Light the fire...

woodfired · 29 March 2019 at 10:55AM

Hi BachSoon (was going to abbreviate to BS but that didn't seem very polite

) I have read your diary this week too! Glad to see you back posting and in a better place

The OPing does get a bit addictive and before you know it you've paid off thousands and DH is asking where all the money goes/has gone!

:rotfl: Like you say though, there are worse things to be addicted to.

Thanks, we do love our house and have it just how we want it but I am a bit of a renovation addict and after a few years I get itchy feet, hence the rightmove browsing.

I do long for lots of space to park and a garage, but I also love a house with character and features and a big garden (which we have here) houses with both are very expensive!

Thanks for dropping by and good luck with your journey, I shall be following with interest.x

woodfired · 29 March 2019 at 11:03AM

I am currently sat outside the barbers in the car, with my laptop tethered to my mobile for Wifi, waiting for DH. I have raised and emailed the invoices for the week (DH's business) and we are then shooting into town to collect some change for the shop and pick up a few bits from the supermarket.

I am off to a Jason Donovan concert tonight (don't judge, I am a child of the 80s and LOVED (OK, still love) him!) with Mum and sisters. We are staying in a lodge at a resort nearby and I am very much looking forward to it. Minimum stay was two nights, but still cheaper PP than a hotel for one night so mum/sisters will go home tomorrow and DH/kids are driving up to stay the second night with me. There is a pool and lots for children to do so they are looking forward to that, as are we. It will be a nice treat.

Will update Monday with month end figs once interest has been applied etc. Have a good weekend all.xx

woodfired · 24 April 2019 at 1:27PM

Wow it has been a while since I updated! Not much to report really, our mortgage now stands at £118 999 which is great. Savings are around the £8k mark.

We have just had the Easter hols, I managed to get plenty of time off work which was lovely, we have been away in our caravan two of the weekends and spent very little as the weather has been great so children have been happy to play out on bikes/on the playground and we have relaxed and played cricket, football and been for walks with them. We have self catered most of the time with salads and BBQs featuring heavily. A fab Easter all in all.

I have tried to get back into batch cooking this week. I did a big mexican chicken dish last night that became enchiladas for dinner and then paired the leftovers with rice in portions for lunches. I also made a big pea and white wine risotto on Monday that I have just finished the last of. Tonight will be an easy tea of eggs, chips, beans and sausages then leftover pulled beef for dinner tomorrow out of the freezer. Will do just a small shop this week as we have quite a bit of meat in the freezer and I've already planned quite a few meals using what we have.

Exercise is going well, I am still stuck at a weight I'm not happy with though as I'm relatively good through the week but then am derailed by weekend plans. We always have something on involving food/wine and I really struggle to make the right choices when out enjoying myself! *sigh*

Hope everyone here had a lovely Easter and made the most of the weather. x

woodfired · 26 April 2019 at 9:14PM

Productive day today, started with a 5 mile walk/jog over a huuuge hill that clocked up 1200 calories and 105 floors climbed! Phew. Back home for a shower and then prepared lunch instead of eating out as we often do to *treat* ourselves after our exertions. Much cheaper and healthier to eat at home! Then we popped out to a posh garden center nearby (would often have lunch here) which I was gifted £70 of vouchers for when I left school last summer. I've really struggled to spend these on myself so today I picked up a lovely outdoor clock for my sister and a nice planter for MIL who both have birthdays coming up. Had to put 46 pence towards the cost, not too bad for 2 prezzies!
Finally, a trip to @ldi, £60 spent as DH was with me and is tempted by the 'middle of the aisle' bits! Then home again where I tidied and cleaned one bathroom and all through downstairs. Must do our bedroom and the other bathroom tomorrow.

I've been glad of this rain this week. I planted lots of potatoes last week and dont want to be watering them so early in the season. I've also got peas on the go and some leeks in too. I plan to do tomatoes and courgettes with some salad veg this year also. Trying to wait until the weather is warmer though as i've been caught out by late frosts too many times!

woodfired · 30 April 2019 at 12:16PM

More gardening has been happening over this way, the weather has been fab and the plants really appreciated some rain over the weekend. I weeded and edged about 15m of border that runs up the side of the veg garden this weekend and also tidied up the veg garden itself so all looking much neater. The spuds are starting to poke their heads above ground so keep earthing them up to protect from frosts. Not sure how many peas are still in the ground, our bunny keeps breaking into the veg patch and I think the birds may have discovered them too. Will have to wait and see.

