Life in our forever family home and the mortgage that came with it

rtandon27

@MissRikkiC - I'll pop you over a code momentarily hun xxx

ETA - fabulous work with the grocery budget - I've not been as successful as planned this month will still see a saving by month end! - and bonus is that we have room in the freezer!

MissRikkiC

Great thanks RT I’ll see if I can navigate my way into the world. I’ve kinda got there but Monzo pots still throwing me off. 

Thank you. The freezer is still pretty good for us right now (ie stocked) but the cupboards, stores and fridge is bleak 🤣

MissRikkiC

Thanks @beanielou I’m quite proud of it but will be better when finished. 

Garden update. Next job is getting the greenhouse ready as there are now things which I would ideally like to get started off in there. 

Having had a chat with my friend today, about wanting a base for the GH to sit on and enquiring how best I would go about that; I now have a tonne of hardcore being delivered loose on Thursday 🤣 I think he’s getting used to how my brain works after all these years.

The hardcore plus sand and mortar plus some paving slabs I’ve picked up from MP, should mean it will cost about £150 to complete. 
 

It was cheaper for the hardcore because it will be a loose load! However, thankfully, even though it’ll be tipped loose, it can be tipped about 2m away from where it will be put so that should make life easier, with a wheel barrow to hand. 

We are also hiring a ‘whacker’ from a local plant hire as well which will be here Friday morning which will be approx £20 and I will get on with getting the hardcore down. The sand (for mixing with mortar) will also be from the same place as the hardcore so that will remain in my friends van until Saturday or Sunday as whilst it’s only 0.5tonne, we still can’t lift it so will need to handball it off the van. Again, he should be able to get within a few meters of the greenhouse spot so we should be okay. 

By the end of the weekend I might have a concrete base, for the greenhouse to sit on! 

Cost wise I’d definitely not planned for this as an expense (I’d nicely assumed that the ‘slabs’ which I have in the workshop could have been repurposed however I’ve since learnt they’re more like tiles rather than slabs) but it’s not as much as if I didn’t have the contact that I do. 

I could save £20 by fashioning a ‘whacker’ from a stick and a heavy object but it will take longer and it’s about finding a balance. The gardening budget will take a hit this year but thankfully these are all initial costs and if I shifted some money around, I could argue that there is budget for it ….  

This weeks meal plan is having to be stuck to on account of having little in due to the challenge. Thursday is always the test for us as to if we can stick to the plan, we’re always done in by then and because I don’t work most Fridays it’s almost the start of the weekend. I’m making lamb casserole tomorrow but I may push that to Thursday as it a little more appealing, hopefully meaning we don’t veer off plan. We have a head of broccoli in, plenty of meat/fish in the freezer, it might just be a simple dinner of something with mash and veg rather than trying to recipe something. 

MS this week so far - cooked 3 baking potatoes in the log burner which turned out great. 

Meal plan all week stuck to so far (yes it’s only Tuesday 🤣) 
pre made my daughters dinner for when she was finished with gymnastics rather than buy stuff. 

Birthday present for MIL secured tonight for £13 instead of the usual £30 we spend (basically Christmas stuff that doesn’t look very Christmassy that was heavily reduced in dunelm) 
Very black bananas used up and made into breakfast muffins 
Tuna pasta bake cooked a day in advance because the oven was on
3 loaves of bread made since the weekend which everyone seems to be eating 
Moved laundry load to night time last night so take advantage of the cheaper tariff (later to learn it’s not connected to my account yet!)
Switched heating off today despite working from home and got the blankets out instead 
considering a nursery change come May for my son (2 days a week) which will save time and money and give me more time with him too 

Slowness - 🫣 don’t laugh. Washed my socks on Sunday. I’ve got into a routine of hand washing my merino socks on a Sunday night and it’s actually quite a nice task 

A longer walk with the dog yesterday morning without my phone 

A mosey around dunelm tonight on my own 

Work is considerably less hectic which means I can relax a little during the day 

Gentle drive for school run today

Gratitude - Feeling proud of my daughter for receiving a medal at gymnastics tonight mostly earned for excellent listening. Something which I know needed some focus

Watching her ride her bike to school today and on a walk with the dog before gym. She has all of a sudden just got better with it which I’m also thrilled about. 

