£29,303...Enough is enough!

WelshKitty85

Christmas is well & truly over and done with in our household. I feel like a little bit of a Scrooge since some of the neighbouring houses are still twinkling away, but I'm back in work on Monday and want to blitz the house between now & then. We've tackled the lounge today & it looks so clean & tidy now the decorations have been packed away.

I had to go to the supermarket for baby wipes today so did a top up shop of milk, bread & fruit - £15 in total and we shouldn't need another shop until the end of next week now. I've budgeted £300 to cover groceries & fuel this month but, since I'm still mostly working from home and the freezer and cupboards are ready to burst, I'm hoping to come in below this. My budgeting month started on 25 Dec and we've spent around £70 so far, including the take away for DDs birthday.

I've not made any resolutions, but am generally trying to be a bit healthier. So far I've upped my water in take and had fruit for dessert - chocolate coated strawberries are still healthy, right??! 

savingholmes

Love chocolate coated strawberries. One of your five a day plus some calcium and possibly iron and of course endorphins. Well balanced....

Happy New Year. I too am hoping to reduce our grocery bill for Jan as our freezers and cupboards are stuffed. Lucky.

WelshKitty85

I had a busy & productive day yesterday. Tidied, cleaned and decluttered the kitchen, then cleaned the bathroom, got rid of empty bottles that had been left on the side of the bath, and bleached the silicone around the bath & shower. It's now sparkling. DH tried to convince me that we needed to go shopping for car shampoo, I was adamant we had enough to wash at least 1 of the cars. We got the buckets & sponges out, tackled a car each, and managed to give them both a good wash with what we already had.

I got a message to say a regular 0lio collection had become available so I snapped up the slot and did a pick up last night. I couldn't believe how much there was - more than the Boxing Day collection I did. I have a big car and struggled to get it all in. It took me 2 hours to photograph and list it all online. We get to keep around 10% for ourselves so kept some meatballs, sausages, chicken, and turkey slices for the freezer.

This morning, I have delivered 4 boxes of food to family, and arranged for 4 other people to collect from me. Two lovely ladies brought me gifts of plum jam and marrow chutney in exchange for their boxes and 2 others have offered wine & gin if they collect from me in future. Very unexpected but very much appreciated. Of the haul I collected, we just have 2 boxes left, mainly bread products. We will have a buffet dinner to use a lot of it up. I've also got 10 punnets of strawberries left so will get busy dipping them in chocolate since they are so good for me

savingholmes

Sounds fabulous on the Olio collection.

savingholmes

Particularly like the idea of chocolate covered strawberries. I'm going to try and share about the app via work to try and get the word out. 

WelshKitty85

DH is in a mood today, keeps moaning and making unnecessary comments, then has the cheek to say I'm trying to cause a fight! Quite glad to be working so I can spend the day at my desk and not have to be around him. Hopefully he'll be in a better mood by 5.

Whilst I had my works laptop out yesterday, I took the opportunity to use it to give my budget spreadsheet an update. I filled it in to the end of December, using just my wage and our benefits as income (as DH is on a zero hours contract so hours/wages are not guaranteed). On that basis, we will be £3799 short by the end of December. That's actually a lot better than I thought, as it means we only need an additional £316 per month to make ends meet. Obviously DH getting regular work would be the perfect solution, but we should be able to make a good chunk of that through selling unused items & doing some online surveys. I've continued to budget for at least £100 to savings each month, and we already have over £1000 in emergency savings, so could cut back there if absolutely necessary (but hopefully it won't come to that).

I did briefly consider moving our mortgage to interest only for the next couple of years whilst we hammer the debts, then change it back to a repayment mortgage once the debts are gone. I'm not sure how well that would work for us, but I might give it some more thought.

savingholmes

I think interest only is a good option to have in your back pocket... Unfortunately we've got to 50 and are now going... hmmm how are we going to pay this off... As long as we keep our jobs it will be doable once the CC debts are repaid but in the current situation that remains to be seen. 

WelshKitty85

Grrr...just lost a long post!!

Our plan is to move house fairly soon, once we're in a position to do so and we find the perfect house - it will be our forever home this time. Ideally, we want somewhere more rural, with an outbuilding we can convert and use as a holiday let. So, I was thinking we could move the mortgage to interest only for the next 2 years, clear our others debts completely, then sell & move, or return to a repayment mortgage at that point. It's just thoughts at the moment though.

In more exciting news, DH & I have taken the plunge and invested just under £150 into starting our own little business. I've done something similar before, but gave it up 4 years ago when my hours increased in my 'proper job' and I was pregnant & unable to manoeuvre the heavy equipment without hurting my back. It's a slightly different concept this time, but I'm confident it will work. I've done a rough calculation and worked out that we should break even on what we've purchased so far, then should be into profit quite quickly after that.

savingholmes

Sounds fab. Good luck with the house move and the business. I think a lot of banks are wary of IO unless you have close to 50% equity if you are not an existing IO customer.

WelshKitty85

savingholmes said:

Sounds fab. Good luck with the house move and the business. I think a lot of banks are wary of IO unless you have close to 50% equity if you are not an existing IO customer.

Thank you.

Yes, I did wonder if we'd even be accepted. I think we're at about 60-something % LTV.