Mrs F planning the future!

Mrs_F_2017

Also I'm dreaming of what we could do with that extra £600 a month once the debt is paid off!  Holiday fund I think!

Mrs_F_2017

Wow I can't believe it's been a month since I posted - will try better to keep this up to date. 

Hubby & I are both still furloughed and it has been lovely spending so much time together at home, have been joking that we probably won't spend this much time together again until we retire!  

We have stayed on track with the debt busting goals and it is nice seeing those balances come down.  I was going to make some extra payments but decided to stash the cash to one side for now as extra emergency fund during the current time. We also are finally moving house on Friday so that has kept us busy & meant a few extra £'s spent.  I had budgeted for removals etc but a few extra bits I hadn't planned for including carpet cleaning in the new house - £180 spent but at least its done now before we move in all the furniture.  Our mortgage & council tax are more expensive in the new house so keeping to our stricter budgets will be important so I will make sure to do a new SOA when we move & the dust settles. 

I hope everyone else is staying safe & well. 

Mrs_F_2017

Well we have finally moved into our new home! With lockdown & both us and our buyers being furloughed I wasn’t sure it would happen but it has! 

We love our new house already and have spent the weekend unpacking & sorting stuff, today’s plan is some gardening - I loved my old garden & it looked beautiful before we moved. The new one is a concrete jungle and I think my the time I trim back the weeds we will have about 2 metres extra of garden all the way round! Definitely a long term project. 

Money wise, we are pretty much on track still, a few household spends for things we needed in the new house - plumbing supplies etc but mostly on track.  We are waiting for some money back from our sale so will then be able to budget that, it’s approximately £8k so will carefully plan what we want to do. Some will top up our emergency fund, and some will go towards the house renovation. Most of the work is a long term project but the windows are the original wooden ones and some are so rotten you can see through to outside so that’s the first job we are getting done. 

Sorry this has gone off track from money to house! 

Hope everyone is OK 

Chrystal

Congratulations on your move

Hope you're settling in OK X

Mrs_F_2017

Just typed out a whole post & lost it! Take 2!

Thanks @Chrystal, we have settled in well and are pretty much there with the unpacking. 

Debt wise, on track still for my goals. Once payments clear this month, my Barclaycard will be under £400 from being £4.5k so only 10% left to pay! Then on track to clear the remaining credit card by the end of the interest free period in February. Then just the loan!

I have kept a bit more money aside rather than using to clear debts this month as some bills are bigger than normal this month so I don’t want to leave us short. July will be a more normal month bills wise and we should also both be back to work so will be a more true reflection of the budget going forward.

I have also got the emergency fund up to £2k. My eventual goal is £6k but what I’m most pleased about is that hubby is now on board with saving into this!! Before he’s never really seen the point! Very excited! 

New house is also a project, a few urgent bits which need doing sooner but mostly more longer term cosmetic things. Hubby has gone back to work this week so I’m home alone now! Doing lots of life admin and also drooling over pictures of kitchens hoping it’ll keep me on track with debt busting and saving! 

Hope everyone is well 

enthusiasticsaver

Congratulations on the move and you sound fairly disciplined with your money.  What interest rate are you paying on the loan? 

Mrs_F_2017

Wow its been ages since I posted on here...back to work over the summer and its been non-stop (good news in these worrying economic times!)

The loan is 3.2% so not awful by any means.  Since last time, my Barclaycard is completely cleared - woohoo and the other interest free card is now under £1,000 and will be cleared by February (interest free until March). 

Since moving, we have realised that a few house bits would need doing sooner than planned so that has diverted some funds but all still on track.  We have also got a lodger in which is generating some extra money and we have been splitting this between saving and a few house renovation pots - I decided on the first colder night there was absolutely no way I could do winter with single glazing in our bedroom or the lounge so we have arranged to have 4 windows replaced. The good news is that we have the money up front and have none of it will be on credit :-) 

August was quite a spendy month by our standards so I want to make sure we don't keep repeating that so I'm going to try and keep this up to date more.  Hubby also seems to actually want to be more involved in planning our finances which is nice and would be good to work more as a team on this - up until now it hasn't interested him in the slightest and often I've felt like I'm doing it and 'telling' him what we're doing!

I've been reading the thread on the Debt free page about the man who earns £7k a month, has 4 BTL's and 3 very expensive cars and although I don't want to judge anyone, it was a bit of a wake up call for me this morning.  Hubby and I have that earning potential over the next few years (albeit jointly, not individually!) and it has really made me think about what we would actually want with that money/lifestyle it could buy...hmm food for thought. Maybe I could get 2 dogs rather than the 1 we are planning :-)

Anyway, I hope everyone is safe and well and looking after themselves in these odd times. 

Take care x

Chrystal

Lovely to 'see' you  again, and pleased that you are getting things sorted out.  Definitely  better having  OH on board, it must make things so much easier.
I don't blame you one bit for wanting the windows changed before the bad weather starts!  Anyway it will save a fortune as you'll  only be  heating the house and not the road where you live  
Your plans sound great so keep on keeping on.

Mrs_F_2017

@Chrystal thanks for your message.  I know we are on track and going in the right direction so just need to keep it up....harder in the new house as I just want to do the work but no how much better it'll be if we save and pay for it up front and not on credit.  

It's a complete mindset change as in the past we probably would have found a 0% credit card or a cheap loan to do things whereas this time we want to save the money and do it 'right'.

Mrs_F_2017

All up to date here.  I do need to get back on top of my spending day-to-day as since I've been back to work, I've fallen into a bit of a naughty pattern of spending on my lunch break - the odd coffee, pack of biscuits/cakes for the staff room and its all adding up. 

I've opened a new bank account to try and get a little bit more interest on some of our savings, although this will be depleted quite soon as we'll be paying out for the windows, but every little helps.

Also need to get back on track with filling up the emergency fund to my target of £6,000 (£2k in there currently). We have a trip to Cornwall planned next month, booked pre-covid but we've decided we're not going to eat out at all other than maybe the odd coffee and cake, and accommodation is all paid for already so shouldn't be too spendy and have some money budgeted so far. 

I've also been thinking long term about my job.  I do want to change career but had been putting off any move as we'd been trying for a baby, we've recently found out that we won't receive any NHS funding for our fertility treatment (too infertile apparently...go figure!) and are faced with entirely self funding if we want to have a baby. But anyway career wise has made just think I need to get on with finding my new career and plan for a pay cut for a few years.  We did this a few years ago when with hubby when I was the main earner and he started a new career, he's now overtaken me so its my 'turn' to change I guess - just not an ideal time to be job hunting but no time like the present as they say. I don't want to go another 5 years coasting along in my job. 

Anyway day-off musings....I have an incredible vigorous Wisteria on the front of the new house which is my aim for today - it needs taming before the windows get installed in a few weeks. At leasts it's warm today. 

Hope everyone is safe and well.