Start at the very beginning.

Brindlebabe

Apologies - been a while since I updated.

Lovely husband’s 2 voluntary posts are going really well and definitely improving morale and inclination to stay in the flat. Which is great. We’re still planning to make a decision in the autumn about whether to put it on the market but currently he’s making more noises about staying a bit longer here, which would be great news financially, and I do like the flat. But, clearly can’t stay if he’s miserable and anxious. Which he often is. I feel like there’s a long time til autumn and our 2 year fix ends next January so we shouldn’t make decisions before then as things may change, but he likes to have a plan.

Haven't managed to sort tax bill yet. Hmrc seem to think they’ve had things down accurately and it’s so confusing I need a weekend off to look at it (and call them) and haven’t quite had the time yet. I suspect it will come out in the wash.

Holiday was fantastic! Spent more money than I had hoped to but probably was a bit unrealistic. Ate out a lot and drank copious vino tinto and enjoyed it all hugely. Still had £190 to stick on the overpayment at the end of Feb so felt like the balance of spending and saving was ok for a change! 

Work has been a bit more stressful than usual lately, I’ve made an appointment to see the ‘professional support unit’ who I’ve seen before and hopefully will help me to manage the stress before it gets overwhelming. I thought my holiday would do the trick but now I’ve been back for 2 weeks it feels like I didn’t go away, and although I have lots of annual leave left to take I’m not sure when I can take it as the rota is a bit tight. Doing a couple of extra shifts to help with the Glastonbury ticket which sounded like a good idea in principal but need to find a balance between keeping the money balanced and tiredness and stress.

All in all, doing ok. Mortgage now under £203000 which was a lovely feeling. Just can’t wait to get below £200000. And maybe more importantly, would like the value to go up before January in case we do sell, or if not, we could hopefully remortgage with a better loan to value percentage.

Hope all well.
Bb

Brindlebabe

Ah. So this is all a bit rubbish isn't it?
Financially we haven't been affected. I work in a hospital, so they've changed my shifts, but they'll pay me for that (they haven't said how much, or when, but they've said I'm not doing it on goodwill...) and my husband didn't have a regular income at present anyway, so we're no worse off. He's bought a games console and a new monitor, mainly out of fear and panic, he felt like he needed something positive to help him cope with the anxiety and the misery around at the moment. Also, he's more or less shut in the flat all the time because he's asthmatic, which is challenging. He's still going to the park each day to walk the dog for his daily exercise, and the community allotment is allowing him to go for the odd hour here or there, but it's not much. Predictably he's finding it hard, especially worrying about if I'm going to carry the virus home from work with me and give it to him with his dodgy asthmatic lungs. Thankfully we've both stayed well so far. 
Hard to focus on the mortgage at a time like this, especially when we were looking probably to sell in the next year or so, and impossible to know at the moment if that's going to be plausible/sensible in terms of the market.. Another thing that is causing anxiety, although not something we can control so trying not to think about it.
We're finding it helpful to name 3 things we're grateful for each day. I think that we're no longer renting is one of them for me. It must be very anxiety provoking to not know if your landlord is going to be able to keep tenants on at the moment, especially for all those people who have lost job security themselves..
So not making great strides with the mortgage, or any other sort of saving just now.. But have an extra £24.01 on top of the regular £27ish payment this month to get it down to a nice round £202,500. So better than nothing. And after a small hit last month should be able to keep saving £500 per month to build the emergency fund up. Have 3 savings accounts at present - all easy access, (maybe too easy) with £300, £500 and £1300 in. So enough for the car to break down or the boiler to go.. good to be building them up. And no more holidays for the foreseeable will save some money, and the Glastonbury ticket won't need paying til next year. 
Anyway,
Thinking of everyone who's job security is suddenly rogered.
Bb 

Nichelette

Hello! I haven't read everything as I have been MIA for a while also (time poor). Everything is rubbish financially and mentally for a lot of people at the moment but I'm doing my best to be positive too. I have asthma as well. It was quite bad as a kid but it only really bothers me now when I get ill or run a lot, so husband is the one going food shopping etc. It's hard being stuck inside. 