Easier convo with my team today (probably now things have settled down a bit) 

OH picking up ‘beer’ on the way home. 

KajiKita

Well done on all the food actions 👏 And especially the baked spuds in the wood stove - please tell me more about that 😊 Mr KK seems sceptical but I can see how it might work. 

Your work in the garden leaves me a bit breathless. You must have muscles like Popeye! 😊 Oh and I would say the whacker plate is definitely worth renting / using. Not just that the stick and the heavy object would take longer, but you will get a much better finish with the right kit. 

Glad you managed to get some quiet time for yourself and into a calmer space with your team 😊

KK

MissRikkiC

Thanks KK. The potatoes really were great. They’re not crispy if you’re after that but perfectly cooked through. I pricked them and then double wrapped them in foil. The burner was already hot when they went in but I basically moved the log to one side and a few embers to the other and sat the potatoes on the embers. They took about 90 minutes but were quite big ones. Nothing leaked out and there was no taste of anything from the burner either. Highly recommended.

Thank you for your kind words re the garden. Its certainly not require any muscle (just yet) but instead a bit of patience and resilience. Resilience i have, patience however i lack  

Ill keep posting of the changes. Id really like to have the GH up by mid Feb at the latest (thats me being generous). As typically is the case with me, lots of stuff is almost all the way there but not quite finished. See below but if youre remotely not interested feel free to skip.

The compost bins need chicken wire - ive sourced some on MP which ill collect tomorrow (perfectly timed for potentially needing to cover the top of the chickens run due to a case of bird flu locally)

The whole veg patch area needs more woodchip for paths and inbetween beds etc. Its 'on order' but essentially waiting for the tree guy to do the job so that i can have the waste.

The fence needs a few more pales and the gate making. Already ordered of course and will probably arrive with my friend towards the back end of the week. 

The veg patch needs some more muck (and then compost) however i cant properly see where everything will be yet (another reason for needing to get the GH built) so dont want to bring in too much of it until everywhere is clearly marked out. 

The marking out, using something, of where the paths are, where the beds are and where its okay to walk still needs doing. I have an amount of wood left from a few pallets but not sure if thats the best thing to use. 

The paths (that have loosely been marked out using bamboo canes) are both membrane and woodchip so need to either sweep that off and have just the membrane or take up the membrane and have the chip directly on the soil (would prefer this option)

The compost bin needs lining so will likely use the membrane which ill take up from the current paths. 

This all probably belongs on a different thread but hopefully its remotely interesting otherwise. 

Today Im looking at planning Februarys budget along with reviewing my roadmap created at the end of Jan as to what id like to financially achieve by Dec this year. 

A couple of things are up in the air/unknown at the moment

1. I increased my pension contribution to start from this months pay check. I calculated it at the time but have since forgot what that looks like. Currently means im not super sure on what my take home pay will now be, however the idea was (and hopefully i have done it right) to pay more pension in rather than have the high band tax deduction. The other idea behind this was to do it before the annual pay award goes in so that it doesnt feel like the total take home will move much overall (whilst actually having increased pension contributions). If i can still then skim off the top (so essentially save the rest of the pay award) then ill have more going towards my goals.

2. Part 1 of our mortgage fixed rate ends at the end of February which also means this is the last month of the current rate for it. I have budgeted for the increase (unfortunately i cant escape a rate increase) but would ideally like to be able to do something to offset the impact.

I can roughly plan with these in mind, but always prefer to know.

MissRikkiC

So we did it, we made it through January having only spent £150 on groceries vs the usual £5/600. I will note that we had purchased lots of stuff before Christmas that would last us, including my son’s milk (allergic to dairy soya and oats so he drinks Pea milk!!) toilet rolls, nappies, wipes etc so that really helped. The £450 is now put to one side and will pay my friend for the work he’s helped with in the garden. 

January’s challenge tested me to utilise what we had in, not necessarily make do, but reverse meal plan and think smarter. I think once every quarter I might like to do this challenge to reduce our eye watering annual cost of groceries and the like. 

