would love to be mortgage free!

coldcazzie

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice wrote: »

Oh no.... tell all. Get it off your chest and if you need advice and calming cyber comments, we're all here for ya.

Not to infuriate you but bring it up but what happened about the tree... I was just getting into that saga when your posts stopped! A friend had an established hedge cut down by their neighbour and it went to small claims court. Long and short of it was neighbour had to buy and plant equivalent sized plants to replace.

Wrt the tree, the neighbours have put a fence up along the boundary, so there is now no doubt as to where our boundary ends. We have a large decked area at the bottom of our garden and the back fence is about 4-5 foot before the end of our boundary (because the trees were in the way, so they couldn't/didn't deck there) and there was no division between that land and the neighbours' garden. Presumably this is one reason why they thought it was ok to cut it down. As part of the work on their garden the workers also cut down a vine of their next door neighbour's, even though it was not in their way. Said they were "clearing the area". So it's not just us they have annoyed. I was mistaken before - the workers are Polish not the family, and as far as I can tell the family are saying that it's all the workers fault - they've just taken it upon themselves to clear bits they deem need clearing. Whether this is true or not I am undecided. I am still mightily peeved about it, but to be honest, (and I know this is in stark contrast to my previous attitude) I just don't have the energy for it at the moment.

megela wrote: »

Hi Coldcazzie,

Excuse me for dropping in unannounced but just wanted to offer my encouragement. When you feel like this you need to look at the bigger picture.

You do still need to live your life with all the expense that entails, it's great to reduce your mortgage and cut the term but at some point it WILL be gone (even if, and hopefully not, it's at the end of the term).

I would put MFW plans on hold until you have sorted out your other expenses and problems, and start again with a fresh start.

I find MFW plans have to be fluid and flexible.

Good luck,

Megela.

Hi Megela - you are of course right, which is why I am not even considering OPing at the moment. As it stands at the moment the very earliest we can start OPing would be 2016. When we remortgage in October we will be taking the longest term we can, to keep our payments right down. There are just more important things at the moment.

I would change our payments back to what they were, but there is little point when they will be changing again in October anyway. Thanks for reminding me though, that I need to ring the bank and speak to them about remortgage deals.

coldcazzie

Ok, spending confessions, for the last 2 CC months (from 13th June) - these are additionals, that we wouldn't usually buy.

14.6: rummy noses, £11.18. Impulse buy, shouldn't have done that.
17.6: bike oil, £29.95. Needed an oil change. Oil is expensive. Should be good til next year now though.
18.6: carpet for Lumpy's bedroom, £80. Rather annoyed about this - the piece was twice the size we needed, so I was expecting him to cut it in half and keep the other half. Instead he cut the piece out longways, and gave us the offcuts. I didn't have the confidence to question him, so money wasted on carpet bits we have no use for which are now in our attic.
20.6: strimmer line, £10.96.
21.6: 2 330L compost bins & base plates, £46.29. On special offer from the council. Definitely saved a lot of money here, and won't by buying them again.
21.6: takeaway, £18.80. Recommended by my mum, but we weren't impressed. Won't be using them again. Should have cooked, tbh.
23.6: pipe bits, £25.65. Bathroom stuff.
23.6: manual footpump, £15.99. Our electronic one died.
23.6: inner tube for manwife's bicycle, £3.99.

24.6: sink waste pipe, £15.48. Bathroom stuff.

28.6: kids books, £20.46. Another impulse purchase.
29.6: wedding gift, £12. Came from gift budget so no worries there.
30.6: copper pipe/soil pipe, £26.78. Bathroom stuff.
30.6: 20mm drill bit, £6.98. More bathroom stuff.
1.7: Raspberry Pi, £49.31. I'm still not sure what this is - it's some kind of computer pad that is meant for programming. Manwife bought it because he's having to do work related programming, or something. He says the words but all I hear is "blah blah boring stuff".:rotfl:
2.7: plug sockets, pipe piece, £11.24. Kitchen stuff this time - to make room for the dishwasher.
2.7: dishwasher, £99. Oh how my kitchen-realted stress levels have decreased since buying this!
10.7: cash for resi school purchases, £50.
13.7: eating out, £29.93. This is the day I came back from OU residential. Definitely should have cooked.
16.7: lunch out with RT ladies, £8.88.
18.7: swimming, £17.60. Birthday party.
18.7: MacDonald's, £16.22. Birthday party.
20.7: trip to Midlands for wedding, ~£30. Unsure of total amount - drinks came from pocket cash, but it was around this, and half was petrol.
21.7: bike insurance, £170.17. Fully comp, inc breakdown cover and legal cover current breakdown cover will be cancelled.
23.7: paddling pool, £15. Cats made holes in our old one so we threw it out last year.
28.7: brake pads, £14.45. Bike needed these to get through the MOT.
28.7: MOT, £64. Some additional work needed on back brake.
30.7: DVDs, £27.55. Impulse buy. Tsk tsk.

