Pay off mortgage and start having fun!

CathT

Party sounds fab.

I hope the kindle has the desired effect!

newgirly

Thanks vix and cath exhausted today, the boys are off to a festival tomorrow for three nights so the house is upside down with camping gear and trolleys full of beer :rotfl:

So in the end I watched the centreparcs website and picked a break we wanted , close by in the hotel bit which is cheaper and it was showing as £399 , I couldn't decide what to do so held off and then checked in this morning and they had just one left and had reduced it to £299, not exactly mse as it's not self catering, but with just the two of us hopefully it won't be too astronomical.

I'm a bit overwhelmed by the amount of things I have to do before we go (house hasn't been cleaned for a week :eek:) washing , ironing, packing, collecting prescriptions, checking finances so I don't stress, dropping off keys etc.

When we get back it's the boys 18ths the next day so lots still to do for that, two days later it's the lads holiday /girls cruise. I will need a few months off after July to recuperate :rotfl:

CathT

Center Parcs break sounds great. Be so relaxing just the two of you. We don!!!8217;t eat out when we go (apart from breakfast the day we leave). Am sure you could keep spends to a minimum.

newgirly

Oh no second post I've lost today!

To summarise we are here and in the hotel so no mse self catering this time cath

Seems a nice enough room, it's a bit strange coming here without kids but I thought its worth a try as it's so close to home and we used to enjoy taking the family.

It's looking like we may just scrape through this month by the skin of our teeth financially, no mortgage ops for July though and a month added onto the term die to the party and break!

newgirly

Back home, we left yesterday afternoon as dh had an early meeting today. We had a really relaxing time, it's much smaller than other cnetreparcs and the pool was not as good (more tubes but only one tiny pool!) so we only stayed half an hour or so in there. It was easy being in the hotel an everything was close by, we were lazy so spending was dinners out , pool tables etc. But it was just the break we needed, especially for dh.

Lots of washing and packing time do again, then boys are due back from their festival today.

MONDAY:

* buy birthday cakes for tomorrow

* Re fill 18 balloons

* buy stocking fillers for ds2

* book table for lunch tomorrow

* buy cards and wrap presents

* check finances

CathT

Wow you dont have much of a gap between the big birthdays do you?

Be similar for us, dd will turn 21 and then 13 days later ds will be 18. I have always planned a joint party but I am not sure how they would feel about that!

Hope CP was relaxing and did not damage the finances too much.

newgirly

That's spooky cath, there's exactly 13 days between our dds 21st and the boys' 18ths :eek: defiantly try and force the joint do :money::rotfl:

I'm fed up and exhausted (like most of us at the moment in the heat I guess!) just about sorted everything for their birthdays tomorrow except the what are we doing in the day struggle.

They want to :

* have a mc Donald's breakfast delivered to them in bed (tradition for very special occasions )

* have friends over for drinks at 4 pm before they all go to a gig at night - an Over 18 gig and their Ids have not arrived yet so they may want to take passports just before they go away :eek:

*ds1 go for lunch including grandparents both £££ and also very hot for a large meal out ...

* ds2 cinema

It's not possible to do all of it, they have barely slept in days due to the festival and I have a ton to do BUT it's their 18ths so I guess we suck it up for a day :rotfl:

Aside from the trip away to Majorca in September ( budgeted for) and lots of birthdays, im hoping for a leaner end to the year.

Already thinking of Xmas as usually by now I've bought loads, I think I'll set a nice tight budget - by our standards at least usually it's must be somewhere between 1500-£1800 at a wild guess.

This year we are hosting for the first time, but I'm going to aim for a total spend figure of £1300 all in- presents are basically all of the budget so there need to be severe cut backs.

I might actually keep track on here to see where it all goes

So far:

Bath bombs with hidden jewellry x3

Full price £53.97 + £4.50 delivery - I know but it's silver jewellery inside

Discount £16.19 Price paid £42.97

House of Fraser sale :

Xmas crackers 2x boxes @ £25

Paid £5.99@

Various bath stuff £30 to £10 and £6.99 to £1

Total spend £51, total savings massive !!


Pandora Xmas candy cane charm £30 reduced to £12

Phew , I've barely started and have spent loads already.

Xmas budget £1300 / £ 105.97

themadvix

I don't think *anyone* can complain if you seriously cut back on Christmas this year - not just your kids, but extended family, who no doubt have also benefited from your enormous generosity over this summer!

CathT

That is spooky newgirly and I am sure the years will fly. Eldest is nearly 10.

My Christmas preparation gets later and later every year. Have picked up a few charity shops finds for dd (a few books) but that is it.

Maybe a low key Christmas after a busy year?

newgirly

I still want the opposite of a low key Xmas as it will be our first Xmas at home EVER which is probably quite odd! But on a lower budget

There's a few areas I won't cut back on, buying best friends kids presents /money etc. and my little brother who buys for five of us and always spends too much no matter what I say! I can probably trim back everywhere else ok though. The easiest place to start is dh and the kids , he doesn't mind and the kids have had plenty this year!

Birthday went well yesterday, we settled on a pub lunch which was under £100 for 8 of us, only hairdressers to pay for today and spending money when we go away tomorrow (budgeted for) and I can start being good with money again :money: