Pay for the future and not the past

Suffolk_lass

Don't you have to have a Scottish address to use if you are joining the Scottish NT? It's been a while since I checked. I did check out NZ at one time too and I think that was a single annual payment that was cheaper again for reciprocal rights

joedenise

No need for a Scottish address.  I live in the South East so a long way from Scotland!

MissRikkiC

Well with Covid in the house and a heavy case of chickenpox for my daughter, very little money has been spent really. Certainly not on anything worthwhile but remembering that this is okay when it’s not often is important. 

Pizza take away last night used up the budget for April’s takeaway, we use the pot for pub, coffees, takeaways and impromptu lunches so considering there was only 3/4 of the normal budget in there this month we’ve done okay with 9 days to spare. 

We have plenty of food in and still working through veg but need a slightly more motivated week this week to get back to the right mind set. 

Whilst being off it’s not set me back but I’ve had more time to fritter away pennies and so for that; I’m glad I’ll be back to work. 

It’s allowed me time for appointments etc though without encroaching on my work which has been handy. 

I think I’ll struggle still, now back at work with sitting as it’s not really got any better whilst I’ve been off. Not sure what the solution is but I have 4 weeks back before my planned finish date so I might bring that forward a touch. Let’s see. I could see the chiropractor however I’ve coped this long so actually not sure I want to spend the cash! 

MissRikkiC

Solution to my ‘sitting down’ problems have been decided for me by the midwife who advised I finished as soon as I was able to. Thankfully I have a great manager so have agreed I will do a couple of hours a week when I feel I can sit but otherwise be deemed uncontactable this side of baby’s arrival. A weight is lifted and I’m sure I’ll get bored but feels like the right thing to do this time around

MissRikkiC

Evening everyone who wanders by here  

BT finally sorted from Santander today, although I had to basically move the value to a zero balance card to get in credit and then request they refund me the credit as there was no option to money transfer. Glad it’s sorted though, so paid the chunk off the loan and now just waiting for it to be applied. Recalculated the OPs and if I’m a little more conservative we may need a couple of extra months vs the 21 offered but I have a feeling that will just force me to save harder to clear before I need to move it again. 

Applied to switch my current account for the RBS £150 bonus today which will be a nice little extra. 

Emptied the joint account and tidied everything up with pots in prep for payday next week. 

Recalculated maternity (I do this every couple of weeks) as we’ve needed to purchase some baby related items this last month and it’s safe to say the moment my car arrives I’ll be banking that salary benefit. I’m sure once reality happens, we will manage just fine but so far ahead it’s a little sketchy at the moment. 

Car update however is that its not built yet 🙃 and date of 29/4 is likely to be 25/6 however suspected later as there is only a few having been produced so far. 

Kinda glad I didn’t bank on the extra £

Meal plan done for the next 2 and a bit weeks and just going to buy a few items to go alongside the meals rather than go out shopping aimlessly. 

I do plan on getting to MrL next week once my little is in nursery and trying to get a £1.50 box, as they’re always handy for us. But otherwise i have reverse planned the fridge and freezer. 

Green house still isn’t finished and needs some wood to make it work (I didn’t check the height and it’s too tall against the shed so need to back fill the gap ive created!) which means my conservatory is just laden with seedlings and tomato/pepper plants! 😂 

However all of the money for the renovations we had in the remortgage is now gone, windows are replaced and carpets are in throughout. We still have 1 more more to complete, plus the windows at the back of the house to replace but we’re fresh outta cash on account of the kitchen so that will have to wait! 🤪 

Off to tidy the kitchen now, despite having had the place spotless this morning, a toddler running round makes for hard work! Ugh!

MissRikkiC

Quick update here. 

Salaries in yesterday and Monzo pots emptied from last month. 

I was tempted to swipe off the leftover budgets to the loan (and even tried to overpay it on the mortgage but needed to update a few details first!) but in the end decided it was better in the baby savings account. It’s looking okay, albeit I still think there are a few more things to come from it, namely a travel cot for the eldest and some paint/wall paper for the baby’s room. 

