*sigh* this may take a while

Drawingaline

It's been an awful month here too. Last October was also. September and October seem to have so many hidden expenses, and I think after the cost of the summer holidays I relax and think I have loads of money :rotfl:

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Haha, yes, could be a bit of that here too!

Busy couple of days again, not overly spendy though, which is good.

Slowly picking up the odd gift for Christmas, there have been a lot of sales on in the shops which has helped me keep to my spending targets for each person (ish)!

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Half term; I haven't taken any AL so I'm working 3 of the days which is boring for the kids as I've got a friendly grandparent to babysit, but they won't be going out at all. I haven't got much planned for the 2 days I have got off, I'm doing a bit of childminding and lots of chores, so think it'll be a bit of a non event. Good for the finances though.
I always find October and February half terms a bit rubbish, tricky to find fun stuff to do!

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Just remembered... have got 'fun' plans on Halloween, the kids have each got a couple of friends coming over for a mini party. I avoid going trick or treating, although happy to dish out sweets to those that do! The children are all recycling their costumes from last year and I've got a stash of decorations, so apart from a bit of Halloween themed party food, shouldn't entail much spending!

[Deleted User]

That sounds like a great idea for Halloween! My son is reusing the same costume for the third year as well (last year I'll get away with it ha). Just makes so much sense!

remote_control

Hi just been reading your diary (not quite got to the end yet I confess!). I just wondered if you are overpaying the £800 a month to your mortgage now? Just wondered as it is something we talk of. I'm not sure I would do it but I would like to think that when the debt has gone that I would pay the £600 we pay towards debt each month towards the mortgage instead. Thanks

ohdearhowdidthathappen

remote_control wrote: »

Hi just been reading your diary (not quite got to the end yet I confess!). I just wondered if you are overpaying the £800 a month to your mortgage now? Just wondered as it is something we talk of. I'm not sure I would do it but I would like to think that when the debt has gone that I would pay the £600 we pay towards debt each month towards the mortgage instead. Thanks

I wish we could say we do, but we don't. We still owe family £8.5k, trying to finish off the house and I'm trying to get a handle on not living a month in arrears on the credit card. Plus (if I'm honest), we're still a bit too spendy sometimes Rather than a set amount, we're trying to focus on mortgage term. When we remortgaged we set it at 22 years and we currently overpay to a point that it knocks off 2 years, so it's paid off in 20. Our aim is to get it to 15 years, so by the time my husband gets to 60, we'll be mortgage free. Hopefully sooner though!

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Salaries are all in, need to update YNAB, but looks good at first glance; stayed out of overdraft, CC came down a bit etc
My cousin wants to buy our current car (warts and all), her partner is a mechanic and reckons he can do it up. Parkers guide says it's worth £3k if in perfect condition (which its definitely not!), WBAC offered us £2K which we were pleasantly surprised at. Cousin offered £2.5K, so we have accepted. MOT runs out next week, so we'd rather avoid opening that particular can of worms!
Our lease car should be ready in 2 weeks, so being a 1 car family should be interesting in the meantime! We've got the finances in place for the lease car, so we're debating where to put the £2k... erring towards putting into accessible savings in the meantime.

I start my new job next week and then my 2 side jobs end a month later, will be odd just have 1 employer (although I'll be doing some Saturdays in a different dept), looking forward to the increase in salary and decrease in working hours though

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Half term was not too painful financially, OH covered one day when I was at work and my mum covered the other, so no childcare costs. I minded several children one day and used that money to fund 2 nice days out with children on the other days I had off. Cost neutral, I guess!

Been pondering the £2.5k car sale dilemma; we've decided we're putting £800 towards Christmas which makes it fully funded now, £800 into emergency fund making it £1000 in total and putting the other £700 into the house renovation fund.

I've got 2 house renovation plans for 2020, my daughter's room and our room. Our younger daughter inherited my eldest daughter's room after she moved into one of the new extension rooms. She was so excited to move out of her shared room to start with, but it's really not to her taste. She's so undemanding that we'd love to do it up for her asap as a surprise. Not doing anything until after Christmas, so I'm going to use the next couple of months to suss out ideas and to stalk pinterest :rotfl:

clearmydebts

ohshithowdidthathappen wrote: »

Half term was not too painful financially, OH covered one day when I was at work and my mum covered the other, so no childcare costs. I minded several children one day and used that money to fund 2 nice days out with children on the other days I had off. Cost neutral, I guess!

Been pondering the £2.5k car sale dilemma; we've decided we're putting £800 towards Christmas which makes it fully funded now, £800 into emergency fund making it £1000 in total and putting the other £700 into the house renovation fund.

I've got 2 house renovation plans for 2020, my daughter's room and our room. Our younger daughter inherited my eldest daughter's room after she moved into one of the new extension rooms. She was so excited to move out of her shared room to start with, but it's really not to her taste. She's so undemanding that we'd love to do it up for her asap as a surprise. Not doing anything until after Christmas, so I'm going to use the next couple of months to suss out ideas and to stalk pinterest :rotfl:

Wow - a cost neutral midterm. Well done you, no easy feat

I would love to do up my room but the bathroom is definitely next on our list!