DrSpendingLittle's New Home - staying accountable and responsible

DrSpendingLittle

The day before wasn't a NSD - I forgot I had put £25 of fuel in the car on the nursery run, doh.

Yesterday I picked up some bits and bobs from the supermarket for last nights dinner and weekend lunches. I also stocked up on dishwasher tablets and some other cleaning supplies, so whilst it didn't seem like I'd bought much, it came to £57! Mind you, that total did include some Yo Sushi for my late lunch which was completely unnecessary but a nice little treat. 

It's probably going to be a quiet rest of day. No spends so far. We will probably head out for a walk once LO is done with his nap and we do need to think about evening meals for the rest of the weekend - I want to make a lamb stew tomorrow so will need to get some meat for that. 

DSL

DrSpendingLittle

Quick check in before the first of the month - we've been away on a little holiday recently which has been full on but fun. Finances are all in order, I'll try to do a spending round up and monthly budget at some point in the coming days. I've done my September budget in YNAB based on last months spends, but I just need to wait for the nursery invoice, due on Monday, before I can finalise my figures. Interest from my Ch4se saver is due to drop overnight too. The car will need new tyres this month so I'll need to dip into my car pot for that. No other big spends planned. Just a quiet month focusing on savings really.

DSL 

Sarahwithlove

I love my ninja air fryer, especially having the 2 draws. I use it all the time and very rarely use my oven. If its for just one persons meals you could look at a cheaper option 

DrSpendingLittle

Alrighty, August's spending and savings according to YNAB were as following:

Income: +£3,395.87
Bills -£1,579.76 (inc. nursery fees)
Frequent Spending: -£1,1221.42
Non-Monthly Savings Pots: £0
Emergency Fund Savings: +£250 
3-6 months Expenses Savings: + £303.07
Unspent to roll over: +£41.62

It was a tight month and I cleared out the monthly savings pot ££s I'd intended to put away, rather than take ££s out of savings, to cover some holiday spends.

This is the second month that I have added too much to savings, so I have reduced the amount going in for September as I'd rather be realistic (I hate taking ££s out of savings). The expenses I've had have not been unreasonable, I've just under budgeted for them. I do think its easier to spend ££s in the summer months, with family days out and holidays etc, so I am confident that I can have a quieter few months once Autumn hits and the days draw in.

Budget headline figures for September will be as follows:

Income: £3,395.46
Bills £1,646.89 (inc. nursery fees)
Frequent Spending: £1,140
Non-Monthly Savings Pots: £205.81
Emergency Fund Savings: £250
3-6 months Expenses Savings: £152.76 (rounds up the number in my Ch4se savings account)

I've updated my signature to account for savings / interest payments made this month. 

We need to have two new tyres to put on the car this month and a small bit of maintenance to do, so I will be using most of my car maintenance pot (currently at £225.81) to cover that.  

I'll probably be working in the office a little bit more this month, so I have increased the amount for car parking and work lunches, though I very much do intend to take my lunch in as the work lunch options are dreadful. 

Other than that, Little One will need new winter gear this month (puddle suit, wellies, hat, salopettes and maybe a winter coat too). I intend to look on Vint3d / eb4y for the salopettes and winter coat as I have a brand in mind and I saw a few decent listings on there the other day when scanning. I haven't ever used Vint3d so will need to register.  

Actually, I could do with a replacement white jumper for my winter work wardrobe. And maybe a black one too, so I need to build up my clothing and accessories budget (currently £100) to get those. 

I don't think we are due any other big expenditures in the coming weeks. I have put more ££s into my medical category this month as I think I need new glasses and one of my teeth is probably going to need an onlay at some point, so that does need building up. 

What else? I can't think of anything finance related that I haven't covered. 

DSL

DrSpendingLittle

Sarahwithlove said:

I love my ninja air fryer, especially having the 2 draws. I use it all the time and very rarely use my oven. If its for just one persons meals you could look at a cheaper option 

Good to know about the two draw ones! I'm very tempted. Are they noisy? 

DrSpendingLittle

I've just remembered two other financial things I wanted to note down: 

The first is I have been reading about being one month ahead in my budget / bills / spending account in a few diaries recently and I think I want to aim for that too, so I am living on last months salary. I'm not sure how I will quite do it, I might just use my EF as my one month ahead for now and revisit some other time. I'm 59.1% towards my EF goal of £3K, so I will keep focusing on that for now. 

The second is about credit cards. I haven't used mine in a number of months now and my TransUnion credit score went down 11 points last month. The notes said that I was not using my credit card. I know I am not looking to make myself financially attractive to those companies anymore, but I am looking to get a mortgage so I probably do need to use it occasionally and pay in full every month. So, with that in mind, I've decided to use it to pay for petrol and pay it off in full at the end of the month after the statement has been issued. It's annoying as my barcl4ycard account in my YNAB is currently 'debt red', but I guess I should demonstrate good use of credit.  

DSL 

DrSpendingLittle

Quick check in whilst I take a late lunch break from work. Have been very busy of late and had little time to update here but all is going well on the financials. Managing to have a very frugal month so far and have spent hardly any money. Just the usual expected amounts on groceries, petrol plus a couple of new toys for the LO. I have also ordered some vitamin D and fish oil supplements to build me up for the winter season. I don't eat enough oily fish, so like to supplement but the good oils I use are so expensive, so I've been putting off replacing my empty bottle!  

Oh, and some other BIG NEWS ... we've bought a house!

We're in the early stages of the process but solicitors have been appointed, mortgage has been applied for, quotes for surveys have been received etc etc. Need to look at wills, life insurance and buildings insurance etc. It's good to have finally bitten the bullet. There hasn't been much on the market in our chosen area given the time of year but we found one that ticked all the boxes so decided to go for it. It isn't fully our 'aesthetic' but we can do cosmetic things over the coming years to make it our own. 

So, the next few months are going to be all about saving as much as possible to fully cashflow the purchase costs and have enough set aside to buy things we will need immediately when we move in - I don't forsee this being a long list and actually, we do need to contact the vendor to see if they intend to leave any of their furniture behind. I'm hoping we can be in before xmas but you never know. 

Financially, we managed to secure the current market leading rate for our mortgage which is fabulous and we can rate check just before we exchange to see if we can get a lower one.

Anyway, I need to get back to work now and check on LO's dinner that I am cooking at the same time.

I'm going to try and pop on more over coming months as I want to get even more frugal and I always find I'm better on here. 

DSL

Sarahwithlove

Congratulations on finding a house that is very exciting! 

redofromstart

Hurrah for offering on a house. Exciting.

we have a Ninja, it gets used for bacon, sausage, nugget type things and us a useful bit of kit for that but no I wouldn't buy one again to 'cook' with because it does one or two portions at a time and I'm very good at filling the oven if it is on. 

DrSpendingLittle

That's good to know about the Ninja, @redofromstart I'm going to hold off getting one for now as it seems too much of a potential waste of money and space in my kitchen. I'm worried it'll be gimmicky and then just become a dust collector!