Pay off mortgage and start having fun!

AlexLK

newgirly wrote: »

Yes they started in September and are doing a combination of a levels and BTEC. Sadly your ds will be at college before you know it!

No xr3i's here now , although my parents had a couple back in the day, (red and black not white) even my gran bought herself a white brand new sierra 2.0 injection special which she passed onto me, I once beat a Porsche at the lights in it, a fair bit faster than you might expect. Sadly it's all white land/range rovers round here now, very dull.

My son growing up really concerns me. I want him to be happy, enjoy adulthood, be fulfilled, find someone who will genuinely love and care about him. I don't want his schooldays to be the best of his life as I hope he seizes opportunity in later life too. However, I know life does not always work out as planned and can be very cruel. It also concerns me for selfish reasons too because I really don't know how I will cope.

I've never had a fast Ford but have quite fond memories of a friend of mine's father taking the friend and I somewhere in his new Sierra XR4x4. My father had a '67 Daimler Sovereign and mother had a Series IIa Land Rover at the time. Everyone else in the family also had old Land Rovers and I remember being amazed by the electric windows because they had no winder like the Daimler and didn't slide across like a Land Rover. :rotfl: Mother always said our cars would still be going when the Sierra had long died ... because you didn't want a car that ran on "petrol injection". :rotfl: ... This was the late '80's and my parents were well behind the times.

newgirly

We all feel exactly like that about our kids Alex, but it's like any other worries - you have to not let it overwhelm your life as you can't control much of what will happen, just do the best you can.

Dh at work (again) with ds2 today, Dd has been at her boyfriend's for the last couple of days so I hope she will make an appearance as I've forgotten what she looks like

Plan for today :

Make a ton of roast potatoes to eat /freeze as I bought a sack of spuds that won't last much longer

Do rest of washing but ignore ironing as I may as well finish it tomorrow when all washing dry.

Binge watch bates motel with ds2 when he gets back ,the last series starts tomorrow :T we love it!

Check current account/cc again

newgirly

Change of plan (yet again!) after a look on the op spreadsheet

I've been a bit fed up lately and feel a bit unsettled as to whether we should be moving/ saving for the kids/ working on the house /spending more because we could. I've come to the conclusion that some things are well worth spending money on , I'm thinking a night out with a friend or dh, or a day out in London with the kids when I can persuade them, but other things just become a habit with no massive difference to happiness levels- ie. the curry takeout I had last week that 1).cost me in money and 2). Cost me in calories :eek:

So I'm putting myself on a money diet for a while, still with the odd treat but without the overspending regualarly that might stop us being mf next year.

We still have to pay for dds laptop this month and I've decided not to budget for the 18/21 birthdays in advance, when the time comes we will only be a few months away from mf anyway. Ditto Xmas this year, I will try and get a few extra hours at work as we are about to be busier for a while and put that away for it.

March will be a trial run of the budget that I'm hoping we can stay close to as much as possible for the next two years -£600 pm for everything direct debits. If we can stick to it which is pretty unlikely we could have just 20 months left :T

So I need to get back to the Old Style ways and stop spending money all the time, but I still want to have some fun.

Ideas so far :

Attempt brewing ale (for dh, he usually either buys shop bought or drinks my brothers homebrew )

Make some wine, have tried white which was so/so perhaps give red a try.

Use up the huge bag of soap nuts in the cupboard , I switched back to powder as it smells nice.

Grow tomatoes/ herbs this year

Use the cinema pass a lot!

Cook All the time unless we have a meal out for a special occasion (I'm thinking of my birthday here :rotfl: a new Raymond blanc gastro pub is opening very close by soon and we are going with my best friend and dh!)

Max one takeout for the kids a month, if they want any more they will pay for it themselves (as they sometimes do anyway)

Sort out stuff to sell on fleabay and a bootsale this year

Heating off as much as I can get away with, it's off today as everyone except ds1 and I are out, as his room is so small it keeps warm - everycloud

that's all I can think of so far

AlexLK

Concerns do overwhelm my life, unfortunately and my best never seems to be good enough.

Your plans sound brilliant. However, isn't equipment for brewing very expensive?

newgirly

I'm sorry to hear that Alex, sometimes my best is really not good enough either, but we are not perfect so I guess that's why

Brewing stuff has been bought before and it was pretty cheap (Wilkos are good) we gave my brother the beer stuff and the wine whatever they are called - plastic giant bottles instead of glass Demi johns were only a few pounds. If I remember correctly shs is a whizz at the homemade wine so I may have to harass her for tips again :beer:

Monday morning and feeling uncharacteristically positive I'm off to the shops today meeting mum and Aunt for coffee (I have free vouchers :T) I have a pair of jeans to take back so will get a refund and buy a birthday present for somebody on the list instead, operation tight*ss Xmas /birthdays is on!

AlexLK

I guess I can be a perfectionist.

Brewing / wine making sounds fun.

Glad to hear you've a positive morning.

newgirly

Well why don't you join me Alex :beer:

themadvix

There's quite often homebrew stuff available on freecycle round our way too, if you fancy a dabble without the expense.

AlexLK

I'm trying to cut out drinking as much as possible, NG. Else I'd probably join you.

newgirly

Today's minor mse efforts :

Took back jeans for a refund

Heating off

No spend day

No alcohol


I need to make plans to earn some money for birthday and xmas presents, we have a LOT of people to buy for and I'm cut down to the minimum I feel comfortable with already unfortunately!

Perhaps getting a few personalised gifts way in advance as offers come along for some of the family who I think may like them, photo mugs, framed photos etc.