Staying on track to be MF and ready to support my daughter at 18

South_coast

Great work on the 4-figure mortgage - and by quite some margin!!! As long as the family don't mutiny by going out and spending lots on food because they don't want your cheap cooking, I'd say go for it - Christmas isn't that far away 😀😀😀

ElmoR

Whoosh, another two weeks flew past. Mostly been busy back at work and then I get home exhausted and vegetate during the evening. On the plus side, there are no cafe's or food outlets open on campus and you have to bring in your lunch or starve all day, so every day is an enforced NSD! The weekends tend to be chores/cleaning and some reading for relaxation.

Had some great news on the extra income this month in that the payment for the extra work I completed in January has finally been sent. Plus the extra work I do all year round for another Uni has been paid, so I had an extra £725 to add to the O/P this month. Will wait and see if there is anything left in the current account at the end of the month and will sweep that across too if there is. It's looking touch and go though. Going out this month were quite a few extras like the car insurance (which I haggled down by £50 compared to last year), cheque to the union strike fund, DD needed some clothes and had her hair professionally dyed (no smurfette this time), and shelving for the greenhouse. I have completely failed to influence the food spending budget but did finally get an A$da delivery slot for the end of the month (our first since start of lockdown) and made it a huge bulk buy one. My car has been running on the same £40 tank of petrol since February and I am seeing if I free roll as much as possible to make it to next month before rolling into the station forecourt to fill up! My OCD really hates driving around once the needle hits the red zone though.

Dusted off my ancient tablet and started to download books via kindle rather than buying from second hand online sources. I miss having a book to hold but it does seem to save a significant chunk of cash too once you add it up over a month/year. 

The attempt to sell a few things on Gumtr33 hasn't worked and I'm wondering what I've done wrong? One is a girls bike for 50 quid and the other is brand new hiking boots for 15 quid, never worn, so both are a big bargain. I used photos. Has anyone got any tips?

Have a good weekend all,

ElmoR x

Moneyfordreams

Hi, just caught up with your diary... you have done amazingly well... loved smurffette. My GD currently has yellow hair as my DD1 is a hairdresser. 
Personally guntr33 is not on my radar ( although I will look now) locally younger families tend to useFB for buying and selling. I prefer anonymity so I like ebay with local collections. 
I can't wait until my mortgage is the same as yours  

ElmoR

Thanks for dropping by @Moneyfordreams you will get to the final stretch too, it is only a matter of time once you adopt the outlook/vision. I keep reading others diaries and finding new ways to save that have significant impacts. I wish I had discovered this group years ago.

Update for the end of the month...made a nice chunky overpayment thanks to the additional work payments finally hitting my bank. Yesterday I had a wonderful 'grinning in the car' moment where I rolled up to the petrol pump with 27 miles worth of petrol left in the tank according to the gauge. The red warning light had been blinking at me for two days and an alarm sounded every time I started and turned off the engine, but I held out. £40 of petrol lasted from February to yesterday! Ended the month with £14 in the bank account, so within budget for the month and no raid on the savings required. Bliss.

Hoping that August will go as well. There is a danger that the epic long NSDs record will be broken though, the campus shop is reopening on Monday. If one of the cafe's opens it will be curtains for me because I spend all day hankering for a coffee as it is. I take a flask but it's gone cold by 11am. I mainline diet cokes as an alternate source of caffeine but that must be rotting my stomach and teeth with it's acidity.

Challenge for this weekend is to see if I can set myself up as a seller in EB@y. Not on faceb00k so can't try that one...

Enjoy the nice weather all, and stay safe

ElmoR xx

Cheery_Daff

Impressive petrol rationing there ElmoR! And HOLD FIRM with the campus shop - you've managed this far, you can manage for a bit longer! Be strong!  

No advice on selling from me - I've never really attempted it, and we're more likely to use Fr33gle for acquiring stuff. Decent photos always help though I think. I guess sometimes it's just about whether the right person spots what you're selling or not. 

