Rennovations and the price to pay..

Pengwern

The tiles are down and the grout is drying. I need to paint the room before the radiators and doors are hung on Monday. that means we can move into that room on Tuesday. It is close but we may just get there before xmas.


What it has meant is more money out the door on renovations (although this is the last in the plan). Skiing is off the table, but my husband did buy a new TV. I was quite frustrated I could not talk him out of it. so much for being in this together. I hope it is a bump in the road and back on track post xmas.


All the presents are brought, my CC has been hammered so I am definitely stopping using that now. I just need to work out how I can live on thin air in Jan. I think some of the money I have put aside to pay off one of the cc at the end of the 0% deal will have to be used.


Break up from work tomorrow for 2 weeks which will be lovely. no more sales of stuff, but I did finally manage to get rid of the last of the rubbish and I took a load of cardboard to the tip today. I hate thinking the bins will overflow over xmas.
cc3 £5100 now £4700
cc4 £2600 now £2200
cc1 £2700 now £2480
cc2 £8200 now £7380
cc5 £9000 now £8670
loan £630
Total £26,060

Pengwern

A marker in the diary to remember some positive progress. I’ve stayed away from the shops and online sales. No spending to date. Food next week has been ordered and I’m on the no spend January quest. We have all we need. I just need to meal plan to keep food budget on track.

One of my cc dates has fallen badly so I’ve made 2 payments in December

Pengwern

Hi

Not spent anything other than the weekly shop. Using up cupboard stores as well. Just paid carpenters so now only have plumber to pay. The rest is us as we are painting but we have the paint.

Husband sent the joint account extra cash but that covered the carpenters. He said he can do the same next month which means I can split it between savings and an extra cc payment

foxgloves

Just popping on to say that we also bought a problematic house. We have made lots of the more straightforward improvements, but it is now time for donning the Big Girl's Pants & tackling some of the more structural & tricky things. We aim to have all this work completed this year & having become debt-free, I'd be gutted if we have to borrow for it. So I'm sure my own diary will soon include tales of builder quotes, horror finds (at least one previous occupant of our house has fancied himself as a master of DIY instead of the complete DIY numpty he so clearly was) & general everyday stress & upheavel of trying to project manage the different strands/workmen. Ah well, the time has come, the work must be done.
Just thought I'd commiserate with you.
F

savingholmes

It's interesting reading your diary on renovating and budgeting. Good luck with the debt clearance. Glad you got heating and flooring for Christmas. We gave each other 'fitted' towel radiators as our Christmas gift...

Pengwern

Hi

£300 prepaid MasterCard arrived today just in time for my supermarket shop. £18 to get us through the weekend and a few days of next week. We also now have finished all the major work, I’m on filling holes and caulking the skirting ready for us to paint. Still not brought each other an Xmas present we did want to get a sofa for the new tv room but it was not in the sale so we are going to wait. I’m also waiting for my tumble dryer!

Need to look at curtains or blinds for the windows but we can live without for now. Just has final architects bill of £3k! I can now see the end which is fantastic. That will leave us with around £10k of savings and the cc debt.

Still not done the patio so need to factor that in.

Sent £7.50 extra to a cc yesterday and I am on track to have £100 left over this month. That was until my tooth cracked. I have an appointment in a week so we will see how much that costs to fix.

Trying to sell some parquet flooring, people are funny! I just ignore the rude ones now. Life’s too short to try to deal with them.

Good luck to foxgloves in tacking on the next step. We started with the structural stuff first. Hoping the rest is more straightforward

Pengwern

It’s been a while

I’ve being trying to have a quiet January saving as much as I can and raising cash through sales. I’ve sold a car seat, stair gate, parquet flooring in 24hrs netting me £120 in cash. It’s gone into the diy pot so we can look at some point in the next few month to start sorting out another downstairs room. All the bills from the major renovation have been paid. We are continuing to send approx £500/month to the cc debt. I have made a few small overpayments to the cc ending second. Strange I know but it will have £250 left at the end of the 0% deal so I’m trying to make that figure zero. The cc ending first will have about £3k therefore I need to transfer that balance to another deal if there is one.

I’ve saved £250 this month to go into an emergency fund. Next month my budget says I should say £500 but I’m not convinced it will be that high. The budget has no wiggle room at all and nothing beyond bills and food. So if something crops up it will come out of the £500. That emergency fund I will decide what to do with at the end of the year. My first 0% deal ends and will have £3k left on the balance therefore I will decide how much if any I can shift to a new deal and see how much of my emergency fund I will use to pay to that cc. Not decided at all what I will do but equally I need to spend nothing by the end of the yr if I want to save anywhere near £500/month. I think it will be more like £250 I save.

Pengwern

cc3 £5100 now £4600
cc4 £2600 now £1893
cc1 £2700 now £2381
cc2 £8200 now £7200
cc5 £9000 now £8570
loan £585
Total £25,229


update of current balances

Lemon_Tree

Sounds like you have a strong plan but a tight one, hope it works out, I've been madly making plans for my 0% card to ensure its cleared before interest kicks in. Our building work should be kicking off the end of this month beginning of next (fingers crossed) so I'm sure it's all going to get tricky

Pengwern

Lemon_Tree said:

Sounds like you have a strong plan but a tight one, hope it works out, I've been madly making plans for my 0% card to ensure its cleared before interest kicks in. Our building work should be kicking off the end of this month beginning of next (fingers crossed) so I'm sure it's all going to get tricky

It is very tight but we’ve been able to see it working this month. However I have only been able to save £250.  But I have from this months budget brought the switches and sockets for the next room to renovate.  Next month it’s the light fittings.  My husband saved £500 too this month so I am very happy with that.  We are putting it in our savings pot for now.  It worries me we have run it so low.  By which I mean about £1000.  I know that is more than most but with an old house one emergency repair could cost that. Let alone the ideal of haveing 6 months pay saved for back up.  

All I can say lemon tree is question everything and see if you can supply some of the materials. I worked with the electrician and was able to save  hundreds by getting the sockets and switches online. They just go to whichever shop is easier for them