Pay off mortgage and start having fun!

newgirly

I’ve been reading a new diary in here (makethedayscount) and it’s really made me reflect on how much effort I used to put into being mf at the start of this diary - 10 years ago 😱 there have defiantly been ups and downs along the way, but although ops have still been good, motivation has not been. 

Lockdown has seen a change in spending, like many people grocery spending is much higher, with young adults usually there are out all the time! Apart from that it’s been home items which I would not normally have bought, but am actually glad I’ve planned and bought things to make the house look nicer.

Clothes is where I waste money and vast amounts on hair highlighting 🙄 I think now those things may change in the future. Keeping my weight down has a much bigger impact on how I feel than wearing new clothes, so I would like to lose that last 7-14 pounds, lockdown has added 4! 

I guess what I’m thinking is that I’ve been feeling a bit jaded as it’s been so long already, but that’s no excuse to not put the effort in. The budget I have to pay the mortgage off is already pretty tight but there are plenty of ways to make savings and still enjoy life. So here’s a list of things I currently do or will start doing:

• Highlights - the biggy! I’ve used 2x blonde boxes last week and they are a darker than my platinum colour but will do (when the platinum grows out 😆)  ill probably go a darker blonde. A cut is £39 and a colour £72 plus tip,  if I could do it myself around £10 and hopefully less on cuts as they are done often due to my dislike of any roots showing, I usually go every five weeks 😱 
• Groceries - I think I may well stick to weekly deliveries as per lockdown (well click and collects currently) as although we have an Aldi, it’s rammed, difficult to park and small. Asd@ is not our local store (Waitrose is and we are too big a family for there) but it’s been pretty good quality and reasonably priced, I think online shopping will make me plan better and spend less, hopefully less laziness and spontaneous buying of posh meals from m@s. 
• More entertaining of family, kids and partners really 😬 it’s harder to get them together as they are normally busy but food and booze brings them out sometimes, takeaways - I’m not a big spender there anyway, it’s usually just a curry for dh and I when they are all out 😂 
• Days out, dh has a habit of unplanned weekend working, we rarely go out usually now since I quit drinking it’s kind of naturally fizzled out. I’m not so fussed evening meals out really but days out seem a good idea and now he has the big diesel 4x4 beast of a car (Nigel) that dad gave us, we could go further in comfort. Since lockdown I’ve been craving a visit to Colchester zoo, not been for years but we used to be members when the kids were little. Perhaps some visits to towns we have never been to around essex. I will perhaps invest in some nice picnics bags and drinks bottles etc. 
• Cineworld passes currently on pause but usually £18.40 pm I think 🤔 this is great for us and we do usually go often, will continue with this.
• Keeping an eye out for bank switches etc. I changed around jan I think so may be able to do so again soon perhaps.
• Stoozing- all grocery petrol savings on a zero card for another year and a half, cash sitting in offset until due.
• Baking - even if it’s once a week, would like to get a cake stand with a glass dome 🎂 so there is always a nice sweet treat available in the kitchen and it feels more homely. 

That’s all I can think of right now 🙂

newgirly

Busy day today, met best friend in town and sat in the park for a while with a takeout coffee she queued for, then popped out with dh earlier and spotted burg@er king drive through open so bought the kids some junk food for the first time in ages, only one car in front of us so very quick (although not very cheap!) 

Juts made an op of £5 off the balance of the home mortgage from my personal spending money this month, I’ve not spent anything yet (payday was about 26th may) which is a record for me 😆 but I see n@xt sale is adding more and there are lots of very good buys which I may get and put by for winter, I could do with a couple of jumpers and sweatshirts, their sale has some huge reductions.

CathT

That's a good list of plans Newgirly, I like the cake stand idea especially! I've seen the spray on one of the fb pages,
think it might be l3nor? 

Not likely to book anything this year but considering a UK break for next May. I've done some CP comparisons and it's obvious which week is half term! 

