Pay off mortgage and start having fun!

newgirly

MissOptimistic wrote: »

Hi Newgirly
Ive lurked on your thread for a while now and just wanted to say what an inspiration you are... We have a similar monthly income to you but somehow we never seem to have enough money, even to pay our few debts let alone overpay on our mortgage too. I think in our case it is all the 'toot' you refer to that we spend on that doesn't help. For instance, today I had to go and buy cards and gifts x 4 for Fathers Day (my DH, my DAD, DH dad and DH stepdad) - came out of Tescos £53 lighter :eek: Admittedly a few extra things did sneak into the basket, but thats my problem
Regarding the Gold, I wouldn't have a problem with the Wedding Ring, but the ring from your parents I would find harder to part with even if I hadn't worn it for years

Hi missoptimistic, its purely down to this site! I am definatly an all or nothing person. Before I used to constantly check our current account to see if there was any money spare that day/week not put aside for bills and the only interesting part of the credit card statment(s!) was not the balance owing bit, but the "available credit" bit as that felt like money I had to spend.

Not owing loads of money on credit cards and the mortgage felt like something that would never happen to us and its only reading diaries on here and gradually changing habits over the last 2 years that made me feel back in control and like anything is possible.
It feels like a weight has been lifted as I know we will get there in the end, and I feel a lot more appreciative of things than I did before. We still have a long way to go and are prone to having financial blowouts, but the debts and mortgage are on the way down which is the main thing, We spent on average £10k a year more than we earnt over the last 15 years, it took a long time for that lightbulb moment, but thank goodness it came as with the wages down we may possibly have lost everything.

Sorry this has turned into an essay

Nto, I very rarely go to t*scos now so last time only had £1.00 in vouchers, it would probably take too long to save for annual passes I should think.
As for the rings , DD would not want any of them, plus both me and my mum have some quite big sparklers that have been left to us that she will get in the future anyway as mine are the only kids in the family and she is the only girl.

pink_poppy

Oh I'd love a big sparkler!! Maybe when the mortgage has been paid off...

newgirly

What a busy week its been, yesterday we had family round in the morning then went round the inlaws for lunch. My b & sil are moving away with their 16yr old dd to lincolnshire , which mil is seriously not happy about , so it made for a very colourful lunch :eek: They had brought all the brochures etc, (I think they thought we would diffuse the situation a bit us there with the kids) they are in a very small 2 bed flat in an area thats on the outskirts of london and not the best, for the same price as a 3 bed new house with garden, still staying MF. He can move jobs within the same firm, so it seems a no brainer really.

Que me spending hours on rightmove last night wistfully looking at huge new 4 bed houses in the country for about 60k less than our house.:( Why can't we have houses priced like that where we are its not fair!

Anyway, moan over. I've just ordered this weeks veg box, and will be able to use the cc again in a few days time thank goodness.
We are going to centerparcs at the end of july (plus it all 3 kids birthdays withing a couple of weeks of that). So I have to be really careful. Kids presents a bought and or money set aside, ds1 wants to go to the london dungeons with a friend and ds2 chessington ( will only have to buy 1 extra ticket for each) I'm hoping dd will keep it simple.

I've no money to take to centerparcs but all the activities are booked and paid for , only the cheapie ones of course , so I might try and start building a stash to take with us of food , I have toiletries from tesc*'s offers last week. Then its just petrol, we have a CP an hour away from us in suffolk but it was a lot dearer than the nottingham one, so i went for the cheaper option.

MissOptimistic

Oooh have a great time at CP - We went at the beginning of May for my DD birthday - we are about half an hour away from the Nottingham one, but going there doesn't feel like 'going away' so we usually go the one in the Lake District (DH always complains that we are crazy driving 2.5 hours when there's one on our doorstep but the scenery on the way there is nice!:o)
We went to the Nottingham one at Christmas to use the Spa on our Wedding Anniversary which was lovely, think it was £60 per couple for 3 hours - our little anniversary treat!
I have just had an hour to kill while my car was in the garage, so popped to the Lidl across the road - Think I am definitely going to Boycott T*scos now I have enough clubcard vouchers for free return travel on Eurotunnel this August for our Holidays :j :j
Ive looked on the Store Locater for Aldi, but its the other side of town, so maybe a fortnightly trip there to stock up may be an idea.
Do you ever shop in Lidl newgirly?

newgirly

Hi, I did go in lidl's on saturday as we were driving past and I wanted to get picnic bits for our day out but did'nt want to risk tescos and buying more than I needed and using the cc. It is cheap but the one about 20 mins from us is not a very nice shopping experience. We have an aldi in our nearest town which is much better but packed most days. I just hate shopping altogether now, we are lucky we have 2 shops around the corner plus a butchers and bakers so although its dearer I can walk and not overspend as I can't carry it all!

