Frugaleers saving and chatting through April

[SunnyLikeThursday]

Newbies welcome to join us for a bit of chat about budgeting, saving, paying off debt, and everything else that comes along.

Ooh third awesome thing, well we did send off for DH's packaged account refund so maybe that'll come back soon :o

Oh and sorry to hear you are not feeling 100% Need def rest if your body is telling you to!

We've crunched the numbers.

Our max offer will be £483k. We will do the roof,take it off the market, no further viewings.

I suggested to dh we push for them to do the roof but they're likely to do it on the cheap. And we want to make sure it's done properly. So a bit of scaffolding etc won't hurt. I can live with it. It is necessary.

If we can get the neighbours to pay half too (as theirs must be in a similar condition) it'll be good. Fil would charge cost. We'd have to get scaffolding etc. Dh has also suggested a "while you're up there" job and get gutters and facias changed too. Which makes sense while scaffoldongs up make the most of it.

So. On the basis we sell for our absolute bare minimum. We'll be looking at a mortgage of around £240k. Plus whatever the interest is. Dh said the bank suggested 1.9% fixed 5 years. So that's reasonable. And better than ours at present.

So we go in with the offer tomorrow. I am scared. But excited. This could be the forever home people. This could be it. must not get too excited as it could all fall flat and I hate hate hate packing

Sounds awesome Em and like you've really thought it all through. Hope they accept! :)

Sunny best of luck for the dentist trip. Hope you can enjoy the non-dentisty bits of the trip and have a little adventure.

Need hope you feel better!

Seacow gosh the organisation (lack of) of these people! I mean it's only a child's wellbeing at stake, no rush eh? FFS. Hope the meeting goes well and that you get everything needed done tonight.

Strawberry hope you hear about the interview. Waiting is horrible, I'm sorry you don't feel like it went well. Can you face asking for feedback if it doesn't go your way?

Oo good luck em.

Good luck today seacow and sunny and em

Started my day listening to old-school Blur in the car. There may have been singing

Hoping for a LSD. Hopefully just a sandwich and maybe some washing up sponges

Good luck to everyone who needs it!

Super busy day today just getting dd and Ds to school then work ten school pick up, swimming lessons and back home for five mins before we need to take dd out to a concert she's in. I'm stressed already! Not sure when we will fit dinner in. Should be a nsd though.

Food in the car wrecked?

Oh Cag, that is tough mentally for your DH. In a way, more so than physically I would think. Bloody good for him to challenge himself like that though. I think it's good to test yourself to the limits occasionally. My 25 mile run on Sunday sounds tougher than it is, it's run walk/climb at a very steady pace and can take hours, with refreshments stops. So tough, but doable. Some walk, some run.

Em How does the fact that you are not sold yet work in Jersey? It would put you on the back foot here, but you might have a very different system. Good luck, exciting times.

Girlie Bloody work

Creme I would definitely let you know if I came to Durham. I have a sneaky feeling we would get on just fine in RL .

Seacow Thanks for the explanation. Sadly, I imagine the late paperwork is far more the norm than the exception. Good luck for today. You are really sorted and know the system though (albeit from the NHS). It's very clear how level headed and sensible you are about your DS and will be confident enough to assert his needs.

Sunny Good luck. You have probably gone so it will be too late. I agree with Girlie, turning it into an adventure is a positive thing.

Thanks for you comments. The snot is coming out But I did sleep for nearly 9 hours last night, unheard of for me.

Today is my day off, so I am Ebay listing, domestic chores, updating finances and the like.

Spends.
£15 PT session (whether I go or not you have to pay, fair enough, he's busy).
£XX camping shop if I get there, but someone from the running club has a discount card.

Morning all, the tt went really well, had 19 turn up, which is v good for this early in the season. Carrot cake flapjack was very yummy but a bit sticky, will add more oats next time as I hadn't allowed for the dates melting (as they do). Only £5.90 yesterday on 2 coffees at costa, dp bought the kids macdonalds, so I got the better deal!

Have already spent £19 on a 'retro' graphic calculator on ebay this morning- I need to work out split lap times v quick for next tt, and my trusty a-level (circa 1992) one has sadly passed away. But I used it for all of school, college and working for 5 years doing navigation sums on it every day, so it owed me nothing.

em that sounds so promising, a shot roof is a really good bargaining tool (especially if you have a roofer in your pocket so to speak). I take it your flat will sell super quickly.

Good luck seacow today.

21 degrees here! Said a few goodbyes today even got a hug from one of the male partners and he told me to make sure I come back

Getting some anxiety symptoms today which is annoying. Had it really bad at work, just the heart beating fast. Stopped now though. I think I don't want to leave my job. Well, I do and I know it'll be good but I love it where I am and love the people I work with so I'm feeling a bit

You'll love it where you're going too Wreck.

em Good luck. I like your Dh's garden plans. Our neighbours hired a digger. It looked great fun.

£38 petrol
£4 lidl
£41 aldi
£8 wilko but forgot the bastard bench cover. Teak oil, grass seed, egg cups.