Speaking of garden, the patio was laid over the weekend, both the base for the greenhouse and the path leading to it. If I combine the time, across the 3 days that we did it in and include all hours for people who helped, it took 16 hours. That was laying the hardcore, laying the base and the path and tidying up the lot across 3 days. 

Most of that time was myself and my friend but I did have a few extra helpers for an hour or so each. 

I also finished the compost bins using the chicken wire. 

Today I picked up some gravel boards, stakes and the rest of the pales (for the fence and gate) and made a start on those which is looking really lovely. 

Next weekend we will be erecting the greenhouse 🥳 I’m very excited for this but also have a rather large frog that needs swallowing in relation to building another GH and have asked for this time to not be involved. I’m hopefully leaving it to my OH and my friends partner and like magic it will be done 🤣 

After the news re bird flu over the weekend, the outbreak isn’t far from us so we have had to cover the chickens run this weekend. They really do hate it, it’s a tarp and it’s flapping about a lot in the wind but hopefully they will get used to it and it’ll be better once the wind drops. 

Bread made today and it’s the best one yet. Unsurprisingly since I followed the recipe closer this time 🤣 

Turkey and cranberry pie (using Christmas Turkey from the freezer and left over jar of CS) for dinner is currently being made and pea and ham soup made from the last bit of ham from the freezer and split yellow peas. 

Octopus working on connecting my EV to their app but still no luck! Anyone else had this issue? 

dawnybabes

Ooh I will try the baked potatoes 🥔 in the burner.   Jackets in the air fryer crisp up in a few mins if you want crispy ones. I’ve just cooked a casserole on the top in a cast iron dish - was just a veggy one to try, will try one next time with meat. 

MissRikkiC

Great idea DB! I don’t know how i didn’t think of that too! 

MissRikkiC

I’m testing YNAB this month and whilst it is different to Monzo pots, it feels more intuitive. I like that it does lots of stuff without the manual intervention I usually need. 

So we’ve not put any money in any pots this month although we have set budgets. I’m still getting to grips but it’s a success so far. 

I made a road map at the end of December for 2025 for the journey to a few financial goals. I literally drew roads with stops and the stops were the various different methods that would yield savings this year. It was meant to resemble a start point and finish destination with stops on the way, ordered chronologically, as to when they would start delivering a benefit and the running total at each stop until the end but it never turned out as I wished especially as my 4 year old saw it as an opportunity to colour in! 

But January, we had a couple of stops off at various points along the journey. The grocery savings from Januarys challenge yielded £450. Next stop was my husbands expenses (£ppm as per HMRC) yielding another £162. We made it to the nursery fees reduction (usual bill of £600) of £112 due to half term (and him being term time only) which were the 3 stops along the journey in January. There was 1 more destination we were meant to visit which was Adhoc savings however due to the garden renovations and putting money aside to pay for my friends time, as well as needed Oil earlier than planned (so for more than the accumulated pot had it in) then those savings have been put towards that instead. 

In February, we have forecast £150 saving through groceries as well as a saving through electric costs due to new octopus rate. Another virtual stop, will be at the inflationary pay award that has been agreed (and should be communicated) this month for both OH and I. 

If we can achieve £1000 by end of February I’ll be very happy indeed.  

MissRikkiC

MS things - Another of our chickens started laying again today. That’s now 3/4 of them. Baked bread, porridge from home (although I’ve almost ran out on account of the order (bulk) I placed on grape tree not arriving yet). Lunch was soup made earlier this week with 2 rolls defrosted from the freezer.  Dinner was lamb stew made from cooked lamb leg from freezer, with jacket potatoes as the oven was on. Top cash back used to purchase asparagus crowns (thank you @themadvix) and money shuffles done so I can account for the spends from the right pot. Free exercise in from of a lovely dog walk, washing machine loaded and timer set to come on during cheap hours. 

Slowness - Dog walk and late start to the morning for work on account of working late last night. Made dumplings with the children when they got home from school/nursery/clubs. Watched great British menu and had a quick bath to warm up.