MeandO's money-shuffling

MeandO

Another £5 made via a vinted sale this morning so I need to wrap that and get it sent off in the next couple of days.

There was no charge to change my car insurance to the new car which was a welcome surprise. It cost me £5 to change my breakdown cover which was fair enough.
I had to pick up a few groceries yesterday, mostly for DS's cooking lesson at school, but paid the £8.50 with cash from my purse.
I bought DS a hoody for Christmas yesterday so need to transfer that money out of the gifts pot. He is also in need of some new trainers and football boots so will have to look for those soon too. The old boots are in great condition, are just to small now, so I may try and sell them on vinted to make a few £'s towards the new ones.

enthusiasticsaver

Sorry things are so tough. Hopefully eventually your DS will realise how much you do for him.

Good you have sorted a new car and no insurance cost for the change. 

Honeysucklelou2

Well done on all the recent sales. Every little helps, as they say.
Sorry you have had a tough time recently…

MeandO

Thank you enthusiasticsaver and HSL2. I feel bad moaning about my struggles as I know how lucky I am compared to so many people and what I'm experiencing is just the trials and tribulations of everyday life. I guess it drags me down at times and I am feeling like I have no energy left to deal with things. I thing that's part of dealing with everything as a one woman band though and not really having family around, I do miss them so. They are so supportive and loving to us but the distance bewteen us does make my heart ache.

MeandO

On a more positive note, notsoeasyjet have shocked me this morning as the £440 compensation was in my account this morning. It's taken 8 months of fighting them but I'm glad I persevered. I've combined it with another bit of income and sent £250 to the mortgage and £255 to the EF. I'm not really OPing the mortgage much at the moment and trying to build the savings up, but this takes it down to under £70,000 and into the £69,000's once the mortgage payment comes out next week so that is a big morale boost for me. Just under £8000 to go until my mortgage is back at what it was when I moved into my lovely old house at the end of 2016. If it hadn't have been for the issues missed in that survey and the horrendous problems that were later discovered (resulting in us having to move out quickly), then I think I would have paid my mortgage off by now. That house, and subsequent issues with later ones, have set me back so many years, but as my lovely Mum says, 'I can't change it, so I just have to get on with it.'

Mrs_Money_Penny

Well done on the refund. What make of car did you get in the end? Cars are so expensive now. I dread the day our old car packs up. Take care xx

MeandO

Thank you Mrs_Money_Penny. You're right in saying how expensive cars are now, it's been a bit of an unwelcome eye-opener! I've bought a 2.5 year old Dacia. Nothing exciting, but very functional and seems to be the most reasonable car brand around presently. It was by far the most sensible and budget-friendly choice and has some warranty left on it. I'm hoping it will last me 8+ years now.

I did our main shop of the week today before picking DS up from school. £30.10 spent and I need to buy yogurts elsewhere as they'd run out. I used £10 cash I had left in my purse and the remaining £20.10 has come off the grocery budget. 

DS brought home a lovely apple crumble he'd made in school, so I've broken my diet to have a little bit of that tonight. It was worth it! I have two huge cooking apples left over from buying the ingredients DS needed for school so I may make some baked apples this weekend and omit the sugar to keep them healthy. 

MeandO

I've spent a stupid amount of time today chasing a refund of £40.74 which should have been processed automatically several weeks ago, but hasn't been actioned. I finally got to speak to someone competent after numerous phone calls and being passed around to loads of different people so I'm hoping that will show up shortly. I've lodged a complaint via resolver too, the customer service has been appalling and cost me so much time and phone calls.

The mortgage has finally gone down to under £70K and I've paid off an extra £6+ to round it down to £69,850 exactly. Once I've built up the savings to around £10K-£15K I'll be throwing larger chunks at the mortgage instead. 

£5 should be on the way from vinted soon. £15 was made on a sale at the weekend but that belonged to DS so has gone to his savings. I think there's around £3 ish payable from TCB which I will request shortly too - it's better in my account than theirs.

It was a bit of a spendy weekend as I bought a few Christmas gifts, some groceries and toiletries we'd run out of and replaced something DS lost which he'd previously bought with his own money and was upset about. He also needed new trainers as his old ones literally had a hole in the front and new football boots as the pair we'd been gifted previously are now too small. Those two pairs came to just over £80, plus his sports club membership was £40 but the ex agreed to go halves on it (:o ) all so a cost of £60 each. I need to rein it in a bit now as there's another 3 weeks of the month left to get to before I get paid again and only the CTC of around £65 to come in as income now. OH and I also ate out (£15) over the weekend which I paid for as OH paid last time.

Two loads of washing were done yesterday but unfortunately had to use the TD. I've had to use it a few times lately. It's sunny and windy here today so DS's sports kits and some towels have been washed and are drying on the line. OH gave me some eggs to use up as he had loads, so I made him and DS their favourite cake each on Sunday which has brought a smile to both their faces. I also picked up some YS bits yesterday when picking up some salad from Asda, some of which I've given to OH for his tea tonight and another DS will have tonight. I'm trying to be good food-wise after not really sticking to my diet this past week. I'm hoping the scales will be kind to me, but I don't really deserve them to be!

MeandO

I’ve been playing around with the savings and mortgage overpayment calculators this evening.
From this month’s payday I should be able to save £650 a month into the EF whilst also saving £150 to the car/house pot, £100 to the Christmas pot and £40 a month to a pot I allocate to DS’s clothes/school stuff. After two years this will mean I’ll have around £20K in the EF as long as I don’t need to pay out for anything major. That’s when I’ll start tackling the mortgage, making sure I try and pay the max of 10% off a year. This is all hinging on my income and outgoings being pretty much the same as it is now of course and who knows what circumstances will be by then but it doesn’t hurt to plan! The overtime I’m currently working is also likely to come to an end this month so I will make the most of that whilst I can. Any extra will go straight in the EF too. 

MeandO

I had the letter for migration to UC from child tax credits today. I've submitted  the application but from what I've read I doesn't sound very hopeful that I will be eligible for an UC as a single, FT working parent so that will be money missed every month if I am no longer eligible. I'll have to re-jig the budget a bit and stick to it more strictly as the child tax credits always seemed to hit the bank account when I really needed it.