Moneyfordreams

 I'm so lucky having a hairdresser daughter.. actually I'm dark so I can do my own roots. I spend next to nothing. However I have fine hair which has whispy areas at the front... baby hair!!! I need a fringe to hide them. I would LOVE a good head of hair. I have one colour left in the supplies she left me. I tend to have to hide my silver sparkles each month. 

good list of other things to build on .. I can't wait for my new kitchen... I may feel interested in cooking again.   

debtfreeoneday

interesting musings NG. My cut and colour will also be going.  I need a cut after they open again but I’m going short and then I’m going to do box colour. So much grey has come thru waiting 3 months like I used to isn’t an option. I need to be doing is more often so will do that. 

newgirly

Hi Cath, the price differences are eye watering! So glad we are not tied as much these days, but the down side is I can’t get all the kids to come now ☹️

Hi mfd’s, you are indeed very lucky! I’ve been trying to persuade ds2’s girlfriend train as a hairdresser so I can save money 😆 I hope the kitchen plans are coming along well. 

Hi debt free, I used to dye my own hair when very dark and bought it from £1land and my hair was always in great condition. I said I’d grow mine out and wait for lockdown to end, but seeing long roots was a bit miserable and to be honest I thought it’s the best opportunity to have a go at home and if it went terribly wrong there’s no shame in showing your face after lockdown with orange hair due to the circumstances. I wonder how many mortgages would be cleared if we all quit getting our hair done 😬

Imminent news on the horizon re work which I can’t go into yet, but it’s not going to be good.

newgirly

It’s not been a great few days, still waiting on info form work which could be pretty catastrophic for us, also unable to talk to family or colleagues about it either which feels wrong ☹️ Trying to plod on while waiting and keep busy, yesterday I watched HP chamber of secrets with a pot of tea and a biscuit barrel which helped. Sometimes it’s the small pleasures which are the best. 🙂

We also booked our Alton towers tickets for Halloween, we booked the cottage last year and have debated whether we will go or postpone until next year, but it looks like the park will be open very soon with limited ticket sales and social distancing. I feel it’s worth the risk as if they shut then we can get a refund, personally I think they will sell out quickly for Halloween as it’s popular usually. The kids are getting tickets for their birthdays, everyone is paying for their own. It’s cheered me up so much as we will (hopefully by then!) all be together 😊 

themadvix

Sorry to hear about the non-news from work. Glad that HP and biscuits helped though.

I would have thought not booking the tickets might be wise given the potential work news? Even if it is open etc and the money for cottage is lost, might it not save you something that you might be desperately glad of? Just considering what the work news could be - 3 of you out of work, DD still looking for paid work, and the additions to your family (the BF and GF), might it not be worth holding off? At least wait until you’ve had the full extent of the news. Sorry to be boring!

Moneyfordreams

I hope things improve for you soon NG, uncertainty is often worse than facing the problem. 

newgirly

Hi mfd’s , you are so right there! I’m so cross the way the situation is being handled....

Hi vix, well you are right I won’t deny it! However its only the cost of our tickets that is an extra expense, plus diesel as we will take our own food for the whole trip. It’s a drop in the ocean to our possible issues really and I needed something to look forward to. If things get bad in a “hungry“ type of way I’m pretty confident we can flea bay them for more than face value as they usually sell out that weekend and there will be a reduced number of tickets this year. 

We have decided that we will make a plan as if it’s a worse case scenario and probably do that anyway, rushing the clearing of the factory mortgage and living on peanuts from now on. I’ve a couple of worst case ideas but need to look into it all first. 

Much improved day today, I’ve been a bit fed up this week really and today we managed to have all the kids in the garden at once 😁 most of the day infact! Dh even brought ds2’s big tv down and we spaced the garden armchairs out and had popcorn and watched cats (the cat watched too!). The neighbours wouldn’t have noticed the tv on loud as they appear to be having the worlds longest boozy party!