MeandO's money-shuffling

MeandO

You are very right in what you say about heating and eating, Newstartforme. I'm always aware how lucky I am to be able to own our own home and keep us well fed, warm and be able to give DS a relatively comfortable life.
I am also eternally grateful to my wonderful parents who have, and continue to support me no end despite them being in poor health and so far away. We are so very lucky.

MeandO

A cooler, drizzly one here today despite the rest of the country seemingly basking in heat! It's quite a nice change though as I can't remember seeing rain for some time and it will be good for the gardens.

I didn't sleep well as I developed a dry cough overnight that I couldn't shake, so got up at 5am to take some cough medicine and have a warm drink with a dollop of honey in. I hope it doesn't turn into anything now, I could do without being ill on top of the tiredness I'm experiencing already.

All of the big bills have come out of the account today including the mortgage. It seems I have recorded the monthly payment wrong on YNAB and allocated too much for the mortgage. This happened last month but I assumed the amount was different for the first month of the extra borrowing, but it's happened again this month and it seems I got it wrong. I had allocated £27.38 too much so I've just sent it to the mortgage anyway as an overpayment. Going forward, I will sweep it into the mortgage OP pot along with the £79ish I spoke of before and use it to try and reach the 10% OP for this year.

Mortgage as of today.

Mortgage at highest: £132,500, Now: £51,351.24

Total mortgage OP’s: £26,128.78

OP targets 2026:
Sub a/c 1: £727.15/£2402.79
Sub a/c 2 £1479/£1479 ✅
Sub a/c 3: £1062.15/£1062.15 ✅
Sub a/c 4: £750/£750 ✅

A NSD planned for today. I may need to buy some compost tomorrow to transfer our lettuce and tomatoes plants to bigger pots but hopefully no spends other than that.

Have a lovely Friday, all x

MeandO

Good afternoon to all you Marvellous Money-Savers, I've been away for a week with OH so excuse the short absence. We had a very lovely, but very cheap little break a few hours away from us which recharged the batteries. How quickly those deplete though during the return to work. Oh well, needs must and all that.

The window replacements are being undertaken as I speak, so a bit of noise and disruption today and tomorrow but it will hopefully all be worth it. It does mean my funds will go down considerably when paying the bill though.

I have raised a few £'s by making a few sales/wins over the past week or so which has gone straight to the mortgage to the tune of around the £65 mark. A few more small vinted sales have been made the past few days so they'll also be thrown towards that when cleared.

Scores on my front door today:
Mortgage at highest: £132,500, Now: £51,289.85
Mortgage OP’s: £26,190.17

OP targets 2026:
Sub a/c 1: £788.54/£2402.79
Sub a/c 2 £1479/£1479 ✅
Sub a/c 3: £1062.15/£1062.15 ✅
Sub a/c 4: £750/£750 ✅

MeandO

Day 2 of the window work, it's all looking good so far. I think being so excited about new windows means I'm officially old. :) Window fitter tells me the olds ones were 35 years old so no wonder they weren't so good at keeping the cold out. Fingers crossed the condensation issue will be much improved when winter comes round again.
I've moved the money for the above to my main account, ready to be sent over later when the job is finished.

Another small money win today after haggling over my home insurance renewal. £21.21 saved there which beats most of the other quoted prices for the same level of cover. :) That money has also been transferred over from my House pot, so the pots are looking quite low at the moment but at least it's all been paid for and not put on a credit card as the MeandO of the past had to do. :)

Another £10 sale on vinted yesterday so I need to wrap and send that later today. Another £10 to go towards the mortgage. :)

MeandO

The windows are in and are making a noticeable difference in warmth and noise reduction already, I am so glad I had them replaced.

Unfortunately the washing machine decided to give up the ghost yesterday and my attempts at fixing it (with help from my Dad over the phone) didn't work. It looks like it's something not worth fixing on a 10 year old machine. I have ordered a new one and paid extra for the old one to be taken away as the thought of OH and I trying to lift and manoeuvre the old one out into the car then to the tip filled me with dread. I'm not sure if we could have lifted it presently. I've currently paid for it on the CC but will transfer the money over from savings to cover it. There is not enough left in the house pot after the recent hit it's taken so will have to come from the car pot which will also leave that massively depleted. :( Good job I recently paid for the car tax and MOT.

Mrs_Money_Penny

Glad you’re pleased with the windows. But typical something else needs replacing. x

Honeysucklelou2

Amazing figures…well done on all those mortgage overpayments.

sudonum-mum

Glad you had a lovely break away, a recharge of the batteries is always good.

My washing machine broke recently and I so hoped it wasn't the end but alas it was, it was 12 years old so had done well really. Once the hearings go its done for especially if older

You mentioned tiredness recently, I know it's hard to get a GP appointment but wondered if you'd had your iron levels checked?

