Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

FtbDreaming

Good luck for the mot! Something always comes up unexpectedly but that’s what the emergency fund essentially is. I’d rather dip into it for emergencies than have money sat there for years doing nothing. It frees up you living money for living! 

Have a nice walk x

Bluegreen143

So apparently the car passed its MOT! The guy said something about one of the back seatbelts so he’s going to talk to Red about it when he goes to get it. This car was such a good buy tbh - it’s 12 years old, cost us £2,000 four years ago, and it’s passed two out of the three MOTs we’ve had it for with no work needing done. The only time it’s broken down it just needed a new battery which was cheap (Red did that himself).

FtbDreaming

Yay that’s great news! Mine is 12 too and I was saying to my friend that it’s probably got 2 or 3 years in it before we can go down to one car although so will keep it going for 20 years if it’s upto him! Less of the emergency fund for you to build back up now! X

Bluegreen143

Thanks at @FtbDreaming! Was £157 all in for MOT & service so happy with that as I had visions of something major being wrong with it and needing to use the credit card! Still got £101 left in the car category - not bad as we also paid the annual insurance & tax last month. I’m going to be building this category up as a replacement fund (as we may replace in the next year or two) as well as obviously saving for next year’s insurance/tax/MOT.

joedenise

@Bluegreen143 it might be a good idea to have a separate line on YNAB for building up a pot as car replacement rather than having it all the expenses in one pot.  We have access to a larger pot of money which takes a bit of time to get hold of but would cover us if we need to get a new car before my YNAB pot is built up but I'm hoping not to have to use that.  I keep insurance and tax in one pot as well.  Might be worth thinking about.

Bluegreen143

Good day today. I had a lie in and then was a bit stressed as came down late morning after a shower, the place was a tip from the kids playing all morning and I felt I had loads to get done. But it worked out ok 🙂

It was horrible weather so we cancelled the planned walk and spend some time making cards for Red then the kids did a bit of painting. My effort is below (you can see drawing isn’t my thing) 😆 and the kids enjoyed making theirs.

Red made dinner - spatchcock tandoori chicken, homemade garlic naans, tikka masala sauce, roasted veggies and salad. So tasty!

Picked up the car and as discussed earlier we didn’t have to spend too much. @joedenise I’ve come back and forth on this as I was trying to keep my categories really broad and simple, but I’ve gotten more specific with this fresh start and I think you’re right about separating that out. I think I’ll have one category for bills (insurance, tax, breakdown cover and MOT, about £50 a month) and a separate replacement category.

Used Monkey’s special time before bed to bake Red’s birthday cake with him. Doing a chocolate orange cake - one orange layer (in colour and flavour), one chocolate orange layer, tomorrow I’m going to cover in piped chocolate buttercream and then decorate with a Terry’s chocolate orange 🤤 

Haven’t started the ridiculously long nursery form so will get that printed tonight to work on this weekend.

caeler

Good luck with your journey! @Bluegreen143
glad the car passed, I know that feeling and sadly it seems to get worse the older the car gets! 

Bluegreen143

Thanks @caeler!

One Terry’s chocolate orange cake complete... three homemade cards done... ingredients in for steak and chips dinner... and I’ve got Red a bunch of stuff from his Amazon wishlist (bottle of whiskey + tools mainly 😂). So think I can tick off a decent lockdown birthday. 

Did ask him to text his two best mates and ask if them + their wives want to do zoom drinks tonight but not sure if he has- I should have done it myself- he was a social butterfly at age 23 when I met him but men seem to get crap at socialising as they get older! As age 37 today he is a grumpy sod who never bothers to organise stuff with his friends, they are the same, yet they all have a brilliant time when they do bother (usually us wives are involved too as the men are all crap, luckily we are all friends too) 🤷‍♀️ I make a point to have zoom drinks almost every week with my uni friends and go for walks with my mum friends & their kids. Yet when we met he was always telling me off for being shy or unsociable at parties (I certainly wasn’t, he was just particularly outgoing). Funny how you change as you get older!

Bluegreen143

Meant to share a picture of the Terry’s choc orange cake as I’m particularly proud of it! Kids are already high from eating a ton of leftover icing in the bowl 😆🙈

caeler

Just wow!