The 'scenic route' to mortgage freedom...

PiggyBankShaker

We have had a weirdly worded 'holding' email from the architect which I think translates as him saying that he still needs to do everything he said he would when we last met, which is frustrating to say the least. We signed the contract with him on the 8th October last year and I never once at that point imagined that we still wouldn't have the finalised drawings by this point. I thought the build would start in about April and we might even be approaching the finish line for the build itself by now. 

PiggyBankShaker

Nothing new to report, on either the money or the house front. We've held the reins really tightly on the expenditure the last few days and we're on track to have a good month. I do sometimes find it hard to resist the temptation to 'shop' so I'm feeling quite proud of myself.
On a completely different front, both of the kids have been ill. DD with a throat infection and DS with a vomiting and diarrhoea bug. It sort of focuses your attention on the important things. 

PiggyBankShaker

Super quick check in as I have a meeting that starts in 5 minutes. DH and I have both been paid. We took the average of the last three-months spending and set that aside and then transferred the remainder (£1800) into savings. Another £200 will also go into our regular savings as well but that happens automatically later in the month.  

PiggyBankShaker

We've been keeping our spending tracker for 3 months now so we can look at the average cost spend on different categories for the last quarter. Here they are as a percentage of our spending.

Mortgage	22.95%
Groceries	12.40% - We can try and shave a little off this, but realistically there is not much scope for savings
Kids activities	11.71%
Health	8.12%
Pets	5.47% - THIS WILL FALL NEXT QUARTER AS OUR LOVELY DOG HAS SADLY DIED.
Travel	5.38% - We can try and shave some of this if we try harder
Council tax	5.38%
Energy	3.58% - THIS WILL PROBABLY GO UP
Phone	2.73%
Clothes	2.69%
Household	2.64%
Eating out / takeaways	2.55% - Always room for improvement!
Water	1.80%
Life insurance	1.79%
Garden	1.73%
Gifts	1.72%
Adult activities	1.39%
TV and films	1.26%
Charity	1.26%
Toiletries	1.17%

I haven't included spends under 1% although there are 9 of these categories.

themadvix

Interesting to look at it from a percentage perspective - wouldn't have thought of that (although I'm terrible at tracking spends anyway, so unlikely to ever get around to it!). Sorry to hear about your dog though.

PiggyBankShaker

Weirdly quiet week. DH has been ill with the same bug that DS had lats week, so far I've managed to avoid it despite my nursing duties. Spending has been down because we've all be too tired to go the shops. That said, yesterday I did start shopping online for DD's birthday and we'll probably end up spending about £100 on presents.

Still nothing from the architect. I think that I've resigned myself to the factthat he is just going to go at his own incredibly slow pace and nothing we do will influence him to go any faster. Whilst I'm certainly not 'at peace' with that I am at least managing not to put too much emotional energy into resisting it or trying to change it.

Waiting for the DBS check to come back for my second job and hopefully after that I should get a start date. Also received a new contract for my 1st job extended for 12 months. It as supposed to be permanent after the first year so my line manager is querying why it is just another 12 months. I'll sign it either way but a bit more security would be nice.

Been fantasising about holidays a little bit then stopping myself because the covid rules are still too strict to make it worth planning anything.

PiggyBankShaker

It's been a fairly quiet week and PBS Towers. Nothing from the architect, still. Nothing from the new job, still.

We had to do some essential clothes shopping (new shoes for DS and new bras and a new coat for DD) and we've also started buying DD's birthday presents, so expenditure will be up this month. Trying not to splurge in other areas, but I want to make half term fun for everyone so the temptation is definitely there.

Anyway, nothing else to report for now.

PiggyBankShaker

Only small bits to update...

The CB has gone in, much welcomed boost to the current account balance which is starting to look a bit paltry. 

I've been told I can carry 6 days annual leave over to next year, which is fab because we might even be able to take a holiday if Covid gets under control.

We have a meeting today with the architect in which *fingers crossed* we finally get the last set of info and drawings necessary to go out to tender. I'm still in a state of disbelief that it has taken this long, but hopefully we can make some tangible progress now.

Roll on payday!

PiggyBankShaker

Another quick update.

The meeting with the architect went okay. Apparently he's going to get the final drawings to us on Monday. But I'm not going to hold my breath because it won't be the first time he's said this only to find there's something else to tweak.

It's DD's birthday today. I took her and three friends to Wagamama's last night and spent £96 on food and then £76 on an escape room. They had loads of fun, but - boy - it feels weird when we've been on an economy drive for the last few months. She also needs a new pair of boots this week, too. But that should be the last big 'out of pocket' spending before Christmas.

I've submitted my work expenses, £89 mileage. And I've also been told that I'll get £150 bonus in November's pay, so that'll be handy for Christmas.

I've also been given a start date for my new job; 29th October, which means hopefully I'll get the first pay for that at the end of November, too.

That's all for now. 

PiggyBankShaker

Pay day is within touching distance and our finances have held up pretty well this month despite DD's birthday and needing to buy new school coats and school shoes. I think we've gone a tiny bit (1% or 2%) over our quarter 3 average monthly spend.

The architect has 99% finished all the drawings and other than some tiny tweaks we are ready to go out to tender. It's super exciting and also nerve-wracking. What if we get the wrong builder? What if we there's loads more groundworks than we anticipate? Eek. But also yay.

They pushed back the start date on my new job until the 9th November. It's not a big deal in the scheme of things and it does mean that I get to enjoy the whole of half term off as planned. If payroll goes through in time I should get my fist pay on the 15th November, which will be for the whole month, so that'll be great. If not it just means I'll get double in December, which'll also be fine.

I'm going to float the idea with the kids of them not going horse riding in December and January. Their school doesn't have any indoor facilities and if the weather's bad then they just do horse care at the same cost as a ridden lesson. If they agree we'll save £414 But we'll see. I don't want them to agree if they don't want to.

That's all for now!