Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

Bluegreen143

So quick update on yesterday’s lists:

List for today

Usual daily stuff 

1. Work ✔️ 
2. Keep on top of tidying and dishes ✔️ 
3. Dinner - chicken pasta ✔️ (made by DH, which was nice!)
4. Do Duolingo practise ✔️ 

Other
1. Rip out knitting enough to fix mistake 🙄 didn’t do any knitting 

2. Keep working on 2020 family photo book - I’ve gotten up to April; today I’d like to get May and June done (aspiration is to get this finished this month and start on 2021 as once that’s done the backlog is cleared!) ✔️ and started on July, too

3. Go to the gym (7pm class) eeek, it was so lovely and sunny I decided to hang out in the garden with a strawberry cider instead 😳

4. Meet one of Bambi’s nursery friends in the playpark after work (3pm) ✔️ 

5. Text friend about potential playdate later this week ✔️ 

Red took the kids to the inflatable thing yesterday, and it sounds like they all had tons of fun. I was expecting him to spend £20 though (the entry charge) but he spent £31 all in as he let them have ice creams and pay extra to go in a Zorb. I would have definitely said no or suggested they use pocket money (though Bambi only has about 50p in her wallet, but Monkey has £12 accumulated). But I think this is the first time Red has ever taken the kids to anything like this solo so I’m not going to give him a hard time. Will have a look at the budget today - Red will also get a taxi back from the garage this morning, where the car is getting an oil spill fixed (it’s not a good location for buses back to ours, and about a 30 min walk, which I’d have considered but know he won’t 😆). 

The nice thing about being debt-free and having a better income is I can be less controlling and not nag him so much. The downside is that it’s easier to fritter money when you actually have some. I really want to get the emergency fund to £2.5k by the end of September and would love to resume some kind of mortgage OPs, even token ones, at that point.

The other savings goal is a wood burning stove for the conservatory. This build is taking AGES to get going, but the plans are with the building regs people with the council (after a big delay by the builders 🙄) and hopefully we hear soon. We borrowed the money to build it by adding to our mortgage, and took out an extra £1k over the costs of the build to fix the garden wreckage and buy a bit of furniture (second hand or ikea - just seating and a coffee table!) but if we want a wood burning stove, which we do, we always said we would have to save for that. We don’t need a huge stove for a smallish conservatory but we need to pay for installation too, obviously. We had saved some up for this in spring but ended up using it for the new car (fine, as that was essential!).

Oh, randomly I made an onion quiche last night for lunches. So tasty! I’ve not made a quiche in year(s). Doing the 2020 photobook I found so many photos of baking and bread, quiches, desserts etc (I didn’t put these IN the photobook of course 😂) and it’s made me very nostalgic for how much I used to make from scratch. Though, I was a SAHM then and Red was on furlough for most of 2020, so the levels of free time were a bit different 😆

Bluegreen143

List for today

Usual daily stuff
1. Keep on top of dishes, tidying etc 
2. Duolingo
3. Dinner - coriander lime chicken
4. Work

Other
1. Get to end of August in the 2020 photobook 

2. Fix my knitting!

3. Do mealplan/shop for Friday - will get it online this week instead of Lidl, as we are off out to the zoo on Friday.

4. Go to the gym!! (Am meeting a friend, so should definitely manage this). 

LittleGem

Hello @Bluegreen143, I’ve been reading your diary and just wanted to say how much I’m enjoying it and also how much it’s been inspiring me with our savings. Currently on mat leave with no 2 and certainly feeling the pinch!

Bluegreen143

Ah thanks for dropping by @LittleGem! Congrats on your baby. I can imagine it’s a tough one making mat leave budgets balance given all these price rises, good luck! How old are your children? 

Bluegreen143

Argh. Bloody car. £850 to repair the oil leak and replace another part. This car is a serious money pit - since we got it 3.5 months ago, we’ll have paid nearly £1k in repairs as well as just over £200 to get it service and tyres changed (ok, that’s fine, it’s an expected expense). If it needs any other repairs in the next 9 months (before next MOT) I will be seriously unhappy. 

On the very, very bright side, I have £1.2k in the emergency fund, so it won’t even be TOTALLY wiped out. Red only has a very vague, fuzzy notion of the finances, so I got a big hug when I nonchalantly mentioned that we have enough in the emergency fund to cover it. I don’t lie, but don’t usually volunteer the details of what’s in savings, so he thinks we’re poorer than we are and therefore won’t spend so much 🙈

MrsWenger

Hello Bluegreen, I read your thread but don’t usually comment, very interesting to follow your journey.

