Twinklie returns to the property ladder

twinklie

So half term so far has been food for the soul. 

Saturday - Trampoline park for a birthday party. 
Sunday - Chore and relaxation day. 
Monday - Took the kids to an ASD session at an inflatable park, which was fab. 
Tuesday - Met up with 4 girls I went to school with and our million children. It was lovely. Was only meant to be for the morning and we ended up there until 3.30pm and putting on a picnic for the kids (all boys ranging 9.5 years to 10 weeks). 
Wednesday - home day, baking, lego and some tablet time. 

Hoping the rest of the week goes thus:
Thursday - visit a local Hall and gardens (weather permitting). 
Friday - Another relatively quiet day, but DH and I are going to watch a comedy show in the evening. 
Saturday - Lego club at the library in the morning and another comedy show in the evening (COVID moved them so they were rearranged next to each other). 
Sunday - Doing all the jobs I need to do prior to returning to work/school. 

So busy but fun. Everything has been totally free except the inflatable park and I had to pay for DS1 at the trampoline park because he technically wasn't invited to the party. The Hall and gardens are totally free too but I will likely have to fork out for food there (you aren't allowed to take your own). 

twinklie

A quick MSE update because I can't help myself. If I've worked everything out properly my mortgage has dropped below 200K for the first time. And my daily interest to £14. I'm so excited. 

Both feel like big milestones. 

Alchemilla

twinklie said:

A quick MSE update because I can't help myself. If I've worked everything out properly my mortgage has dropped below 200K for the first time. And my daily interest to £14. I'm so excited. 

Both feel like big milestones. 

Congratulations! 

savingholmes

Great result on the mortgage and the half term planning.

twinklie

Half term plans have currently gone to plan. Although not sure if the comedy show will go ahead with the winds, that may get knocked on the head - I wouldn’t be overly upset if I’m honest. 

DS2 goes back to swimming for the first time since covid this afternoon so will see how he coped with that. Fingers crossed he’s into it. 

The hall and gardens yesterday set me back £20 all told for food and drink for everyone (2 adults and 2 children). The boys had the best time and it was just nice to see them running round like crazy things tbh. 

Stay safe everyone. 

savingholmes

Sounds like you all had a good family time.

twinklie

February update

DEBT 

Made up of car loan and DH's phone.
I've decided to take this off because I have to rely on DH for updates on these and it drives me potty. But I'll keep a check on it separately. 
Start of year total debt = £5,432 

SAVINGS
Aim to save £400 per month to build emergency fund and for rainy day expenses (car, house maintenance etc.).  DONE (with a bit extra). 

 

MORTGAGE 

Current daily interest - £14.00

We now own 23.81% of the house - current rough valuation actually puts us as 33.34% (down a bit from last month).

3 rooms owned (5 if I go with the higher valuation).

Paid off 14.90% of the mortgage. 

Current MF date - Oct  Sept 2037.



Utility bills are scaring me. So I'm thinking we need to plan some simple changes to try and make the house more energy efficient (just draft excluders, draft excluders on the letter box, curtains on the front door etc). Was looking into the fixed tariff Octopus was offering me and it literally changed overnight. 

Octopus initial Fixed Offer
Electricity - SC - 24.38p, UR - 35.62p
Gas - SC - 26.10p, UR - 9.70p. 

Current offer for fixed rate
Electricity - SC - 24.38p, UR - 36.78p
Gas - SC - 26.10p, UR - 11.11p. 

Wish I'd actually took the initial offer now, but I wanted to wait to workout the figures. 

Octopus - Variable rate with new price cap (April 2022). 
Electricity - SC - 41.98p, UR - 28.01p
Gas - SC - 27.22p, UR - 7.34p. 

We are quite high users of gas and electricity at the minute, although as the weather improves and DH is going into the office more this will reduce. But if feels like a big decision with so many unknowns. 

Alchemilla

Energy saving tactics sound like a great idea.

twinklie

Oooh I’m being offered the figures from the initial offer again now. 

I never bothered working out the figures because it wasn’t on the table anymore. 🤦🏼‍♀️

Will see what I’m offered when I actually have the time to work it all out. 

twinklie

More expense. Tried to get the kids swimming again. DS2 has tried a 2 different classes now and has essentially not coped and thus been removed from both. The instructor did a sterling job so I totally get what they are saying - I'm not complaining about the swim school. 

But we are now going to try private lessons 2 kids (mine) with 1 instructor. It's actually not bad value. It's a tenner for a normal group lesson (per child), but £16 (per child) for the private lesson. I can't really complain given the extra attention they'll get and I'm not too bothered about the big one making progress initially I just want him to be comfortable and practice getting changed independently and sorting his stuff out (as he's going with school in summer months). DS2 I just want to be ok and feel safe in the water for now. So that should hopefully be doable just the two of them in the pool. 

DS1 is super well behaved so he'll make up for the craziness of DS2.