Had a hospital appointment today so had to pay for parking, DH had to take me as I still can't drive. We bought coffees at the hospital and spent £15 in M&S for lunch. We never splurge on such things so it felt like a treat even though we ate it in the car!

How was the dentist, Sunny?

Good idea to maximize use of the scaffolding, Em. When will you know if your offer is accepted?

Hello everyone 😊

I hope everyone had a good day, dentist visits and houses.

I went to college, and have ordered from eBay as it was cheaper, a L'Oréal total cover foundation (I love a heavy look) for £7.95, a £25 saving on my usual, so we will see how it goes but I'm trying it.

First of all my parents said no to going out tomorrow, but I explained I've been alone for weeks, my back and my boyfriend, and I'd love to just get out. So Mum said yes, so friends and I are off out tomorrow, just some cheap food and I don't drink much so one large wine and that'll do me.

Sold tickets I bought as a surprise for my boyfriend 😟 but will no longer use, for £60. Also doing extra shifts at work over Easter so that's all good. Financially doing well. Yay.

Snuggly I love M&S food, luckily it's miles from me. What did you have?

Just had brief read back through the thread as I've been getting behind - lovely to see so many bits of good news for people!
We've had a rough week with DS and I've been to stressed with him to think about this but we're back on things now.
We had a fab walk in the park with a couple of NCT friends and enjoyed the sunshine (20 degrees!!) and we chatted about money worries - we've agreed that next time the whole group meets we'll set the ground rules that we're not splitting bills and we'll all pay for ourselves which has made me feel a lot better.
Should have been a NSD but I bought a parking pass for the park as we go there so often - £35 but it does last a year.

Hope everyone's days been fab.

need to answer your question. It may put us on the back foot. Generally here there are 6 weeks between offer being accepted and property going through court.

If we sold now we'd be pushing to find somewhere to buy and may have to settle or would hold up people.

The agents are confident investors would like our place. They could rent it out for £1800 pcm. So we'd have no chain.

Worst comes to worst if our place was sold to an investor we could negotiate to rent it back for a month at a time before we found somewhere.

I don't know. If our offer is accepted by the time the place goes through court it will be empty. So we'd have no onward chain.

Well done Rosie. I hate splitting bills, there's always someone who orders loads more than you.

I managed to get a refund of £104 accumulated credit on my BT account. Plus they threw in one years free broadband for being a loyal customer. I also managed to reduce my direct debits from £40 to £27 monthly as I'm not using my landline as much.

Also, I switched to a different mortgage rate and saved myself £100 monthly. So a bit of a result there today, lots of money saved.

Chocolate thats a fantastic frugalley day- well done!
Snuggly Sounds like a lovely lunch, nothing like a good M&S lunch splurge to feel like a treat. Always reminds me of when I was a kid and as a very rare summer treat my mum would pick up a few bits from there for us to eat in the park after being dragged round town
Not heard about the interview yet, so guess they'll get in touch tomorrow. I've been in my current role for 2.5 years but now I've started to look elsewhere I've realized it really is time to move on, I was getting really annoyed by my boss's management style today so think I'll be filling in a few more applications over the coming weeks!
Not spent anything so far but about to go for a swim so that'll be £2.60 so a LSD again here, hoping tomorrow and Saturday are NSD's as I'm on a free course at my local community garden

Brilliant frugal wins there chocolate. Well done.

Yes I'm chuffed with that as money is tight for us atm as I'm a sahm so just relying on dh's wage. Life is expensive especially with kids and bills to pay so I try to cut corners where I can.

It's worth switching mortgage deals to a lower interest rate, do shop around. I've also cancelled sky tv so that's another £35 saved.

Good work chocolate

Spicy chicken pittas and salad for dinner. Yummm

Great savings there chocolate

Have had a bit of a cba day, think I'm tired. Went to Sainsburys and spent £33. But £16 of that was new school trousers for dd1 and polo shirts for ds, both badly needed. Rest was food, avoided all house stuff and stationery, my sainsbo's weakness.

Instead of tea I'm taxing a whole tube of walkers stax (bit like pringles). Not sure if this is frugal.

We're back now. The dentist was very very (jedi) nice and has a scheme to fix ds's tooth with no drilling and no sedative, which is good. We have to go back on Monday.

I'm totally knackered from all the travelling as I've not done anything as far as that since burning out, and didn't get on with trains before anyway. I made it there and back in one day though, more or less intact, so quite proud of that. Resting up now for Monday.

We went to a nice B&B to have a stop after the dentist, and ds enjoyed that. We've only travelled to family before so that was a big treat. He aspires to have their lampshades in our house now.

We spent eye watering amounts of money on that trip. The full amount will become clear on Monday when the dentist gives us a bill.

Train: £85
Car rental: £40
Dentist: about £400

The car rental people phoned after we got home to ask for their satnav back, but they hadn't given us one. That's going to be interesting to sort out.

oh, and the B&B was £75.