There is also various items of summer clothing in there, which I've not put in as they come out of the clothing budget, and Squish's birthday gifts, which come out of the gift budget. Even so, without the clothing and gifts taken into account it's £916.40. :eek::eek: god, looking at that figure like that I could actually cry Even once you take into account that the stuff for the home improvements (so all kitchen, bathroom, carpet etc) has been transferred from savings, it's still substantial.

Like I said. I've lost control. I can't even have a clamp down on spending as we're going on holiday in a couple of weeks - so there's car hire to pay for, plus petrol, plus anything we end up doing on holiday. And in the next month there is also cat insurance and vaccs to buy.

I want to hide in my bed.

Sepa74

Oh Cazzie, can I say it's not so bad? In two months, from what I can see in the list you made 4 impulse buys! If I only did 4 in two months, I'd be thrilled!

Everything else you bought either saves or makes money, reduces stress levels or is a requirement to keep your vehicles on the road.

Don't be hard on yourself... in fact, my initial reaction is to say that maybe you were clamping down too tightly? MFW is about the long term, it's optional not compulsory (thank goodness!) and it's important that you are able to enjoy the occasional takeaway, holiday or entertainment spend without feeling bad about it. Otherwise we'll go crazy and end up in an asylum instead!!


(((((hugs))))) I hope you feel better about things soon.

gallygirl

As Sepa has said, not too bad at all :T.

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

I concur... if you take out all the bathroom and kitchen stuff then it's only a few treats.

Maybe you could do something resourceful with the carpet... perhaps cut smaller for door mats/corridor runners in the winter? Or, if it's wide enough for stairs, you could sell through ebay/preloved?

coldcazzie

I did think about possibly using the carpet for other things. It isn't wide enough for our hallway. It might be wide enough for stairs, but each section is not long enough for a full staircase, only perhaps 4-5 stairs. I don't really have anywhere that they could be used as a mat. I refuse to give them away for allotments or anything as it's REALLY good quality carpet - lovely soft long pile. I'm a bit stumped tbh... I just don't understand why he didn't cut it the way I suggested and he agreed to.

I know it's not too bad, and I've transferred money out of the savings account which was for home improvementy type stuff. But even outside of that, there isn't much room for error in our budget (not that I'm clamping down too hard, but that we have very little left at the end of the month to allow for overspending) and this last month we've over spent on: food, home items, clothing, stationary, garden stuff, leisure and petrol, all by smallish amounts, and it all tots up... in addition to the spend I've listed above. It was a 5 week month so I understand why the food spending was higher, but even so... all that red conditional formatting on my lovely spreadsheet makes me cringe! :rotfl:

I've had to reduce the amount we are putting away each month into the FD regular saver, so we won't hit our savings target for this year. It's also looking like we won't be able to do the kitchen next year after all... it's going to take another year of saving.

Last thing Friday I was left an answermachine message from the car hire company. After procrastinating for ages I had finally ordered the Tesco vouchers, and booked the car, only for this message to tell me that the local depot can't hire to me because they only hire to drivers aged 26+ and I don't turn 26 til October. *puts on perky voice* But they can give me details of other nearby depots that will hire to me! :undecided so this morning I cancelled the booking. I specific chose somewhere close to me, so I'll know the roads, because it's been 3.5 years since I last drove. Another depot further away is not an option. So now I'm hunting around different local companies. I'm mightily peeved because I can't get the Tesco vouchers back. So either I have to book a car with them in the next 6 months, or I lose £40's worth of Tesco vouchers. :mad:

I've not even looked at cat insurance yet. Vaccs booked for Thursday... need to remember to cancel the milk for next week... *sigh* I need a hug.

coldcazzie

Well, this morning is the day. I slept quite well, but every time I look at the clock I get a wave of nausea. It's been 3.5 years since I last drove a car. I'm so nervous...

I got a different hire car sorted. Cat insurance sorted, and a saving on last year; cats vaccinated (half price offer on at our vets ); milk cancelled...

God I'm nervous... *frets*

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Good luck Caz, will be thinking of you today

Tilly x x x

gallygirl

Good luck Caz!








Today I will mostly be staying in .

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Think of us on our Tilly Olympic special :)

With the things DS has planned, I am beginning to think I should stay in too

Tilly x