I've been downloading books a bit more recently too, and had a bit more of a wider range than charity shops/library can provide, which is nice! 

ElmoR

Mixed week with a torrid time at work (disputes and anger/frustration type stuff) but more than tempered by one of my team making me a 'miniature lab' present which is absolutely amazing - treasure!

Moneywise, had a bit of a garden things splurge: seeds ready for the next growing season, a collection of 5 ferns, some autumn/winter pansies for the patio pots. None has arrived yet...but it'll keep me busy when they do. The greenhouse has shelving now. DH improvised with Ik£A shelving and used up a pot of leftover fence coating. Made me a potting shelf too, so all set now. I seem to be great at growing three legged corkscrew carrots. Also happening in the garden this month - the fencing guy is arriving on Monday to replace an ancient side of fencing. Neighbour and I are going halves and the bill will come in during this month.

Have a few renewals and car expenses coming up too. Just haggled home insurance renewal down to £10 less than last year's payment for slightly better cover and a change to include working from home. Car tax sorted (£30 for my wee fiesta compared to whatever it was I used to pay for diesel estate car before?). Car service and MOT booked...always fills me with dread but that's down the old estate car saga...One of the cat's insurance is up for renewal too, they've bumped the payments up too, so will now have to haggle on that...

The big event coming up this week will be GCSE results...DD has a confirmed place already at the sixth form college she wants to attend, so in one way whatever happens on Thursday doesn't matter, but she has worked hard at school and deserves/merits good grades. If she gets anything less than her mock results I will join the probable legion of angry parents appealing...it's been incredibly unsettling for her already. A prom dress and no prom too. Can't believe the lack of thought by her school in just letting the prom fade away to a vague 'might be held at some point...' Organise something for goodness sake, even if it just a simple outdoor socially distanced picnic in form or subject class groups, the life milestone needs to be acknowledged/celebrated.

ElmoR x

the_cross_rabbit

Our daughter's school has done the same thing regarding prom which is really sad. They literally told them 3 hours before the end of the day that they would not be returning the next day. They all struggled to find teachers and friends in different years etc to sign shirts. Really sad. Fingers crossed you don't have to join the legions of parents appealing and your daughter gets the grades she deserves.
CRx

ElmoR

The last post feels like an eternity ago, but was only a week or so. Long story short, my DD's GCSE grades were excellent. Didn't matter which you looked at, the teacher ones or the robot ones, they were identical bar one subject that involved a robot uplift by one grade. A week of serious angst, sleeplessness and close to fear for her future, all evaporated thank goodness. Completely needless emotional rollercoaster courtesy of the clowns running the show. DD has formally enrolled at her new sixth form college this morning and is feeling great. So pleased to see her happy again

All that's left to do is work out what to do with a posh prom frock. Oh, and get the lunch money back from the school - I've emailed many times, had replies that it'll get sorted and nothing. They've had it since March now. Surely it isn't that hard to refund it?

Other hugely good news, the flights for our epic, cancelled, holiday have finally been refunded. I guess Lufthansa have managed to part other customers from their cash and freed up some to refund ours. It was looking like we might never see it again, certainly not without a fight via credit card claim back or insurance claim, so we must be one of lucky ones.

It's day 2 of my annual leave, after the weekend I have Mon/Tues off too

What to do with all that free time...(not worry about all the learning materials I have yet to prepare for the imminent online semester obviously...)...

Have a good weekend all,

ElmoR x

A_Frayed_Knot

Hi ElmoR, just caught up, once again.
Feel sorry for your DD with the school prom, etc but great news for exam results. 
It is a worrying time, so many have "missed out"
I'm with you on life's milestones.
Had a grin myself imagining you driving up to the petrol station. 
Saw your comment about wishing you had found this site earlier - just imagine what we could have done had we started at the beginning of the mortgage     You are quickly catching up, though 
Have a lovely weekend and enjoy.

South_coast

That's fantastic news on your DD's results, what a weight off for you all x