Plodding determinedly up a 300k mountain!

chelseablue wrote: »

Very sorry for your loss x

We have a big mortgage too, current balance £225,814 so will be following your diary!

Thanks chelseablue. Good luck with your mortgage - will follow your diary too.

Into February! Spent most of the last week at work and helping organise the funeral. I think funerals have more drama than weddings. At least after next week I can go back to pretend my douchebag uncle doesn't exist.

So far this week we have mortgage day and rent day, so we put most of one lot of rent on the mortgage as an OP. (£241.48).

It was OH's birthday and we tried out one of the rodizio places as a treat. I managed to find the restaurant on Groupon (£14.50 instead of £22.95 each) and Groupon was TCB so got another 8% back there. Not bad!

Current Balance: £257,500.00

Thanks CathT - it really can. Every time we sorted something about the funeral, he would drop in, convince my grandmother that actually she wanted to do Y but then not put any effort into actually helping. The groupon was great, especially as we were going anyway!

Funeral was on Monday and it was a lovely service, I think he would have liked it. Have learned that the hassle of a funeral plan is not in any way worth it, but local businesses are very good in difficult times and don't try to fleece you at every turn. We had the wake in a local pub, exclusive use of their dining room, a cold buffet, tea and coffee for everyone and we covered the first drink at the bar. Thirty people came and the bill was £350 (and my grandmother ended up with a plate of chicken drumsticks to take home and save her cooking that night).

Both of our neighbours have started to ask when we're getting the back garden redone. I can see what one side are getting at as their garden is immaculate, but the other side are being a little cheeky. Ah well, maybe it means they will contribute to the fences being replaced?

Three quotes so far for replacing all the fences and landscaping the garden. It's a gut it and start again kind of job that we're looking at. 4.9k, 5-6k (dependent on parts) and 10k. So far the 5-6k guy gave me the best feeling of the three so is my current choice. Two more contractors coming tomorrow so will discuss them all with OH and pick soon.

Looking at April/May for the garden so will need to save. Also, we paid £2.7k to have the velux windows replaced in February, which are wonderful and I love having new rot-free frames in my windows that block out so much more noise than the old ones. (And I didn't think the old ones were much of an issue. You buy on a main road in London, next to a pub and train station you don't expect silence in the evenings. But now we have it!)

My overall aim for 2017 is to put 30k into either the mortgage capital, repairs and OH's student loan repayments. So far we have put 2.3k into the mortgage capital and 2.7k on the velux so we are on target. Although the garden means that we won't be able to OP as much as I'd like until the summer.

We did get £200 in OH's payslip in overtime and that has gone on the mortgage.

Current Balance: £257,400.00

What's this? A weekend where I am not working Saturday OR Sunday? It's amazing and I have done very little.

This morning we did our weekly shop at Asda, and am feeling quite happy as the reduced counters were full of good stuff. Enough that we could treat ourselves at a relatively low cost! Loads of bags of veg/stirfry mixes/ beansprouts down to 30p so the fridge is a little full. I did slip and pick up a new GF Goodfella's pizza, but I like to try and support companies that branch into GF food because I want them to keep making it!

Lodgers are both out (I haven't actually seen one of them since Wednesday) and OH is at work so I am sat on the sofa with Netflix and my craft box. I've got a few birthdays coming up and I have enough beads/cord/caps that I can handmake some nice personalised jewellery for folks.

Current Balance: £255,300.00