MeandO's money-shuffling

MeandO

Thank you Mrs_Money_Penny and foxgloves. xx

@foxgloves, the £1 daffs are a real treat, I agree. They give me such pleasure seeing them in my house with all their yellow loveliness. My next door neighbour has lots of miniature ones with beautiful bright orange trumpets in their front garden and it always lifts my spirts to see them when I round the corner.

Thank you for your take on the perimenopause symptoms too. I'm mid 40s now and I too didn't really join up the dots with all the symptoms I was having and the way I was feeling until this past year. Now that I have I do feel better about everything and feel able to relax a bit about things and deal with how I'm feeling a little better. I've been taking the peri-specific mood+ supplements for almost a month now and I'm not entirely sure if they're making a difference but haven't felt such bouts of low mood for a few weeks now. I also seem to be able to 'bounce back' from feelings quicker and am feeling a bit more positive about things. Hopefully it continues!

I had a pleasant long weekend as I had a day off on Friday. OH and I went on a train trip to a coastal town around an hour and a half away from us for an overnight trip paid for by me some weeks ago for OH's birthday. The train fare cost only £15 return for both of us with our travelcard and thankfully OH is budget minded like me so is happy with a premier-lodge-inn type place! We didn't really rate the town much as it seemed quite run-down and not a great deal to do there, but we enjoyed the beautiful train journey along the coast and it was nice to have a change of scenery. Spends on food and drink were very low so we had a nice little break with no overspending. 

Yesterday we spent most of the day doing some work on OH's house as he wants to put it on the market this year. We made good progress and also took a car full of rubbish to the tip. We were both pleased with what we managed to achieve although have lots left to do to get it market-ready so have planned this week's tasks in readiness for another day of DIY at the weekend.
Last night I made a mushroom and spinach orzo dish for our tea which I'll also be having for lunch for a couple of days as there's loads left. DS wants to make Spanish tortilla for our tea tonight so I'm looking forward to cooking with DS later. He was with his Dad all weekend so I've really missed him. I just hope he comes home a happy teenager today and not a tired, moody one!   

It's a lovely sunny (but freezing) day here today so I put one load of washing on early this morning and now have it blowing dry on the line. If the weather's the same tomorrow I'll do all of my bed linen too. It's such a nice change to see the sunshine after pretty constant rain and dark skies for what seems like months.

In money news, I did a big shop (£45.96) on Saturday evening as supplies were low after running everything down a bit. £5.97 of that was spent on 3 bags of DS's absolute favourite  - garlic and herb king prawns - as they were on offer from the usually price of £2.69 each. I also bought 3 packs of low fat mince as they were YS purchases which have gone in the freezer. I always notice the jump in the grocery bill when I buy meat products - we're not big meat eaters and I always split chicken breasts etc up into portions before I freeze them so it lasts us some time. Yesterday I spent around £15 in home bargains on a huge pack of loo roll as we were running low, Mother's day cards for my Mum from myself & DS and some household bits. Today I need to buy a book of stamps, some milk and will probably buy DS a pack of cookies which he usually munches in the car most Mondays when I pick him up from school.

Hope everyone has a lovely week and the sun continues to shine! xx

MeandO

£5 for 4 first class stamps!  What a price! At least it's got my student loan deferral sent off for another year though. I paid for the stamps, milk, cookies for DS and a lovely bunch of £1 daffodils with money from my purse so no hit to the bank account yetserday.

DS is off school today as he's feeling a bit under the weather, so the heating will be on for more time today to keep the place warm for him as it's freezing outside today. The sun is threatening to come out though so hopefully it will warm the house up a bit for free.

We had another plumbing/drainage issue yesterday with the upstairs toilet refusing to flush and drain properly. I remembered I had emergency cover with the house insurance so phoned them to send someone out for free. We're still waiting after being told someone would come yesterday, so I've called them again this morning and they've again said someone will be out today...

MeandO

The plumbing issue was fixed yesterday afternoon, nice to not have to fork out for repairs for a change as this one was free. I realise now that I could have had the mouse issue sorted for free last year too if I'd gone through the home emergency cover saving myself £120. Hopefully I never need to use it again, but at least I know for future reference.

