Onwards & Upwards - Part 2

hypno06

I like the idea of tackling one area where the progress will be noticed immediately, otherwise I find that I spend all day doing stuff and getting to the end of the day and wondering whether it has actually made any difference at all!

Have a good day and enjoy the time with your friend x

[Deleted User]

Just a quick update, I have gone through the change in my Terramundi – I didn’t break it just used tweezers to get out the £2 coins in there. I have managed to save £40, so that is going in the bank on Monday. I’m not going to put £2 coins in there until next year, any I get I am going to save and then bank at the end of the month. Next year I am going to try and fill it, in the mean time just £1 and 50p coins are going in.

Hypno – I agree and I think that I will tackle the very cluttered areas first as I think it will give me the incentive to carry on with the rest.

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I have also been brainstorming and I’m going to go in to the mortgage place and ask them about over paying the loan and find out what I need to do. If I can I want to try and get £50 per month paid off (£600 per year) I’m sure that if I can achieve that it will save us some money on the interest on it and hopefully save us some money per month in the long run? We are currently paying £144 per month on it.

Looking at the snowball calculator we’ll be debt free on that by 2022 instead of 2028...God that seems like such a long time. My kids will have left school by then too! No point dwelling on it 7 years and I can work full time again and then plough more in to it.

I would love to overpay the mortgage too but that’ll have to wait for the time being.

hypno06

Yes, 2022 sounds a long way off, but I reckon that with each year that goes by, you will be able to pay more than the £50 per month overpay and the DFD will actually come forward quite considerably.

Aim to pay, for example £50 a month off for the next two years, then £100 a month after that for a couple of years, increasing it as you can as you go along.

[Deleted User]

hypno06 wrote: »

Aim to pay, for example £50 a month off for the next two years, then £100 a month after that for a couple of years, increasing it as you can as you go along.

That's quite a good way of thinking, even if I only increase it by an extra £20 per month for the 2 years after that and then gradually increase it to £100 after that.

Thanks Hypno, always good to have someone elses eyes on it

Jo_R_2

Good suggestion by hypno.

Re: the decluttering, I'm doing it v-e-r-y slowly in our house, and my approach has been to work initially through the more dire but most used areas if that makes sense.

So have started with downstairs, I changed the conservatory from basically a storage-come-playroom to a usable space (do I sound like I'm on some property makeover programme LOL?) I certainly didn't do it overnight but went through what I wanted to do with it, stuff like rearrange things that would stay in there to make more use of space (we now have a laundry corner - our kitchen won't fit the tumble dryer, and the fridge freezer is squished right next to it behind the back door), I scoured Ebay for a secondhand sofa, bought new curtains and a rug. I got OH on hand and we went through all the stuff in there I didn't want in there and categorised it into rubbish (throwable or recyclable), OH's work stuff (toolbag, garage, work van etc), toys (DS has a small toybox tub in the living room, DDs' room, or get rid) and anything else that could be moved to a more appropriate place, or sold. I then gave it a good cleaning, vacuuming and dusting before putting the new sofa in and hanging the new curtains.

I always like to write out a little list before I tackle things, and give myself some sort of timescale as I know in our house these things will never ever get done in a day/week!

[Deleted User]

Monday and the start of another week and one step closer to half term

Jo – I know what you mean about the conservatory, ours is horrendously cluttered up. We vowed that it would end up as a useable space and has ended up being used for storage for all manner of things. One half is a utility area, as our kitchen is too small to accommodate a lot of things and the other half is an office/toy area/climbing/flying/bikes area.

DH is home all week this week, which will positively ruin my routine. He was saying yesterday that there is talk of him being on site at Norwich 5 days a week in a couple of weeks until the end of the job. He’s not too keen on it happening but knows that a job is a job and he’s got to do what he can to keep it at the moment.





Any how on to today, got lots going on and I fear not a lot of time to do it. My weekly list looks like this:

• Washing
• Ironing (I know!)
• Clean bathroom
• [STRIKE]Clean glass[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Polish[/STRIKE]
• Hoover through
• Change beds
• Tackle at least one cluttered area - Bookcase/dvd case done so far
• Get in touch with DD’s speech therapist and ask her about next date to see her

Today’s chores look like this:

• [STRIKE]Wash up[/STRIKE]
• Washing - One load in washer, one load in drier.
• [STRIKE]Bank £40 in £2 coins[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Tesco’s for milk and yogurts[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Sort dinner out – Peppercorn chicken, mash and peas[/STRIKE]
• Climbing club with the kids

I’m sure that there’s more that I need to add on to my list for the week but can’t think for the life of me.

Right off to get motivated and get the kids ready for school, have a good day everyone.

[Deleted User]

Morning, feeling a bit tired today but at least it’s one step closer to pay day for me.

I’ve got a meeting at the school this morning. The teachers of the Reception Class want to discuss with the parent’s their ‘new style’ teaching; it’ll be interesting to find out what aspects of teaching they think the littlies will grasp.

I did ask the Headmistress yesterday about DD staying for lunch a bit earlier than was planned, okay only by two weeks or so but four kids dropped out and they moved some of the oldest in her class up to full time already, I don’t see what moving her up to lunches earlier is going to cause any problems….fingers crossed she’ll say yes.

Kids went climbing last night and DS got to have a go at the warm up that they do for the main club that he’ll be joining on Sunday.

Checked online banking and there’s nothing much to come out until the first of October as far as I can tell, just hoping that there’s no surprises in between.

Off to get motivated, have a good day everyone.

[Deleted User]

Back again, just a quick update before I go to work.

The meeting was interesting, it was all about how the teachers are teaching the kids to read and write and sound out letters and how we as parents can help our child to progress at school. I spoke to the SENCO who’s DD’s/Class teacher and asked her how DD’s getting along in class and with the other kids and apparently she’s settled in well despite her speech problem and that she wants to make an appointment with me to discuss what to put on DD’s I.E.P.

Washing up done, one load in washer finished and in tumble drier and another load in the washer and dinner made (spaghetti Bolognese tonight) Pork is also marinating in the fridge for dinner tomorrow night.

Have done the calculations for the rest of the month and it is so going to be tight, I have a little savings which might need to be used towards DH’s payday but secretly hoping that we won’t need to.

Right off to work.

taxi73

All sounding very positive and upbeat and very organised

Jo_R_2

Steady there woman, you're putting the rest of us to shame!:o:D

We had a meeting for DD2 a couple of weeks ago as well as negotiating the staggered days - luckily DD2 only had 4 days of half days before she started full days - good job as it was knackering me out walking to and from school three times a day! - so it must be awkward when they drag it out longer. Hope you get a 'yes' from the headteacher on that.