It always seems impossible until it’s done…

debtfreeoneday

Update from me. Managed to earn £148.98 in October from surveys / cashback / fleabay sales so not a bad month. 

Few spends on the house totalling about £600 for some electrical work and an air circulation system to combat mould / condensation. 

Still squirrelling away for the extension and quotes have started to come in.  

Heating system replacement is the next thing on the list.  Just waiting for availability from the company but fingers crossed this side of Christmas.  Off to pick up a freecycle bed today for DD as she needs to go to a smaller bed for a while until building work is done.  

Happy to say I am done for Christmas in terms and gifts. Have been very sensible this year and feel so much better for it. Tricky as kids get older. Presents get more costly. And that’s not to say we spend more but socks for a 3 year old and socks for a teenager have a price difference! They have a mix of new and second hand and I know they’ll be happy. 

KajiKita

Good extra earnings for the month. 👍🎉

What kind of heating system are you having installed? 

I’m battening down spend on Christmas this year. Significantly restricting both how I buy for and how much - it definitely eases the pressure! 😊

KK

CathT

Hi DFOD, recently found this diary and used to follow you a few years ago too. Congratulations on the new house and your mortgage freedom. Good to see you're sticking around for the next part of the journey.

I was hoping to have finished our shopping but wow teenagers are difficult to buy for without potentially spending a fortune! 

debtfreeoneday

KajiKita said:

Good extra earnings for the month. 👍🎉

What kind of heating system are you having installed? 

I’m battening down spend on Christmas this year. Significantly restricting both how I buy for and how much - it definitely eases the pressure! 😊

KK

Thanks KK. We are having an air source heat pump put in. We had one previously and it worked really well for us. Currently in old style gas tanks and it’s quite random to manage. House is either too hot or too cold. Lots of condensation and we can’t maintain a stable temperature between the back and the front. 

debtfreeoneday

CathT said:

Hi DFOD, recently found this diary and used to follow you a few years ago too. Congratulations on the new house and your mortgage freedom. Good to see you're sticking around for the next part of the journey.

I was hoping to have finished our shopping but wow teenagers are difficult to buy for without potentially spending a fortune! 

Cath!!  So good to see you. Thanks for the congrats. Still feels a bit surreal not to budget for mortgage payments!

Teenagers are a whole new level of trickiness!

debtfreeoneday

Started to think about targets for next year. This year went totally off target with the house move etc. 

Initial thoughts are the food budget. We have increased our food spend massively and I can’t seem to get hold of this at all. So I absolutely need to get back on track with that. 

Another one is around our whole budget in that I’m going to be far more precise with our monthly budget and make provisions for insurances. I normally just pay these out of our monthly money but I want to proactively save for things like this. 

One more is around the kids money and financial education. So bank accounts for them and starting to give them more ownership over the management of their money. 

Any one else started to think about 2024 yet?

KajiKita

Good luck with getting the food spend back under control, I am finding ours is still going up! 😳😢

In terms of 2024 …..? 

Our fixed rate ends in October so we will start looking for a new deal in May, not sure whether to go for a 2 or 5 year deal atm. I suppose it depends what’s out there as we start looking. 
Our fixed rate energy deal will end in September as well - that is going to hurt! Mr KK likes a warm house (he works in the cold all day and I think he needs it for ‘thawing’ out in the evenings) - I’m going to try talking to him about warming the person not the room quite so much. The problem is you still need some heating for places like the bathroom or it becomes utterly miserable. 

Aiming to get £300 of produce from my veggie patch next year. Need to clear it, mulch it and be ‘On Guard!’ daily against the relentless surge of bindweed …..
No holiday, though we’d both like one, until we know where we are with the mortgage etc

KK

debtfreeoneday

KajiKita said:

Good luck with getting the food spend back under control, I am finding ours is still going up! 😳😢

In terms of 2024 …..? 

Our fixed rate ends in October so we will start looking for a new deal in May, not sure whether to go for a 2 or 5 year deal atm. I suppose it depends what’s out there as we start looking. 
Our fixed rate energy deal will end in September as well - that is going to hurt! Mr KK likes a warm house (he works in the cold all day and I think he needs it for ‘thawing’ out in the evenings) - I’m going to try talking to him about warming the person not the room quite so much. The problem is you still need some heating for places like the bathroom or it becomes utterly miserable. 

Aiming to get £300 of produce from my veggie patch next year. Need to clear it, mulch it and be ‘On Guard!’ daily against the relentless surge of bindweed …..
No holiday, though we’d both like one, until we know where we are with the mortgage etc

KK

£300 from a veggie patch is an admirable target!  

Totally hear you about the misery from the cold. I try and put it in perspective and how lucky we are to have a home but I hate being cold. 

debtfreeoneday

So heating system is now in even if it took longer than expected during what was the coldest week and a snowfall to contend with. Few snaggly bits they need to tidy up. 

Next up - solar panels which should be going on this week. 🤞

We also have decided on window replacement. Just a day or two more whilst we mull over which window at the rear should be a set of doors. So money withdrawn from premium bonds to pay the deposit for that. 

Didn’t win anything in December and haven’t for months actually.  Super frustrating!

I also spent a lot of time last week on budgets. Have set up pots for items I didn’t really budget for and just paid for at the time, ie pet food, insurances, haircuts etc.  

Also opened up ISAs for the kids for us to save into for them.   They save into Premium Bonds but we will start to cover money management a lot more with them next year and so I’ll be interested to see where they decide to park their savings. 

beanielou

You will be so glad that that is done.