Trying to make my dreams a reality!!

icontinuetodream

Expensive weekend :eek::eek::eek: dd came off her moped yesterday, so ended up having a two round trips to the hospital which is 25 miles away....its only a little hospy and they have radiographers on call over the weekend for emergencies and do a block x-ray session in the afternoon so had to return for that after the first visit...:mad:

Poor kid has damaged the tendons in her arm (no break thankfully!!) so treated her to a big pork baguette and some chocolate.....not exactly going to fix her, but made her feel better for a while!!!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Have been searching the house for any loose change hanging around (have already warned the tribe that if I see money outside their rooms, I'm liberating it!!!:D) and have managed to fill a money bag full of coppers and one of silver stuff!!!:j:j:j I shall count it later and then add it to the mortgage pot.....

Today, I will finish sorting my January budget and put my final pennies to the OP for Jan.....I should have a few quid extra but not sure yet

Anyhoo....I have had a long conversation with dh about how lazy we have become - now that it is winter, we seem to just come home from work on an evening, sort dinner then flop in front of the tv and spend the next few hours flicking channels trying to find something to watch. On weekends, we tend to do little other than housework and because we spend so much of our weekends cleaning, it seems that we don't really ever get any time to do the things we enjoy.... plus we put stuff off so frequently, it seems our main goal in life is being as lazy as we can be!! :mad::o

I think some of it is the weather - its hard to be motivated when it seems permanently dark or miserable and not being able to relax in the garden depresses me!! However, I think that being like this is making me even more miserable than the winter originally intended!! Upshot is, we have decided that we will try to do house stuff when we come home from work and then we can have a proper weekend without needing to do the house which should leave us free to actually be doing things we enjoy Because we spent so much time and money doing the garden last year, I think a lot of the way I am feeling is to do with not being able to really utilise it yet.....I am a grumpy sheep today.....sorry!!;) We need to get into the habit of doing stuff during the week so we will see how it works out over the next month!!:cool:

Hope everyone is doing well and is happy!!:D

Peonie

Apart from the part about DD (I hope she is OK) I could have written that post about me and Mr P. We need to start enjoying life and stop sitting on our bums in front of the TV but that also means I need to spend less time on here.

pink_poppy

Oh heck, hope your DD is ok Lucky that she didn't break anything but I would imagine damaged tendons isn't too nice either.

We had a chat today about the fact we never seem to do anything on a weekend ~ but it is mostly down to the weather I think. We've decided to go for a family day out next weekend, maybe take a picnic (or do as Tilly suggested & take a disposable BBQ & a pack of bacon & make bacon butties ~ sorry, I know you're vegan !!) I think it's just nice to get out of the house sometimes & clear the cobwebs.

LavenderBees

Hiya

I lost you for a while, but now I've found you again...! Fantastic op in January. Don't be too hard on yourself about "wasted" opportunities, you still need to live a little or even a lot.

Hope DD is feeling better after her accident. Bet that was a shocker. :eek:

How is your part of the challenge going? Still ciggy free? For my own part, I'm starting to lapse into olde ways. I can be good all week (too knackered after work to eat and drink), but weekends in winter are so hard. I walk loads but want to eat and drink, too....still on the whole, I'm doing better than I was 6 weeks ago....got to keep going....but a weekend drink is definitely on the cards as we're expecting snow tomorrow, so it's traditional to light the fire, pour some nice wine, and watch the snow fall...I love snow as long as I don't have to go out in it :eek:

Is it nearly spring yet?

Good luck for Feb.

xx

icontinuetodream

well, it has been quite some time since i was on the boards, a lot has happened, noteably a great big fall of the mf wagon but a lot of fun on the way and a lot acheived.....my lodger skipped out without paying me, i have had a weeks holiday which was unexpected and a few completely unexpected expenses.

Upshot is, dh and I have had yet another talk and decided that despite how lovely it would be to be mf really quickly, its too depressing when things don't go right and when we miss having times that we don't think about money, mortgages and the like I am sort of embarressed about it, although not enough to ignore how I feel. We have made a commitment to paying the mortgage off quickly still, but we are going to have a more relaxed limit and ways to do it.