CP's spa sounds great, we have only been for one weekend with the kids before and I loved it , its just SO crazily expensive though.

MissOptimistic

Yes it is very expensive, we tend to do the cheaper activities such as Badminton (and take our own raquets), table tennis, lots of swimming (totally free!) and we also like to have a BBQ - although buy your disposable one before you go as you can get them for £1 in the poundshop near us, but they are £6 at CP :eek:
I think its just the quality time with family and surroundings that make it so nice though. The first time we went, we hired bikes, but for 5 of us it cost around £125 for the weekend. We saved up for Roof bars and cycle carriers which cost us £300, but we have been to CP a further 3 times taking our own bikes and we can also go for lovely days out now exploring cycle routes now DD can peddle a bit faster which is lovely and free especially if we take a picnic, so they are earning their money back

newgirly

I'm fed up today, still can't use the cc yet as this months bill has not been created and had a letter from the police as dh has done 50 in a 40 limit :mad: he already has 3 points from a couple of years ago for doing 20mph over a bridge in london. Sooo cross with him, he will have to pay.:(

I really need to go food shopping, but am unsure as to whether to try and shop locally and online regularly or go and do a bigger storecupboard shop first. My budget is £10 a day for everything at the moment whilst I clear the 0% cc this year. My storecupboards are running down a bit as I've only had £7 a day lately which is not enough. This includes petrol which is not too bad as I don't use th car a lot now except to school if its raining a lot, but dh likes to pop out a lot at weekends here and there so that is not helping.

Somedays I just feel like getting a trolley at m&s and filling it up!

never_too_old

How annoying,its hard when you try so hard to be good and they throw money away.OH did this last year not points but was stopped by police for not wearing his seatbelt.now how long ago did we have to start wearing seatbelts.He was fined but it would be waived if he did an online course. I kept on at him to do it and he didnt,he left and left it and never paid.It turned out it was £350 that had to be paid i was spitting feathers:mad:You are doing so well to manage on £7 a day:T

newgirly

This week has flown by, I am still within my £10 a day budget, suffering a little from a lack of wine though

I'm trying to decide what to do for fathers day, we don't usually tend to go out for it, just make breakfast and get him a present. The kids want to go to a theme park (I sense a motive there!) DH would be happiest having a lunch out somewhere and maybe the cinema, but thats too expensive at the moment. The london sealife centre is free to get in with our passes and the last time we went dd was 2 , he loves fish so I might go for that. Just trying to work out whether to pay to park and drive, or get the tube and have to top up all the oyster cards. I am feeling tired and lazy at the moment so may go for the less sensible option of driving, we will take lunch with us or just stay for a couple of hours then come home.

I need to update my figures and have just realised I have not sent the figures at all this year for the MFwanabee challenge, I am way behind what I had set as a target this year of £10k off the mortgage and 0%cc.

I've also mucked up the council tax payments somehow, I was paying it over 12 months instead of the 10 months by starting early. goodness knows what I've done but I am not ahead as I should be so I will have to up the payments from £133 pm to £151 from not on, on the plus side though I will have 2 free months once this year is finished if I go back to 10 months. I have done away with the £30 pm clothes budget and upped the grocery (and now clothes) budget by £17 , so its £267pm.

How realistic all this is remains to be seen, if I can't do it I will pay less off the cc, the kids will not go without if they need new clothes/shoes/trips etc. however I will carry on cutting out the pre-prepared snacks and try and make more of that type of thing.

DD wants to see the new Robert Pattinson film but has no pocket money left , so I am going to treat her as she is halfway through her 1st years gcse exams at the moment and working very hard. Other than that the tightness continues.:D

newgirly

:j Have just realised that after paying a chunk off the cc today our total borrowings have just gone :

UNDER £150K !

April 2010 when we started the total amount owing was £170,839.11, we could have done much better but have also had a new bathroom, built a log cabin in the garden and bought a bigger car. Hopefully we will spend a lot less in the next 2 years and better those figures.