When I had overwhelmingly tiredness last year I brought a home test ferritin kit off Amazon.

It's very basic and only tells you if your levels are below or above a certain number and if you're below your iron is considered low although I appreciate the NHS version of low changes regularly. This way you would at least have a head start on what to tell the GP.

The shock it gave me to know I was low in iron was enough to kickstart me into eating correctly and actually having iron in my diet. I now have spinach with my breakfast and eat other iron rich food which as a vegetarian can be tricky. Within a few weeks I felt so much better and have kept it up.

The other thing I thought of was menopause or peri-menopause, that can really knock the stuffing out of you.

Forgive me if I'm overstepping.

weenancyinAmerica

Cookies made with treacle or molasses are also good if you are low in iron. Best way to get it in my opinion.

MeandO

Hello all,

Thank you for your helpful and supportive posts which I have yet to reply to HSL2, Mrs_Money_Penny, Sudonum-mum and weenancyinAmerica. I appreciate all of your support, anecdotes and suggestions. @Sudonum-mum, you are spot on with the perimenopause suggestion; I'm currently going through it a bit with it all to be honest. I think the tiredness is now down to a general lack of sleep for various reasons, none of which will be resolved anytime soon but I keep trying.

It's been a while since I posted and a lot has changed in that time, unfortunately very little of it being positive. :( I have had SO many unexpected expenses and some expected but a LOT more than anticipated that I am feeling very overwhelmed with everything, my finances in particular, which leads to other areas of life not being great due to low mood but I am trying my best to just keep plodding on.

The HUGE unexpected expense was that my (only) 5 year old car died on me. It had been nothing but trouble since I bought it and has cost an arm and a leg in previous repairs, but the final straw to getting rid of it was it doing all sorts of weird things when I was driving myself and DS back from my a visit to my parents during which I felt really unsafe and on edge worrying if the car was going to put us in a dangerous position. I could have cried with relief when we finally got home in one piece. I lost complete trust in the car and with an estimated repair bill mounting into the thousands (which I don't have) it had to go.
I didn't have the funds saved to buy a new (to me) car so I have had to get a bank loan. I am so disheartened after trying so hard to stay out of debt and pay the mortgage down but I couldn't do it any other way. I borrowed £8500 and traded the old car in for £50 more than 'the place that buys any car' offered me for it. So I now have a loan to pay for every month too, but have already tried to get it down quicker by overpaying as much as humanly possible. I've made/saved an extra £80 this month already so have sent that to the loan balance. It goes without saying that any OP's that would have been earmarked to go to the mortgage will now have to go to the loan instead. Note to self - I need to chase up the refund of my old car tax as that can go towards the loan if I receive anything back.

Next was the turn of the microwave which had to be replaced. It wouldn't normally have been an issue but after my house and car pots being decimated by expenses over the past couple of months, there was very little left so I am practically starting again with my car and house savings pots. :(
After the microwave came the repair work in the kitchen, (plastering) which I had save for but cost a bit more due to complications. 😒

DS has been selected to represent his country again this year in his chosen sport which is amazing. The competition is in the UK this year which I assumed would mean cheaper due to less travel costs, but oh, how wrong was I! I've paid out over £600 so far with another 3 demands for payments to come, apparently. We still have yet to be told of the final cost which I am not really happy about. DS feels guilty and keeps saying he will pay for his kit (which was £330 alone) which is very sweet of him but he doesn't have the means to pay for it and I wouldn't let him anyway. Once he is earning money he can contribute, but until then I want him to understand the value of saving money and spending wisely.
As DS is training constantly and practically lives in the gym he also takes a lot of feeding! My grocery bill has just gone through the roof and trying to keep within budget is getting more and more difficult to near impossible with the rising food prices. I cook from scratch every day and freeze portions of meals for DS to have at later dates but it seems I am always in a supermarket. :( He has received a second year of free gym membership as a result of representing his country though, so that's £300 a year saved.

The good news is that I have managed to consistently pay off and clear the credit card every time it is used so there is no outstanding debt on there (or there won't be once the ex pays me money he owes me towards DS's sports events as we agreed to go halves. He insists on paying me his half in instalments though which is better than not getting it at all otherwise🤨).

After the uncertainty of my employment for a long while now, a meeting at work last week went a small way to alleviating the concern of more redundancies and/or complete closure and I have more or less been told my job is a safe as it can be for the next two years.

My health has been pretty poor too and some days (like today) even walking and weight-bearing is very painful and difficult. I have been putting off phoning the consultant again as I am tired of being fobbed off and getting nowhere, but it's got so bad that I am going to have to call today and request an appointment. I am doubtful that I will be any better off afterwards though tbh. :(

I hope to be back soon with better news, but am feeling very much one step forward, 10 back at the moment.

M x