MeandO's mortgage-free musings

MeandO · 16 February 2018 at 1:14PM

So, this month's totals now stand at:

Mortgage now: £77,600
Overpayments for Ferbuary: :£272.53 :j

MeandO · 19 February 2018 at 11:04AM

OH and I were away for the weekend for his birthday. The (cheap) hotel was paid for months ago and petrol was covered with what I already had in the tank as it wasn't that far away. We had minimal spends - a cooked breakfast was included and our evening meal and drinks on day one was covered by a gift voucher we had.

Our spate of good luck has continued over the weekend and for that I'm so grateful.
OH and I bought a lottery ticket on a whim whilst passing a little shop on a walk over the weekend whilst we were away for his birthday. We checked it last night and we'd won £92!:j We will be putting it towards OH's roof repairs pot when I cash the ticket in. :T We have also sold (pending collection) a £50 item of OH's, so the roof pot will be on the way to £300 very soon and it is a big space cleared as the item was very big and bulky. He's still clearing out stuff too, so hopefully we can get the pot to the £300 mark and beyond. I'm so chuffed with that amount for him, he deserves a bit of luck after the past few awful years he's been through.

This morning I've finally reached points for another £5 voucher via surveys. I've gone for an Amazon voucher this time as this company doesn't offer paypal and the prepaid mastercards are a pain to use. I've already received it and have applied it to my account for when needed.

Payday is 4 days away!:j No real spends needed this week, maybe just a few groceries, the rest can wait until after payday.

MeandO · 20 February 2018 at 11:18AM

This morning has been costly already.

DS has grown out of several of the new pairs of trousers I bought him after Christmas. :eek:We are having issues with having enough clothes for him between mine and his Dad's house, so it's easier if I just order a bulk more to save the hassles that have been occuring. He also needs new rugby boots, PE kit and a coat. :eek: So, I'm £112 poorer already this morning after placing an order for everything with Sp0rtsDirect and, being a few days before payday, it's had to go on the credit card. Hopefully I can pay it off as soon as I get paid. Thank goodness for the extra tax credits, they will certainly help once they're paid.

:(

I have to buy groceries today as I have OH and a colleague coming over for dinner to discuss some potential work. Hopefully it will come to under £10, but, as there's less than £20 in the bank account, that will also have to go on the credit card. I need to order lots of groceries for next week too. I shall place the order for after payday though, maybe getting everything delivered at the weekend if it's not too expensive.

I'm feeling a bit tired of this juggling act if I'm being honest.

On a more positive note, OH surprised me by collecting my ebay-bargain table for me and delivering it last night.

It will be great after some sanding down and repainting, I can't wait to get started.
I also have a piece of furniture being delivered today that was purchase 2nd hand some weeks ago. It is going to be used to finally house teasets that are precious to me as they belonged to some dear family members no longer with us

, so I'm really looking forward to that today.

MeandO · 21 February 2018 at 1:08PM

The shopping yeterday came to £11.89 , which went on the credit card.

It was everything I need for dinner (for three of us) plus some YS fruit and veg to top the fridge up a bit.
I started cooking dinner, only for our guest to cancel... :mad: so OH and I ate very well last night and I have leftovers for my lunch today.

I've been through my budget for next month this morning and allocated money to pay the credit card off completely again

AND I have just cut the card up. :T It will be used no more. I'll just have to pull the purse strings tighter rather than rely on the credit card every month as I end up trying to pay it off each month over and over again and that's why I'm not saving as much money as I could be. It's not being used as the 'emergency card' it was obtained for.

There are more rumours at work today about possible redundancies, closure or 'stitching up by management.' :mad: It's just made my anxiety and stress levels shoot through the roof again and now I just feel like crying. It hits home hard again that I really need to have some considerable savings behind me. I wonder if I should stop the overpayments and plough it into savings instead?

Feeling completely and utterly >>>

MeandO · 21 February 2018 at 10:40PM

I was feeling really down today upon getting home from work, so, as it was a lovely day, I threw the patio doors open, opened lots of windows and let the house air and get a bit of sunshine. It was nice to hear the birds chirping and see the sunshine even if it was a bit chilly.

I got busy and cleaned the kitchen sink, worktops, units and windowsill, then dusted through most of the house and did a load of washing before DS came home from his Dad’s.
The clothes I ordered for DS yesterday arrived today so he tried them all on, with everything except for the sports boots, fitting him. A couple of pairs of trousers are on the big side, but he’ll soon grow into them. I need to return the boots for a refund and look for some others for him.
I set to and washed all of his new clothes, except the PE kit, and most of it is now dry thanks to the tumble dryer with a few bits airing in the conservatory.