Yesterday I popped to a local charity shop and spent the most I've ever spent in a charity shop! £38.10!  For that, I bought 4 dresses/tunics and 6 tops. Unfortunately a few are too small for me so I will list those on vinted as they're all brand names and will hopefully re-sell for the same or more than I paid for them. At least I have a few more tops to wear now, I'm desperately short on clothes at the moment. It's a good job I don't have to go out to work anymore as I'd literally have nothing to wear! I felt so guilty after buying it all - spending all that money on myself just didn't sit well, especially as I realised I'd miscalculated the budget this week and so was over £50 down on what I thought I had. I think it's going to be another long month.

After saying my mood was much better lately I am having a bit of a low day today for no apparent reason. I'm struggling for motivation, crying at everything and feeling very low. I'm not doing well with losing weight lately either which is adding to feelings of being rubbish. I rejoined SW last week after a few weeks off due to being away and I just can't get back into it and am feeling very despondent about the whole thing. I don't think I'm going to continue with it as I'm just throwing money away on it atm. I'm really at a loss of what to do next as I need to lose about 3 stone but just can't seem to find a way that sticks.  

WinterWarrior

Motivation is so hard for weight loss. You need to be in the zone….which I am absolutely not at the moment. I joined nutracheck, which I find much easier than SW. it’s just calorie counting, but a good way to track everything. Sadly I’m just tracking biscuits right now, but I hope to get better! 

I hope you feel happier soon. 

MeandO

Thank you Winter Warrior xx I'm ashamed to say I also have a nutracheck membership too WinterWarrior  I bought a year's membership for around £30 some months ago and just don't seem to have the motivation to keep up with the tracking etc if someone's not weighing me in every week. Feel like a total failure at the moment - I know what I need to do and why, I just can't seem to keep it up.  

cafelady

Hi @MeandO. Just delurking to say I’m sorry you are feeling low. 

I think you might have mentioned perimenopause a few posts back and I wondered if you’d thought about getting an appointment with your gp to look at options for treating the symptoms? I did this a few years ago and have found it very helpful. 

MeandO

Thank you cafelady xx I will speak to a doctor about symptoms if they get any worse, but I'm keeping track of everything for now so I can build up a picture of what's what. To be honest, it's like a black Friday scrum trying to get an appointment with a doctor at my surgery so I only really bother when it's absolutely essential. The thought of going through that whole process really puts me off to the point where I'm considering changing surgeries, I just need to push myself to fill in the various forms the new surgery request and do it. 

MeandO

The mortgage has gone out today, there's now £67,490 left on it.  It seems like an impossible number to ever pay off but I chip away at it in the hope it's one day gone. I've sent an extra £8.08 to it this morning to round the balance down. If I can find an extra £90 within the next month, the next payment should take it down to £67,000 and I'll be able to colour another square off my mortgage repayment tracker for another £1K gone. That's IF I can find the £90...

MeandO

I've just been playing with the mortgage overpayment calculator and if I start throwing the £300 a month I'm saving into the EF to the mortgage instead, I would pay it off in 8 years instead of the 13 years it will currently take me whilst overpaying only £100 a month as I am presently.  I'd also save £5220 in interest. It's hard to know whether to build up savings or overpay the mortgage. My mortgage rate is currently very low (3 sub accounts ranging from1.74% to 2.26% until at least 2026) and I know the rule about if it's earning more in savings it's best to save, but I'd so love to see this mortgage go down more quickly but I've always said £15K in the bank would make me feel so much more secure and remove the stress a little. What to do...?

I've also started the floosyjet compensation complaint today after them cancelling flights once again and not telling me. Hopefully that will be compensation again later this year although I'm expecting another long slog to fight for it.

MeandO

My washing was on the line for a whole 5 minutes before the blue sky disappeared and it started to hail. It's all now in the dryer and on the drying rack in front of the dryer to try and make use of the heat.

I've just zapped and packed 14 more books to send off to ziffit for the meagre sum of £7.10. It's better than nothing though and clears another little space. I'll try and drop the box off later to get the £'s in my account as soon as possible. I'm going to force myself to list some clothes on vinted later too. I need to start clearing my little box room a bit more and get rid of the 'selling' pile that's built up.