Moving forward and upwards

MovingForwards

Thank you Skinty.
I've put the feelers out to find a structural engineer, but know a different type of engineer who recommended we have steel put in. 
- the lounge and bedroom share the same main wall, with the chimney breast in the middle both sides of it.

I'm aiming to save £5k each year, across all the savings pots, then in 5 years (well, just over 4 now) we should have £25k and I can start dipping in, or not saving into them, while work is done to the flat. Although I would be happy to forgo 6 months of saving to have the bedroom done next year!

I finished off the lounge window surrounds yesterday and added more caulk round the one skirting board, now it looks like thick skirting; will top up the others and stick a bit of paint on when dried.

Today's plan is set my art studio up, makes it sound a bit nicer than a 1x1m corner, and make a start on the window surrounds. Both are the second bedroom. That will then just need a fresh coat of white and the furniture moving around.
- TomBo collected my DIY supplies, caulk and roller, yesterday.

It looks like a lovely day, nice blue sky, some fluffy white clouds, sunshine and I've all the windows open 🤭

atrixa

Best of luck with the work today! Having £25k in just over 4 years sounds like a fantastic but achievable goal.

savingholmes

I love that you are planning to save before doing the work rather than going into debt again. Some lovely plans.

MovingForwards

Thank you Atrixa and SH.

I'm not comfortable borrowing to do work as anything can happen. I would sooner save, make loads of plans, keep changing ideas over time until the right one appears, then when financially comfortable start picking the work off bit by bit.

I don't even like using my CC and that's why I pay it off quickly when I do. 

As you know, one of the phrases I come out with is "borrowing money from your future self". I would sooner have that money, than have spent it before I've earned it.

I learned a lot on my DF travels, most things are 'wants' not 'needs'.
Everything planned for the flat is a 'want'. 
We don't 'need' any of it as what we have functions and coats of paint dramatically change things.

savingholmes

Great lesson. I want to build a good EF so that if the worst ever happened we wouldn't have to worry about it. 

MovingForwards

An EF does reduce stress SH, as does having a little float.
It's hard doing DFW, saving, sorting EF and having normal spends, sometimes there just isn't enough money to go round for everyone.

I still do rounding of my current account and move the pennies. I also try and keep my savings accounts rounded up too. 

I'm in the middle of sorting the art studio out, having to keep taking breaks every couple of minutes.

Irenadler

Hey Babs - you are still on track, and the DIY is going great. I love your tips on planning, especially mulling things over and not rushing, I will get my head around this too, very inspiring.

MovingForwards

Thank you Ren.
It's all about getting a good feel for how a home will work and what changes will bring the best out of it.

The 'art studio' was set up yesterday. It's smaller than my 'office' set up, but overlooks the water and 'mountains'; I even have a little chair.
- just need to organise my spare canvas by size, for ease of picking one out.

One of my savings accounts is reducing the interest to 0.25%, down from 0.75%. So far the bank haven't told me and I found out on the savings pages of the forum.
- Skinty, you have the same account.

My other bank is giving people £40 if they switch utilities through them. Hopefully it will still be an offer when the current provider has finished faffing around; I'm emailing them a prompt.

I've started doing my surveys again, built up £9.50 so far.

TomBo lost his job and I'm looking at it positively. No more 4am alarms, heavily reduced wear and tear on the car and he's already got stuck in to doing more of the garden; he's been applying for various roles for a while and so in the routine of that and is on the reserve list for one company.
- we're fine financially as I budget without his money.

Today's task is to do the bedroom window surround. Thankfully all the remaining rooms only have one window in each!

As tomorrow is a new month, I can start saving again 😃

savingholmes

Enjoy payday. Glad you have your little art studio set up. Hope things sort out with TomBo and an income. 
Lovely to have great views too. Another kind of riches.

MovingForwards

Thank you SH.
TomBo is a lot happier today and has been in the garden for several hours.
The communal path is nearly finished, just needs the slabs on top.  He has set up another growing area. He also plans to sort out the patio where the smaller stump is; a few of the roots lifted and grown round two slabs.

There's many different ways to contribute towards the family finance eg keeping house, doing the garden, DIY. 
- long-term I can see us being a single income family and paying his NI for SP; I did the calculations a couple of years ago, based on a lower salary and covered a lot of angles. Hence my 10 year plan, which is now just over 9 years, and another reason to stay DF.

I'm so pleased the art studio is set up. I'm planning to revert to using acrylics for a while as any mistakes are not an expensive one. I've got loads of oils too, so if I feel like doing a long painting over months, I can switch to them. 

I have managed to do some of the window surrounds, not a complete one, but sections of three of them.
- Ladders and step stools I struggle with and it throws my plans off.

Having pizza for tea with an extra topping of positivity.