Pay off mortgage and start having fun!

newgirly

Today I am meeting a friend and her two kids for splash time at the pool, I have also said the boys can take another friend too. DD has just said she does not want to go, although she has barely left her room this week.
I'm also supposed to be going for a curry tonight with friends but I really don't feel to good today so might have to cancel.
I really need some time at home to sort things from holiday and get all the school bit sorted, its great meeting up with friends but I feel like I am running out of time a bit. I think the only way to get a break from everything in the 6 weeks holiday is to go away and switch the phone off!

Mortgage wise, i have done no surveys this week except one VO, but I have been thinking about xmas, I managed to get ds2's main xmas present really cheaply. He wants an electric guitar and amp, and I found a 3/4 size one on grabbit from argos, £100 reduced to £59 then afetr it was reserved it was going the the tills at £39.99, very pleased with that. None of them want any expensive electricals this year ( I think they have most bits already ) so I am going to have as cheap a xmas as possible, but still with tons for the kids to open. One of the favourite presents last year was a big nearly new football table for £29 on ebay, it was only a stocking filler but they have played with that way more than everything else put together.

Anyway, I should get up and get on , two are still asleep in bed

pammyj74

I dont really have a clue what my lot want for xmas and im panicing that i wont have enough stuff, i am normally half done by now.

As for the house blitz i keep meaning to do it as my friend is coming over and her house is always spotless. In fact when I was there she was still cleaning up around the kids :eek: My DD says at least you can tell we live in our house!

I would love to get on a fix rate thats close to 3.5%, im same at cath with the halifax.

newgirly

Two days seem to have flown past. Today was a sad one, I went to a funeral for my friends baby who passed away last week, very sad, but a nice service, or as nice as it can be in those circumstances.

Anyway, I am just about to go through the finances properly for the first time in ages, it will be bad as I bought the boys' new school stuff this week and I know its going to be in the region of £400 ish. Will check back later if i manage to sort it out.

newgirly

I have been good today , a NSD. Although the amount I have spent this week I doubt it would make much difference.:o

Tonight the inlaws are taking us out for an indian as a belated birthday treat for the kids, its always nice to have a freebie!

Today I have cleaned up the garden and log cabin, as there were still lots of left overs from the parties last month still around, lots of those party poppers glued to the decking. Its looking good now though, I have a very good friend coming over monday for drinks and a movie in the log cabin, I can't wait as she lives in thailand and I hardly get to see her.:beer:, so a good reason to clean up!

Money wise, its too tight at the moment, with the new uniforms and equipmment , plus the holiday spending money we have spent an extra £1000 odd this month.
What I would love to do is clear the 0% cc this year instead of taking the full 12 months so i can start with a clean slate in january, financially it would be better to let it run the full 12 months at 0% but I'm impatient to clear it.

newgirly

DH had to go into work today, so I took the boys to the local country park this morning and this evening they have a party. I also went to the garden centre and resisted the urge to buy a big yankee candle and spent just £1.75 on a little one.

Whilst mooching on rightmove again , I have found a house a couple of hundred yards away in our street up for sale, exactly the same type and size as ours, (for £233K, plus it doesn't have a conservatory, interesting to see what they get), so anyway I have been noseying at the pictures and have come across what I believe to be my cat asleep on the bed.:rotfl:
Its not the house of the cat thieves, but quite close by, and I know for a fact she has gone into lots of neighbours houses before.

She is pure white but looks a little lilac in the photo like the bedroom walls! The kids are convinced its her and there are hardly any cats where we live as its a busy road.

Now I have fame in the family at last.:D

newgirly

:mad: Gas and electric DD has just been put up to £124 from £85. I just had a meter reader round and checked online and my statement had been put up to £124 then I saw my actual usage is a lot higher!

I need to work out why on earth its gone up so much, I think that £85 was probably a bit low for us, with so many blooming games consoles and tv's plus the hot tub.

On a brighter note, I have an old friend coming over tonight who lives in thailand, for pizza, lots of alcohol and the hot tub if we are not too stuffed, a proper girly night in, yay! I need it after all these weeks with the kids off school , s*d the electric bill, for tonight anyway. :beer:

newgirly

We had a good night last night, until gone 1 this morning actually, we skipped the hot tub and had more wine instead :beer:, feeling ok today though, I think my friend may be feeling a bit worse than me.

