MeandO's money-shuffling

MeandO

Two loads of washing are now on the line, hopefully drying before the rain comes later. I've re-done my freezer lists  as they were getting a bit confusing with crossing things out as I used them and by doing so have found some portions of chicken in one of the drawers that I forgot I'd bought, so I can take that off the list for this week. I'm going to try not to do a big (for us) shop this week as we only need a few things and I want to use some things up from the small freezer so I can defrost it before the Summer. I've taken a batch cooked risotto out of the freezer for me for tea tonight and DS will be having fresh pasta as it's quick and easy (and one of his faves) before a 3 hour long sporting event he has tonight. I've also sorted out the shoes in the shoe bench thing we have and put aside one of DS's too-small pairs for charity. There's also a pair of like-new wellies in the shed which will be too small for DS now so will advertise those on the local freebie site. I have some spare time tonight whilst DS is out and he's getting a lift home, so I may sort my clothes out and see what I can put on Vinted/out to charity. I don't have a lot of clothes - a normal sized wardrobe and 2 drawers in a chest of drawers - but I don't wear half of what I do have as it's ill fitting or smarter clothes which I never wear now I WFH and am unlikely to wear again. I feel like a de-clutter is imminent!

sugar-walsh

Good luck with your declutter. Your gas/leccy bill still sounds a dream, I'm currently paying £250 for both..

Honeysucklelou2

Sorry to read about DS’s money. Hope he has now got it back.

Well done on the weight loss.

MeandO

Thank you sugar-walsh and HSL2. Yes, I feel so lucky and thankful I switched and entered a 2 year fix when I did, it coincided with my house move. Sorry to hear about your high bills Sugar-walsh, I don't know how I'd pay that tbh, the proposed increase is worrying me enough.

Thanks HSL2, I very much doubt DS has his money back but I am keeping out of it tbh. If I get involved and speak to the Ex I get accused of all sorts and he tells everyone a load more lies about me and it escalates so I have encouraged DS to speak to him about it and won't let him go without here. It's got to the point now where his Dad is stealing DS's socks and DS has no socks left at his father's. I hope one day DS sees his father's behaviour for what it is. 

MeandO

My plans for de-cluttering went out of the window as I suddenly started suffering from stomach pains just before I had to take DS out and, without going into detail, it was a struggle to leave the house... I spent the evening close to the bathroom and lying on the sofa. No idea what brought it on as I hadn't eaten anything for 5 hours or so previous. Must have been a bug of some sort.

DS is home today through exhaustion. He has been exhausted all week since having hardly any sleep at his Dad's at the weekend and the late night last night - again an event his father wanted him to do - has wiped him out. He's gone back to bed after tears and struggling to stand up without feeling weak this morning.

Moneywise, it's looking very lean already and there's two weeks until payday. CB is paid on Monday which will help but I'm going to have to take money out of a pot to put more diesel in the car before the two weeks are up. I'm going to have to re-do my budget soon to cover the extra energy costs too. 

MeandO

Still feeling a bit icky so giving SW a miss tonight. My scales show a loss though so I should get my 1 stone loss award next week.  

Child tax credits came back already with payments of around £40 less than they first proposed but around £100 a month more than the calculator suggested so I’m really pleased and grateful for that. It will help pay towards the new gas/electric bill from July onwards. There’s also a smaller payment due to be paid on Monday now (no idea why) so that will enable me to put diesel in the car without raiding another pot. Feeling very thankful for that news today.

I’ve just finished sorting through my clothes and a pile has gone in the charity bag which is now full and needs dropping off, perhaps tomorrow. One unworn item I’ve put aside for my sister to try on and a few things have gone in the bin. I even sorted out socks, underwear and pyjamas too! I’ve lined all of the drawers with some lovely scented drawer lining paper I found in a drawer which felt like I was spoiling myself.
A quick sort through DS’s drawers shows he needs more socks, pants and white sports socks for school so I’ll get those this weekend if I can. Pr!mark is fine for his pants and black socks, the sports socks are from the sports shop and are not cheap but I will see if I can find them online.
I’ve also sorted a few more recipe books which my sister would like to look through (I texted her photos ) so that’s 4 more books gone too. 

MeandO

The eBay item sold for £29 today, I’m chuffed! All in all it’s been a positive day and for that I go to bed very thankful tonight. xx

MeandO

Today didn’t start great - I logged into work this morning to see a couple of emails from the manager to us all that really put me in a bad mood. This manager is useless and skives all the time but now we’ve all been called for a meeting with the head of department which, considering the guy has only ever shown his face once before in a meeting with us in the past 20 years and that wasn’t positive, I can guarantee it’s not going to be good news. I’m so very tired of the stress of this job. The job itself is not particularly stressful, it’s the horrendous management and ‘higher management’ that cause the stress constantly.
Then I went outside to discover what could only be a flocked of geese had decided to decorate my front door! It was everywhere! I wasn’t sure whether to take it as lucky or as a sign of a sh*t day ahead… 

Anyway, door cleaned, morning free spins done and I won £24.47 which I’ve withdrawn and has already reached my bank account. I’m going to round it up to £25 and send it to the car/house pot. I've topped the groceries pot up a little bit more and sent a remaining £13.92 to the EF which now stands at £4182. I may even buy a lottery ticket today and see if the geese were trying to tell me something! 😆

It’s a lovely day today so one load of washing is in the machine and another is lined up, both should dry on the line today. I need to pick up a few bits from Aldi later but not nearly as much as normal, so should be under £15 hopefully. 

Have a lovely day all xx

MeandO

Would you believe, I went out to put the second load of washing on the line only to find that a bird had pooed over the first load - they really have it in for me today! I've bought a lottery ticket just in case!

I've realised I'd written the child tax credits payments down wrong in my previous post and I'll actually be getting £100 more than the calculator suggested, £30 less than they originally proposed which is great news and is a it of a relief tbh as I was getting worried about money again.

The ebay parcel is wrapped, postage bought and ready to send. I just need to drop it off later today. It's got me wondering what else I can list though so will have a look around later and see what I can find.

I have about 3 hours of free time later today and was planning on going to a local charity shop to drop the bag off I've collected and to browse for some new tops for myself as my wardrobe clear out showed I am in dire need of some. After having a think about it though I really can't afford to spend anything extra today and certainly not on myself so I'm going to give it a miss for now. I will cut the grass instead, have a nice cup of tea sitting in the garden and look over my budget as I need to re-jig it from July onwards.
I am in a bit of a dilemma atm about what the best course of action is moving forward and would love some opinions if anyone has any thoughts. My initial plan was to save £10-£15K in the EF and then throw everything at the mortgage, but now I'm wondering whether I should just start the mortgage OPs sooner. One of the deals on my sub accounts runs out in 3 years, the other in 3.5 years so I'm wondering whether to get that down as much as possible before then. I would still be saving in a pot for the car/house expenses, one for Christmas and continue to drip feed the EF, but I just don't know what to do for the best. There's nearly £4200 in the EF now. My main concern is my car which is running OK at the moment but has a lot of rust underneath and needs suspension work this year. It is 9 years old this year so is not getting any younger. My mortgage interest rate and savings rate are not that much different. One to think about for now I guess.

Honeysucklelou2

Can you split savings so that half goes to a car fund and half to mortgage overpayments?  If your car is imperative for work or school runs, maybe the split could be 70/30 in favour of the car?