Starting afresh in paradise

ManekiNeko

Oki so the CAB appnt went well overall, although there were a couple of questions that she needs to check with her supervisor before answering, so I'm low-key worried about them but hopefully it'll be ok. I'll update when I know more.

She's also made us another appnt for next week to deal with a couple of other questions we had with a different advisor (it sounds like they all specialise in different things).

On a purely family-related note though, it was good news, and I feel comfortable we'd be able to afford having a family together.

Energy bills next winter are still a question mark for me, but I think they are for everyone. All I can really do on that front is aim to improve my energy efficiency over the summer, after I've finished the essential DIY and moved in. I'll be saving up my usual £75 a month payment for gas (and anything left over from my electricity budget) over the spring and summer, either using it towards the winter's bills, or towards energy efficiency stuff to hopefully reduce the bills. I also aim to look into grants.

ManekiNeko

The plan for this week -

I'm off to mine today for the next few days, I'll especially be aiming to fill the wall behind the bookcase. I've ordered my sanding stuff, which will arrive on Saturday, so I'll probably sand it back next week and then bolt it to the wall.

I've also ordered a jigsaw so I'll be ready to make up the cupboards and things I need. Still need to order taps though and possibly some plumbing parts and other bits for the house like a heater. Also discovered the plumber created a small leak so I've to ring him.

It's been good to have a little more money to play with this month, but I was quite naughty on Sunday night and just placed the order without deducting money from any pots, which means I need to go back over them and work out precisely how much I've spent from each. Wish I hadn't now, but I was very tired and needed to order before midnight to get an expensive laptop charger with a £50 off offer. Oh well. Just need to work my sums out, probably tonight now, ready for my March budget tomorrow.

I've also got my CMHT appnt on Thursday, I'm a little nervous about it but trying to not think about it until it happens.

Craft-wise I'm trying to chip away at the baby blanket for my sister. After that, my brother's baby is due in the summer, and I'm hoping to do them a blanket too. Plus lots of other little projects for gifts etc.

My therapist cancelled our appnt this week, so that's two sessions I haven't had during February. I'd have preferred to have them, but on a money front it's all extra cash. I might end up spending it on buying the things I need, just to get them ordered, or I might OP the amount or even OP my sister. I'll have a ponder today and see what my partner thinks too. 🤔 Rightly I think it belongs to my mortgage as it's an unexpected bit of money but I'll see what makes sense by tonight or tomorrow.

ManekiNeko

Right, I've pretty much done my budget now for March which makes a very nice change, I feel much more organised and in control. It's definitely much easier from the app, I did my budget in bed this morning 😝

The things I'm still waiting for are:

-When I go out later, me to check I've received this month's govt credit for electricity (I have to check the meter to see). I think this month's payment will be the last one - I'll ring my supplier soon when I can to check I've definitely had all of them, but I believe I have. My electricity meter now has a huge amount of credit on it, because it's gas that was really costing the money, so I'm going to see if they can send it back to me; I'd rather earn interest on it, and then I can keep it ready for future months of utility costs

-My monthly £3 banking reward, which needs to go into my OPs fund when it arrives (I think it's due tomorrow)

-My WiFi provider to actually take their DD

-Me to get on the laptop and update a few bits in Excel, as well as fully updating my MSE sig (good news: I've nearly achieved my first emergency fund goal of £100; I've got £90 in there just now)

So far this month I've OP'd £13.71. 🎉 I'm pretty happy with that, almost £10 was interest from my savings account and the rest was cashback. It feels really nice to OP a chunk each month even though there's nothing in my budget for a regular overpayment. A bit like a secret cheatsheet 😝 lol. I'd really like to regularly OP, but I have to prioritise my budget actually balancing. But, maybe if benefits are uprated next year with inflation I can add something small here in June 2024. We see though, I've also got a few other key items I need to add into my budget and/or are likely to increase in price next year. (Also, when UC take over my £65 service charge, I'll OP this each month regularly. Although it's not the same as a budgeted OP from my own money, in the sense that it's temporary until I go back to work, it's still a decent chunk going to be regularly OP'd.)

