Pay off mortgage and start having fun!

Pearla*Merle

What a fabulous birthday present! :T How exciting that she helped make the set, it must have been so much fun to see all the backstage workings there (what I wouldn't give to see all that!).

What a good day for deliveries

CathT

Hi NG, just catching up. Buble tickets sound fab, enjoy!

newgirly

Argh its raining here, dh's friend (who he built the patio for last week) is coming over to help pull up all our old decking, dh is not keen and doesn't really want to start it, so rain is not going to help much

Still not decide what to put down there, the options are :

Astro turf:

Pros: easier to lay than paving, looks green! Washable when dog uses

Cons: not real grass, pain to keep cleaning after dog

Dearer than real grass



Grass:

Pros:

Cheap

Easy to lay


Cons:

Muddy paw prints

Holes being dug


Paving:

Pros:

Very easy to clean

No mud

Will last for ever


Cons :

More expensive

More work

Will the finish be perfect


Our garden is about 42 ft with a huge log cabin taking up about the bottom third of it , plus we have a conservatory across half the back of the house with a tiny patio next to it currently.

Any opinions would be greatly received as I don't know what to go for

Alchemilla

I am quite attracted by astro. No mowing but also no cut grass smell.

muddywhitechicken

Personally, I'd go for real grass just a long as it has suitable growing conditions. I had to get rid of the so called lawn in the front garden as it looked terrible - it was north-facing and behind a privet hedge. I replaced with mainly ground cover plants. With real grass you also have to decide if mowing it is a pro or a con!

SIL has recently bought a house with astro turf and it looks OK - much better than I thought it would!

FIL has just paved half his garden - the gardener in me thinks it looks terrible but I can see the advantages.

newgirly

Thanks mc and alchemilla, in an ideal world grass would look softer, its a small garden and I want it look look like a proper garden and not a yard if you see what I mean. We had grass when the dog was a pup and she did trash it , dh said after decking it never again, but it's much cheaper as well. Oh dear , I need someone to tell me what to do !

newgirly

Decking removal going ok so far , except for MAMMOUTH cobwebs underneath!

Dd has just decided she wants to get the school bus again this year, I had not saved up towards it as she was going to get normal buses and pay weekly. So now I need to find £500 by summer.

Its coming out of my weekly budget, as everything is going towards the debts this year I have accounted to zero every month and there is £150 for everything that's not a direct debit. (Even the 5 week months have the spare week allocated towards the bus money!)

We have lived in less before in the last, but not for a while so it will be a challenge.

So £150 a week :

£30 pw for bus fare until end July , then it swaps to £25 pw driving lessons for dd's birthday

£25 ish on petrol

£10 Xmas tin savings

So £85 pw left for food, clothes, birthdays, school stuff, and everything else :eek:

The £300 saved for the kids birthdays I will have to use to turf the garden I think as I don't want to borrow to pay for it, so I need to squeeze out cash for birthdays too, or maybe sell some stuff.

I'm definatly back on the old style bandwagon now or it's not going to work

Peonie

NG, can't you buy some grass seed and keep the dogs off it until it grows. You'll need a net to keep the birds off. It will be a lot cheaper than buying turf.

optimist68

newgirly wrote: »

I was wondering how many of you MFWs are overpaying on the mortgage so you can buy an even bigger/better house when you have finished. It seems that there are two different ways of looking at becoming mortgage free, those that want the security of no debt and being financially better off, and those that are doing this as a means to an end,so they can one day own their dream house, which may be otherwise out of reach. I am asking as I can't decide which of these I am. It does not stop me wanting to work hard to become MF, but knowing the end goal may help a little.

I've been overpaying my mortgage for a while. But, I need to relocate and where I work and where my children now go to school (45 miles away from my house) the house prices are about £50k more for a smaller house than what I have. Going backwards (bigger mortgage, smaller house) in one way and forwards in another (no transport costs and low childcare).
No matter what though, I will always overpay by at least £250 a month - even if the interest rates go to 7%. Hope they take their time doing that and don't go higher.

Oh and good luck with your dream. Your budget looks a bit like mine, only you have high gas/electric and water costs.

newgirly

Peonie wrote: »

NG, can't you buy some grass seed and keep the dogs off it until it grows. You'll need a net to keep the birds off. It will be a lot cheaper than buying turf.

Hi Peonie, I can't keep her off very easily to be honest as she will have just a very small bit of patio left and I feel mean! the good news is dh has been to the local turf supplier and got a quote for turf and top soil for a 19x 10ft sized area (a guess!) and it was only £99 in total and was good quality :T