In money news our savings are back up to around £8300. The mortgage I expect will be approx £118260 after the interest is applied today. I may make a cheeky OP to round it down tomorrow when I know the exact balance. May is going to be a very expensive month though, loads of birthdays, ground rent due and a family holiday to Corfu. Need to make sure we have enough to cover all of these without dipping into savings.

woodfired · 18 May 2019 at 9:34AM

Dear Diary,

I am very sorry for neglecting you

My posts seem just a bit repetitive :rotfl: a couple of small OPs have brought the mortgage down into the £117 000s which is great. All OPs are going to sub account 2 which is on the SVR and I'm hoping to get as much paid off as possible by the time the main part of the loan is up for re-fixing in Oct. Savings are above £12k now which I'm also pleased with. Mainly sat in regular savers paying 5% but I need to think about where to put them once these mature.

I'm still in limbo a little bit with long term plans. The house we like is still on the market, they've only had 5 people view including us and it has been on since early Feb. We have had the accounts back this week from the accountant and they aren't looking as healthy as I'd hoped (depreciation on the CNC machine is the main reason). They have also included a huge amount of 'deferred tax' which has effectively halved the profits.

The trouble is I'm not sure which figures a mortgage company would look at? The tax isn't actually payable as it is offset by the cost of the machine so I would say that they can take the pre-tax figure? But would they look at it like that? Really don't know and it's driving me mad!

We have a meeting booked with our accountant to discuss on Monday (they sent the figures in advance for us to look over) but I'm not sure he'll be able to help with what a mortgage co. would look at either. Hmmm.

Blinking self employed hassle, it's a nightmare!!

In other news, off on hols on Thursday with all of my family. 12 of us in total which should be fab. I've opened a Monz0 account in preparation for spends as they don't charge a fee for foreign currency transactions and you can withdraw a little bit of cash commission free too. I only intend to take a couple of hundred Euro as we're all inclusive and I will use my card for any expenses over that. The hol was really cheap for school holidays so we will probably treat ourselves to the odd meal out in light of that but expecting it to be a cheap week overall.
Oooh and I 'found' the 50 Euro I had left from last year and left with my passports which is a welcome little treat! Annoying to come home with cash but feels great a few months later when it's a little surprise. :rotfl:

The garden is coming on nicely, potatoes and peas are growing nicely, lots of fruit on various bushes and I've never seen so many flowers on the strawberry plants! I'm looking forward to those in a month or so.

I've bought some compost very cheaply from the wholesaler yesterday so this weekend I will be sowing courgettes and beans and then potting up some ornamental plants I've had growing on in a sheltered spot. I am also going to clean the house from top to bottom, it's a bit messy at present and I hate it. DH is playing golf so I've a couple of hours to tackle it before he arrives home to make a mess! :rotfl:

Happy weekend everyone.x

woodfired · 31 May 2019 at 3:18PM

We are back from a fabulous family holiday in Corfu with my 3 Sisters and husbands, one nephew plus Mum & Dad. We had an amazing time, Corfu is beautiful, especially at this time of year as the wildflowers are stunning, the entire island was lit up in colour. The hotel was gorgeous and so was the food (unusual for a cheap-ish European all inclusive in our experience!!).

Holiday spends were very reasonable, just over £350 including 90Euro car hire. That includes airport and plane (drinks) spends too. We ate a couple of lunches out when out and about in the car but the food was so good that we made the most of the all inclusive the rest of the time! :rotfl:

I have updated my budget spreadsheet today and made an OP of £250 which will take us just down into the £116Ks after the interest is applied today. Savings are up to £13k.

I have left the remaining £200 holiday spends in my M0nzo account, I'm going to use that as my spending money for our summer/future holidays and so leave it where it is. I like the fact it has a debit card and so I can just switch to using that for holiday related spending and then can track this spending really easily. I can top it up slowly over the next few months too.

