MeandO's money-shuffling

MeandO

Yes, I thought the same, foxgloves. It was in practically new condition and an expensive item! Whilst I wasn’t doing it for thanks but to save it from being wasted and to clear the space, I couldn’t be like that, I’d be so grateful. I just thought to myself afterwards that I’m glad I’m me and was brought up to be polite and thankful. Greed vs gratitude - I know which side I’m on in life.

DS is at his sports club again so I’ve just had a lovely hot shower, washed my hair and feel much better for it. I’m sat stuffing the last of the chocolates OH bought me on Valentines’ Day after looking in the mirror 10 minutes ago and not liking my expanding shape since I had to leave the gym. The irony has not been missed on me. I need to start trying to get back to a good level of fitness again, my whole body is aching a lot more lately and my joints are not my friends most days, especially my knees. I do so miss the gym and the lovely group of women who attended the classes. There was such support and camaraderie there.

Tomorrow is payday, thankfully, so I’m looking forward to shuffling funds to various pots and working on my new budget for the month. I need to factor in the mortgage increase and the increase in gas and electricity payments monthly as BG want to increase those… so kind of them. 😠

The no council tax payment this month will likely go to the mortgage OP fund as I’m determine to pay down all sub accounts by the full 10% this year. I’m not looking forward to the CTax increases this year on top of every other raise in bills, I’m seriously considering ditching love TV and player etc and just sticking with Netflix etc. so I can ditch the TV licence. I did this some years ago when DS was small and we never missed it, it was only when OH came on the scene and he likes his TV that I got ‘proper’ TV again. I’m not sure if we could still watch live sport then though, that’s the only live TV DS watches and I rarely watch the TV on my own.

Forgot to say, I’ve just bought DS new school shoes/trainers as his others have now seen better days and absolutely stink, even after being thrown in the washing machines as a last resort! I’ve tried spray, insoles, boot bananas - everything - but nothing will stop them from smelling! I think it’s because they were almost like a canvas type material, so won’t be buying those again. We’ve gone for a leather look type trainer which DS will actually wear (no idea what it actually is) so I’m £100 poorer after that. Thankfully there was £500 saved in the school pot so that’s more than covered it. I went through TCB for a bit of cash back too.

No groceries are needed now until after the weekend, woohoo! I will likely buy another gift card via the work scheme this month though as that worked well and saved a little bit of cash. It kept me quite disciplined with only buying what was needed (mostly) too.

Right-O, off to make a cuppa before picking DS up. Have a lovely evening all xx

MeandO

Payday, at last! I’ve shuffled money everywhere it needs to be, both physically (online) and via YNAB, allowing for the increase in 2 bills this month - British gas and the mortgage. I really felt the less wiggle room now the mortgage has increased but it was necessary.

I’ve sent the equivalent of the council tax payment to the mortgage as an OP as it’s the last of the no-council-tax months, plus I topped it up by £12.29 that was ‘spare’ to send an OP of £156.29. I’m really pleased with that.

I’ve purchased a £250 Asd& gift card via the work discount scheme, costing £240 and left £100 in the groceries budget for any shopping needed elsewhere and I’ve transferred the ‘everything else’ budget to a new Monz0 account I’ve opened today to see how I get on with that. I’ve only actually opened this as DS will need to use a card like this when he goes abroad with school as there are no foreign exchange fees for under 18s and I need an account with them to open one for him. I can monitor his account whilst he’s away and top up as necessary then.
I was thinking of starting to use Monz0 for the various pots I have monthly and will try it with the ‘misc’ spends this month but at the moment I’m finding it all a bit confusing with funds spread across different accounts. My current system works for me so I may well just stick to what I know. I’ll give it a go though.

I’ve also ‘bought’ two gift cards off of DS that he was given for Christmas, sending him the money for them instead as he wouldn’t have really used them. I will use them up in normal spending anyway so it will be of no loss to the budget and the money has gone into his savings instead.

I had my hair done today and have £30 left over in cash from that so will pay it into the bank tomorrow if I can get there. Scrap that idea, I just remembered our local bank is closed on Thursdays now so I can’t. 🙄 I was hoping to send the £30 to the mortgage as another OP, perhaps I’ll just send it from another pot and leave the cash in my purse and use it in lieu. That’s probably easier than getting to an open bank whilst working full time…

I’ve baked snacks for DS this evening which has filled two tubs and will hopefully last a few days. I’ve filled in ‘trip’ paperwork for school which DS has to take back tomorrow, ironed schoolwear after doing yet another wash today and I see the basket is already half filled again! I’m sure the neighbours are sneaking washing in too when I’m not looking. DS has been fed, the dishwasher has been loaded and unloaded when done, the kitchen has been wiped down and I’m ready for my bed in all honesty as I didn’t sleep at all well last night. I started coughing at some early hour - I didn’t check the time - and found it hard to stop. After that I had crazy dreams about buying lunch for my old office and getting the orders wrong! One thing I’ve notice about these tablets I’m on is they seem to induce crazy in-depth dreams which can make me feel even more tired sometimes.

Night all x

MeandO

I just sent the £30 to the mortgage as an OP, saves going to the bank.

