Pay off mortgage and start having fun!

newgirly

I've decided to leave my 2011 target at £15k on cakes mfw challenge, however it will not include o% cc payments anymore, so really my target is higher than before.
As I said before it does feel like cheating a bit as I'm on IO, all money is going down as an OP (except interest of course) , but I figure it will be easy to check how much will be coming off the balance each month that way.

Today I've had a NSD at last ! plus done a few hours work for dh at home, and a couple of surveys. The downside to being in all day is I have eaten loads of twinks hobnobs I made yesterday, oops.

The log cabin has still not been delivered, fourth phone call chasing it up now, apparently the couriers lifting machine has broken?! so it won't be until next week. I am really pleased I upped my cc limit and put it on that, just incase there were any problems, so many companies go bust etc.

Other exciting news of the day is my plastic demi johns have been delivered. I am going to follow a receipe for wine from sunnyday, just need to wait for my wilkinsons order to turn up at the store and collect all my wine making bits and bobs. I think my Mum thinks i've gone slightly mad, taking back the clothes i bought with my birthday money to buy home brew stuff

newgirly

I don't know where this week has gone, I have been busy cooking this week.Quite enjoying it really, baking cakes and biscuits is so much more fun than dinner .
Now I am determined to give growing some veg a go this year, however it will have to be in hanging baskets and maybe tubs, although the dog likes to eat anything growing in tubs. The garden is a disgrace at the moment, so lots of work needed, now the suns out I feel in the mood to start.

DH has got an electrician coming over on tues to quote on fitting a box and doing the electrics for the log cabin/hot tub, Its the godson of a friend so fingers crossed its a bit cheaper, hes qualified but doing it in his own time. I hate the thought of just getting someone random out of the yellow pages. The budget left is £800 for the elecs, lino and some more cement. I am hoping to have quite a bit over fingers crossed as I want to get a few plants for the garden.

I am also getting very close to hitting the sub £150K mark, by the end of may I should be just in the £140's :j, When I started this last may we had a balance of £160,936, so I am really chuffed.Funny thing is we have much less money coming in now, but are paying off about £1250 off the balance per month, compared to the £169 per month before we joined the MFW's. Life has changed a lot, and its good to get some control back, the feelings that I am depriving the kids by not spending as much on them has all but gone now, and instead of going shopping/cinema every weekend, we are going to the park or watching movies at home, and always having friends over to play which they prefer. The only thing a little harder to cut back on is dd going out from time to time with her friends, but at 13 she should be going out, I don't want her stuck in her room all weekend which is the alternative, tonight she is round a friends with takeaway pizza that they all chip in for, so hardly too extravagent:D

Blimey i am waffling a lot this morning, when I should be getting the kids off to school, best go.

SmlSave

I have been busy cooking this week.Quite enjoying it really, baking cakes and biscuits is so much more fun than dinner .

Definitely agree with you there Its why we end up eating savour pancakes for dinner so often!

Now I am determined to give growing some veg a go this year, however it will have to be in hanging baskets and maybe tubs, although the dog likes to eat anything growing in tubs. The garden is a disgrace at the moment, so lots of work needed, now the suns out I feel in the mood to start.

Good luck with growing some veg. I've sowed some seeds but they've yet to pop up.

newgirly

I am getting a bit nervous how I am going to last the month on the money I have this month , i had a little splurge yesterday and ordered dd a sweatshirt on flea bay for her school trip at the end of the month for £19, she does'nt have many clothes and they are all from primarni, I know she would really love some converse trainers as well but they are SO expensive, I might try and do some extra hours for dh to pay for them as i really want her to have a couple of nice new things to wear for her trip.

Food wise I'm cooking loads, with the result everyone keeps eating it up really fast! Its only going to get worse in the easter holidays, I think I will make sure I have lots of popping corn in and stop them eating their body weight in crisps, and homemade cakes and biscuits. I'll try to go to aldi and get some cheap fruit and veg as its the cheapest I've found.