I've got a few more £s of cashback still to come as well, it's pending at the mo, and there'll be another chunk soon enough when I order more bits for the house. Ofc that means spending more money, but I'm in the very lucky position that my mum gave me some money to help me sort out my home, so I'm not worried about ordering things for a change. After that money's spent, there won't be anything urgent left to buy (in theory haha, you know how houses are), so I can just save up each month and buy things as and when I can afford to improve something in the house. I can certainly see why it's smart to save up before moving though, it's been an expensive ride. Sadly just wasn't able to have enough cash in the bank to handle it all, and it's only been possible for me to get through because of help from my partner, sister and mum, but maybe I'll be able to save more for next time I move eh.

On the note of cashback, I forget if I've said but my Chase card decided to extend my 1 per cent cashback beyond the one-year account anniversary, provided I pay in at least £500 at the start of each month (starting from the month prior to my account anniversary). I'm pretty happy with that, I much prefer using it to a credit card. They did say they're not sure how long they'll offer the cashback for, but I'm just going to take advantage of it while I can really. My CCs must be confused what's happened lol, I haven't used them in months. (Previously I was always using them, repaid in full each month ofc, as they're rewards ones.)

Now that my budget is back under control it's deff time for me to start taking advantage of the fact my savings are at 5.12 per cent, while my mortgage is at 1.65 per cent. That is, it's time to start saving OPs into a pot, instead of OPing them directly onto the mortgage. However, I forgot about this until halfway through my OPs today - oops. Kinda sore about that lol, it's just become force of habit to OP directly by bank transfer. Oh well, it's done now and I'll try to remember for next time.

I pondered about the unexpected savings from my therapist cancelling a couple of sessions, but decided that as it was an unexpected windfall, it was right to OP it (I felt if I broke my personal rule about that, I might start getting lax about other future windfalls). So, that £90 is now in my OPs fund, attracting interest (which will be OP'd into the same fund next month - compound interest is great when it's working for you 😉). My other option really was to make an extra payment to my DS (I decided I didn't need it towards buying house stuff as I'd use the money my mum gave me instead). Ofc I'd like to repay my DS sooner, but ultimately the amount I'm repaying her isn't costing me interest, and has the advantage I can always pause or decrease payments if I truly need to for some reason.

Clearly that's not something I'd take lightly, or do unless I desperately needed to, but I'm planning a family and if I want to be able to buy a bigger home in future to house everyone in, and I do, I need to act accordingly even though I can't yet see how to afford it, and right now that means taking OPing seriously (because having a smaller mortgage means I'll be able to borrow more in terms of affordability in the future). Because if I just go, oh well I can't see how to afford it yet so I won't prioritise OPing, I'll certainly never afford it.

As part of the buy a bigger home plan, I'd ideally like to have repaid my DS by the end of my fix, but in reality I may not be able to afford to move house at that exact point anyway, so it's less crucial to bring forward her repayment date than it is to OP my mortgage. After all, if interest rates are still very high (or even higher) by then, I'll be grateful for every penny OP'd. However, I will be paying my DS extra every month starting in May, and I'll increase her repayments again next year if benefits are uprated again, so in reality I'll most likely be pulling her repayment date forwards anyway as the years go by.

Last but by no means least, I need to message UC about renting out my car parking space. I have this sneaking suspicion that if I earn money from it, they'll stop covering my service charge, and I highly doubt I'd earn enough from the space to make that worthwhile. So I think I'll need to wait until I'm well enough to return to work to consider doing this. But, I'll message them and check.

Phew - that was long! Time to get off my phone, make a cuppa and go fill a wall. ☕🫖 I'm sad there's no emoji I can use for that job😂

ManekiNeko

First coat of filler on, it's looking loads better already tbf although plenty of little ridges to sand back. That's because I'm filling a larger, deeper area so frankly it's more like a (albeit mini) plastering job than filling - I can't do my usual trick of getting a perfect finish just with the filler applicator.

