Pay off mortgage and start having fun!

newgirly

Deleted a post again!

I had a good day , looked at the sewing boxes in jonh lewis and found a georgeous cath kidston wicker one, which i did not buy, I will wait until xmas like a good girl!

Over the last few weeks we have been talking about if and when we should move. We always intended to move when the kids all got a place at the senior school, which they recently have.

We can't decide the best thing to do, as our house is perfect for the kids school / nice area etc. just too small upstairs and I would love a big garden.

So the decision has been made to plan as if will move next year (our fix ends in may), by oping everything for a year, and also repairing and decorating the whole house, as and where it needs it.
I think this is a win / win situation as if we don't move dh will finally have finished some of the jobs he has'nt got round to in the last 10 years!

newgirly

A very stressful morning!

DS1&2 are going on the tube then have a walking tour of london with their class, but ds1 has been in tears as he did'nt want to go as he would miss football training at lunchtime. It took ages to get him to calm down , then he started again in the car, I've had a word with his teacher so hopefully she will keep an eye on him. It's upsetting, but they have to learn that they have to do stuff they don't want sometimes.

I have managed to do 3 loads of washing & hung them out under a massive black cloud. I have also done a couple of onepoll's and am at £38.65! so close now. Will look at VO and toluna later.

I'm going to start writing a plan of what needs doing in the house, (DH will not be too happy about this I'm sure), he has renovated a whole house before , so is very capable of doing most stuff, just not very willing to do it

But he has agreed that so many things have got tatty around the place, we will try and sort it. Plus IF we decide to take the plunge and move a little bit further away, the house would be ready. All this needs to be done on a zero budget though

newgirly

Well ds1 will be happy as the kids are on their way home from their tour of london due to the heavy rain, I've got to get them at 2.30.

I have spent a while doing lists of what needs doing in the house and garden, there is a diy list for dh of stuff i can't do, and a list for me of stuff I would like to acheive in the next year:

• Sort through tons of paperwork and box file up
• clear conservatory once bathroom removed
• clear whole loft (massive job with unknown amount of black unlabelled bags)
• sell everything possible
• paint more or less the whole house
• clear kitchen ready for diy
• organise clothes and space to store properly
• keep house and garden tidy
• stick to budget and almost always meal plan
• do all my surveys EVERY day
• do work for dh everyweek
• check through all kids school work every week
• exercise for 1 hour 3x PW min
• Heating off when kids not here in winter/minimal use
• tumble dryer for emergency's only!
• bake bread every day
• make all op's I have planned to for the next year
• clear 0%cc totally (just under £5k now)
• get mortgage down to £137,838 by end june 2012

I could go on forever with this list, but the most important thing I should put on there is to write less list's and get more done.:o

CathT

I think it's a good idea to work towards the move over the course of this year if you think you will end up moving. Nothing worse than having to rush through the work to get yours ready to go on the market.

Have you scrapped the loft conversion idea now?

SmlSave

That's a huuge list newgirly!

It sounds like a good action plan getting the house together to look at moving next year.

Iris_Blue

http://www.cathkidston.co.uk/p-15633-cath-kidston-summer-blossom-twin-lid-sewing-basket.aspx

I saw this on grabbit and thought of you..there are a few on the CK site. John lewis normally have them in the sale before or just after Xmas if you want to wait until then.:)

HTH

newgirly

Noooooo! please don't show me sewing baskets, I can resist full price ones but not ones with £15 off :rotfl:

I may have to show dh, just incase he has a secret wad of cash and wants to treat me.

Cath, the loft conversion is still off for the forseable future, but my god if we ever needed seperate rooms for the boys, then now is the time, we have had major ructions tonight.

The boys' also have their secondary school open days next week and I am up to about 5 kids knocking for mine so far, which is nice for their trial day, however a bit :eek: if its a permenant thing. DD has one lovely friend knock and wait for 10 mins or so in the morning which is fine, but I'm not looking forward to having a house full of kids every day. Evil mum I know.

I have had a really nice easy dinner tonight, probably the cheapest I can think of too, a big handful of dried green lentils, and a half a mug of frozen peas, big sloosh of water and chuck in the SC with a tin of mr t 9p curry sauce and leave for a few hours, sounds vile but I enjoyed it and it was so easy.

Well wish me luck I'm going to show dh the huge list of diy jobs when he gets out of the bath.

CathT

Hope DH reacted to the jobs list well.

newgirly

Well DH listened to my diy list last night, laughed and said ok. Hopefully that means he will do some of it.

Nice weather here today so I will stick some washing out, yesterday I was in an out of the garden bringing washing in because of the rain.

I signed up yesterday morning for the ocado £40 for £20 offer but my discount code still has not come through yet, i'm not sure this deal is going to work, has anyone else tried to get it?

cha97michelle

Even if he only does some of the jobs then you will be laughing won't you. Better than it is now.

And he can't really complain as you have your own list.

The one great thing about my journey is i am pretty sure we will not move from here once the mortgage has gone, so it will be our money for what we want to do and not another mortgage. You might suddenly love the house again or feel that the loft conversion might be a good idea. Who knows. All we can do is keep on trying and hope we are doing the right thing.