The first hurdle - Nichelette v the huge mortgage

Moneyfordreams

your poor mum, hope she has a speedy recovery

Nichelette

It has been a while again! Thanks for good wishes, my mum has been making good progress thankfully. 

I've only overpaid the mortgage by £50 this month as I am switching focus to getting the CC down instead. It's just under £5,400 now so hopefully be gone in a few months! It is 0% til July so I do have some breathing space if I want it. 

My anxiety around house prices has eased somewhat as everything at the cheaper end of the market seems to be flying. We only have a 2 bed so we're in that bracket too. Prices seem to be holding up okay at the moment which is good. I actually stuck our account details into the Halifax site so see what kind of rates we could get and by their automated calculation we're at 78% LTV so target achieved lol. It must be factoring in current prices as we wouldn't quite be at 78% yet at the price we bought for so I'm hopeful. Downside is the best deal with Lloyds is currently £900/month where Halifax have upped their rates making theirs £945 and added another £500 to the fees . I'll have to see what the situation is in a couple of months. I'm hoping it will be favourable but not expecting much. I'd really rather not change provider if I can avoid it. 

In other news, finances will be hit hard soon as I found out I'm pregnant. I'm only 7 weeks today so only a couple of people know in real life. I'm quite cautious as I know it's very early still so we will see how things go. I'll need to update my projection spreadsheet lol. I'm going to clear out a load of stuff I have left at my dads from when I moved out. I have a LOT of stuff, so I can probably sell quite a bit, but I'm not loving the thought of it as it will take ages to sort through. When I was at uni I had a reasonably successful business selling jewellery so I have so much craft stuff etc to plough through. I have considered maybe using up the last of the stuff I have and selling jewellery again, but to be honest after the last crash everyone started doing it and the market became very saturated. I was lucky that I started before and did quite well. 

Hazelnutty

Congratulations, Nichelette!

South_coast

Ooh, congratulations 😍

joshiesaunt

Congratulations!

savingholmes

Glad your mum is doing better. Congrats on the pregnancy. Woohoo

Nichelette

Thanks all . Things seem to be going okay still and I have been feeling less rough for the last few days so happy with that! Have my first appointment on the 20th Sept so will see how that goes. Maybe it's normal but I think they must be crazy busy to be having appointments on a Sunday .

I have brought the first batch of my stuff home and have mostly sorted it out. We have the week off work so I've washed a load of clothes and given them to charity (mostly nice things I kept that I have zero hope of fitting again). I have kept a few bits I think I might be able to sell, but if that doesn't work out they will be charity bound too. We managed a dump trip too. I find it quite satisfying clearing things out. When I was depressed I used to buy to make myself happy (albeit temporarily). I hate to think of the amount I spent on rubbish back then. Ironically I've found having loads of clutter makes me mentally worse. I'm so much happier with less 'stuff'.

It's our 3rd anniversary tomorrow. I'm not actually sure what we're doing, I'll have to have a word with DH. Time goes so quickly, I can't believe it has been 3 years already. I'm so lucky to have him though . 

savingholmes

Glad things are going well. I am still trying to teach myself that less is better - but I agree too much stuff is mentally overwhelming.

Moneyfordreams

congratulations and happy anniversary

Nichelette

Saving - I know it is difficult, and I still have some bits hovering around our spare room now, but honestly I find it so freeing clearing it all out.

I brought two cars worth of stuff back from my dads and still have a little bit there. It's beyond ridiculous to be honest. Whilst I know the reason I got into the cycle of buying was because of my depression at the time, I find it hard to believe the sheer volume of stuff I was buying.

I couldn't face the house being so cluttered so most of the clothes and bric a brac type stuff that was any good went to charity to get it out the house quickly. Some has been binned, and I've kept a few bigger items back that I might be able to sell on facebook. When we got married I vinyled our table plan on to a mirror which has been at my dads ever since. I have it now and really need to remove all the names, then I can sell the mirror, but I've been putting it off because the thought of doing it makes me a bit sad! I know it's only a physical thing and I still have the memories, but I clearly still have a bit of the old me hiding away in there! I can't even keep it in the loft because it won't fit through the hatch!

We've just painted the living room, it's actually quite nice, though we need to change all of our accessories to match the new colour now, so gradually we'll need light fittings, curtains a new rug etc. Oh, and a new curtain rail, because the one we have is what was here when we moved and it's not nice. I mean, it's not really terrible, but I've always personally disliked it lol. 

We're still plodding along financially. Tomorrow I'll pay whatever is left in our accounts (think it's about 2.4k) off the credit card, which I think will leave us about 3k-ish on it. Reading that it looks ridiculous and I'm a bit embarrassed to have that left over when I know how much some are really struggling. We live quite simple lives, and since I'm not really into buying 'stuff' in the way I used to be so it just kind of accumulates. I have to say covid has also helped. I really hate face masks so I'm basically not going in shops at all now. I don't mean that in a 'rules don't apply to me' way, I just find them so horrible I'd rather get things online, so I'm only buying things I actually need and not buying random crap where I've been browsing. 

Booking in appointment with midwife is next Sunday. Still haven't heard anything about a scan and I'm 11 weeks today. I assume everything is okay but I have no way of knowing. I had a bit of a meltdown a couple of weeks ago because I was worried I'd get bad news at the scan and then have to tell my husband, but fortunately at the moment he can at least come to that. I don't think I'll feel settled until after that has happened. I'm 34 so it was now or never, but I don't think having a baby in the middle of a pandemic is going to be a bed of roses. We shall see!