MeandO's money-shuffling

MeandO

I won’t be sad to see the back of today. DS woke up in a bit of a ‘challenging’ mood after being loving and funny and just lovely for a few days, so I’ve been doing my best to let that wash over me today and to keep calm and not rise to it! I swear a different child woke up in his bed than the one that went to bed last night. Work was also frustrating as my mind reading skills were obviously not up to full speed today and there was a distinct lack of accountability and attention to detail from others. Tasks took me a lot longer due to the way a different colleague had done them incorrectly previously, so that was hard work. OH also has man flu and was like a bear with a sore head and was very snappy and short. Today I’d like to go to my lovely little cabin somewhere snowy and twinkly (if I had one, which I sadly don’t). I don’t do heat, so no desert island for me. I would sit in my pj’s and dressing gown in front of a log fire, reading books and roasting chestnuts. A girl can dream. 

I had to pick up milk and butter today and also bought a pack of cookies for DS to try and sweeten his mood. It worked for about 2 minutes. £5.05 spent and a few bonus nectar points earned on the milk and butter via the app.

Today I counted the weeks on the calendar until my next pay day and I’m sure someone’s snuck a few extra wee in this month when no one was looking. There’s still 3 weeks and 3 days until I’m next paid and I’m already halfway through the grocery budget. I did have to stock the freezer, fridge and cupboards up quite a bit last week though as we were running low on lots of things. Time to watch that grocery budget now and meal plan with what we have in. I’m really feeling like I have no inspiration as to what to cook lately though, I seem to be cooking the same few meals every week. I need to look in some recipe books or something for some ideas. 

I’m hoping to get back to my fitness classes tomorrow after a week and a half off with illness. I’ve had a chest infection again which has resulted in antibiotics and have been feeling pretty rough. There seems to be som many nasty bugs going round again. 

Sarahwithlove

I would definitely over pay the mortgage as it will help you more in future when you don't use access to the extra income. So take advantage of the low interest rate abs overpay your 10% a year whilst you can. Also I don't know what type of saver you are using but I assume a monthly saver if you aren't wanting to withdraw any of it early. What interest do you gain by saving over 6k vs the loss of UC for that time? Is it worth putting away slightly less each month so you don't go over 6k in total and then pay rest to mortgage every month? 

MeandO

Thanks Sarah with love, that’s pretty much the plan now - pay 10%off the mortgage in Jan when I can withdraw from my savings without an interest penalty. That will reduce my savings down to about £2K so I will then be eligible to around £60 of UC a month. I’ll then send money to the savings again monthly as I won’t be able to pay any more off my mortgage without penalty and notify UC when it gets back up to the threshold again which will take most of the year to reach. I’ll then pay another 10% off next January if I’m able to. I’ve also decided to stop lying onto my savings for the rest of this year and pay down the mortgage instead, so there will be another £1050 thrown at the mortgage over the next 3 months on top of what I already OP. 

MeandO

Hello everyone, it’s been an up and down week but I’m feeling content and thankful for my lot tonight. 

I’ve spent some money from the Christmas gifts pot this week, but have bought a fair few bits for DS and a large 3L water bottle for myself (which helps me to drink more daily) after dishwashing the other one which proved not to be dishwasher proof and promptly shrivelled up - oops. The Christmas gifts have been put on the CC but funds will be transferred to pay it off when the items arrive. 

I’ve also gone down the mounjaro road in order to try and lose weight. My knees have been horrendous the past few weeks and have been limiting the amount of walking I’m able to do so I need to get this weight off once and for all. The cost of the medication is a real hard pill to swallow, but I can afford it by diverting funds from other places for a few months, it has to be done. I initially signed up with a referral through medexpress but they messed me around terribly and then refused to prescribe when I complained, so I’ve gone through Voy instead. I have to say, the support and app seem brilliant so far,  I have a referral code which will save 35% off your order and will give me 30% off my next pen if anyone would like it - just pm me if so. 

The grocery budget is still tight, but I have £30 in my wallet that I need to pay in the bank which will boost it. The month seems long already. 

MeandO

Another £9.60 spent on snacks for DS, milk, actimel drinks and a couple of other bits today. I used cash from my purse as I still haven’t managed to get to a bank to put the cash back in. 

The mounjaro pen arrived today, I’ll wait until tomorrow to use the first dose as would rather do it Thursdays for various reasons. I’m winding myself up about the actual injecting though, I had to self inject blood thinners after DS was born which I’m sure is worse, but it’s just the thought of it. I’m a bit of a wimp when it comes to things like that. 

I got a huge load of washing washed and dried on the line before the rain came today, so feeling thankful I picked it in before the school run as it poured down during. 

One of the items I’ve ordered as a Christmas gift arrived damaged yesterday so I’ve started a return for that. I just need to re-package and drop it at the post office tomorrow.

MeandO

I've spent a bit more money in the past couple of days on some teddy fleece/brushed cotton bed sheets for DS's bed as his is the coldest room in the house due to the small radiator/big room & being on the north side of the property, and his bed is always cold when he gets in it. I warm it up with hot water bottles in the winter but some nice cosy bedding will ensure he's snuggly. I also bought a 15 tog duvet for my bed as my old duvet needs throwing - it's fraying and the filling is patchy at best. It's very thin too, I'm sure it's not the 13.5 tog it claims to be. These have gone on the CC but will be paid off when they arrive and are deemed fit for purpose. A couple of other Christmas gift spends have been paid off from the gifts pot too.