I'm glad your job is still okay and you have a bit of security. It means a lot at times like this. We're in a very similar position with the mortgage as we are due to remortgage in October and I was hoping to get to 80% LTV which may be scuppered now. I'm just doing what I can, but at least the overpaying we've managed so far has put us in a slightly better position with daily interest and LTV generally.  

Brindlebabe

Thanks Nichelette, it's just hard going at the moment isn't it. I realise now how much I was enjoying considering how the remortgage/move was going change the finances, and now it just seems like a massive unknown, with huge elements of risk attached to it.

Financially this month has been pretty good, I did some overtime a few weeks ago which I got paid for last week so incomings were up about £600. I was going to use it to pay for Glastonbury but, clearly not now. Outgoings are down, husband and I are still drawing out £25/week pocket money each but there is little reason to spend it. (Although I did put £1.30 towards an ad hoc can of Thatcher's gold last week which I enjoyed hugely). So that money is slowly accumulating and hopefully will go towards a nice treat when this is over. 

House wise - we've decided to consider renting the flat out (if that's a practical option) from January when the 2 year fix is up. Its in a rentable location and the estate agents pre-covid said it would easily let out and cover the mortgage payment's that way. Then we could rent somewhere that suits my husband a bit better, somewhere without upstairs neighbours or a main road outside the window. Clearly all a bit theoretical at the moment.. The problem with that plan is that to rent somewhere nice round here, even somewhere small, would be at least £1250, and mortgage payments have been about £760 so we're not sure if our finances would handle that. So, to trial it, we're increasing our regular overpayment to make the mortgage up to £1250. We can always reduce it if it doesn't work for us, and we'll still have done some good overpaying and learnt that renting is out of budget so worth a try.

Otherwise generally a bit glum. Novelty has well and truly gone and missing all the things I used to enjoy. Worth it to keep the NHS viable though...!

Love Bb

Moneyfordreams

Renting seems like a good idea , you're doing amazingly well... do what makes you happy too

South_coast

Ad-hoc cider 😀 Now I want some! 

Brindlebabe

Thanks southcoast and moneyfordreams. Amazing how some encouragement can perk you up isn’t it?
Went through the accounts yesterday and had plenty left over last month, so stuck a £450 overpayment on to bring it down to a nice even £202000. Still cant wait to get to below £200000! 

Felt good. And made a lovely crumble yesterday with rhubarb from the community allotment, so can’t that’s something to enjoy later!
Off to work again now. 
Bb

Brindlebabe

Can’t stop playing with the overpayment calculator this morning, even though, except my new increased refusal overpayment, I don’t have any extra money to overpay with..
It is nice to see - if I overpaid by thousands per month it would be gone in no time - but that’s not completely realistic. Maybe the trick is to use that to motivate me to find/save thousands per month instead of just whinging about it... will have a think. (And be pleased that I have home made cheap and very cheerful kale soup to take for lunch today and don’t have to waste silly money on a posh wrap).

Nichelette

Congrats on the overpayment. Below 200k will be a great milestone! I love the overpayment calculator too, and a spreadsheet  .

Brindlebabe

Hi team,
Had a few extra payments to make this month. Car insurance and tax (£500 altogether), plus my gorgeous brindle doggy has been limping for a while. She saw the vet last year and it settled with rest and metacam, but once she starts doing her normal exercise (and running, jumping, wrestling..) her leg gets bad again. So we took her back to the vet and they want to do some X-rays. It's fine because she's insured (costs about £50/month) but we still have to pay the first £100. It would be about £600 just for the X-rays otherwise so really glad she's covered. Even so, will prevent too much overpaying this month. 

Also spending a lot on paint at the moment (I suspect we're not the only ones). Have decided to paint all the walls in the flat, hasn't been done since we moved in 18months ago, except the bathroom and hallway. Have just gone for brilliant white on the grounds that neither my husband nor I have any particular artistic flair in this regard so at least white is bright and neutral. Our friend had some leftover paint, so we swapped our unwanted bread maker for that, but we've needed more than I thought so have had to buy 3 more tubs, about £60's worth. Still, will look better when its done and might help the flat sell in due course. 

Not much else going on really. Tempted to hit online shopping quite hard, just for something to look forward to, but trying to resist, otherwise the savings will be even more eaten into. 

Hope all well 
Bb xx