That's especially true down at floor level, where there were bigger gaps, so I'm feeling better for having filled it as it's all heat loss reduction for the winter. So, an unexpected energy efficiency job done too, even if it is just along one wall of my bedroom lol. Second coat tomorrow. I actually really enjoyed doing a bit of DIY as well, it was quite meditative. 😌

Popped out to run a few errands as well. This is the first month I've been able to afford to buy some craft club tickets in ages, which I've now picked up (you get a £1 a time discount if you buy four tickets in one go, so I always do that) and am looking forward to using. It's nice to have fun money again! ☺️

Pretty tired now actually, so thinking of a relaxing night, particularly as I've got my CMHT assessment tomorrow so it'll probably be a harsh day. Back to my partner's afterwards though, in the interests of keeping me safe should the appointment bring up a lot.

ManekiNeko

Well, the CMHT appointment went ok I guess, I don't feel like it's made any difference but I'll find out in about a month apparently. I'm all stressed out from the meeting, I got frightened of one of the people there mid-meeting and couldn't explain myself properly to them. So I've to phone someone back tomorrow and try to tell them instead, and see if they can pass it on.

Got an extra filling job now and all as I noticed last night there was an issue on the corner by the door, we took the skirting board off and a few chunks of plaster fell straight off. Most of it I can handle with filler, but there's two deeper sections I'll be using expanding foam on first (holes that go back deep into the wall). My partner took the plug sockets and back box out as well so I can fill around there properly too. PSA: Be careful if you do this, you've to take precautions when working as the filler is wet and therefore conductive; it's not a job I'd attempt if my partner didn't understand electrics, and I'm following his instructions to the letter.

Don't really have much else to report, I'm short on words after that meeting. They did tell me that some people with autism can become non-verbal at times, so that's one interesting thing, although tbh I still strongly suspect I have a dissociative disorder. However, it could be a bit of both that's causing it, or different causes on different occasions. So that was food for thought.

Night all. Hope your week is behaving itself. 😇

ManekiNeko

Oh yeah, the money news:

Mortgage now into the £66k-somethings, instead of 68 or 67, so that's a nice milestone. It'll tick back up into the 67s over the month with interest, but I'm just going by the 1st of the month figure really.

Amount repaid has risen to 2.27 per cent, which is about a quarter of what I've repaid to my DS now. Not actually half bad given how much bigger my mortgage is.

ManekiNeko

So I had £10 extra in my current account after doing my budget, with no idea why. I checked my budget again yesterday and can't see I'm short in any of my pots either. 🤔

It's not random extra cash I just didn't spend in February, because I only transfer money into that account from my savings the day before the 1st, and I put in exactly the amount of my monthly budget to make it easy. (I use my March income to pay April's bills, so that's why I've got the money in savings.)

It was therefore a mystery, and I'm curious to see if it repeats next month, but my partner suggested as it was unexpected windfall, maybe it should be an OP, so I've popped it into the fund as well. I am therefore already up to £116.71 OP'd this mortgage year (which started on 1 March). That's pretty decent for someone who can't really afford to OP. 😝 Admittedly most of it is from my therapist cancelling (£90), so it doesn't feel like a 'proper' OP for some reason - kinda like cheating because it's due to someone else rather than me? But still, I'll take it lol.

My UC should be taking over my service charge from the end of this month, so that's £65 a month I won't need to find. However, the second I return to work they'll stop paying it again for the next nine months (if returning doesn't work out) or forever (if it does work out). So, I'll be rolling this money directly onto the mortgage as an OP each month so I can't get used to being able to spend it and then have it taken away. Obviously, if I'm struggling to cover my energy bills next winter I might have to divert this temporarily to the gas bill, but by rights it's a housing cost and therefore belongs to the mortgage OPs in my head at least.

I do need to ring the bank and confirm what exactly I paid last year, and also what the total amount I'm allowed to OP this year is. I can then update my signature as it's very out of date in terms of what I've actually overpaid.. I lost track a little bit but have scribbles in my diary that I believe are the remaining OPs (or at least the vast majority) that aren't already logged in my excel sheet. For this year it'll be much clearer as I'm using my new budgeting app to stay on top of it.

I'm keeping a note of where the money came from too, as at the end of my mortgage (or even sooner) I thought it might be fun to know that 2 per cent of OPs came from money I found, and 5 per cent were from cashback offers, etc. Because I like numbers. 🤓 Hm, after I ring the bank next week I think I'll get on that and share what I have so far with y'all, in case it's interesting for you too.

