MeandO's money-shuffling

MeandO

Long time member here, sneaking back over from the MFW board...

Previous diary here for those that want a back story:

Money-shuffling towards mortgage freedom — MoneySavingExpert Forum

Although my only debt is now my mortgage I've had to shift my focus from OP'ing to building up my savings instead, so don't really feel at home on the MFW board at the moment.  My job is not the most secure - I've just survived another round of redundancies but am under threat of total department closure in 3-4 years and jobs in my field are very difficult to come by in this area so I am expecting to have to do a completely different job in a few years, whatever that may be. My car is also ageing now and will need a lot of work this year so I really need to build up my savings pots so I'm more financially secure to cope with whatever the next few years brings me.

I'm a single Mum of a tween which I'm also finding to be a challenging phase  and live quite far away from all of my family and friends so don't have a great support network locally. I have a partner of 7 years but he and I live apart and will do for the forseeable, so it's just me, myself and I in charge of keeping a roof over mine & DS's heads and covering the cost of everything. I use YNAB which has transformed my money-management skills and 'shuffle' money from one pot to another every month in order to cover expenses and try to save for various things. It works for me, although sometimes I think some of my pots must have developed a hole in them...
I've had some horrendous luck with houses over the past few years which has set me back in a huge way financially but am ever thankful that we have a home to call our own and food in our cupboards and that makes us luckier than many. My aim is to pay the mortgage off as soon as I possibly can, but that has taken a back seat for now.

Feel free to pop in for a virtual cuppa and cake along the way, the more the merrier  

Four_Seasons

Have popped over to follow you.  I have such respect for you, you work so hard at providing a lovely stable home for you and your son.  Remember to take time for you xx

MeandO

Thank you Four_Seasons, that's so very kind of you xx

MeandO

I spent £15 odd in the supermarket this afternoon using cash from my purse (unspent money left over from a trip away for DS and I last week). So I've deducted £15 from the YNAB grocery pot, combined it with £13 ish from an etsy sale which hit the account today and sent £25 to the premium bonds account and £3 to another little savings pot I call 'The 4 year fund.' The PBs are now at £2975 so the challenge is to find/make another £25 this month and get it to the £3K mark.

Readers of my last diary will know that I'm currently having counselling to try and deal with low mood, anxiety and to process a huge amount of stressful situations I've dealt with over the past few years. Yesterday we spoke about the importance of doing something nice for myself. I really struggle with spending money on myself and acknowledge that I put myself last on the list, but today I bought myself some cheerful daffodils with the shop for £1. It's a start! Daffodils also remind me of my wonderful Grandad too. ❤️ 

MeandO

I’ve just realised I’d allocated one payment twice in YNAB so had £50 more than I thought I had, so I’ve just sent £25 of it to the PB’s to hit the £3000 mark. It seems to have taken me a long time to get there after savings were depleted from renovating our house over the past two years (I downsized and bought a house that needed work doing - much more than I thought!). 

The remaining £25 has been sent to the ‘other spends’ pot for the month for now but I will send that to savings too if I can afford to before next payday. I have £30 in cash left in my purse which I will use for grocery shopping when needed so I’m going to deduct that from my grocery pot online and shuffle it to a savings pot or make a little mortgage overpayment with it when the interest gets added tomorrow. 

Tea tonight for us is a batch cooked pasta meal from the freezer with some garlic flatbread I picked up earlier. I’ll make a chicken curry for tomorrow with some YS chicken defrosted from the freezer. 

MeandO

My flippin' car boot won't open this morning and, after a bit of research, looks like it's a common problem with the car model and parts will need replacing. I'm going to ask OH if he'll try and help me do it ourselves one weekend as I don't want to pay the dealer to do it, I can see it costing a fortune. Just when I think I'm winning with saving a little bit, something else comes along...

I'm praying the rain stays away today as I have a load of washing on the line and another in the machine to dry for DS's school uniform tomorrow. I do have a tumble dryer but pulled it out and unplugged it yesterday - a local person had a fire recently from a tumble dryer which was off but plugged in and now I've scared myself about leaving mine on! I have to pull the whole thing out to switch it on and off so can't turn it off on the wall after use.

The mortgage payment has come out today but, unusually, the interest isn't showing yet so I won't make an overpayment until I know how much the balance is to round it down to a nice neat number.

MeandO

The mortgage has been updated and interest was £118 this month.  I've sent £53.74 to it as an OP to bring the balance down to £73,150. That £50 is annoying me but I can't afford to pay off any more at the moment. At least it will be into the £72K's next month.

enthusiasticsaver

Welcome back to DFW.  That was a good idea to get some daffodils to cheer yourself up.  Very spring like. 

MeandO

Thank you enthusiasticsaver, the daffs make me smile every time I pass the vase so £1 well spent

MeandO

£10 spent tonight on some school uniform for DS although I will have to get the school badge sewn on both pairs so the cost will go up by another few £’s. It’s still much more reasonable than the school uniform shop we went to on Monday who wanted £16 a pair! I’m so glad they didn’t have them in a size small enough for DS. I checked the school website which said I was able to buy them in Asd& so that’s it saved me £22 by doing so, minus the cost of the embroidery.

I made butter chicken tonight with one portion left over to be frozen. I’m glad that DS’s eating habits are so much better than previously. He has had digestive issues since birth and used to be so fussy and wouldn’t try things or eat much veg. Thankfully he will eat most things now or at least try everything. I never thought I’d say it but fish, prawns, spinach and broccoli and all types of pasta are big favourites which I’m so pleased about, I spent years stressing over his diet! It definitely makes it so much easier and cheaper to cook just one meal for the two of us and 90% of the time it’s packed full of veg, fish or chicken - we don’t eat a lot of red meat other than low fat mince which I quite often find reduced or fairly reasonable in Aldi.

Both of us are tucked up in our beds already, both feeling very tired today. DS has low iron due to meds for stomach issues that he was on for a long time and I have pernicious anaemia so I find I get worn out easily. I recently had my 2 weeks of loading doses of B12 injections but I don’t feel any better for it unfortunately. I need to get up early as I start work earlier than normal every morning now as I have been working extra hours since September. It has brought in some welcome extra money but has meant I no longer receive tax credits so the gain is not as much as I would have liked, but it’s better than not doing the hours. It paid for a few days away in half term for DS and I with spending money and now the extra funds will be going straight into the savings as long as nothing else crops up that needs paying for in the meantime…

MeandO

I've done something really stupid and I'm furious with myself. I was planning to take DS to London for a few days in the summer holidays so have been looking at booking things before the train price increases kick in. I was looking at travelodges etc and found some reasonable deals but then found another chain hotel with what I thought was a hotel with breakfast included for a few £'s more, so went through the booking process only to realise the price was per night and not for the two nights at the very last moment and just as payment went through. I tried to cancel immediately but will be charged the whole amount. In my defence, the website is very sneaky in that it doesn't actually say PER NIGHT until the last page even though I searched for a 2 night trip. So, I'm stuck with the hotel room and now need to find £380 to pay it off instead of the £180 ish I was hoping for. I'm so annoyed. The cashback had better track...