MeandO's money-shuffling

MeandO

The car repairs should end up costing me £650 after a reduction due to a complaint over the bill and service I received. The bill didn't add up, basically, and they were trying it on. I'm still waiting for £50 of that to be refunded though. It was the main dealership too, so completely unprofessional. 

Today I've listed six more items on vinted, two of which are OH's so hopefully they make him a few £'s too. I have some more jewellery and collectible items to sell but I haven't found the enthusiasm to do so yet. These will need to be listed somewhere rathe than sold for their scrap value, so likely to be a more difficult sell and less value, but I will appreciate every £ they may make. I'm really struggling with motivation for much the past week or two. I feel like I'm in a bit of a rut again, probably because I've not been well (possible salmonella poisoning for two weeks ) and haven't been to the gym for a week or two, but I will find it again, hopefully. The good thing is I also don't have any motivation to spend money! I do need to buy a big new water bottle to replace the one I discovered black mould in (which could be the other reason why I've been ill). I used the bottle every day to make sure I drank 3L of water and can really notice a difference now that I'm not drinking enough fluid. It'll be about £12-£14 when I do get round to ordering one which will come out of my personal spends.

I made a lasagne yesterday which fed 3 of us and one portion for the freezer. The mince was from the freezer and I had everything else in including lots of veg which I used to pad the mince out with and white/cheese sauce ingredients, so didn't need to buy anything extra. I did fill up DS's snack shelf yesterday and also bought some yogurt and some spices I'd used up but this was all paid for with the remaining balance on the Asda gift card my Dad kindly gave me, so no extra spends came out of the bank account. Tonight we're having chinese chicken with rice and tomorrow will be prawn risotto, we have ingredients in for everything so no spends required.

foxgloves

I now have a pretty glass water bottle, @MeandO, & one of the things I most like about it is that I can easily see right inside. I can also make sure I'm getting to all of it when I'm wielding the bottle brush.
F

MeandO

I'd love a pretty glass water bottle, Foxgloves, but I'm forever knocking my mug over my desk so probably not to be trusted with a glass bottle!

MeandO

I have 3 sub accounts on my mortgage and, so far this year, have paid off the 10% allowance of the one which has the low rate ending soonest (next year).
I'm really chuffed to report that I've now also managed to save up enough money to also overpay the second sub account's 10% limit (low rate ending a few months after the first), so I've just sent £1012.55 to the second sub account as an overpayment. I'll now be saving to pay 10% off the third and final sub account although the rate is pretty good and doesn't end for another 6-7 years, I'm conscious of staying well below the UC savings thresholds. There's £2810.91 left to reach the 10% as I'd already OP'd £38.11 earlier in the year. I could send it over now as do have that amount saved, but it would leave me with next to nothing in the EF, so I will save a bit more and pay that down before the end of the year, as long as nothing else happens and I don't need the money for anything else.

Scores on the door for now:

Mortgage @ 03/2019: £125,000, Now: £53,692.70

Mortgage OP’s: £19,208.37

MeandO

I've decided to send another £1000 to the mortgage as total funds across my accounts would be getting a bit close to savings thresholds at the start of the months when I get paid, before most of the bills come out. I really don't want to jeopardise the UC payments. So the mortgage is now as below and I've finally made it over £20K in total overpayments  

Mortgage @ 03/2019: £125,000, Now: £52,692.70

Mortgage OP’s: £20,208.37

£1810.91 left of this year's 10% OP allowance left to save.

MeandO

I've prepped the veg and rice for tea ronight, brought the dry washing in off the line, cut the grass and have just mended my favourite jumper as the sleeve started to come away from the arm. It was a CS buy last year but hopefully it will last at least another year now it's fixed.
I had to phone DS's school earier and sort out an issue he's having atm with one of the teachers. Hopefully that will put an end to the issue. 
I found a few more unopened toiletries to donate to the local refuge charity today too so they have gone in the bag with the rest of it, ready to be dropped off to my friend who works there. 
I think i'll be looking for things to do now tinight as the jumper and grass were on my list for this evening but have already been tackled. Perhaps i'll bake a cake if i have enough ingredients in, that may cheer DS up a bit.  