I did also think it might be fun to have one of those colouring-in pictures where you colour something in every time you pay off £10, £100, whatever increments you like, off your mortgage/debt (or ofc to show your savings progress). You can buy them but I'm uncertain if I want to, but I'm also not quite sure how to make them. I must have a look for some instructions online.

Have a lovely Saturday everyone 🌅

Merlin's_Beard

I think there are other people that use a picture of a house with bricks to do that, and I guess they are pretty easy to find online and print off?

ManekiNeko

I'd found a mountain design but having just googled it I like the house design too, thanks for that idea ☺️ I'm going to try and either draw or print one out at some point over the next week. Ditto entering my OPs into a proper log.

Still struggling with my MH this weekend after that CMHT appointment, so not doing much. Been looking online for more info and advice about the dissociative disorders I'm waiting to be assessed for.. I'm thinking I'll go on one of the informational sessions for autism as well, as the service said I can go on one while I'm on their waiting list. I even found some online support groups but I don't know if I can attend without a diagnosis. I also looked at a crisis service earlier, as I was struggling more, but at the moment I'm feeling a little bit better, so I'm not sure about contacting them. So ... lots of research, little results.

Probably I'll just check out and play a game pretty soon. It's weird not drinking coffee any more as otherwise I'd have one, same with some junk food, but I guess I'll have a fruit tea or maybe some cereal lol. I do have crisps in but nothing else unless I go to the local shop. It's not far but I'm in Sunday lazing mode so might as well be on the moon rn. 🌛 Unless I realllly crave something lol.

Money wise I've agreed with my partner that I'll contribute £20 next weekend when we go out for a meal with his family, as I can't afford an open-ended bill. I've put it into a savings pot so it's ready and I can't accidentally spend it on something else (my usual trick, as I forget what's coming up in the diary, and then that makes me nervous to spend at all because I'm never clear if that money is truly available to me). I've also put £5 of my fun budget into a pot to save up for a gel nails kit, I don't usually paint my nails but sometimes enjoy it so figured I could save a little each month by doing this. I might make a games category too, and knitting, as those are both quite expensive to take out of any one month's money.

It's definitely helping me to have these sub-pots of 'fun', as it shows me how much is truly discretionary vs. already committed to that month's events. I've got £35.96 left in my fun pot to last me the rest of the month, which isn't much tbh but equally I have complete confidence I deff have it available to spend. I think I'll add a note to my budget now to remind me to always go over my diary and check my social commitments (and allocate a budget to each) at the start of the month.

Hope you all have a good, lazy Sunday. It's meant to be cold this week ahead, I've even heard there's going to be snow ❄️ could be fun.

ManekiNeko

My WiFi provider finally took their DD, so my bills are all done for March now. Just got to type up a few things on the laptop, like all my OPs.. bleh, it'll take ages this month as some of my early ones didn't get logged tidily so I'll have to re-read my early diary and go over my calendar too to make sure I've got everything. And I need to ring my mortgage provider too, to get a total OPs figure that I can make sure mine matches up to. But after all that's sorted it will be a pretty quick and simple job in future months at least.

Popped into my Chase account this morning and discovered there was another £3.98 of cashback that's cleared. Normally I'd leave it there until the end of the month, but considering I'm just keeping it in my OPs fund, I could only see positives in moving it over straight away to start earning interest.

So that's £120.69 OP'd so far this mortgage year, which I'm genuinely quite pleased and surprised with. That's two weeks less off my MF date right there (being as half a mortgage payment is £109.74).

So that's made me think ... if I had OP'd say one mortgage payment, I could say I'd brought my MF date forward by one month? I realise this probably is a very rough and ready way to calculate it (mortgage maths is a bit beyond me), is this how everyone else does it or is there something I'm missing? 🤔 Like I know in reality I'd have probably saved a bit more than the one month's worth of time, because I'd also be saving interest on that sum for the next maybe 300 or 400 months, but that seems pretty hard to calculate.. I'd really like to be able to update my MF date in my sig but don't feel confident of how to work it out at all. I'd be grateful for any ideas.💡