I honestly feel like I’ve done little else this past week except house stuff. My house went on the market on 28th August and it was agreed no viewings until one week later to give me a chance to work through a long list of job. All week I have been jet washing the driveway and patio, tidying garden and garage, de-cluttering the house, painting the bathroom ceiling and visiting the tip. It felt endless, especially the bathroom ceiling that took forever to strip, sand, fill and repaint, all done by me! But cost me just £45, rather than maybe £200 to a painter/decorator.
My lovely neighbour also did some of the jobs that I couldn’t, a bit of carpentry in my dining room, and getting up on a ladder to fix roof pointing, along with taking down Christmas lights that have been up for around five years. I managed to get everything done by the day before the viewings. Also with so much help from my eldest son earlier in the week, he has more than earned his pocket money for the next few months.
Yeah for my house being well and truly on the market and looking lovely. I had ten viewings on Saturday, and am sat here wondering if any will turn into offers. The feedback was positive from some of the viewings so we shall see. Fingers Crossed.
It does make you realise how nice your house actually is, when you get all those annoying nagging jobs done, and my garden is beautiful, very tidy, with berries in the trees and the mostest beautiful sunflower. It makes me smile every time I look at it.
My Book The Money Guide To Transform Your Life is One year old
1st Sept saw the one year birthday of my book! How has a year gone by like that so quickly? I wrote this post on the six things I have learnt about writing a book, including sharing how much cash I have made from writing a book. Its not as much as you might think!
Or maybe you just want to get hold of a copy? Its now just £12.99 from my website where you can a signed copy direct from me. Or you can order from Amazon, where I make much less money from the sale;-).
The Money Guide to Transform Your Life is packed full with all the tips you need to get your finances in order. Perfect for a September reboot. I talk about finance for now, debt payment, budgeting, money saving on bills, family time, holidays, food. I also talk about finance for the future, savings, pension, investment and protection. Everything you need in 200 pages and laced with many stories from my life where I have learnt so much about money.
Back to The Spending Diary and BEING CONSUMER DEBT FREE!!
A huge chunk of money was paid this week, but it does mean that I am now 100% consumer debt free. Sept 1st saw my final balloon payment on my car that I bought 3 1/2 years ago. I have been paying £176 every month and had a final payment of £11,362 to pay, that I had been saving up for. I paid in full and am now the owner of my wonderful Toyota hybrid car.
It feels pretty damn special to be totally consumer debt free! I shared this post on Instagram (sorry about the typo) and its been seen by 25k people and liked by 1500 people. Officially my biggest Instagram post ever!
Time at the beach
Once all the hard house work was done I had a day at the coast, staying from Friday to Saturday in Walton-on-The-Naze. It was meant to be three days but was cut short due to illness. Never mind these things happen. This cost £214 in accommodation, dinner and drinks purchased for the weekend. A big chunk of spending for the week on holiday costs. We had the most beautiful Saturday at Frinton beach in the beach hut. I wet swimming, collected shells and had a thoroughly lovely time lying on the beach catching up on life.
Bills Week
The first week of the month is always bills month, and this month my regulars were all paid, £1,563, mostly made up of my mortgage that will soon be getting considerable cheaper. I am in conversations with Santander about porting over my mortgage to a new property, with a much lower mortgage required. But if you are looking to re-mortgage, give Trussle a go, an independent broker who were brilliant with my mortgage in 2020.
Other bills paid include council tax, water, electricity and gas, TV license, Disney+ and income protection insurance
Food Spend
My grocery spend was £93 which did include the drinks for the weekend away, plus two lots of recipe box subscription, Hello Fresh and Mindful Chef, yes I forgot to cancel Hello Fresh:-(. Eating out spend was just £79, made up mostly of weekend away costs where I appeared to be the only one with a card with me when it came to paying.
My food diet has been very good this week as my healthy eating continues. I’ve resisted the temptation to weight myself again to check in on my weight loss, but I know that I am losing a lot of weight. I can tell from clothes becoming looser and my fitness levels improving and I am loving it. I have done so much exercise this week too, swimming, body pump, 2 x 5km runs, fitness yoga, miles of walking and hours and hours of house stuff. The next time I can check my fat loss and weigh myself is end of Sept, using the Boditrax machine at the gym.
Clothes Spend
I had a Circle of Style delivery this week, a box of second hand stylist picked clothes to suit my style, size and shape. It was the first box so I need to give them a chance, but I did love this blouse and have kept it, it was £21. Bargain.
Other Spends
We tried a new hair dressers this week for the boys, and they really liked it, £22 spent on back to school haircuts. There was £95 on additional car costs this week, monthly tax, insurance and fuel. I spent £28 on boring extra house stuff, light bulbs and lampshades. Apparently a big no no is to have light bulbs that don’t work in house viewings. There was also £26 on business expenses.
Savings
£190 went to my savings this week, although I did reverse the Plum auto saving of £90 as I needed to keep the cash in my account for my monthly credit card bill that is paid in full. I also made my regular monthly transfer of £100 into my Stocks and Share ISA. This is now doing rather well where I have a balance of £2550 and the growth on the money is huge, £340 is my investment gain in just over one year of restarting my investing journey again.
Total Spends
My total spend for the week was £13,608. But let exclude the final car payment and the monthly bills. Taking my regular spending down to £682, this feels like my new normal of post covid life spending, at around £600. A week with less than £600 is a good week!
Thanks for reading as ever!
