Pay off mortgage and start having fun!

CathT

The Christmas ideal home exhibition sounds like good fun, do they they tend to have any freebies?

newgirly

The only freebies I found was the sherry cath!

I feel a bit bad for saying what with the tickets being free but the ideal home ex. was not that good It was so packed around the small stalls upstairs that you could'nt get to anything and downstairs there was not a lot there and it was as before amd all double glazing/hot tubs etc. There were a few xmas stalls but not many.

Last time we went we had rubber sarnies sat on the floor next to the wheelie bins, this time though was much better ! After an hour at the exhibition we popped on the tube and went to Harrods for lunch, soup and a small wine each £35 :eek: But it was great.
They also had a Harry potter mini world there with props and lots of unusual things I have not seen on sale before, so I took lots of photos to show the kids.

Total spend for me £8.50,( lunch paid for by mum), 2x teas and a pack of xmas biscuits for the kids from harrods and I borrowed dh's oyster card so free travel.

newgirly

I have a day indoors finally this week, at the moment the heating is on for an hour to take the edge off when the kids get up, after that though its going to be brrr!

DH has fixed the tap in the kitchen so we have downstairs cold water again which is good, my kitchen really needs some work doing to it, we still have a hole in the ceiling from when the new boiler was fitted a couple of years ago. I could tart it up add a couple of extra cupbaords under the breakfast bar and have a new sink/worktop and a coat of paint or could stop oping for a few months and have a whole new kitchen.

I really don't know what to do, I want a new kitchen but I don't want to pay for it. I think we will probably go for the tart it up option , although the ceiling does need re-plastering as the old bathroom kept leaking and its in a bad way. The though of having any work doing really puts me off as well.

Anyway, I have not wasted anytime on the mortgage calculator recently so will do that today! So many new plans for next year, one of the ones I need to get organised is the food budget, I am sticking to a very low budget at the moment but its boring and quite repetative as I only plan one day at a time, so I may work out a rotating 2 or 4 week plan to stick to so we get a bit more variety, its what people used to do in the old days!

never_too_old

I would say make do and mend at the moment and see what the new year brings.

I have been following the Grocery challenge since the start of the year( i know something else to read) and after the first few months really noticed my budget coming down big time... with couponing and glitches we do always have lots of food in .I have found that by stocking up on the non food products by using coupons ,special offers etc it means these items dont eat at my budget giving me more to spend on proper food.:D

Thanks for your comment yesterday hes still being a fool but hopefully once he gets paid he will see sense ,otherwise im defeating the object of doing all these things to save money:mad:

newgirly

Fingers crossed you win

Don't feel disheartened as it is still worth putting in the effort to clear the debts and whats the alternative?

I had also been thinking about building up a stash of toiletries/cleaning products /washing powder etc. as if I run out I alaways end up buying dearer stuff in the local shop, perhaps I will have a seperate cupboard somewhere for it.

This morning I have cancelled dd's mobile contact as of the 23rd dec and ordered her a (free) blackberry which is what she wanted for xmas, it was £13.50 pm plus £50 tcb plus they had a limited edition purple one which is her fav colour, its £3.50 dearer than her old contract but she has wanted a bb for 2 years! Tesco had some really good £7.5pm contract mobiles with a really nice free phone included but my sim contract is not up until jan.

Still debating what to do for the younger 2, they have had cheap payg's before but with sim contracts at £5 odd a month that seems a better idea plus they will never run out of credit,only problem is they both need a new phone.

never_too_old

must get off this laptop:eek: currently pay for 4 mobile phone contracts, mine ends in the new year so will look for something cheaper.
Have you seen on grabbit the selection boxes, im off to have a look on way to school:D

newgirly

Typical, I bought lots of selection packs in the 99p store a couple of weeks ago and they were only small ones.

I have wasted hours online today, and worse still have been on rightmove. Its very depressing, everything in our area is a joke, We must be in one of the cheapest houses/roads in the town, but one of the dearest towns.

Currently we are in a 3 bed mid terrace with one bathroom, a conservatory and a big log cabin (that may knock value off though):rotfl:probably worth 230-240k, anyway the cheapest 4 bed (needing lots spending on it) within a mile is £295K and the dearest is 1.6 million.:eek:

Oh well, it puts paid to any fanciful ideas I might get.;)

lulabelle1

Would you ever consider moving? Thankfully I'm not in an area which is really expensive. I'm still less than an hour in to London on the train and placed well for airports etc but it just seems to be cheaper where I am!
We bought our 4 bed detached 5 years ago for around £250k, its prob worth around £225k now. I sometimes get ideas in to my head about moving but I'm not prepared to downsize and I can't afford to buy the same house in Somewhere like Surrey as it would cost me at least £500k which is madness........

newgirly

:rotfl:I am always wanting to move, we have put the house up for sale 4 times in 10 years. But its a nice house , which we bought to make sure we got the kids in the local senior school which is v. good. I don't regret it as they are doing well and we are round the corner from family and friends, its just me wanting it all!

newgirly

I have been on the grabbit board this morning and ordered some xmas baubles for the tree from matalan 3-4-2 and free delivery so £9 for 4 sets, and then a watch for dh to buy me £39.99 reduced to £10, whilst on there I found the watch dh likes that I was going to order from goldsmiths ( £90) which was going to cost me my mr t vouchers plus £40 cash, but I managed to get it for £64 with free del on amazon, so I will double up the vouchers and get something else with them.

Only problem now is earning the extra to pay for it , if not i shall have to squeeze it from the £10 a day budget.
I think I may draw out the cash for the rest of the month or even year to keep in an envelope to see if I can get used to sticking to just spending cash and leaving the cards at home.

Other than the online splurge I have saved a bit by not going food shopping yet as I am still waiting for dd's blackberry to be delivered.