Moving forward and upwards

doingitanyway

Progress is progress MF and as your name sates you are moving forwards.
Chocolate for pudding is my kind of pudding

MovingForwards

I know what you mean Skinty. Getting up Monday it was hard and hasn't got any easier as the week as gone on.

Thank you DIA, it took me a while to come up with my name as I knew being here wasn't just a thing while clearing debts, but for the life after it too.

MovingForwards

January financial month end. Managed to save £315.30.

I now have:
Communal funds combined £1530.00
Home EF £906.00*
ERCs £92.54
Home improvement £246.47
Mortgage EF £973.00**
EF £231.16**
--- Total £3978.16

Float £9.04 (paid some utilities from it)

Car everything / Insurance £222.84

Mortgage O/P was £100 with another £25 towards what I 'owe' for O/Ps to make it up to £100pm since it started; £75 O/Ps outstanding.
- £64,219 ish outstanding (misread my own handwriting with last month's update 🙈)

CC is down to £450, still on schedule for that to be cleared by March.

I owe £200 on utilities, but will clear it off tomorrow.

Float and car everything / home insurance have been split away on my spreadsheet, so my savings appear to have dropped, but in reality not by much.

Plan for February is save £200.

* Home EF = emergency plumber, gas man etc

** Mortgage EF and EF = in case of job loss 

savingholmes

Still doing well. Congrats. Great progress. 

MovingForwards

Thank you SH.

Utilities have been paid off.
CC down to £400.

I'm still paying £100 into the SIPP each month.

DIY bills come out of wages as and when required.

I'm making about £4.40 interest for January on the savings and I'm not cashing out my bank rewards, but letting them build up too.

Must start doing my surveys again!

doingitanyway

All looking good MF

MovingForwards

Thank you DIA.

Had a chat with TomBo, he doesn't want to move unless we have loads of money to buy a property with loads of land. That's not happening unless I win the big one on PBs.

We then had a chat about plans for the flat. He wants all the chimney breasts removed. I said it will be easier just to take the one out from the main bedroom, only if downstairs would be happy having his taken out too. Will speak to the neighbour at some point as I'm concentrating on saving at the moment.
- Both bedrooms and the lounge have a chimney breast.
--- Taking it out the main bedroom will create a good room as it takes up a lot of space.
--- Taking it out the lounge will create a square room, with no focal point, lose the storage space and the traditional look of the room.
--- Wouldn't gain enough in the second bedroom to justify the cost.

Long weekend again, thankfully as I'm so tired.

I'm planning on finishing the lounge window surrounds tomorrow and will try to set up my art space.

Skint_yet_Again

Makes sense to remove the bedroom chimney breast if you can gain much more space. Sounds like a waste of money removing the others.

Do you own the freehold? Here we would have to get permission from the freeholder to make structural changes. 

Hope you can relax and get some rest 

MovingForwards

It would gain 14.5 inches in the bedroom.
While it doesn't sound much, it's the difference in being able to comfortably have a bed width to width instead of having it length ways and stuck against the one wall, which is how we have it now.
Both bedrooms are galley rooms and if we can't do the change then it's only a divan that will fit width ways. The current chunky wood bed has no chance.

Most flats up here are 'freehold' and the only thing stopping the idea is if downstairs wants to keep / uses the chimney in the main bedroom. 

I've decided to allocate £5k to each room when doing them up, or a £25k overall budget. Most won't need that much, but the money can be carried forward to the rooms where a little extra will dramatically transform the room.

TomBo is onboard with having the kitchen floor reinforced so we can have a spectacular kitchen with stone / granite / concrete whatever worktops.

We've started mooting ideas for the bathroom.

I've made Scotland my home and am so pleased I made the decision to move up here.

Off to do some DIY!

Skint_yet_Again

Would definitely be worth it in the bedroom then. Plans sound great, always better to have too much money than not enough ☺️ It’s going to be a lovely home.