My TV license was renewed automatically this week. Not impressed to see it's gone up to £15 a month! We hardly ever watch live TV so if I didn't have the sky subscription I'd probably just go back to netflix/disney plus only or whatever we don't need a TV licence for, but I'm stuck in contract with them for some time so will have to continue to pay for now.

I popped into HB this morning to pick up loo rolls - a huge pack costing £8.49 as we were very nearly out. The aim is not to spend any more money this weekend now as it's still two weeks until payday.

It was cold here this morning and the windows were running with condensation throughout the house. I really hate this time of year for that. I use the window-vac to get rid and have put the dehumidifier on in various rooms for the past couple of days. I also try and open the windows as much as possible and rarely dry clothes in the house etc but there's no stopping it on the windows. I think it's a combination of 20+ year old windows and external wall insulation which makes the rest of the house warm and the windows very cold. Two window companies have come out, taken measurements, never to be heard from again so I give up on that front, especially as I'm going to use the savings to pay down the mortgage now instead.

I took my first shot of mounjaro yesterday morning and have yet to see any effects but I'm hoping it'll happen soon. I'm just being impatient! I have been counting calories for two days though so at least that should get some weight off if nothing else. I'm enjoying my gym sessions this week too despite being in quite a bit of pain with my knees. I'm really hoping the mounjaro loss will help ease the pressure on my knees as they're getting really bad.

sudonum-mum

Just catching up and seemed to have lost a post about your UC.
You mentioned that you are ineligible for UC as your savings are above £6k but ineligibility is at £16k.
for any savings between £6k and £16k you have £4.35pm deducted for every £250 above £6k you have

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/universal-credit-money-savings-and-investments

MeandO

Thank you Sudonum-mum. As you say, I am still eligible for UC but it's a negligible amount a month (around a couple of £'s!) so it doesn't really make a difference to the budget presently. Once I've paid 10% off my mortgage in January my savings will drop to around £2K. This makes me nervous in case something goes wrong and I suddenly need a pot of money, but at least I will be eligible to UC of around £60 a month which will go straight back into savings again.

MeandO

Happy Tuesday everyone.

The current mission in my house is to stretch the purse strings as far as they'll go for the next 9 days until I'm paid. I have just over £100 in the day to day account which I'm really trying to make last as I don't want to have to top it up from other pots. I will need to put petrol in the car before then but there is just under £50 still allocated fuel so that will more than suffice, I just need to keep the groceries to under £50 if I can help it.
I wrote down everything in the freezer last night and we have plenty of fish/prawns, chicken and mince to make lots of meals. There are also some easier options such as chicken strips and scampi which I tend to bung in the air fryer for DS at the weekend as our version of a takeaway as we never order them. Last night I cooked a big sausage casserole with loads of veg which fed DS and I, with a big portion leftover for OH to have tonight. I've taken prawns out to make DS's favourite noodle dish for him tonight and I've been fancying a jacket potato so that's the plan for my tea.

Talking of food, the mounjaro seems to be working very subtly in the background, or something is. I don't seem to be as hungry and am not thinking about food and what I can eat next. I did actually forget about lunch a couple of times in the week and still wasn't hungry. However, it has coincided with me buying a new 3L water bottle to make sure I'm drinking enough water a day so it could just be the fluid filling me up. I am also recording what I eat on an app I have, just to make sure I'm not going over my calories a day, so it could be any one of those three things really. My second 2.5mg dose will be taken on Thursday but I'll be interested to see if going up to the 5mg dose in a few weeks makes the effect more noticeable. I've also managed to get £50 off my next pen with Voy too so I'm really pleased about that.

The Christmas pot is rapidly going down but that's because I've bought DS quite a lot for Christmas so far. I found an offer code for football shirts for the team he supports so I ordered two types of those, one from me and one from my parents who will give me the money for it. I'm doing most of the Christmas Shopping for DS, and a few bits for myself and OH on behalf of my parents as per their request, so will get the money back from those although I do tend to round it all down a bit as I don't want them spending too much. They don't know that though. 

I have a couple of things to return to a shop this week which will be a refund of around £50 to the CC. I'm aiming for it to be at £0 again by payday as I don't want any outstanding balance to impact on next month's budget as I'd clear it when I got paid, but we'll see how that goes. It may be a bit of an ask presently.

DS's new warm bedding and my thicker duvet arrived this week and he loves it! He's been lovey and warm in bed and it hasn't been cold to get into of a night. I haven't told him (as he'd protest and say I needed it) but I also put the new 15 tog one on his bed as he needed it more than me and swapped his old duvet to my bed as it was better than my old one. I also have a thick heavy blanket on top of my duvet and have switched to my winter pyjamas so I am more than warm enough at night and DS is toasty.

MeandO

I’ve listed two items on vinted tonight, hopefully they’ll sell and make £30 or near enough. I may list on flea bay now it’s free too but will see how it goes on V first, 

I’m counting down until I can get into bed tonight, I feel tired and just want to snuggle under the covers and read a book or something. DS is tired too but still manages to delay bedtime as late as possible. I don’t understand teenagers. It feels like we’ve had disagreements about doing homework every day for the past week too.   

After talking about the mounjaro in my last post, I started feeling hungry a little later for the first time in 5 days. Looking online, it seems most people experience a drop in the effectiveness after 5 days or so, and this was almost to the hour so at least I know it has been the mounjaro working this week. 

Saying that, I’m now not hungry this evening and can’t see me eating any tea as I ate a large lunch as a I was hungry. DS has demolished his prawn noodles.