Back home the garden has gone mad in our absence. There seems to have been lots of warm/wet weather - real growing weather - as everything is twice the size it was when I left. I have to confess to looking round the front garden at midnight when we arrived home as I was so excited to see how my plants were doing! :rotfl:

Anyways, I'm up to my eyes in washing, I'd better get going.x

woodfired · 3 June 2019 at 4:46PM

Damn, I've just lost a long post. So the highlights were:

Shrunk the kitchen curtains (badly).

Got going on a spring clean and took them down and washed on a cool wash for the first time, re-hung an hour ago and they're a good 4 inches off the floor. :mad: This is a problem as they are hung at the bi-fold doors. Disaster.
Fabric and lining was expensive and they took my poor mum ages as they are so huge. Gutted.

All washing complete. Wishing I hadn't progressed to curtains now....

First day back at work, caught up on the big jobs. Feels good to be getting organised. VAT due this week so need to finish that off.

£2000 invested in premium bonds in the hope ERNIE comes up good.

The stories in the papers this weekend about unclaimed prizes and 'Agent Million' inspired me!! Plus I'm struggling to find homes for our savings as they grow.

£50 into summer holiday spending money fund.

Burritos for tea with leftover mexican sausages from local butcher, spicy rice and salad. Really fancied a burrito so have made my own.

Still waiting on Mortgage broker as he attempts to find a lender who will lend on one years accounts. Reminding myself of the lovely points to this house; such as the huge garden and especially how economical it is to run, in case we end up staying. It really is lovely and I should be thankful, I've just fallen in love with the next 'project'.... fingers crossed for Mr Mortgage.

woodfired · 9 June 2019 at 11:01AM

Morning All.

A quick update from me whilst my lovely DH makes breakfast

.

We visited an auction yesterday as we needed a van for DHs work. Just for local deliveries etc so nothing fancy. I emptied out a savings account just in case we needed to go to our top budget of £4500 but were hoping to spend less. Found 2 vans at the auction that would suit our needs, a 60 reg and a 64 reg. The 64 reg came through first and we bid up to £4250 but wouldn't go higher and it went at £4300 + VAT and buyers premium (7.5%). The next one was much older and 'scrappier' as my Dad described it, however, it ran OK and would do the job we needed it to. We managed to secure it for £1700, there was no VAT to pay and a lower buyers premium so £1910 all in. This meant that we didn't need to dip into our savings.

It was quite an exciting day, although we were soaked to the bone and freezing by the end of it. We came home and lit the fire, DH popped to the pub over the road for a drink but I stayed at home and binge watched Location with a cup of tea.

This morning we were discussing the savings and decided that instead of putting them back in the account earning 5%, we may as well pay them off the sub-account costing 4.74% each month. So an overpayment of £1495 made, to round the balance down to £115 500. I estimate this sub account should now be around the £5700 mark, down from £12 770 in Feb. We are still on track to have this paid off by October before we re-fix (if we haven't moved) and looking back at my targets, I am only £500 off my mortgage target balance for December of £115 000 :beer:.

The savings target was £20k, we are still a way off this (as we have sent more to the mortgage) but plenty of time to increase yet.

woodfired · 9 June 2019 at 12:09PM

Ok, lots to do today. I have completed the warehouse order for the shop and hung out some dark washing already. I'm going to make the most of this dry day (first in a while) and try to finish the rest of my washing, so final dark load in now and then I have a lights wash to do after that. I also have some dry laundry to sort and fold/iron, will leave that till I've added today's efforts to it then do all in one go.

I need to tidy up downstairs and I have the ingredients for a chicken and bacon pie currently defrosting on the side so need to make a start on that for dinner. Will have with Ald1's jersey royals and green beans.

I could also do with an hour in the garden as the wind and rain has wreaked havoc on some plants. My lovely climbing rose that is about to flower has been blown over and needs tying up and lots of other stuff is looking fairly flat.

Need to try to remedy as much as I can. On the plus side the strawberries look huge and I'm looking forward to our first harvest in a few weeks. The other berries all have great crops on too, can't wait for them all to be ready. The veg is coming on nicely although only two of my runner beans germinated which is disappointing. I need to plant out my courgettes and sweet peas at some point in the near future.

Lots to do, I'd better make a start!

Light the fire...

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