Pay off mortgage and start having fun!

nattypants

Not wishing to encourage you to take out more credit newgirly, however is there any possibility of getting bathroom suite/carpets/bed on an interest free deal? I know that I'm stating the obvious here but I feel your pain.

Personally, I would take the 'how do you eat an elephant' approach....get the £1312 together and haggle as much as possible for interest free on necessary purchases.
Depending on outside space have a garden party for DD - gazebo, tons of lights, music and snacks with an IOU token for gift or shopping experience a few weeks down the line.
For the twins - perhaps similar?
September and August throw everything you can at the CC......and breath.

Sorry, I'm afraid I can't help with the in laws :rotfl:

Good luck, and always remember, where there's a will there's a way;)

newgirly

Thanks for the comments everyone, you have all been kind I feel terrible for moaning about this as its all our own doing. I knew taking a loan out for the loft and having to find the rest of the money was risky, but unable to remortgage it was the only option. We have stewed this over for 3 years now and really its now or never as the kids will all be grown up.

I think it's just a bit harder than I thought it would be as with 3 kids you just can't stop spending really, yesterday it was new trainers and pe shoes for ds2 which dh says he will pay for out of his money, which is a big help. Sometimes it can feel a bit overwhelming constantly thinking about money and how not to spend it.

Natty, that's an option maybe for the carpet as I don't fancy bare floors.

I need to man up, stop complaining and think of ways to get this sorted

Miss_Money_Magnet

Hope you find a way forwards! I know what you mean about children/money. I only have one child but there is always some unexpected cost- school stuff, trainers etc, that always seem to crop up out of the blue! Good luck with it all.

Lois_E

Definitely can't just stop spending if you have kids. They will keep growing out of stuff. They keep eating, too.

However, I'd say definitely don't buy mega-cheap carpet etc. Better to manage with manky old carpet, or bare boards, temporarily, until you can afford a decent carpet. Mega-cheap carpets wear out very quickly. The only places where it's worth putting cheap carpets are places where there isn't going to be much foot traffic, like a guest bedroom.

In general, I'm with Peonie and fothers - only do the work you can afford, and postpone the rest until you can. Better to sleep peacefully on a mattress on the floor (if the old bed can't be got up the stairs) than to lie sleeplessly worrying about money all night in a new bed.

newgirly

Hi Lois, you are probably right about the carpet, we have only ever bought cheap and the carpet on the stairs at the moment is my parents old carpet that dh laid about 10 years ago

Right, I have sorted the more urgent problem of running out of money this month for food/petrol etc. this month dh swaps weekly pay for monthly at the company, effectively we need a months money up front to stop being horrendously overdrawn forever, I have changed all the dd's I can to the end of the month to help a bit.

So plan is to change back to the old system of using a credit card to buy virtually everything and just having £50 cash a month, this will be paid in full by dd each time so no risk of running up more debt, this will mean the pressure is off this month and next month I will have a surplus of £276 for the loft pot. :T

Next part of the plan is to list the big new tent on eBay, just need to work out a reserve price, it really should be photographed up but it's too big to put it up in our garden, its takes ages to do and dh is at work 7 days a week at the moment so I think I will just have to put a library picture of it which is not ideal.

Lois_E

Good plan. I put everything on CC which has a DD to pay it all off just after my payday. It's definitely a good strategy if you're paid monthly.

I ought to have said, the other reason for getting cheap carpet is if you have kids who are going to trash it anyway - to put in whatever room they use for playing/eating/painting/crafting. Then you can afford to replace it more often.

Well done on reusing the old carpet on your stairs. No chance of me getting any old carpet from my parents - I've never known them recarpet anywhere unless the old carpet was completely threadbare!!

Peonie

I like nattypants idea of the interest free loans and I would wait until the deals came up. For our bed they offered an interest free loan and to pay it over 33 months., we did spend a lot but the frame will last forever.

I also agree with Lois about choosing the quality to suit the room. We could have bought a cheap sink and toilet set for £100 or so but I wanted something that would last a lot longer so spent more.

Some people hate living with an unfinished room but I'm OK with doing things bit by bit. Plus I know I'll be living with it for along time so want it to be right.

newgirly

I've just realised my plan is not as great as I thought, ald* don't take credit cards and I get all our food there now. I really don't want to go back to mr t as I think the quality and price is worse there. Hmm, more ideas needed.:think:

After reading a frugal blog I made some really nice carrot,cumin and kidney bean burgers. They were priced up at 9p each when making a batch of 4, really tasty and pretty healthy too. I love finding new receipes that are really cheap to do , it balances the cost of the wine I like to drink when eating it :beer:

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Morning NewGirly, the burger recipe sounds good - will have a g@@gle to see if I can find it.

Re the loft conversion. Although its not perfect how about sleeping on just the mattress until you have the cash saved for a new one? I would be like you and want everything done at once but providing structurally it's finished, then everything else could wait whilst you save. It may not be the best solution but if you can't find the things you need on interest free credit terms, can you manage another few months without? If you have W!ckes near you, they have bathroom clear outs - when they re do their showrooms - you could be lucky and they go for good prices - maybe worth a chat with them.

Could you switch to Morries for shopping for a few months - you could use your CC and it means you do don't have to go back to Mr T?

Good luck Tilly x

fothers365

I read that blog too, she does do some great recipes that actually look really appetising whereas a lot of other frugal food blogs have recipes that are much less appealing or really 'carby'.

Do you have a local market? We are really lucky that we have one 5 minutes walk from our house and they do fantastic cheap veg every day. I do the bulk of my shop in L1idl these days and get my veg there. L1dl don't take cc either though. I agree that maybe Ms would be better than T if you need to switch to one of the biggies. The one near us is a lot smaller and has a lot less choice so less to be tempted to spend on!

Good luck with whatever you decide in the end, there is never an easy answer is there?