£161,044.25 reasons to be mortgage free

Alchemilla

We have our seventh coming up too. Nothing too exotic planned though.

wantabetterlife

Hello Alchemilla :wave:, I cant believe we are married almost 7 years. We are heading to venice for three nights and I am so excited. We haven't been on a proper holiday in 6 years so it has been a long time coming. I have been busy reading reviews on restaurants...think I might need to win the lottery before we go by the sounds of things, but hey you only live once. I hope the new pony is keeping you busy and out of mischief .

ajmoney

wantabetterlife wrote: »

Hello Alchemilla :wave:, I cant believe we are married almost 7 years. We are heading to venice for three nights and I am so excited. We haven't been on a proper holiday in 6 years so it has been a long time coming. I have been busy reading reviews on restaurants...think I might need to win the lottery before we go by the sounds of things, but hey you only live once. I hope the new pony is keeping you busy and out of mischief .

We went 5 years ago and didn't find the prices too bad, you just need to eat away from St Mark's Square. My mum gave us some good advice, if you sit down there for a coffee don't choose one of the restaurants with musicians playing at the time as you pay a premium, however if they turn up to play once you are sitting it stays the same price. I don't know if that is still the same 5 years on.

We will have been married for 2 years on Tuesday so not nearly as long but it seems to have flown by all the same.

CathT

Venice sounds fab, have a wonderful time. I seem to take ages to drop through the 1000's too, it's definitely a marathon but we will get there.

wantabetterlife

Thanks for the advice AJ..we are staying very close to St.Marks Square so will have to make an effort to keep away from the expensive places nearby. Someone told me about the music in cafe's...it could turn out to be a very expensive coffee :rotfl:. Happy anniversary to you too.

Hi Cath, its definitely a marathon for us. I seem to have lost my mojo over the past year or so. Its weird because I got a payrise and so did OH, so we have more money coming in than a couple of years ago but when we had less money I was so much more motivated to clear the mortgage ( if that makes sense). I wish I could find it again

On a positive note we saved £100 on our car insurance renewal

Alchemilla

Hi WBL. Sounds like a well deserved holiday.x

wantabetterlife

Oh dear I am not great at keeping this diary up to date...three months since I last posted:eek:.
So where are we?...well we went to venice and it was fabulous..we absolutely loved it! It was expensive but worth every penny

We are now in the 126's :j:j...but only just. I am on SMP next month so things will be tight until I go back to work in January.
The only overpayment I have made was the £40 cashback I received from quidco the other day for booking our venice hotel through Ebookers.
I really need to get a hold on the grocery spending as this has spiralled a lot recently...think I will do a cupboard inventory tomorrow and set myself a challenge for the rest of the month...away to get my thinking cap on.

Muser1

Impressive diary! I can't beleive you have 4 kids and are still able to hammer the mortgage down. Fantastic. xx

mrso2b

Brilliant diary, very inspirational!!

wantabetterlife

Thank you Muser and Mrs02b...I don't feel very inspirational at all. I have seen so many people loose their jobs and houses in the recession and it scares the hell out of me...I need financial security and that is my driving force.

Yes we have four kids and it is hard work at times but I don't buy into the bigger better best theory. The older ones do their jobs in the house and get 50p for each job...cheapskate..lol. They use this money for icecream or to save up for a toy or whatever. My eldest who is eight knows all about buying and selling on ebay and loves a bargain...just like her mummy

I recently bought concert tickets for the family and my mum has very kindly offered to pay for these for us as a treat. So I have just paid the £200 that they would have cost me off the mortgage.
I have decided that I am not doing an online shop this week..our house has been struck with a delightful vomiting bug...the upside is that nobody is eating anything and I haven't made dinner in the last few days. So I will get a few bit like milk and bread from the local shop and make do for this week...Still need to do my cupboard inventory...they are crammed!!