would love to be mortgage free!

coldcazzie

Just updated my signature with Feb's grocery challenge - set myself a target this month of £420. Having got £434 last month which was 5 weeks plus birthday party I think £420 should be achievable.

Store cupboard essentials were delivered today: £147.02 less £2.50 for a rejected substitution = £144.52 (budget is £150) :T:T:T

coldcazzie

Well... I believe we may have just purchased a new bike engine. £240 delivered, which is less than I was expecting... just gotta wait for them to accept the offer (they agreed it verbally but obviously it has to be formal).

coldcazzie

It's done. One bike engine purchased :eek:

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi Caz, does the free eBay listing start tonight or tomorrow? I have had a rare old time hunting stuff down so it's all ready to go - fingers crossed.

Good to hear about the engine - I think in a previous post you said that it will DH a spare, once the others fixed, so thats good news also.

Best wishes Tiily

coldcazzie

Tomorrow Tilly - it's Saturday and Sunday all day. I've photographed 3 new items to go up in addition to the stuff that didn't sell last time, just need to weigh them. Yes the engine will be a spare once DH has fixed his current engine and put it back in the bike. Or perhaps it will go back on eBay? Who knows!

Have purchased that textbook using the 25% off code. Only £27.49 posted instead of £35.49 :eek: hope it's worth it! Really need to get a good grade on this year. Last year went really well right up until the exam which I completely flunked (won't go into why), so this year has to be top notch including the exam. Am currently writing up my first set of notes, alongside reading the second journal article for this week (only 21 pages long!). First tutorial tomorrow morning so looking forward to that. Been looking at the revision weekend prices: £225, and then travel on top. Last year's travel was about £35. Will have to see if I can work this into my budget somehow - I found last year's really useful and said I'd do it again this year. Really this is the kind of thing my course grant is supposed to be used for. Shall have to sell some more bits on eBay to help raise funds I think. In the meantime I've diarised the date that is the earliest I can book the train tickets, so I'll put it in my budget now and try to work around it.

coldcazzie

So, yesterday we got our annual mortgage statement.

Balance as of 31st December 2011 was £97595.66, meaning that in 13 months we paid a grand total of £1404.34 off our mortgage, and now own 1% of our home. Is it just me, or is that chuffing pathetic?! :eek:

Makes me even more determined that changing our DD and trying to make OPs is the right thing to do, I just need to ensure the appropriate balance between overpaying, living life and home improvements.

coldcazzie

I'm really struggling these past few days. I've been feeling really raw, full of self doubt since the beginning of October: various things related to Uni, work, etc. The place I would usually vent (a closed fb group) isn't safe in this instance because the two ladies who sent me down this path (albeit unintentionally) are both members of said group. Tilly said the other day that the virtual friendships are important, sometimes as much as "real life" friendships and she's right - I've lost a virtual friend in the past week and it's really hurt me. Perhaps usually I could deal with it, but feeling down already means I'm not handling it well. Anyway, I had a little meltdown on DH last night. Don't feel much better emotionally this morning, but at least I'm not bottling it up.

Half term this week so trying to think up free and interesting things to do with the kids. Will definitely make the effort to get outside, plant some bulbs. The weather is less bitter today. Fingers crossed spring comes soon. I hate winter.

Also, the bike engine was delivered this morning. Please send all hopes, prayers, luck etc that he can be back on the road next week!

coldcazzie

Well, I feel good on the MSE front.

- 2 pairs of Brantano kids shoes which were already on sale, extra 15% off. 7% cashback for going via TCB, plus £5 cashback for signing up to TCB via NoBrainers.
- a 16-25 1 year railcard bought with £14 worth of Clubcard vouchers. Seeing as I'm going to be purchasing a lot of train tickets this year I thought this would be worth it. The fact that it's essentially half price is even better

Penny_Counter_Girl

I haven't posted on your diary so far, although have popped in and out when I can to read it - and I was sorry to hear you are feeling self-doubt at the moment. It's always so discouraging when that happens, because you begin to question whether you are really up to the challenges you have set yourself.

Don't listen to that awful voice of doubt from inside. We all hear him/her, and sometimes we do listen, but if you have faith in your goals and believe they are worthwhile, then you have to believe you are worthy of attaining them too.

I know you are studying at university - I work in the university sector as an academic - would be happy to help with any advice you might need, if you thought this might help.

In the meantime, focus on the little steps, not the grand goals - you don't reach the grand goals without all those little steps, so think only of those when you're feeling overwhelmed, and the little victories will all build up.

coldcazzie

Thank you pcg :grouphug:

The work I do is difficult, I'm very passionate about it, but it's so contentious that there's always going to be people who disagree, and unfortunately when you put large numbers of women together things can get !!!!!y. I'd been wondering for a while whether I was really on the right path, then got an email from someone I know professionally, that completely threw me. I flunked my exam because of it... and have been having a major crisis of faith ever since. I felt especially bad last week after being publicly bashed for trying to help someone. Other ladies I know have reminded me that we live for the starfish moments, but I'm finding even that difficult at the moment as they are few and far between.

I'm trying so hard to focus on OU, final module of 10, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I deliberately decided to step back from work so I could put in the effort required... but it's so hard when those around me who started work when/after I did have got further than me. It's difficult not to compare, even when you know circumstances are different.

Ugh. Rambling. I'll stop now. Thankyou though. It means a lot