Returning to MFW, my elusive unicorn!

coldcazzie

I don't need to buy suspension files after all as I found some on a shelf, and some more unused in the bottom drawer! didn't manage to do any sorting today but did various other things.

Biggest Small went for a tooth out and spent the rest of the day feeling sorry for herself on the sofa and watching comfort TV she's having 4 more out over the next couple of weeks; the first one was always going to be the hardest because she didn't know what to expect. She said "oh, that wasn't so bad" afterwards so hopefully the others won't be quite so big of a deal. Then her braces can go on.

Did a risk assessment for a particular aspect of my work today. That was an adventure as I've never written one before. Pleased with the outcome though and have added it to my files for that part of my business.

Middle Small finally has a functional bank account, almost a month after we started the process. He has re-set up a regular phone top up, and it turns out his phone provider were planning to give him number to someone else at the end of the month if he didn't start topping it up again he'd not bothered to read the email from them though, so he wouldn't have known, and we'd have been bothering some randomer when we next rang him! Anyways. It's sorted now, and he gleefully bought a computer game straight away with his pocket money. This evening I will be setting up a regular standing order into his account as well as shuffling all the pennies around for when the credit card gets paid.

The prawn pasta thing was absolutely delicious; I didn't offer the kids any, or put any in the fridge for today, because I inhaled the lot! Today's dinner is diced lamb from the freezer (which from the date has been in there for a year?!) done in the slow cooker with veg, chopped tomatoes and mint sauce, I've put some suet dumplings in and done some new potatoes and cabbage in the steamer.

coldcazzie

In between all this life stuff that I keep waffling on about, I discovered something. Our mortgage is with Nationwide, and I discovered in their banking app that you can see this year, but also 2019 and 2018 as well. It lists the individual payments but also the total amount of the paid payments, interest charged and opening and closing balances.

What's rather depressing is how little we pay off the balance each year with the regular payments! I knew that it was like that, in an abstract way, but somehow seeing it right there in my hand whenever I want to is worse. It's particularly obvious for the smaller part of our mortgage, which is currently around £8300 - we only pay around £200 off the balance of that each year with the regular payments. Isn't that awful?!

This is my motivation. It's all of our motivation, I think? Seeing that outstanding balance go down each time an OP is made. I wish we had more money to play with each month, but I am doing my best not to compare our situations to other MFWs (certainly one of the reasons I have stopped posting here in the past, and why I often don't read other people's diaries). In 3 days the new mortgage rate will kick in. Next month will be our test month to see how the cards fall with a lower payment. I'm also planning to be stricter with our credit card spends as I feel like they've gotten out of hand. More on that another time I think.

This morning I am attending a networking meeting with some other small business owning colleagues (need to leave in 20 mins, better get a shift on!), and then having a lunch with a friend. We are just going to Costa so I will see if I can use some of my card points towards the purchase.

I was going to wish everyone good Friday feelings, but I've just realised it's Thursday! Doh!

Grogged

We're with NW as well.
I've restructured our OP as if you pay at least £500 you can choose if the amount reduces your balance or your end date (you can select in the app).
Downside is we have to save up as can't afford that every month.

coldcazzie

Grogged said:

We're with NW as well.
I've restructured our OP as if you pay at least £500 you can choose if the amount reduces your balance or your end date (you can select in the app).
Downside is we have to save up as can't afford that every month.

That's really useful to know!

Last month we opened up 8 new joint savings accounts - we did have 6, but they were all in my name only, meaning Himself had no idea how much money was available/saved for the various goals - and when I closed my old accounts I kept one open specifically for the purpose of saving OPs into

It currently has 6p in it but I will aim for £500 and then OP that in one go. That also gives me a firm goal to aim for.

Thank you Grogged!

the_cross_rabbit

i'm very similar to you we are unable to pay much off each month and feel very jealous of those who are paying £500 a month. But we will both get there I'm sure one way or another.
CRx

coldcazzie

the_cross_rabbit said:

i'm very similar to you we are unable to pay much off each month and feel very jealous of those who are paying £500 a month. But we will both get there I'm sure one way or another.
CRx

Solidarity  

coldcazzie

Went to a networking meeting Thursday am, which ended up just being me and 2 friends catching up! When you've worked in the same industry for many years and you work closely with multiple other small business owners it's hard not to become friends. Breakfast and a brew was a work expense not a personal one; the catch up was really lovely.

