SLLM (Single Lady Large Mortgage)

Sistergold

Happy Monday ladies! 

I am happy to announce that I finally finished making my son’s bed! He is now officially a big boy as he now sleeps on his new bed! His old single bed(part of childhood bunk bed) is out and new bed is in! He has now slept on it a few nights with no incident! No incident you might ask? Well in my enthusiasm I did not realise the bed will become a very high bed! I wanted ample storage under the bed which made it high right from the start! THEN without thinking much I bought a very thick mattress 33cm infact increasing the height further. Then I purchased 12cm castor wheels for the bed as I want it movable so as to be able to easily clean under the bed! The end was a “very high bed”. I have since replaced the 12cm castor wheels with 10cm ones(very little helps and all). He has slept on it past few days and has gotten to like the bed even with the hight! I asked him if he wanted a stool to easily get on and he said no. He is a tall boy so? For now the agreement is that he uses as is and see how he feels after a few months. If he needs it lowered the first option is to buy a thinner mattress if still too high then next is to remove the wheels. 

For now it’s onwards to other projects. Study desk for his bedroom. He has a small folding desk which he has been using but a bigger desk will be better I 🤔 . 

LadyWithAPlan

Ha love the height issue and I bet he loves being so high 
Loving your 17 possible future solutions lying in wait 

if I do welding I will look like the Michelin man I will want full protection .. and do a course first 

Sistergold

@LadyWithAPlan, I was surprised that he ended up loving the hight, for me I felt it was a disaster. I was worried he will fall off during the night and break his neck or something! 

LadyWithAPlan

He is a kid so fearless no doubt. I love sleeping high.

Sistergold

Oh how where has the time gone? Went to check on my mortgage balance to do an update only to realise that I did not update last month. So money went out February and also in March. 

January balance 

Two months later 

Looks like 5 more months and will be in the £25#k? I can not wait! 

On the house front well things can be somewhat overwhelming, being a single mom, holding a job and the long list of things to do around the house. Yes the long list, I guess that’s the hardest to get done. Snatching little time here and there to fix this and that? Well the trick is doing one item at a time I guess! 

Enjoy your week ladies

LadyWithAPlan

Well done on getting your mortgage down - £250k will be a great new target 

I am not as busy as you - no kids for a start !- no idea how single working mums do it but I have a whiteboard with all the to dos to the left column  on my yellow stickies and then focus on  a few of the tasks (urgent or picked as my next project ) and move those across to the middle to focus on (and off the board when done) 
it means I don’t miss things and I can add to the left without feeling overwhelm

Sistergold

Thank you @LadyWithAPlan, stickies do sound like a good idea. I have a wall in the kitchen I have been thinking of installing a whiteboard or cork board.   Will add that to my todo list, install a whiteboard! I will straight away start on the sticky note idea on the bare wall for now! 🥰

Sistergold

Oh hello all you lovely ladies! Hope you have enjoyed the long weekend? Enjoyed your homes? The last few days was lovely with bits of sunshine giving the promise of a summer to come. Oh how I miss and am looking forward to summer! 

Today though was a bit overcast and now it’s “raining” 😕. On Thursday I did a bit of cutting to start making some brackets for two wall mounted desks. Today I welded the cut metal but in the end I was dogging the rain. Only just managed to finish by welding then grinding down and cleaning in between showers. I also just managed to cut the wood for the desks. One desk will be for my daughter to place her makeup mirror and beauty stuff and the other desk is for my son’s bedroom to keep his keyboard. This will free their current study desks just for study. They are both going into the years when they need to be serious about their studying and I need the study desks not to compete with other items as this leads to studying on the bed or in the lounge. Using the lounge can be inconvenient as others then can not watch television. With so many people someone is always in someone else’s way! 

So the wood and brackets are all ready and in the garage. Have had to switch on the heater in the garage to dry the wood as it got a bit wet. I hope to start painting it all and install sometime this week. Everyone is at home as the schools are closed for now. 

It’s so wet outside and after all that rain now the sun is out again. Should I go and set up to paint? Will see just want it all done now. 

Friday1989

Hi everyone! Just thought I'd pop in and see how people are getting on. It looks like it's been quiet on this thread. I hope that's because you're all out enjoying the summer ☀️

I've definitely been enjoying the summer 😂 I'm almost looking forward to autumn so I don't go to quite as many gigs. I've won a few free tickets through concerts for carers but I refuse to add up how much I've spent on gig tickets. No regrets though! I discovered twickets and bought a last minute resale ticket for Bruce Springsteen for £72. Tickets were over £100 on Ticketmaster so although it was a lot, at least it wasn't full price.

Six months until I need to remortgage 😮 I'm definitely on track to meet my overpayment goal but I might try pay off even more. I'll get the NHS 2024/2025 pay rise backdated to April. I also found out on Friday that I'll be getting £2k for doing an extra role I recently qualified to do. I was happy to do the role with no extra pay as it's within my working hours so this was a very pleasant surprise! Still some final things I need to do before I can officially take on the role so I'll probably see the uplift in October.

I told a colleague in a different team who also did the qualification that we'd get a 2k pay rise and on top of the NHS pay rise, we're going to be very comfortable. I added that he's going to be earning even more because he gets central London weighting, works unsociable hours, and is on a higher spine point. He said this was music to his ears as money's been tight?! It really does make me wonder what on earth people spend their money on if they feel money is tight on two incomes (at least one over £55k), no kids, no car and no debt apart from student loans. He's not the only person who says it either. Growing up poor isn't great but it means I genuinely feel rich. Often it's the simple things that make me grateful, like buying berries when it's not a special occasion or being able to buy a new pair of shoes when they fall apart without wondering where I'll have to cut back. 

Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their evening and has a good week 😊

Sistergold

Oh hello everyone and hello @Friday1989. It has been a while on my end. Definitely enjoying the summer.  Have also been sooo busy with DIY around the house. I am now telling myself I need to be updating this diary as that always motivates me to do more. 

Congratulations @Friday1989 on the pay rise! 6 months to your remortgage is not too long and it’s welldone to you for being on track to make your planned overpayment! I guess no matter how much you earn if you are not mindful the “money will just slip out of one’s fingers?”