MeandO's money-shuffling

MeandO

Thank you 1stTimer, that’s really helpful. I’ll take a look at that now. Thank you for thinking of me.

MeandO

Happy February all,

Unfortunately not such a good sleep was had last night so I’m not feeling as chipper as I was yesterday. DS is also in a bit of a mood as his match has been cancelled due to a waterlogged pitch and he was looking forward to playing, so we’re not the brightest household this morning. 😐️ I’m going to make a coffee shortly to try and perk me up a bit.

I’m worrying about money again. 😞 Having to use my EF and the savings I’d started building up for the roof repairs whilst trying to clear the credit card has left me feeling a bit vulnerable financially. I’m sat here with my little budget notebook next to me and I’m going to see what I can do to shave off any little bits to go towards everything. I really don’t want to have to borrow more on the mortgage.
I pay £100 a month into a ‘school’ pot which goes towards everything from uniform to tutoring to trips and there’s £300 in it at the moment after paying for DS’s maths tutoring. He’ll need new school shoes soon but I’m thinking that I can perhaps reduce the monthly amount to £50 for the time being which frees up another £50 towards everything else. Although DS qualifies for this year’s ‘sporting representation’ I’ll have to find the money for that too which is going to be expensive.
I’m also working really hard on keeping the groceries and misc spends under budget this month so any leftovers will be swept towards the CC.
There’s the no council tax month next month too so that’s an extra £144 thrown at it all. It’s so frustrating and disheartening and all because the previous owners of this house cut corners. They weren’t nice people.
Oh well, it is what it is as they say, I just need to get on and tackle it and not let it get me down too much.

I think a coffee is called for before I start wallowing.

MeandO

I was given one of those. ‘All4one’ gift cards (or whatever they’re called) at Christmas, so have just had a look to see where it can be spent to best help with the budget. Unfortunately it’s not accepted in supermarkets other than M&S, so I’ll save it as a back up to buy some groceries there if I’m passing and we’re in need of something. I won’t get a lot for £15 but at least it will be used on needs rather than wants.

I forgot to mention before that I switched mobile providers for myself and DS last month. We have sims only but it’s now gone down to £7.50 a month for both of us combined for the first 6 months and then up to £11 and I should receive about £28 cash back too. Ooh, that reminds me - I have around £70 pending on TCB, that can go towards the CC too when it eventually is paid out.

debtfreewannabe321

Sorry the roof is costing so much. If it makes you feel better we need all new gutters and fascias which is probably going to cost more and I've not a penny saved for that 🙈 let's not talk about all the other jobs in my house either. The guy who owned our house is lovely he's been around a few times for a look and a chat since we moved in. He bought it several years ago to do up and his marriage broke down, and he basically did nothing in all that time so the house that was already falling into disrepair fell Into further disrepair 🙈 we have spent a small fortune and I have a panic every time I hear a new job quote come in 🙈.

Are you able to get a 0% CC and then you could make a plan to pay it off before the time is up on it? That way the roof can be repaired before it gets worse or creates more problems and costs more overall.

foxgloves

@MeandO - You have my sympathies. We have started this year with a new roof costing £12.5k, which has decimated our Emergency Fund. While I am, of course, very grateful that we had the money for the work, as it had to be done, it has been a big shock to the finances. Keep telling ourselves that our house is our biggest asset & needs to be looked after, but we do wish we hadn't needed to start 2026 with such a colossal bill.

MeandO

@Debtfreewannabe321 It sounds like you've had a right project on your hands! Hopefully the house feels very much like 'yours' now with all the changes you've made and fingers crossed the job list is nearly at an end!
My CC is actually 0% for another 12 months but unfortunately the roofer doesn't accept payment by cards so I can't utilize that. :(

@foxgloves Oh my gosh, I'm sorry to hear that, not the best start to the new year for you. As you said, I'm so glad you had the money saved though and it should be a bill you won't have to pay again, hopefully.
If anything, this has reinforced that I need to build the EF up much higher than I had done before overpaying the mortgage. I'll have to look at it as offsetting the mortgage to keep my motivation and mood up though as I feel like I'm not making much progress otherwise.

The monthly mortgage payment has come out today, plus interest added. The interest is now at £86.72 per month. At least I own another £270's worth of my house. A few other DD bills have also been paid.

£18 cleared from a vinted sale last night so it's been swept into the CC repayment pot alongside £2.40 of cashback. There's another £5 to come from vinted at some point this week which will also go to that pot. I've chased another cashback payment which should have been paid by now but hasn't been.

The only spend yesterday was around £14 in asda on 2 packs of sausages which I'll split up and freeze, some avocados (on offer at 50p and DS and I love them) and some easter eggs (I know, but they were on offer at £1!) for OH's nieces/nephews and my friend's children. I've sent them back to OH's house so I don't eat them. It's chocolate. I can't help it! 🤣 There may or may not be 2 in my cupboard for 'emergencies' though. 😜 I used £11's worth of vouchers I had and paid the odd £3ish from the groceries pot. I still have around £50 on the &sda gift card for when we next need any groceries, perhaps milk in a couple of days, but I'm determined to only buy what we need. I need to sort the freezers out this evening - I have one fridge freezer and one little freezer but both are only half full so I could put everything in one and defrost the little freezer. It will be good to do another inventory and see what is actually left in them both too.