Then I had lunch with a friend at Costa and used some points my Costa card to pay, so no spending there either.

Big batch of bolognese made Thursday evening which has meant leftovers in the freezer - enough to have for lunch with a jacket potato and cheese, thrice. Have stored separately and labelled so no freezer surprise!

Small top up shop done on Friday, plus an extra shop Saturday morning as we had friends round all day for a boardgame day. We do this about once a month and take it in turns to host. We put food out and everyone grazes from about 1pm until whenever we wrap up (usually between 5 and 7pm). I made some potato wedges alongside the usual veggie sticks/dips, and also made some fairy buns. Not sure what I did wrong (there's a few possibilities: different recipe, overbeating, new silicone cake cases, oven temp) but they all sank in the middle! It didn't matter really - I just plopped some spoonfuls of strawberry jam and whipped cream in the centres and they tasted fine - but it's the principle of the thing! I am now going to have to make more in order to work out what went wrong. For science. The kids are very disappointed, as you can imagine.

Morri$ons sent me an email last week offering 9000 points if I spent £90+ between Thursday and Sunday. Usually I delete those emails because I shop on a Monday so they're useless to me, but this morning Big Small is having her next tooth out right when I would normally be shopping, so I figured doing it a day early would be useful, IF I could manage to spend £90+. I wrote a meal plan, most of which was based out of the freezer (of course!), so the extra topped up some cupboard/freezer stores that I've used since the new year started. The next couple of weeks should be lower food spends.

Sunday afternoon was my final visit with a client I've been working with since before christmas. Took them a card to say thank you, and they gave me one and a box of posh chocolates in return, which was fab and totally unexpected. Made fakeaway for tea (the girls had tortellini from the freezer as they don't like it) - which always makes me feel smug because it's so cheap. If you don't know what that it, it's lamb doner kebab usually done in the slow cooker although I did it in the oven as I didn't have time in between shopping and seeing my clients to prep it. I'm in a group on fb called slow cooked wonders and there's loads of great ideas on there (also some not so great ones haha).

Last bill went out this morning and CTC goes in tomorrow. Hoping to move my first bit of money into the OP account tomorrow too - paid £12 in from our small change pot on the fireplace!

This week is looking a bit full of stuff. Should be a low spend week... hopefully a low spend month - 2 weeks until the CC ticks over and 3 until next payday. However, Himself has a dentist appt (still under the same umbrella as previous appts so hopefully no extra to pay) plus myself and 2 kids have opticians appts, so at the very least I'll have an eye test to pay for, and potentially new glasses for at least one person. There is some money saved in our Health Pot but not sure if it would cover glasses for 2 people and Medium Small needs new glasses more than I do (his head has grown!) so may have to make a judgement call. We'll see what happens - if all goes well it'll be low spends, if everything goes disastrously then I'll be here crying. I do have a voucher for a free eye test for me, but only if I buy glasses.

Struggled to sleep last night - couldn't turn my brain off. Something is clearly bothering me, and I think I know what it is. Just what I need before a week full of stuff!

Good week everyone!

coldcazzie

Really not sure what is going on with the formatting in that post!

coldcazzie

coldcazzie said:

Last bill went out this morning and CTC goes in tomorrow. Hoping to move my first bit of money into the OP account tomorrow too - paid £12 in from our small change pot on the fireplace!

I was mistaken, it's not today the CTC goes in; it's tomorrow. Itching to transfer that £12 into the OP acc, but I will wait.

New block of pilates classes starts today, but I have one week leftover from last month so only need to pay for 4 weeks not 5.

Didn't sleep well again last night

coldcazzie

Just logged into the NW app and seen this on our mortgage account:

Interest rate history
1 January 2020 - 4.24%
1 March 2020 - 1.89%



Just kicking myself now at how much interest we've paid over the last 2 years

Sigh. Onwards and upwards.