Pay off mortgage and start having fun!

newgirly

Hi Cath, by the end of August there will be xmas cards in the shops and we can feel justified in shopping for it

Well none of the above has been done yet I was out all day and evening yesterday with first family and then round a friends last night, Sunday was not great as ds1’s new girlfriend had a bad fit for the first time ever so we ended up taking her to hospital after she came round properly as the ambulance was a 2hour wait. I got her mum's number and met her there and she’s much better now.

Poor girl though, she was mortified bless her. Mum sent me some lovely flowers yesterday too.

I’ve just pencilled dh and I in my parents York flat for a few day’s at the end of the month while the boys’ are at a festival, we have never been out of the main town (except to the outlet centre ) so I would like some days out, I know Harrogate is a good option, but not sure where else yet, will have to do some research.

newgirly

Busy week! Dds birthday on Thursday turned into a big family tea and cake do in the garden, followed by drinks and chips with all the kids and their partners into the evening, great fun and the only big expense was the plants I shot out and bought to brighten up the garden the day before (only one of my £1land plant starts took from earlier on). Garden looks lovely and colourful now

I have been surviving on surplus cake and sweets the last few days, it’s not making me feel great and I’m too scared to get on the scales, it probably time to refocus on the diet. Strangely for the amount I eat I don’t feel I am putting weight on like I should be, I guess it’s the lack of alcohol now :T

I’ve not really come to a decision re money at the moment, I think we may now carry on with spending on the house and get the living/dining room/conservatory done. It needs new flooring , re wiring and decorating which I’m estimating would cost about £3500k. Then aside from new drive, windows and a bit of painting, everything would be done.

Having the kitchen done has really stopped my mojo when’s it comes to OPing especially as we haven’t really had proper quotes, the upside I guess is all the work will be done to a high standard at a good price.

Dh has said why don’t we stop paying the mortgage (aside from the interest ) and just remortgage the factory in a few years and add our mortgage to that and let the rent cover it. I guess it spreads out our finances more to have more to live on now, but less of a spike in income when both mortgages are paid off, but I’m not sure it feels right.

Renting the factory out is a safe bet, recently he was offered £500k by one of our neighbours to buy it (we don’t ever plan to sell) so the rental income if anything goes wrong with our current company is not really a concern. But there is always the risk of losing your job etc. and owing more money. I don’t know!

I tried to spend some time planning the next couple of years yesterday, dh is very much in a place of being fed up not having much to live on which is not really like him. I’m a bit uncertain of what I should be doing, I enjoy being thrifty and the challenge of oping, but I also want to start doing more and travelling more, then I feel a bit guilty as we couldn’t really afford that with the kids growing up so I want to to include them a little, then the little affordable break aways I want to book turn into vastly expensive weekends away subsidising them and their partners :rotfl:

I’ve been even trying to focus on what my priories are but I still don’t know Dh has always just let me get on with it all, at the moment however he’s getting irritated when I try to talk about what we should do, as we could make life a lot easier. But from past experience I know that a rise in come usually coincides with a rise in spending and wastefulness, which I really DON’T want to happen.

It’s not going well at the moment as there is no solid plan.....

newgirly

Lots of time wasted today mulling things over

We owe just under £75k right now, and need to allow for another £3k odd to do the living room up imminently. This is not an amount we can blast away at as we would have been able to a couple of years ago as our income has dropped. So being super frugal until the end is not an option as quite honestly we can’t wait that long

So the rough plan is :

Finish paying for building work, estimated to be by the end sept this year

Start a holiday saving pot from august £400 pm

Start paying mortgage again from October after building work done with

Other than that although it might sound ridiculous bearing in mind the massive new holiday budget, I want to get back to as many frugal ways as I can in day to day life.