I definitely have the Monday blues this morning, I've noticed Mondays are my 'bad days' every week and I often feel down, but I'm trying my best to plan and organise and keep going so I don't let it get to me. It's hard at the moment thought when I'm so concerned about the finances. I realised too at about 3am this morning 🙄 that the MOT is due in April too and I've had to use the car fund towards the roof presently, so now I'm worried about that. My car is playing up sporadically and refusing to start mornings lately. 🤨 Someone said it could be the battery in the key as if it is running low it can affect that?! I'm not sure if that's right, but I had two batteries in the house so changed them in both keys over the weekend and it made no difference this morning.

Please now, don't let the car fail me, again. This car was a bad buy unfortunately, I've had nothing but problems with it. :(

MeandO

The end of Monday is in sight!

I’ve made a risotto for DS and I for tea tonight and there’ll be spare for a little portion for lunch tomorrow, not quite enough as a main meal for the freezer.
Talking of the freezer, I managed to shuffle the contents of both around and do a quick inventory whilst cooking the risotto. Annoyingly, I can’t quite fit it all into one freezer yet but two out of three drawers of the small freezer are empty so I’ll aim to use stuff up by the end of the week and defrost that one. I could probably stack/organise things a bit better too but I was in a rush as I was cooking. It was a positive exercise though as I don’t need to buy chicken or meat for a while but will need a pack of mince in the next few weeks.
I’ve taken a pork crackling joint out for tomorrow, bought on offer at Christmas time. I’ll put that in the slow cooker tomorrow and then crisp up the crackling in the air fryer, it worked a treat last time.
I’ll cook some veg and potatoes to go with that and there’ll be lots left to make into something else for the next few days.

One load of washing has been done today and I have a little pile of ironing to do tonight, one of my least favourite jobs, other than perhaps cleaning the bathroom. DS is going to the gym for an hour or so later so I may go through my wardrobe again and tidy that a bit. Exciting plans for Monday night, eh?!

MeandO

I’m so annoyed at myself, I made a mistake this evening which has cost me £40 which I really can’t afford to lose at the moment. I’ll have to be so careful now for the rest of the month. I’m so fed up.

On a more positive note, I re-organised the fridge freezer and have managed to get everything in from the smaller freezer, so that one is currently defrosting. It needed doing anyway and at least now I know what I have and what we need. I could potentially stretch the contents out for the next two to three weeks, but meals may be a bit samey. At least I’ll save some money though which can go towards paying for everything.

I’m going to have to look at the best way to borrow money soon as I will need to pay the roofing bill in the next two weeks and I can’t cover it all presently. 😥 I think I’m going to have to borrow more on the mortgage. I looked at loans and the APR on many of them wasn’t nice and I can’t find an extra £150-£200 a month to cover one unless I stop my AVC’s, but that in turn will then mean my UC is drastically reduced to pretty much 0, so I’ll be in the same position. Urgh, why is life so complicated. 😕

MeandO

Morning all,

We needed milk, butter and some fruit so I have done a small top up shop this morning spending just over £7 on the gift card and stuck to the list. There's £39 odd left on it which which I'm determined to make last for at least another 10 days to two weeks as I have plenty in to make meals with. I ordered 1kg of almond flour this morning too as I use it to make cakes (including DS's birthday cake this week) and didn't realise I'd almost run out. It was around £10-£11 last time I ordered it and is now £13-£14. 😕 I'll transfer the money for that from the grocery pot.

The pork joint is in the slow cooker with some cider and seasoning. I need to look for some other pork recipes to make with the leftovers, perhaps a Chinese BBQ pork rice or noodle dish for tomorrow.

I still haven't made a decision on how to fund the roof repairs. I was finding it all overwhelming and it was causing a lot of anxiety yesterday and it really affected me, so I'm going to try and leave it for a few days now. I know what my options are.

Right, I need to get busy and distract myself as I can feel the doldrums creeping in.

Have a very happy Tuesday, all. x

MeandO

I have a few successes to report! First, I’ve managed to get almost £200 refunded to the CC for something that was sent out in error after the order was cancelled and another item that was lost in transit. I now just need to wait for that refund to show and the CC balance will look a lot better. It means a lot less money to find/make to clear the card.

The second success was getting almost £20 of cash back paid after me chasing it up the other day, so that has gone straight off the card too. Last but not least, I opened a free spin offer and won £115! That was swiftly withdrawn and has been paid off the credit card, minus £40 to top up my account from the error I made last night. Now both the pots and the CC will be looking a little healthier than they were yesterday.