Pay off mortgage and start having fun!

newgirly

I don't know where the time is going lately, its weds already. Today I am going to mr s with my mum and gran, however there is £15 in my purse and a lot to buy. I am doing well with the £10 a day budget but am running down the freezer a bit so may struggle soon.

Gas and elec meters read yesterday but it won't accept my readings as we are closing the acct at the end of the month. I do have £224cr at the moment though so hopefully will get some money back then.

I need to do some work for dh today, it woud be good if we could start to save some of this money, but things keep creeping up like dd's school trip. kids are so expensive! Yesterday one of the boys' friends dads offered dh and the twins free tickets to paintball, which they really wanted to do, but after looking online the balls are £8 per 100 and they play 11 games each all day, you are given 1000 free for the 1st game, so it could end up costing £100's for three of them all day.
Its a very kind offer but we both said no, its just I prefer to not have to explain that its too expensive for us, but don't want to keep making excuses when we are offered to do things iygwim. I don't know, but the main thing is the boys are not too upset over it as we have explained that belts need to be tightened at the moment.

I'm going to look into saving accounts in the next couple of weeks as I do have some (empty) ones but want to make sure i've got the best rate ready to start savin gin the new year. Our deal is up in may so we will definatly save in the run up to that, however with dh's new lower wage we may not earn enough to borrow what we already owe so may not be able to change provider.

Before shopping I will take a look at weezls meal plan to see if there is anything I could make for dinners for me and dh on the cheap.:)

newgirly

I am very happy today, Yesterday after hours online I managed to book tickets for the harry potter studio tour :j It was expensive but thought the inlaws might like to buy them as a xmas present, they usually give us some money to get us and the kids something, and the tickets were less than they usually spend so I'm sure they won't mind.;)

Today I am trying to get through a mountain of ironing which I really don't feel like. Plus I need to do about 15 hours work for dh this weekend which I also don't feel like!

I managed to get some free cinema tickets for dh and my little brother from sky which they went and saw last night, I shall try and remember to do that on a regular basis, I am trying to make a bit more effort to get free or very cheap things to do, we end up being housebound way too much in the winter, or worse end up in the shopping centre.

newgirly

We have had a busy weekend so far, DD at her friends party until 11.30pm for the second week running with another next week, she has a much better social life than me

Yesterday we nearly bought a car :eek: We have an 18month old hyundai I30 which we have had from new,we had part exchanged my small kia and our old galaxy (7seater) for it last year. The car has been great but I prefer having a bigger car as it is a bit of a squash in ours , plus we can never take friends for the kids out for days out or weekends away as the car is full with us in it.

The car we looked at was a 52 plate galaxy which had only done 26K, but unfortunatly had sold just before we got there. I know family and friends will think we are mad selling a nearly new car with 5 yr warranty for a car thats probably 3-4 years older.
I'm not sure if I am being irresponsible really, but thought I would get a more balanced view on here than my family who would not understand me going for a cheaper or same priced car, when you usually trade up iyswim.

Is it a crazy idea?

never_too_old

3 years ago we purchased a 7 seater car, which is wonderful dont get me wrong,but the amount of times 7 of us go out in it well you can count on one hand.Most of the time its just me or me and dd.Its expensive on fuel. So my advice is stick with small.:)

Sepa74

It can be surprisingly cheap to hire a 7 seater if you want to. Frustrating when you already have an investment in a smaller car, but given the number of times you will need all 7 seats, you might find it worth doing occasionally.

Or hire a second car if two drivers are available.

I don't own a car because hiring a car is so cost effective given how much I do it.

newgirly

Thanks Guys! To be honest its a case of I want a bigger car, rather than we HAVE to have one, I miss my old one a bit although perhaps going from a 1.4L new car to an older 2.8 petrol 7 seater might smart a bit at the petrol garage when it needs filling up.

I am hart, do you mind me being nosey and asking how many of you there are and how old the kids are? I'm just wondering how many people with a 7 seater have more than 3. My lot are all elbows with each other in the back when we go out, you would have thought that at their age they would have grown out of that sort of thing by now.:rotfl:

Aside from looking at cars I have spent the weekend eating too much I really need to start my diet again.

never_too_old

newgirly wrote: »

Thanks Guys! To be honest its a case of I want a bigger car, rather than we HAVE to have one, I miss my old one a bit although perhaps going from a 1.4L new car to an older 2.8 petrol 7 seater might smart a bit at the petrol garage when it needs filling up.

I am hart, do you mind me being nosey and asking how many of you there are and how old the kids are? I'm just wondering how many people with a 7 seater have more than 3. My lot are all elbows with each other in the back when we go out, you would have thought that at their age they would have grown out of that sort of thing by now.:rotfl:

Aside from looking at cars I have spent the weekend eating too much I really need to start my diet again.

dont mind you asking.my youngest was 17 yesterday,shes the only one i really ferry around as shes the only one at home. i have 2 grandaughters and we have taken them away a few times. but the need for more than 5 seats is few and far between. it costs me at least £10 a day in petrol doing school run and work .

newgirly

Wiped out another long post!

Thanks I am hart, £10 a day is such a lot, we used to spend £30 a week in the old car but thats probably gone up by a lot since last year. You are definatly putting me off a bit though.

I am going to start thinking about targets for next year, I feel like I have drifted a lot this year and not done that much. I am going to have a chat with dh about what bigger expenses we need to start budgeting for as thats not something we tend to do ever, hence why we have not managed to op that much this year and spent lots on the house and various other things which were not strictly speaking planned for.

On the mse front today I have been bad and put the heating on as the washing was not drying quick enough for school tomorrow , but good with cooking, making 2 different homemade soups and a homemade loaf which is nearly done, the smell of bread is driving me crazy.:D

newgirly

I had a look at the mortgages and offsets available yesterday
and the first direct offset looks like it could be a good one, although our affordability on dh's reduced wages means we would need to get our balance down to about £146K by may , which is possible. They do 2 different interest rates depending on the LTV.
assuming the lowest valuation for our house of £220K we would need to get down to £143K to get the lower rate on 65% ltv.

The point of me doing this research early is I'm keen to make a plan for next year, I had a chat with DH last night and we have decided to OP as much as possible until may, which is a change from us saving instead from jan. I think paying off £6266 by may is not going to happen but its worth going for it as we may get close enough if the house valuation is a bit higher.

We didn't discuss other plans to save for home improvements etc. Our kitchen needs a new ceiling and possibly new units after the bathroom kept flooding, but I would prefer to get the best deal on the mortgage first. I will start to put by a bit of my wages though soon as its dh's 40th next year and I might get him a new i pod classic as he lost his a year ago, plus we might have a 2 night break somewhere.

I can't wait to start oping now, there is no spare cash until jan as I'm clearing the remainder of the overdraft/cc after an expensive summer. But will try and see if I can get a bit extra from TCB, there is already over £100 waiting to clear on there.

I rang my building society to see what I have op'd in the last three months so I can update my figures on cakes 2011 challenge and it took quite a while, since I got my little electronic reader from nationwide I think I went a bit mad and started paying pennies all the time, I can't wait to see how many pages my mortgage statement is at the end of the year.:D

pammyj74

I keep looking at mortgage rates but then keep thinking I may move in a years time so dont want to get stuck in somewhere. While the SVR stays the same, I'll stick with that I think.
Haha on paying little and often, that gave them some work to do