Drip drip drip feeding the mortgage

tjp70

The tent sold for £33.00 so I am very pleased with that. We have had an expensive few weeks so I put most of the payment to the credit card but snuck £5.00 onto the mortgage account. Sadly, another item that sold has not been paid for, despite me sending reminders.

Last weekend I listed three more items on ebay and two of them have sold. Not big money, just a few pounds here and there. It’s all helping with decluttering the house though.

Also last Sunday, we went through all the toy boxes in our conservatory. There were a lot of toys in a bad state taken to the dump and I have a huge pile for the charity shop and another pile for a car boot sale.

We have a few expensive months coming up with weddings, birthdays and other events so I need to keep up with keeping the credit card under control and making mortgage overpayments no matter how small.

tjp70

As predicted, it has been an expensive time. The office has been decorated plus a new carpet. It cost about £300.00. Last weekend we went to a jubilee party 175 miles away so there was fuel for that. We have a wedding this weekend to attend, and we all have had new outfits :mad: I thought DH would wear one of this work suits but apparently they all need renewing. The bride and groom would like money and I have no idea how much to put in with the card. It is hard to know how much is acceptable for someone you haven't seen for 10 years.

The kids and I have bought presents for DH for Fathers Day. I am going to bake a cake for my Dad. Then we have a 21st birthday coming up plus another wedding and a new baby on the scene in August!

Not much money saving is happening, more like money spending. I have been ebaying a few bits and have just over £20.00 in my Paypal account. I have paid the monthly interest from my current account to the mortgage account and things are still on track there. Just need to keep that credit card under control.

The company that I work for have had major problems with their accounting system and I have been unable to work whilst the system is down. So I have been sat at home unpaid, a big downside of being self employed.

On a plus side, I have joined the Grocery Challenge for June on the OS board and have resisted the urge to go shopping. Today we ran out of goodies so the kids made cookies with an over ripe banana, so that didn't go to waste. And tonight I have stuck to my meal plan and resisted the urge to get a take away.

tjp70

It was a beautiful wedding, the bride looked gorgeous, the groom burst into tears and the weather stayed dry. Lovely.

Back to reality tomorrow. Back to the diet. Back to work. Back to focusing on keeping our outgoings down.

At the wedding SIL mentioned that she will have paid off her mortgage this December. I felt very envious. However, if we carry on at the rate we are going at the moment, ours will be paid off before I am her age. :j

Radish72

Glad you had good weather for the wedding

Think I need to join you on the "back on the diet" but small steps I did refuse a ice cream this afternoon whilst out on a walk :A

tjp70

Hi Radish, nice of you to drop by. Well done for refusing the ice cream – despite my good intentions, I have done no dieting or exercising this week and feel sluggish because of it. :mad:


Work is crazy busy because the systems are back up and running so I am trying to clear the backlog. It’s not easy. I have been offered help but it will take just as long to train someone as to tap it in myself so I just carry on. I usually don’t work after the school run but this week, so far, I have had to do an hour or so in the evenings.


The credit card is up to a massive £1800.:eek: I had a good look at the statement and it’s lots of things – paint & carpet for the office, hotel and outfits for us all for the wedding last weekend, hotel for the wedding in August (prepaid so a cheaper rate), deposit for the cottage we are going to stay in July. I have only been able to make a small payment towards the bill so that’s annoying too.


This weekend, I am cooking brunch for my Dad and the rest of the family. I am hoping that my sister chips in with the food costs as there are going to be a lot of people attending.

tjp70

Since resurrecting this diary, I have done next to no saving. Mortgage overpayments for last month were the lowest so far this year (still over £300.00 but I can do better than that). What I have done is a lot of umming and aaahing and quite a bit of spending.

My Mum & Dad have arranged to take all the grandkids away to their house in France in August for a week. That trip coincides with a week when DH & I have a week’s leave. I told DH that I would cancel my leave at work and he said no, we would go away somewhere without the kids :eek: After a lot of stomach churning deliberation on my part, we have booked to go away to New York for 5 nights.

I am struggling to find a balance between overpaying whilst still living life to the full (and keeping DH happy). Does anyone else suffer the same angst as me?

JimLad

tjp70 wrote: »

Since resurrecting this diary, I have done next to no saving. Mortgage overpayments for last month were the lowest so far this year (still over £300.00 but I can do better than that). What I have done is a lot of umming and aaahing and quite a bit of spending.

My Mum & Dad have arranged to take all the grandkids away to their house in France in August for a week. That trip coincides with a week when DH & I have a week’s leave. I told DH that I would cancel my leave at work and he said no, we would go away somewhere without the kids :eek: After a lot of stomach churning deliberation on my part, we have booked to go away to New York for 5 nights.

I am struggling to find a balance between overpaying whilst still living life to the full (and keeping DH happy). Does anyone else suffer the same angst as me?

Keeping DH Happy? Is he not on board with the over payments and living frugally now for a better tomorrow?


Did you make a decision on your house situation? I read a post earlier saying you saw a nice 4 bed house you liked.

tjp70

JimLad wrote: »

Keeping DH Happy? Is he not on board with the over payments and living frugally now for a better tomorrow?


Did you make a decision on your house situation? I read a post earlier saying you saw a nice 4 bed house you liked.

Hi :wave:

DH loves the idea of being mortgage free, and can see the sense in overpaying the mortgage, to reduce the amount of interest that we pay to the building society. But, he does not want to do that if it means compromising our lifestyle. So I try to strike a balance. I can see his point of view, you never know what is around the corner. However, I would have been happy with a weekend away in Jersey!


We are still contemplating what to do about the house. Our three bed semi was built in 60s and the rooms are really large. We have converted the integral garage into an office for me to work from home and we have an old, largely unused, south facing conservatory on the back. We have been on a decorating frenzy within the last 12 months and had the kitchen revamped a few years back. So the house is quite nice. But, it’s not in an area that we like and we would like to be detached so we don’t hear the neighbours all the time. To get all this space in an area that we do like would mean adding a massive amount to the mortgage, at least £100k. So we decided to just keep overpaying and ‘wait and see’ (DH’s favourite phrase and my least favourite).

Since then, the leaky conservatory has started to smell and we discovered a rotten floor. The roof of the conservatory needs replacing too. We now have to either replace it as is, or knock it down before it falls down (we will have to remove the conservatory radiator and dismantle the electrics out there too). Then my Dad gave us another idea. Why not replace the conservatory with a brick built tiled garden room and knock through into the lounge to makea larger living area. This is a great idea and we have had a company come out to give us a quotation to do this work. The quote should come through in a couple of weeks.

So the new dilemma will be – if we go ahead with the extension, we will have to add extra to the mortgage to fund it and ultimately, will still be in an area that we don’t like. We will have saved money on stampduty, solicitors fees etc. but we will still have attached neighbours and three bedrooms not four. Or we could just replace the conservatory like for like, so will be spending approx.. £8000 - £10000 for a room that we hardly use. If we decide to move, we will have a mortgage until I am 98 :eek: and may not gain much more space but will be in a nice area.

I don’t know what to do. :mad:

Sorry for the essay!

Radish72

and I'm going to be completely unhelpful and tell you to go to New York and have a wonderful time

Delaying becoming MF by a few months in the grand scheme of things is not much and you need memories to talk about when you own your own home

JimLad

Wow sounds like a proper dilemma regarding the house!!


Is there any chance you could knock down the conservatory and do a two story extension? That would get you the extra bedroom you want although it wouldnt help with the area or being detached