Keeping our options open

savingholmes

Ouch at the £1k - good you had it though but I imagine it's a bit frustrating too to use your £ for unplanned things. Hope the rest of the month goes better.

becky170

Yay it's the last day of November...time for the advent calenders tomorrow! The bathroom is now underway. The tiles are just starting to go on now. I had been worrying about whether we had made the right choice of tiles but they look good so that's a relief. Having a brand new bathroom will be a fantastic Christmas present 

I made a small overpayment of £32 today as I had a Quidc0 payout. That brings our overpayment total to £621 so far this year which considering I had really made any targets for this year isn't too bad. We had been hoping to make a £500 overpayment per month in the new year but we keep noticing things which need repairing in the house so we might need to reassess that. I suppose we could always save the money and then if repairs were less than the money saved we can overpay it or build or emergency fund back up after buying a car and a bathroom in the last year  given the financial climate building up the emergency fund in case of redundancy may not be a bad idea. My contract is being extended by 5 years so hopefully it's unlikely I will face redundancy but for DH you never know. 

 I think in the past I've mentioned that we have had problems with DS and managing his behaviour at home and school. Well after jumping through all the hoops of parenting classes, intervention workers etc we have finally had him seen by an educational phycologist who has agreed that there are likely to be underlying causes for his difficulties so hopefully we will be able to support him better now. Just waiting for the report now so that we can decide on the next steps. Maybe we aren't bad parents who should be stricter.

Anyway I have now had enough of 2022 and am ready to hibernate over Christmas...just got to buy all the Christmas presents first...eek!

savingholmes

Hi Becky - I'm glad you've finally got a diagnosis for DS. 

On the EF - savings are wise. Sounds exciting on the bathroom front though.

debtfreeoneday

Glad you are getting some support for DS

i hear you on the hibernation front. 

becky170

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas. We had a quiet Christmas but did manage to see my family for an hour on Christmas day to exchange presents which was nice. The kids were happy with their presents, although DS was upset that Santa didn't get any presents off his list (he wanted a drone and he's only 7 so not really old enough for one) so wants me to phone Santa to complain  . We still have leftover turkey to eat up so today is turkey curry day..yum! 

I've done some online shopping in the sales but I've tried to keep spending to a minimum as we have some maintenance to do on the house in January. The new bathroom is now in and it's fantastic to finally have a proper shower again. We're really happy with it. We have paid the first instalment of £2000 so will have to pay off the rest over the next year before the interest free credit period ends. We have the money on savings so won't be an issue but just need to wait for the fixed rate periods to come to an end. 

Next year we are going to aim to overpay £300 a month so that we are on target to finish our mortgage 5 years early in 2034. 2034 sounds very futuristic doesn't it....doubt we'll be living in a futuristic world by then though   we're hoping £300 a month is doable if we watch our pennies. Going to have to look at cheaper meal options though, and healthier options too! 

becky170

I managed to take stock of our savings last night. I think we need to top up our savings by £2000 so that we have a 6 month emergency fund after paying for the bathroom. Therefore my financial aims for 2023 are to:

1) Overpay the mortgage by £3600
2) Top up our emergency fund by £2000
3) Rein in the food shopping budget

My personal aims for 2023 are to:

1) Make more time to read books instead of scrolling on my phone

2) Declutter 2 items per day

3) Aim for 5 portions of fruit and veg a day

2022 has felt like a long slog so I can't say I'll feel sad to see the back on it. Nothing particularly went wrong I think I've just found juggling everything difficult. I'm just going to go with the flow next year and see where it leads us. I've had some lovely times with the kids this year so I'm just going to enjoy being with my family, enjoy the simple stuff and cut us all some slack 🙂 

twinklie

My MFD is 2037, so 2034 sounds wonderful to me. Good luck! This 2023 is a funny one for me with us remortgaging. I feel like I need to wait and see what rate we get before committing myself to anything major. 

savingholmes

Good goals. Glad bathroom is an improvement. As you say time with the kids is priceless and sometimes we over-complicate things.

becky170

I made a small overpayment of £9 today (Quidc0 and vinted payouts) which brings my overpayments for 2022 to £780 Now onto 2023....

savingholmes

Well done on the OP. 

Happy New Year! Hope you are having fun.