The holiday budget for next year will be split into a few different trips and hopefully (fingers crossed) this will be them :

MARCH - Rome 3 nights, flights £144 already paid, hotel £280, spending money about £400

MAY- fly cruise to the med 7 nights £799 each with £80 each onboard credit, £100 paid already, £2000 to pay including spending money

JULY- 2 nights to Alton towers, staying in a farm cottage £500 including tickets for dhs and I, cottage sleeps 12 so kids can come and bring extras, we will pay for food and cottage, they can all buy entrance tickets

SEPT- possibly centreparcs for 4 nights at Sherwood Forest, between £280 and £550 depending on whether we go alone :rotfl:

NOV- The most thrilling one of all .... Finland to Rovaniemi, judging by this year’s prices I think we can do 3 nights for £1200 with hopefully a couple of good trips, If we don’t eat out too much!

So for treats or extra ops that need making I will need to up our income more and make savings. I’m hoping that changing things this way will kind of be the best of both worlds, living life like we wanted to when mf by travelling more and working in the house, whilst also chipping away at the mortgage still and keeping it at the forefront of our plans, even if those plans are a little longer now

I’m not sure whether it will work that well to be honest as it seems a bit odd to be frugal with some things and then spend on holidays which has always been a luxury, we will have to wait and see I guess!

themadvix

NewGirly, that sounds like an excellent plan (don't think adding it to the factory would be a great idea). Life is for living and being frugal in the day to day allows us to do this - if holiday and travel are important to you as well as paying the mortgage off, then this creates the right balance. If you can afford it, then the huge holiday savings each month is fine.

(My only suggestion would be to skip CP and add the money saved onto the Finland trip so you've got the money to do the outings etc.)

Moneyfordreams

I agree with themadvix , enjoy all and skip CP.

newgirly

Hi vix and mfd’s, thanks for that as I do feel a bit of a fake mfw at the moment with plans to spending so much!

For some context our mortgage payments will be £981 plus what ever extra I can magic and the holiday savings pot will be £180 pm which is ds1’s rent and £240 from our wages. The mortgage and holiday savings from our money is about 40% of our take home pay.

A big difference from when it to be closer to between 60-70% of our take home in mortgage payments alone.

I get what you are saying about the cp’s / Finland trip as it is a bit tight, I’m hoping I can squeeze a little extra towards it, this year the flights from Southend were about £75 return each and then hotel (in the city next to the airport) was £290, so I’m hoping we would not be too far off. My best friend is going nearby this year so I’ll get her to check it all out

Not felt great this weekend with a bit of minor chest pain, seems to have eased off mostly now but will book for the doctors if it continues. Looking on the nhs website it seems a likely cause may be stress which would not surprise me at the moment, it’s all been a bit crazy and the building work isn’t helping.

To do today :

Meet aunt and great aunt for coffee at shopping centre

Take aunt to c@stco

Food shop

Clean bathrooms

Look at amazon prime day for Xmas /birthday gifts

Relax!

themadvix

I second the last on your list!!

But definitely agree about the stress from kitchen work - it makes life so difficult.

Moneyfordreams

always get chest pain checked.. It can be stomach, lungs, stress, panic, muscular ... but also heart... you have a big heart to look after

newgirly

Thanks mfd’s, I did go on the nhs website and see what they said, it was very mild and has almost stopped now. I will do if it gets worse though, thank you.

Super organised today, I batch cooked spag Bol and then nobody could eat it as the plumber turned up (2 days late!) to finish the radiators, so no water to boil spaghetti, they are all eating bags of chip now.

Mse things done today :

Bought some bits at c@stco, Washing powder which should last even us a while, plus mince that’s bagged up in the freezer, croissants I’ve frozen individually.

Dried washing outside

Prepped lunches for me and ds1 tomorrow

Took back a pair of boots I bought in next sale for a refund when dh I shall op £26

newgirly

:mad: just dropped a fork on my iPad screen at work and smashed it, I’ve asked dds boyfriend as he used to be an Apple genius but he said they can be replaced but dont work so well after and even a fake one in a cheap shop is dear and it’s one of the oldest ones.

I shall persevere with some sellotape for a while before making rash decisions, but I LOVE my iPad so it’s a sad day!

Mse stuff done yesterday ;

Made some lovely nan bread pizzas for everyone’s dinner which went down really well and cost pennies, lower in cals too

Shamefully that’s it