Pay off mortgage and start having fun!

newgirly

Not a good day today, poor ds2 has got a bug and would'nt let me out of his sight.He is now in bed next to me after getting confused with his high temperature and seeing people sitting on the end of his bed :eek:
dh is still out , he's gone to see war of the worlds at the o2. I don't like being on my own when they are sick, mind you he sleeps right through if they are ill in the night anyway.

Back to mortgage stuff, I only managed 2 surveys , vo50p and tcb 70p today.

But I did play around with some mortgage figures, we took this mortgage out in may this year for 12 years, with the hope of getting rid of it by dec2020 or before.
Now the payments will switch to interest only from jan while we save for a loft conversion which should take about 2 1/2 years.

So what I would like to aim for is our origional end date of april 2022. so although we won't have shortened the term we will have improved the house without borrowing. If we pay what we are paying at the moment , plus the payments for the cc which will be gone, plus an extra £100 (was going to be 2011 target origionally). It just should get us to that same end date.
I know the chances of this all turning out like I planned are fairly slim, but it keeps me happy having a target to work towards.

Still I'm not doing to badly on the spending front, what with snow and poorly kids lately I hav'nt had much time to go spending.

newgirly

Well I'm stranded at home again today, DS2 still off sick he's not moved off the sofa in days really, he seems a little better but I don't think he can go to school for another few days as he is still not eating.
I am going to order my last couple of presents online to day, as usual I thought I was covered, but have managed to forget the a couple of friends I go to lunch with, school teachers x3 and I'm doing a movie hamper for my friends 4 kids which is proving much harder than I thought, most people with kids have so many dvds already.

I have been saving my topcashback payout from a few weeks ago which was going to start off my jan 2011 op's, but due to the extra present buying I'm keeping most of it as I'm out of money now.
I've set aside enough to top up januarys payments to £1250, so I know I will hit my target for at least one month next year
I'm so itching to go with the paying off and saving next year, I thought I might have lost interest a little by now, every year I make lots of plans to pay off debts and shorten the mortgage but it never usually happens.

cha97michelle

Sorry to hear your DS2 is still feeling off it. Hopefully he will be better soon.

I am fed up of buying presents now, and can't wait to get going next year. I don't think i will ever get bored of plotting.

newgirly

I've had another day indoors with Ds2 also now joined by a vomiting DD! I can't believe I have not caught it yet, theres still time I guess.

Anyway, I have done a couple of surveys but there's not many around. I have been trying to do the one on topcashback every day for 70p, I know its not massive but it's £20 odd per month if I stick to it, its been tracking ok but not paid out yet.

I am very short of money at the moment, actually completely skint. So i've had a look at next years budget, and as dh gets paid weekly we have odd extra weeks through the year, the money pays for the house and car ins. our holiday and basketball lessons. We need three weeks spare money to pay for these ( very cheap hol next year!) , anyway there are 4 spare weeks (1 in jan) so I thought I'd use one of them to take a bit extra for food for xmas and then either save the rest or pay some off the 0%CC. I think I'll decide in the new year what to do.

Its so tempting to just pay it off the card but this is my first time trying to stick to £4k a year on food and clothes etc. and to be honest I'm pretty unsure how well this is going to go, it might be an idea to have a little extra stashed away.;)

newgirly

Another day of kids at home sick, I'm hoping to get one of them back to school tomorrow. I took Ds2 out for 1/2 hour today as he was feeling a bit better. We went to BQ to get a little potted real tree, leaving it fairly late I thought they might be a bit cheaper, but they were £27 for a little one. So we settled on a white fake one with lights and dec's for £17.50, not my usual style but Ds loved it, and its only for the hall.
I'm feeling a bit more festive now, all presents wrapped except the ones that have not arrived yet, we have a total of 4 trees up, and when DH comes home, I'm off to mr t to get some baileys and wine and maybe even some beer for dh. Plus also some food perhaps:D

Did my tcb survey this morning, sometimes there seem to be more than one available a day which is a bonus, but onepoll doesn't seem to like me much at the moment for some reason.

I updated my dec's op figure on cakes mfw challenge, and did manage to reach my target of £2117 this year, plus we have reduced the 0%cc from £10,000 to £7326 this year.
Am hoping to sttack that by at least £250 per month so it coincides with when we have saved enough to get the loft done, in 30 months.
Time to brave the rain and collect ds1 from school.

CathT

Just been catching up, i've got really behind the last few days! I think saving for the loft conversion and remaining a MFW is a fab idea. I'm also hoping to save for some major home improvements to avoid borrowing any money but am too addicted to overpaying!

Sorry the children have been poorly, hope they're all better soon.

newgirly

Not a great day today, DH took all three kids to the shopping centre and they sat in the car for 2 hours and didn't even get out of the car park. They have abandoned the car and walked to the nearest station in the snow and have luckily got what looks like on of the last trains home.
Am so cross as I let Ds2 go against my better judgement as he begged me to and he's been in all week. Just hope they can get a bus or cab from the station home, if they can't I've said to wait in a shop until I can get hold of my dad to go and get them, parents are at a christening though with phones switched off. Don't know anyone else who would drive in the snow when its this bad i feel a bit helpless.

I've been sat here waiting all day and doing surveys to try and keep busy.

Update: Phew, train and expensive back cab later they are back!

newgirly

A lazy day indoors today. We had a new hairdresser visit though , recommended by a friend, she cut mine, DD, Ds1 and ds2 and only charged £22 for all of us! I gave her £30 as it was too cheap plus she had still come, even in the snow.Will definatly use her again.

I have just finished the last xmas cards tonight, and only have a couple of presents to wrap. DH did manage to collect the car today from where it was left yesterday so I may try and get some food shopping tomorrow. I'm crossing my fingers that the schools are open tomorrow as I've had kids at home for what seems like ages.

No surveys to do today, did get one for a massive £2 on vo yesterday though.
I have the paperwork through to switch the mortgage to interest only. It will start in january so payments will go from £1372 to £448 per month. I need to look at opening a decent savings account to save in ready for the loft.

Anyway I hope everyone had a good weekend

newgirly

I thought as its nearly xmas and there's lots of last minute things to do , I'd do a little list every morning in the hope I might get to cross some things off at the end of the day

1. Iron clothes/do lunches/bags, get kids to school in snow-done
2. do movie hamper for friend and her 4 kids-done
3. try and go food shopping-done
4. help mum with her food shopping(she is cooking at xmas)-done
5. wash ALL dirty clothes, probably 7 or 8 loads-done 6 so far
6. cook soup/make hm bread for DH for dinner-done
7. do banking and check accounts/open savings acct-done
8. hand out xmas cards/cancel sky tv-sky done
9. general tidy/make beds-beds only!

Would be good to do even half the list, we'll see!

[Deleted User]

Good luck with your list newgirly!!
satisfying to cross anything off I reckon in the run up to xmas
hope the kids are feeling better