DH and I are going to the DIY store that has 20% off this weekend (over £100) to try and get cement and maybe flooring /cupboards for the log cabin. Perfect timing if we can get what we want for less. The cabin should be arriving on monday at last do dh has taken the day off. I can't wait as I have a black leather sofa bed in the living room thats been blocking the way for weeks waiting to go in there.
I wish dh would take off a few days to start work on it but he's too busy so having no time off over easter. I'm glad we have 2 weeks holiday in august booked or he probably would'nt take any time off then either.
So just me and the kids this easter, I don't think we will do any day trips, I will try and do 1 cinema trip and then just do lots of trips to the local country park which has tons of space to play football and a play area, we often meet friends there. Plus probably kids round to play. ( mr I pizza time!)

newgirly

Well I am up early and ready to go off to the DIY shop ( when dh gets out of bed!) There is 20% off today and I wan to go early as its going to be packed out especially with the sun shining. Unfortunatly we now need a new fence panel as one of the boys smashed a big hole in it with a football, god knows how. He did'nt confess as well which I am not happy about.
I'd like to get some sort of trellis/ fence tops to go round the garden as we are overlooked on one side, no idea how much they are though. Plus I really want to plant some flowers so am going to spend a bit of the log cabin budget on sprucing up the garden.

I seem to have got through so much money in this month. I am so short I have decided to keep £50 of my wages when I get them. I have worked out that from now until the 30th that gives me £10 a day for everything, including petrol which is running on air at the moment. I also need to pay for 2 birthday presents and a new pair of school shoes. :eek: I think I may have to use the £20 love shopping vouchers that I was saving for dd's birthday. I'm doing it the old fashioned way and using a jar to keep it in so the change hopefully builds up.

I'm off to try and get dh up before all the best plants go

newgirly

I have a big confession to make. We went and got our bits and pieces from the diy store today to finish the log cabin, and my dad let us use his trade discount card (DH did have one but has not applied for a replacemant yet, so not too naughty), plus it was 20% off, so we got the floor tiles/ lots of electric bits/switches.
Anyway there were such good deals via the trade card that we came home with a whole bathroom as well.:eek:

Its not a top of the range, just a modern white showerbath suite, white ripple tiles and giant black shiny floor tiles, and georgeous thin tile border that is just made of a glass mirror. The whole lot came in at £762, I have just worked out that full price was £1120. Only problem is that it will have to live in the conservatory for quite a while as there is a lot to do in the garden still.

Not quite sure how it will be funded yet, dh did say he will pay for all the electrician and fusebox costs himself for the log cabin. So i shall have to either start the op's one month late or try and work out how much I am short by and try and work it off.

So a total spend today of £1058 including the garden stuff, plus a bottle of red as I need a big glass of wine to get over the shock.:D

cha97michelle

Wow that was a big spend in one day. I guess that means an even tighter month now, but it will all even out over the course of the year. It just feels hard paying in one lump like that. Sounds nice.

newgirly

Hi Michelle, it really goes against the grain to spend , even more so when its unplanned. Its coming from the log cabin budget, but there is a shortfall I don't actually have, it was just too good a deal to miss. hopefully we won't have hardly anything left too get for the bathroom as we got all tile/taps/grout/wastes etc. in with it all. I need to work out how much I need to find to make up the difference or will soon be worrying!

cha97michelle

It killed me paying for our kitchen and bathroom, and believe me, we added as little as possible to it, but it still felt alien to spend the £2.5 k we did. I just kept thinking about what i could do with that, but now i am so glad to have a more user friendly kitchen and bathroom.

Just go with it. So what if you can't OP for a month or two. In the end you will be better off in the space you have. I have every confidence it will all work out for you even if over a couple of months.

newgirly

I've worked out how much money I am short of and it will be about £550. That also includes £120 overtime money that dh won't be getting due 4 bank hols in the next few weeks that I have not budgetted for. I am really hoping not to put the mortgage back another month so I am going to try and use £100 pm of my £200 wages from dh to pay it, the other £100 still going to op's.

I'm not really sure how realistic this will be but I'm going to at least try. Only problem is all my kids birthdays in july and 2 hols in august, one caravan on the isle of wight, holiday accounted for but only a couple of hundred spends so far. One to devon paid for by lovely parents, no spends accounted for as yet :eek: Although we go do the devon one nearly every year and self cater, last time spent £300 in a week incl. petrol/watersports, so its a cheap one really.

So I really need to concentrate on making a bit extra, I'm going to try and get dd to help me with ebay this week as I could'nt get photos to upload last time and gave up. There is lots that could be sold I'm sure.

Thinking about it I should probably start to squirrel food and wine away to take on the holidays so its not all having to be bought out of one or two months grocery challenge money.Might have to hide the wine though.:o

I hope everyone has a good day and the sun is shining for you all, it is here.