MeandO

Two vinted items have sold already for £7. That’ll be £7 towards the remaining 10% mortgage OP pot. Both wrapped (in recycled big river packaging) and ready to send tomorrow.

There’s been no baking unfortunately, It would leave us short on eggs and butter and I don’t really want to buy any more before the end of the week. I’ll factor some extra into the next grocery shop.

Sarahwithlove

Good idea to pay towards the mortgage and keep your UC payments. It will still leave you with a reasonable amount saved to stay under the threshold. 

WinterWeather

You’ve done amazingly well on overpaying that mortgage of yours, a very worthwhile thing to do for your future self. I (we, but I look after the finances) took out my/our last mortgage and paid it off in its entirety in just 7 years (over £100k) as I wanted to be mortgage free and was so by age 47. 

There is no better feeling than being mortgage free, you own every brick and the freedom from that mortgage payment (and overpayments) is indescribable. It was an unpleasant 7 years though, I was more radical than you and included not even buying a new pair of jeans for 4 years etc. there were harder things we had to live through to do it but we did it, or I should say  I did it as it was me that was motivated to do it. Boy, it was hard but when I phoned up to make that final transfer, wow, what a feeling. Keep going, it’s your biggest debt and when it’s gone, your biggest freedom xx

MeandO

Thank you Sarahwithlove and WInterWeather. @WinterWeather, you've inspired me to keep ploughing on with the overpayments, thank you. Although I have been half regretting sending a large amount of savings to the mortgage the past couple of days as I have been informed that DS's recent prestigious sporting achievement now comes with around a £2K price tag in kit, travel, fees etc. half of which I am expected to pay. I have no involvement with this side of DS's life, it is his father's interest which DS has then been coerced to be involved in too, so I know nothing about it. I am also being made to feel guilty about potentially not travelling to watch DS compete (not by DS, he has questioned why I would be coming!). His father is going, I do not wish to spend the week with him after the years of abuse I have put up with, plus it will be around another £1000 to pay out, although OH is now very kindly saying he doesn't want me going alone and will split the cost. I plan to speak to DS about it at the weekend and if he's really not bothered if I come or not then it will be a huge financial relief as it is going to deplete most of my remaining EF. I have huge Mum-guilt about it and no doubt my potential lack of presence will be spread far and wide across the ex's circle of monkeys and my name will be trashed for (apparently) not supporting my son, but I know that is not the truth and I am way past caring about the nonsense he spreads about me. The only opinion I am bothered about is that of DS, so I will speak to him.

In other news, both of OH's items sold on vinted and have been posted so there'll be £20 going to him and £17 to myself within the next few days. I listed a few bits on ebay but they are difficult sells so I don't know if they will come to anything.

I picked up some grocery shopping in L!dl a couple of days ago and was shocked at how much the prices have increased since I was last there. I won't be going there again if I can help it, although do have a free bakery item and free avocado to pick up so will just pop back for those and perhaps some eggs  as we use loads and they're quite reasonable for a box of 15.

I had my hair cut and dyed this week so am feeling a little more human again. I save money monthly towards it and only go every 3 months or so so it's affordable. 

I've received the £50 refund I was due from the car dealership, it's gone straight into saving for DS's sporting expenses now. I have close to £300 put by for that now, left over from what I had allocated for the car repairs which I originally thought were going to cost £1000+ but worked out being less. I was looking forward to paying that off the mortgage but not much I can do about it at the moment. My mind is already zooming ahead of me now and worrying about how I'm going to afford to pay for my fitness club membership renewal when it's up at the end of the year, I'm really not sure I'm going to be able to afford it.