also got two disputes in about declined claims that I know are legitimate which total £17.94. It will probably take six months to resolve, but I see no harm in trying. I know they were legitimate purchases. 

doingitanyway

You are back and with an extension completed! Well done you. I didn't think for a minute that you had fallen off the wagon. Fantastic to come in on budget for the extension and I am envious of your lovely builder. 

Considering you have completed an extension and only took a small loan I don't think your debt looks that bad and you definitely have the skillset to tackle it.

Great to see you posting again and brimming with positivity

abba1772

Glad you got to have a nice Xmas without the building mess

you’re definitely  on it regarding the money front well done on saving so hard as it’s defo made a difference in not going over budget.

Homegrown0

Thanks for the warm welcome back into the forum. It was nice to see some lovely faces again. I've caught up on both your diaries too and looks like all is moving in a good direction

Not a lot to report this week - grocery shopping was high again, but that's not unusual these days. We're enjoying eating well and we're all at home most of the time so we are going through a lot more of everything. The kids are helping with the meal planning, which is great, but we end up with salmon one night, cod the next etc. and I'm delighted they have such healthy and varied tastes but I dread to think how much I spent on meat and fish for the week on Sunday... in fact, I've just gone to check my receipts and I spent £38.23 on meat for the week. I did also spent £10.49 on wine... but needs must. I generally do as much as possible as Aldi then get the rest at Morrisons but still managed to spend a total of £149 for the weekly shop. My kids eat the same portions as me so it's like feeding four adults for 21 meals per week. And now is not the time for cutting out treats, as long as they're not too excessive. I think a couple of bottles of wine, some olives and malteasers isn't too bad! 

We are counteracting my husband's drop in wages (from being part time furloughed to help with home schooling) with the fact that we're not paying for after school club right now. It's been working well until now but if our youngest goes back to school the week after next, I'm not sure what's happening with after school club. My husband might still need to be off to school the eldest and we might still need to pay for the youngest's place at after school to keep it open. Something to investigate once the P1-3 return is confirmed. I think this is happening next week? 

Otherwise, my husband packed in a bit of extra work so another £170 into the savings kitty this week. The problem is, it's going out as quickly as it's coming in! This week we had our flooring fitted and blinds arrived (so savings took quite the hit) and our TV was ordered last night so that'll be another chunk out. Next on the hit list is a TV unit and sideboard. Then we'll likely save up a little more to maintain our buffer and invest in a table and chairs later. This is what happens when we've lived on Ikea furniture for the last 12 years... everything is falling apart and beyond done so it all needs replaced. 

Work is exhausting at the moment and I'm trying really hard to stay focused, but it's hard when I'm juggling 1001 interruptions per day from the kids. It's not their fault, but just makes me feel like I'm not able to give decent attention to work, the house or the kids. We're all doing our best but it's not a nice feeling. 

Anyway, we're through the middle of the week and the weekend is coming! Not soon enough...