In fairness it was approx £80 odd so that will cover a preloved travel cot, new mattress x2 and the wall paper id have thought so I’m pleased with that.

New money all shifted around and into their various pots for the month. 

Christmas is pretty much saved for now so that when our pay drops it’s less of a burden to think about. 

It’s my birthday early May so there is a bit extra in the birthdays fund for my daughter to buy a gift and for her and hub to make me a cake (although I have challenged them to make it as cheap as possible). 

The beer/take away pot is reduced again this month as baby is due and we will more than likely not want take aways. 

Instead I could do with writing a list of meals and ingredients for freezer meals so that we have something organised for dinners when we’re too tired to cook. We did this when my daughter was born, I just made extra of everything and rather than eating it, it was all put away in the freezer. Then because hub felt so useless as I was feeding baby all of the time, he cooked most evenings. We won’t have that luxury this time around with a toddler as well so those meals will be handy! Last night, Hub also reminded me how many snacks I would eat through the night as well when I was feeding (which id forgotten) so probably need to make some delicious stuff for scoffing whilst awake during the early hours too!! 

My daughter has a slightly bigger pot this month so that we could pay for a term of the playgroup she likes and also get her a few extra bits of clothes. 

And I reduced the fuel pot by £10 as despite a lot of parking costs coming from it last month, we still had leftovers in there too. 

The garden fund has a bit added as I have no compost left and we really need some flowers in the garden instead of just veg 😂
A few of the raised beds are emptied now and I need to put some bits in them but would prefer veg there as it is meant to be the kitchen garden! 

Greenhouse is built but needs a bit of mdf for the big gap where it’s taller than the shed which is solely my fault as I didn’t check the height. 

And finally, hubs car is in for service this weekend and there is some money left in the pot for that (hopefully will cover it!). 

Its only due a half service and already had 2 new tyres so fingers crossed. 

Loan due to be updated tomorrow, waiting for the new minimum payment to be stated for the Santander account and I think, all being well, we should have a debt free date of approx 1 year and 11 months time! Eeeeek

jokono

It's so good to have a debt free date in mind, 1 year 11 months is not even that bad, just knowing feels great, doesn't it?

I love how organised you are, my second maternity leave was when I built most of my debt  so I'm even more impressed!

Fingers crossed the pot covers the car. What car are you getting? I remember you saying it was electric but not sure I've seen a model?

Blackcats

Well done on the loan and the debt free date too.

yum to delicious night time snacks.

Bluegreen143

Do you need a travel cot for your eldest? Just that from their second birthdays was when both mine moved into a bed so we never used a travel cot from that point as they’d sleep in a bed when we were away too, so would you get a lot of use of a second one (I’m assuming that you already have one and are wanting a second so they have one each) at this stage?

Obviously ignore me if you want to, but personally I’d wait til you’re about to go away somewhere and decide based on your daughter’s stage then - if you’re not going away til summer, a lot can change in a few months. 

MissRikkiC

1 year and 11 months is still a stretch for sure so could be slightly longer, but it’s an achievable goal. 

The organisation is so key for us as I don’t think the house will be big enough with 2 smalls to give us the happy life we’ve worked so hard for so planning ahead that the mortgage will need to increase etc and we will want to buy again is so necessary. I’m sure that by the time it comes around, the fact we might have a very measily amount left to pay wouldn’t be any concern for the bank but I just want to be 100% certain! 

Electric car is a rather large Skoda Enyaq. I’ve only seen 1 on the road so far and so not surprising that mine isn’t ready yet. I can’t wait for the tax and petrol savings though! 

@bl@Bluegreen143 it’s actually just for the eldest as we don’t have one but it’s main purpose is for when I go into labour if we need to take her to someone’s to sleep we can. I want her at home ideally but these things don’t always go to plan!