New totals:

Mortgage at highest: £132,500
Now: £53,628.13,
Mortgage OP’s: £24,825.57

MeandO

I’ve just added all of this year’s repayment targets for the four mortgage sub accounts to my signature. It’s motivating to see them all in black and white and feels like I’m making progress by recording it in this way. I’ve tackled them in order of interest rate and/or length of time remaining on the rate.
Sub account 2 is a low interest rate (1.74%) but ends in October, so I wanted to pay as much down on that one before I have to find a new, probably more expensive, deal.
Sub account 3, which I’m working on now, is up in April 2027 and is at 2.19% so I’m anticipating a higher rate when I have to renew that one next year. I have another £275.86 to find/make to overpay that one fully for this year.
Sub account 4 is the new borrowing and highest interest rate at 4.1%, so I overpaid that one to the limit immediately and will save to pay that account off when the rate is up in two years.
Lastly, sub account 1 is at 2.26% until July 2032 so I have a bit more time to pay that one down.

Oh, I forgot, I was going to bed wasn’t I! I started looking at OP figures and got sidetracked! 🫠

MeandO

I still haven’t gone to bed… 🫢😖 Instead, I’ve just taken some money out of savings to pay the full amount allowed off of sub account 3. I don’t want to breach UC savings thresholds and risk a reduction in that payment and as there’s currently money allocated for the windows in savings (which will soon disappear!) I need to consider that, so the mortgage has had a sizeable chunk today. Just sub account 1 to work on now, so £2402.79 to make/find before the end of the year.

Now I’m really going to bed. Goodnight!

Mrs_Money_Penny

You are doing so well with paying down your mortgage.How is working going? Hopefully better than it was.You seem a lot happier which is good to see. xx

MeandO

Thank you Mrs_Money_Penny x I'm so frustrated the mortgage has gone up but I'm doing my best to get it back down as quickly as possible.

As for work, the same issues are still ongoing unfortunately but I am trying really hard to just accept it for what it is - a mechanism to pay the bills. I definitely don't get the same training and opportunities as my colleagues who don't have school-aged children. The two male bosses choose to set training and meetings in the afternoons when they could be done at any time and would often be better done in the mornings as makes more sense from a business perspective. Instead, they choose to do it after I have left and claim to not know what my hours are, even though I have been working the same hours for years and they agreed them in writing. I was recently accused of leaving too early, so just sent them back a copy of their emails to me in which they agreed my working hours. Misogyny is rife and bullying too, unfortunately. I'm just glad I don't have to physically face them each day. There is no support, instead any issues are turned round to the complainant and they are labelled to be at fault, even when backed up by other colleagues, so there's no point raising issues. I thin it would be very different if the staff member with issues was male.
Anyway, it pays the bills!

MeandO

What a morning. That's all.🙈 Actually, it's been a week of trying to get DS to hurry the flip up and get to school/bed/get up on time. There's been plenty of 'teenagerisms' this week too where everything I've said or done has been wrong or has been challenged, so I feel exhausted, mentally and physically. I love him to bits, I really do, this week has been just exhausting through to my bones though.

I also had the joy of an old man launching a tirade of expletives at me for apparently driving too fast this morning. I was stationary. The engine wasn't even on. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt this morning as my first thought was that he may have dementia which I know about all too well unfortunately and have the greatest sympathy for - or he could just be a grumpy old man. If it's the latter, he escaped lightly this morning. 😐️

I'm afraid I had a few tears after that this morning. It was the straw that broke the camel's back, as they say. :( I'm feeling so very homesick today and missing my family terribly too, that's not helping. I just want a Mum hug and a laugh with my Dad. :( I think TOTM must be looming as I'm feeling more emotional than I have in ages. Flipping hormones. I've made myself a nice cup of coffee and some porridge and trying to have a word with myself to snap out of it.

I popped to Asd& today to buy milk, ketchup for DS and picked up 5 x half price Easter eggs for the children in OH's family and one for DS. I WILL NOT eat any Easter Eggs today. I WILL NOT…
Total spends of £11 ish on the gift card.

ANOTHER load of washing is on 🙈 and I need to sort the recycling to go out. I also need to dust the house through but I'm putting that off as I'd rather iron to be honest. I don't mind dusting really but it seems like such a pointless task in this house as the dust is back in minutes!

Hopefully the £6 vinted sale will be collected soon so that the funds will be released as I want to pay it off sub account 1 of the mortgage and start attacking that balance. I am anticipating a refund of £65 today too as an item I'd ordered for DS has still not been posted and today is the last day the seller has to post it. That can also go to the mortgage instead as it was covered in last month's budget so I won't miss it this month.

Right, off to get another coffee, look at my daffodil filled house and cheer myself up a bit. Have a great Thursday all. xx

debtfreewannabe321

Aw I'm sorry your week is tough going. I love daffs, I hope they cheer you up a bit. And sympathy on the teenagers being grumpy, my DD was being a moody whatsit yesterday after I bent over backwards to help her 😠 she got a bit of a telling off from me as that came at the end of a pretty tiring day 🙈.

I had a bit of road rage earlier, an older guy in a van pulled out in front of me whilst I was doing 60 🤦🏻‍♀️ I literally had a second to slam the brakes on or there would have been a massive accident 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ 🤬. I wonder what goes through people's minds sometimes.

For what it's worth I think Easter eggs are allowed when we're sad, homesick, angry, time of the month ...or any other emotions actually 🤪 chocolate is a great pick me up 🙈. Hope your day improves.

badmemory

Just remember how big a rip off easter eggs are, that will help put you off

As for road rage - there is a stretch of road near here that is well laned & notified for about quarter of a mile. When I am with DS we count how many (normally 4) change lanes without signalling with at least one going from lane 4 to lane 1. That is all in around 100 yards. I can often recognise who is going to do it from being stationery at the traffic lights.