In relation to the car, it seems to have had a lot of issues in the short time you have had it. Do you have an option to discuss this with the selling garage to see if they will contribute towards the repairs?

Baileys_Babe

Bluegreen143 said:

I nonchalantly mentioned that we have enough in the emergency fund to cover it. I don’t lie, but don’t usually volunteer the details of what’s in savings, so he thinks we’re poorer than we are and therefore won’t spend so much 🙈

I keep it vague as well, if OH knew the numbers a switch would flick and he would want to spend it.
He is responsible, kind, loving, hard working and generous but money burns his fingers so he needs to get rid of it. If he asks me directly how much we have I tell him - if he could be bothered he can look at the spreadsheet with all the information on but the effort required is sooo much.

We were discussing money at the weekend and he suggested we set up a few more pots, this is huge in the past he could never understand the point of saving pots (like house insurance, car tax, presents, holidays...) despite his monthly pay fluctuating wildly throughout the year as it is affected by the seasons. All my budgeting is designed around a low pay month, on high pay months we pay more into general savings and saving for wants not needs.

Bluegreen143

@Baileys_Babe your DH sounds very like mine. A real gem but money management is not his strength 😆 I was chatting about it with some friends last week who said they really would resent taking on the family finances (they all run separate finances to their OHs so just do their own money). Thing is, my DH is excellent at all kinds of things - brilliant with the kids, works hard at work all day then spends his evenings doing garden work and other home projects, does his share of housework, and generally is a very competent, responsible sort of man. It’s not like he’s a total man-child where I probably would resent it. I’m ok with him doing the bits he’s good at (DIY etc) and me doing the bits I’m good at (money management). To me that’s teamwork, it seems silly to divide every task equally in half instead of playing to your strengths but each to their own. DH does manage his own “allowance” rather than including that in the family YNAB budget, and that is better for our relationship 😆 but he’s otherwise happy for me to manage the family stuff.

@MrsWenger- it’s been in the garage six times since we got it!

MOT - covered by selling garage as they missold it to us as having had it done 😡

Brake pads - (advisory on the MOT) - DH and his brother fitted these so cost £145 for the parts

Service & tyres - DH wanted these done before going up north on holiday, fine as needs done annually (£220)

Randomly cut out - cost nothing as garage said there was no fault and thankfully it’s never happened again

Recalled part - cost nothing as done for free by the dealership

Oil leak & other part needed replaced - that’s this fault (£850)

It does seem a lot but we actually haven’t paid for most of the visits. Just this one is pricey! This means all advisories on the MOT are done and nothing else has been flagged up when it’s been checked on it’s service and when we had it in before, so hopefully this is it for a while! 

It had a three month warranty which has expired so they won’t contribute, besides we knew it had an oil leak from the MOT they did (but they would only fix the stuff it needed to pass, not the advisories.

I’m not convinced it was a good buy but we do like the car, we’re not in any debt for it so not locked into payments etc, we’ll just see how it goes & I will prioritise rebuilding savings just in case. If it needs expensive work doing in the next nine months I would strongly consider replacing it but hoping it doesn’t come to that.

MrsWenger

Hi Bluegreen, I take your point about most items being things you chose to do, or were not charged for, but the oil leak seems an odd one. Was the car within the 3 months when it was first detected? What actually is the oil leak? Sounds like it might be engine or gearbox related given the price to fix it?

Did you get an alternative quote given you are not tied to that dealership in any way? Apologies if you feel I am labouring the point but it seems a big cost to me especially given how short a time you have had the car. 

If there is anything which allows less impact into your savings it would be good to do that. I know how from both this and your original thread how much effort has gone into saving that money!

Bluegreen143

I think it’s the oil filter so apparently (according to DH) a big job to change it. The garage is one we’ve used before, to check the fault (when it didn’t need any work done, and they didn’t charge us anything to check) and I’ve suggested taking it elsewhere for a second opinion but DH was really impressed by their service last time and happy that they are able to fit it in so quickly (we’re getting the car back tomorrow). From what he said there’s a second part (unrelated to the oil leak) also needing replaced which has bumped the cost up. 

As I said, I have suggested to DH getting it checked out elsewhere but he is dealing with it and I don’t want to take the job off him, so it’s his decision and he’s quite convinced the work needs done and happy with the price 🤷‍♀️ I suppose this is like what I was saying above about us having our own jobs - anything to do with the car is Red’s remit and I think if we both try to sort it, we’ll just end up cross at each other.

But thanks for your comment as it is a fair point and it is a big sum to pay out on repairs so soon after getting the car 😡 I do think we should probably have got the old car fixed instead of buying a new one, but hindsight is perfect, isn’t it!