I’ve been sat in bed since 7.50pm, meal planning and attempting to sort my diet out. I’ve put on so much weight and i’m feeling really low about myself, so am going to try and sort my eating habits out once and for all. I’m a complete emotional eater, and also find it very difficult to summon the will to cook just for myself most nights (DS is a very fussy eater, so I cook separately for him), but I’m wasting so much money by overeating and generally grazing from the fridge and cupboards, not to mention the effect it’s having on my well-being.
Things have to change!

Golightly72 · 22 February 2018 at 11:14AM

Well done on cutting up the credit card! I had to do the same myself last year, it's easy to just end up putting bits and bobs on it! Hopefully, if everything is budgeted for, then it shouldn't be needed, but I must admit I do have a small amount allocated per month for 'unbudgeted things', as something I haven't forseen does seem to crop up now and again.

I'm sorry you feel low, I think you are juggling everything really well, and you are debt free, which is amazing.

As you don't have another household wage to fall back on, I wonder if you should try and save more in an emergency fund before worrying about mortgage overpayments, maybe join the 3-6 months of expenses challenge - just to give you some peace of mind in case you couldn't work for any reason?

MeandO · 22 February 2018 at 1:40PM

Thanks for popping in Golightly72, it's lovely to 'see' a new face.

That's exactly what I was doing with the credit card - popping bits and pieces on there with the intention of transferring the money or 'paying it off next month' but sometimes forgot. I've decided credit cards are just not for me!

At the moment, I put £150 into the 'emergency savings' pot a month, £100 into the car pot, £75 into the house renovation pot, £50 into the 'presents' pot and £25 into the school holidays pot as well as trying to overpaying the mortgage by at least £100. Saying that, my emergency savings are only at £650 at the moment so I do need to get that up to a decent amount again. If it comes down to it though, I could use any of my savings pots if I really needed the money, so there is around £1k available presently. I would like to get the emergency fund to at least £5k asap though, preferably more as and when I can, but I think it may take me a while!

I suppose I could put the extra to the savings instead of overpaying the mortgage, but my fix is up on one sub account in May and I'm trying to get it as low as possible before then.

MeandO · 22 February 2018 at 1:50PM

I think I definitely need more early nights like last night, I do feel brighter this morning after some sleep. I've not been a great sleeper for a long time, since before I had DS, but going to bed early is definitely working for me lately.

I've brought homemade soup I made earlier in the week for lunch. I am going out with OH and his son later. It shouldn't be expensive, but we are nipping to c0stco on the way home so I may pick up a few bits I need to stock up on if they are at a good price. I will have to transfer cash from one of the savings pots and send it back there tomorrow when I get paid, allocating money from the grocery budget to do so.
I never buy much at c0stco, but OH and I sometimes go halves on big bulk packs if there's something we need and it works out at a good price.

MeandO · 22 February 2018 at 11:02PM

I wasn!!!8217;t feeling great this afternoon so didn!!!8217;t make it for our planned trip. Tbh, my anxiety levels have been through the roof these past couple of days and it all got a bit much. I think it!!!8217;s the combination of stress from work and not seeing DS much this week as he!!!8217;s mostly been with his Dad. Whatever it is, I know I shouldn!!!8217;t be sat here watching !!!8220;my wonderful life!!!8221; as i!!!8217;m in floods of tears and it!!!8217;s leaving me thinking about my wonderful Mum and how much time we may or may not have with her. I don!!!8217;t see my family very often due to living in different corners of the country which is really difficult, especially now DS is here and that I don!!!8217;t really have anyone around here except OH.

Anyhow, enough of the dismals and back to money saving! Not going out this afternoon didn!!!8217;t really save me any money as I went to Asda and picked up a few groceries. There were a few YS bargains which i!!!8217;ve put in the freezer and I picked up a couple of !!!8216;home!!!8217; magazines on offer to read in the bath and take my mind off things. I spent £23.22 which will come out of the grocery budget tomorrow.

I changed DS!!!8217;s bed and made it all up fresh for him, I!!!8217;ll do mine tomorrow. One load of washing has been done and dried in the tumble dryer and the house is relatively tidy so I think it!!!8217;s time I went to bed. Think I failed on the early night tonight...

MeandO · 22 February 2018 at 11:04PM

Why oh why is every apostrophe and comma turning into numbers on this site lately? How annoying!

MeandO's mortgage-free musings

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