K&L's 2016 FTB deposit & round the world travel savings diary

She's a headcase! Glad we're out of there, and Keffka is much happier now. Our new room is super, and we have a garden too. I've spent quite a few of my evenings tidying it up, cutting back the ivy and replanting everything. Been having a fight with the neighbour's rabbit and the local cats, who both seem to like nibbling, pooing and digging up my new plants. I'd happily have rabbits and cats in there if they weren't quite so destructive. I've planted some french beans and a few flowers. I may add some more after pay day.

Anyway so, where are we at... It's been a heavy month on the spending what with the move. Just been trying to limit the damage really and hopefully we can pick up the pace a bit next month. I've been pestering Keffka on the job front - he has been applying for a few but I do wonder why he's not getting any interviews, like should I intervene? I keep wondering whether he needs to go into temping to get some more recent office experience but there's an inherent risk of being out of work with that which doesn't seem all that sensible.

We had quite a funny incident a few days ago. I was working from home taking a voice call on skype and I was looking at the old mattress that they have replaced with a new one from ikea. I realised that it had a lot of bed bug poo spots on it. Having had bed bugs before it sent me into a bit of a bug hunting frenzy. Half an hour later, the bed slats are off, the hoover is out. Luckily there were no live ones. I hammered a bit of the bedframe corner trying to loosen some ones wedged down a crevice, didn't really think much to what I was doing.

The following day I sit down on that corner of the bed and an almighty crack rips down the side of the frame. Apparently it didn't take too kindly to my hammer! I do a bit of a bodge job and screw it back in place, albeit not very flush. Keffka gets home from work and we end up nailing and gorilla glueing the whole thing back together. I mean the crack runs the whole length of the bed. :rotfl: thankfully for me the landlord didnt do an inventory so if it comes down to it, that crack was there all along aha.

Feel like a bit of a moan today. I am still waiting for my refund from Southeastern for my season ticket which is still being taken out of my wages until they refund work. That's hit my savings hard this month and our overall savings goal continues to slip, from a goal of £23k in April to £18.5k today all thanks to the move. I've also strained my back quite badly so having to take the tube instead of cycling and having to pay for a private Osteo so that I can be well enough to still compete next month - don't want to let me teammates down so last minute! But that all costs money. I've picked up £16 of tasks over the weekend, I am going to try get back on the mystery shopping so I don't have to dip in to the savings too much.

I am also annoyed at myself because the psycho MIL has found out where we live from a cycling app that I used which uses geolocation. So it tracked where I rode from and too, and it starts out on my street - which is fine but what I hadn't realised is it posted the damn thing to google, it's the top result when you google my facebook name (which is apparently what she's been doing, stalker much). I am just annoyed because I was so careful not to register us on the open electoral role etc and she's found out anyway. I doubt it will come to anything but I liked the anonymity.

We're visiting my family and friends this weekend, got tickets to a ball at a polo club. I negotiated a £15 discount on the tickets with my friend as we won't be drinking, very MSE. Just waiting for my dress to arrive which I bought off ebay. I hope it fits!! I didn't really want to buy one but I am hoping I can resell it for around the same value.

In other news I have a job interview on Friday. It's a shame that they reckon they can only offer me £5k less than what I am on now, and said they can't negotiate so my aim is to make them want me so much they will pay the extra £5k!

Keffka met me in town on Thursday and we spent the evening mystery shopping. It was super busy in some places but we've got money to go towards the new windscreen now so a good result. There's still loads of tasks to do so I am hoping we can earn a little more for spending money next week for our holiday.

Got £10 in interest from one of my accounts so have decided to add a further £19 into my savings account so we're now over the £14k mark, yay!

Thank you both! Been a bit distracted looking at pinterest for wedding ideas and haven't been on MSE for a couple of weeks. I find wedding planning evokes both excitement and anxiety. It is super fun looking at all the different things we could do but I am also very anxious not to touch our deposit money and we're already got a holiday to America planned for next year so our total wedding budget is going to be about £5k!!

I went out mystery shopping at the weekend so that we could go for brunch with my friend. Apart from that it's been a very frugal month as I had to pay out a fair bit for one of my sports teams which has meant I've had no spending money whatsoever. Can't wait till payday!