I'm staying in today to catch up with washing and sitting around on the laptop when I can prize it off the kids, although its just started raining and I refuse to use the drier after yesterdays bill.

On a totally not mse note, I think I am going to order the kids a netbook each for xmas today :eek: I have found a good deal on mr t website for £50 off if you spend over £200, plus they are cheaper than elsewhere, 3%tcb, AA CC points and clubcard points. So they work out around £142 each. its about what we spend on them anyway , but I will have to do homemade/cheap/sweetie extra presents and try and reign in spending too much on extras to open.
I will keep the deskop in the conservatory for schoolwork only at a proper desk(when I find one i like on ebay), then they can play on their little ones.
Scary spending that much in one hit though, but the deal ends on the 24th, so i think i will bit the bullet and do it today.

DD has a friend round for the day, so if the boys can occupy themselves I will spend some time making a proper plan of the finances for the rest of the year, and maybe next year too if I get carried away.

newgirly

Well today has been good and bad, Its our 15th wedding anniversary today, and dh had a meeting after work and was v. late, I have excused him though as he has bought me a sewing machine!

I was very surprised to say the least, I don't know how to use it though so need to do a bit of reading first, but I have been after one for a few months now, what a star :j

The bad news is the meeting was with the accountant, and they have decided to wipe out some old debts over the next couple of years so will be running at a loss, so no share dividends for the forseable, and dh has also decided on a 3% pay cut for all (cancelling out everyones 3% payrise earlier on this year), not good news for the staff at all.
We can manage, but the combination of the bigger gas/elec dd and losing around £70 wages has added another 8 months to the projected (optimistic) end date of clearing the mortage.

I have also ordered the kids 3x netbooks , so have said to dh it should be token gifts for ourselves this year, and I shall try and get together v cheap or homemade stocking fillers for the kids to try and balance out the cost.
This is always the plan, but I never normally stick to it, and end up going on a splurge at the last minute.

newgirly

I've already managed to get the sewing machine in a bit of a tangle, so dh will have to dismantle it when he gets home, it may take a while to master

Today i have wet washing everywhere, as its still raining. I have also done something mse and prepared dinner from not a lot, value ingredients spag bol for dh, and veggie leftovers curry for me, the kids can have freezer dinners.
Now the weather has turned, I feel more like cooking again, I need to start using the breadmaker too.

This afternoon I am popping round a friends who has taken in 5 abandoned kittens, they were found in a garden nearby and she has been feeding them milk all week they are only around 4 weeks old. They are being colllected at the weekend by the cats protection league. Its going to be very hard to resist! But I have to tell myself I MUST NOT GET ANOTHER CAT.

Another thing that I have just thought is that dh's wages dropping a little will have an effect on re-mortgaging next may with some providers.

The descision has still not been made really whether to op or save for the loft/move. However we know there will be no extra money coming in for at least 2 years, possibly longer. So I think I may as well commit to a 2 year deal, which means we can stay with chelsea which are doing a very good deal at the moment, fingers crossed for next year too!
We are still on IO, but can op by 10% of balance a year, our official end date is may 2012, so we will have 10 years left in may.

The drop in wages and rise in gas/elec costs, may have done me a favour in a roundabout way as I have let things slip a lot and we have spent lots this year, I do think I need to slow done on the spending and focus on getting the large mortage down for a while. It has been a wake up call this week.

newgirly

Great news today, I have had 2x halifax reward acct payments through on tcb from last year £100 in total, I thought they had definatly been rejected.:j

I have not op'd it yet, as still not decided on plans yet, I also had another £10 odd payable too.

Today the final 2 netbooks have been delivered from mr t, I am pleased with them, dd has an acer happy pale blue one and its really nice, they boys have identical black ones so I will have to but some stickers. I am glad I went for it, as I probably would have spent as much on random bits anyway, these will get a lot of use.

My approved food delivery is due in a couple of hours but there is nowhere for it to all go, 30 small tins of beans, 20 of chopped toms, plus lots of other stuff, my kitchen is bursting at the seams already.I have not told dh about it, but he will think I've finally gone too far! best not tell him its out of date.:rotfl: