Pay off mortgage and start having fun!

newgirly

I have had a day of cooking rather than cleaning like i should have, I just made weezls spicy bean burgers again , this time without the receipe which was a bad move as they were vile and I had to bin them, not sure what I forgot to add, but I think the butternut squash that i had frozen previously might have been the problem.

The ferry for our holiday had been booked today as well, i went through the hol company so it worked out at £101 , much better than my lowest price of £144. Still shocked by how dear it was though. My friend goes every year and said oh the ferry is really cheap, so I was thinking £20 or so! Obviously my cheap and hers are a bit different :rotfl:

I am waiting with baited breath for dh to get home as he is supposed to be doing the payrises today, which are usually 3%, I have already taken this into account as if he already earns it, its included in my op figures, so I'm hoping he has sorted it, it should be around £15 pw. Which is good , but the gas/ elec is dearer than before plus the child tax credit stopped last month, so its not really going to feel like more money.

I have both boys off tomorrow with teacher training, I do think they could have picked a better time as they are about to do their sats and they get so many days off in april and may. I have no idea how I would mange if I had a proper full time job and had to take so much time off.

newgirly

Not good news dh says he can't do a payrise this year and is also thinking of cutting overtime for himself which would be really bad, £600 per month bad :eek:. I am hoping this will not be the case. He gets paid for a basic 7 1/2 hr day plus 2 hours paid overtime every day, he actually leaves at 5.30am and gets home at around 6.30-7pm, in winter its more like 8pm.
Its his descision to make, so I'm hoping he will go for the pay freeze and not the overtime cut.

The upshot is I will have to re-do my budget as I'd taken for granted the payrise, so we are about £60 per month down. I'm fed up but to be honest quite grateful, as dh used to get a bonus of £8-12k per year, thats now gone, no payrise and tax credits just been cancelled, but we are still going and have overpaid.
If we were still as rubbish with money as we used to be we would probably be racking up the credit cards now, perhaps even getting into arrears. This site has done us such a big favour and thank goodness a bit of financial sense has kicked in, just in time I think!

newgirly

Dh has decided to leave the overtime :j, whch is a huge relief.

I think I might do a new SOA soon as I'm starting fresh with the oping next month, the old one must be quite out of date. I have a few extra things I need to save up for as well. I want to start putting by toiletries/ food supplies for the summer hols. We have never been away twice (or for 2 weeks) in the summer break and I totally underestimated the extra cost, of going twice, I factored in the spending money but not the loss of two weeks overtime and lots more in petrol. Those two things add up to over £600 alone:eek:
DH says he is going to try and get a few weekends work to cover it, I should have the spending money covered though as we have a 5 week month and dh gets paid weekly,plus some of my wages. I'm thinking around £350-£400 fro each weeks holiday. It doesn't sound like much does it we used to spend around £1500 for a week in devon just on spends, last year we managed £350 though so it can be done.

I have all 3 kids birthdays in july as well , parties promised of some sort and no budget. DD wants to go to the cinema to see harry potter and the boys possibly want a football party. I don't think I can hold a party in the local park though , it seems a bit cheap? But where else can they all play football, our garden is now about 20ft long!

Anyway, must go as I have to go to zumba this morning afetr managing to dodge it for the last couple of months, I've run out of excuses

AuntieMabel

newgirly wrote: »

I don't think I can hold a party in the local park though , it seems a bit cheap?

I think hosting a football party in the park would be OK, we've done that sort of thing before as there's a lovely victorian park at the end of our street. If you made up a 'special' picnic with treats in it, laid out paper table cloths/picnic blankets for them sit on it would be fine. Don't get sucked into the keeping up with the Jones's lavish birthday thing that the Jones's probably can't really afford anyway

Iris_Blue

I don't think its cheap either. You said you live in a nice area anyway so can't see there being any problems with it.

newgirly

I like the idea of the park, but i'm a bit worried about the fact you can't book them and there are two near us that are always busy at weekends with adult rugby/football etc.
I've just been doing some research online and there is a sports centre 10 mins drive away that does kids indoor football parties, which were £55 for 45 mins or £96 for 1 1/2 hours , but that included a coach as well, you can hire a room to put out your own food after for £32 too.

If both boys still want a footy party I might go for the 45 min option, then have them all back to mine for food after, although 45 mins is not long they can play at ours after and I think its a good price as they supply a coach as well, probably a good thing as they take it very seriously and I don't have a clue about the rules.:D

DD wants the cinema, so i think i'll pay for her and maybe 5 others and give them some sweets and drinks to smuggle in

AuntieMabel

newgirly wrote: »

which were £55 for 45 mins or £96 for 1 1/2 hours , but that included a coach as well,

That's not bad for 2 parties really, if it's what they both want, if you're doing the grub yourself

newgirly wrote: »

DD wants the cinema, so i think i'll pay for her and maybe 5 others and give them some sweets and drinks to smuggle in

At a cinema near us they check bags to make sure you're not smuggling in sweeties, so my friend always puts a MASSIVE sanitary towel at the top of her bag - as soon as any of the (usually) young male 'checkers' sees it, they turn scarlet and mumble at her to go through ASAP!! :rotfl:

newgirly

At a cinema near us they check bags to make sure you're not smuggling in sweeties, so my friend always puts a MASSIVE sanitary towel at the top of her bag - as soon as any of the (usually) young male 'checkers' sees it, they turn scarlet and mumble at her to go through ASAP!! :rotfl:[/QUOTE]

:rotfl:I love that! ours actually film you while you are watching and the screens are in the lobby so everyone can watch you, we still take our own though (except DH who has his own cinema rules, which means big drink and nachos for him) so I usually try and leave him behind.:D

Change of plan with the boys football party, they have both decided to have a sleepover instead, compromise is take out pizza, not mum's cheap ones from mr I !, should'nt be too much though as I said only one friend each. Result, although I might not be thinking that when they are up until 2am like the last time.

Did a few one poll surveys today, still a few pounds until payout I feel like I have done a million surveys with them.
Also did a bit of research on the hot tub and it turns out the firm we bought from have gone bust! dh is going to try and see if it has an airlock somewhere if not we will have to pay someone to fix it.

Rockporkchop

AuntieMabel wrote: »

At a cinema near us they check bags to make sure you're not smuggling in sweeties, so my friend always puts a MASSIVE sanitary towel at the top of her bag - as soon as any of the (usually) young male 'checkers' sees it, they turn scarlet and mumble at her to go through ASAP!! :rotfl:

Priceless - will have to remember that!! :rotfl:

newgirly

A busy day today, the good news is after hours of online research we have managed to fix the hottub ourselves, it was just an airlock, but a whole day of emptying and re-filling first.
So glad its sorted though as the more I looked for info on the co. we bought it from the more worried I got, they have gone bust and people are suing for money lost etc.

We had a surprise visit from the inlaws today, which was basically to moan that we don't visit enough, even though they can see the chaos we are in at the moment, a dimantled hot tub in pieces , tools and wood eveywhere, a whole bathroom in the living room, and dh so busy at work he needs to go in sunday night rather than monday morning. :mad:
Phew, thats better!

Tomorrow we are going to my parents for a bbq, I can't wait it will be nice to relax and have someone else cook, although I will pop round and help prepare in the morning.
We also have dh's brother and wife round tomorrow morning, they rang and told us they were coming round today. I know I sound like a miserable old moo but sometimes I feel like my weekends are hi-jacked by other people.
Next week I have to take my twin boys to the cinema to meet their girlfriends for a date, my two are not really fussed but ds2's girlfriend is very keen. I have been asked quite a few times by her mum to organise something and finally ran out of excuses. Its all quite innocent they are only 10 but I do find it strange that you would encourage your kids to go on dates at all.

Monday I shall hopefully have a bit of time to make an effort with the money saving/earning there just hasn't been much time lately.