I think that a lot of things have happened in the past couple of months which has reminded me that I have to live in the moment.....plans are great, but they shouldn't take over my life...I need to enjoy each second I have of my life and not spend it all fretting about what I am achieveing.... I know that some people may see it as a cop out but its the only thing that is going to work for me.....:D

Anyhoo....its nice to be back, I am looking forward to catching up with everyone.....it may take a week or so before I manage it though!!! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

beth111

Lovely to have you back ICTD.

icontinuetodream

Hiya folks!! :wave: I have had an interesting time over the past few months and am finally in a place where I can start to make some op's again in the next couple of months......our budget, plans and even some of our previous savings for ops have gone to poo but i really can't worry about what has gone, my mission has to be about the future.....

life being what it is, my mfw plans have become a great deal more modest since i began this diary - i must admit that i am disappointed that my previous plans didn't work out but not devastated!! The mortgage will still be paid early and I will enjoy the less frenetic pace, I am in a good frame of mind about our new plans and pretty certain that because they are not as stretching, they are more likely to succeed!!

We have decided that we will look at paying about £500 per month in OP's from the end of September ...ds has a bday in august and dd has her 21st in september so all my money is tied up over the next couple of months.... I have a couple of months now to keep a spending diary, look at the costs that i incur and ways in which i can be more creative in avoiding expenditure!! Go me!!!:rotfl:

icontinuetodream

Hi folks!! :wave: Its been quite some time since I have been on, a variety of things have happened so this will probably end up being a bit of an epic post!!!:rotfl:

As I previously stated, paying off the mortgage is not going to happen particularly quickly now as our financial situation has changed a lot...I have had a very bad experience with one of my 'friends' over the summer - he is disabled and was in really dire straits financially due to a benefit mix up so asked me for a loan for a few weeks to see him through....stupidly, I agreed to help, took money out of my savings to the tune of £700 to lend him and he has basically skipped town with my cash :mad: I am devastated....it's not because of the money (although that is a major blow) it's more to do with the betrayal......

we also took the decision over the summer that we really wanted to have our kitchen sorted - I live in an ex-LA house which has a downstairs loo, coal store and outhouse which had turned into dumping grounds for all our carp, and the 'kitchen' that we have is so badly laid out that it is a nightmare, so, thanks to an interest free loan from my amazing sister, we have decided to knock it all out and make it into a proper sized kitchen - we are having an 8ft patio door put into the back (so that I can look at our revamped garden!) and getting the walls lined and insulated, the floor levelled, rewiring and plumbing changed and a new kitchen installed...:eek: So, we are now in the middle of building work and I have nowhere to cook, everything I own is covered in brick dust and chaos abounds!!!! It is proving to be a traumatic experience, but it will be worth it in the end (she says hopefully!!:rotfl:) I was expecting it to be finished by now (as the work started at the end of september) but the builder seems to have his own schedule and I am getting to the point where I am pulling my hair out!!

Unfortunately, this means that the savings I could make on the food bills are not possible at the moment, my garden looks like a building site which is really irritating and we are still not certain of how much cash we can afford to spend on the new kitchen units so can't plan our budgets....:(

So, thats the traumas...now the good stuff!!

I have changed the mortgage to an offset which has given me the freedom to be able to see what difference every op makes to my balance which is incredibly motivating :T and, the mortgage is currently at 57k :j

Apart from the kitchen stuff, I have no more major expenses coming up that I am aware of, all birthdays, holidays etc have been paid for and done and I am going to spend time this week making sure that I am on the best option for electricity and that I think of things I can do food wise which will minimise the expenditure....takeouts are not a good way to live!:o

We are still doing a £140 op every month and as soon as the building work and kitchen are finished, we should be able to pay my sister back quickly (she is very happy to have the cash over a five year period, but I don't want to have her wait that long after her incredibly generous assistance) and still put quite a bit into the offset savings, so I am intending to have the mortgage finished by 2018 - not an enormous amount of difference in the time that it should take, but still six years earlier than its meant to be and if we work hard, it could be better than that!!!

We have had a really expensive year this year, some of it planned, some of it not, but I am very hopeful that next year we will be able to make the in-roads into the mortgage that we had hoped to do previously..... I am still feeling positive about it all despite all of the setbacks and know that I will really be able to concentrate on it now - I am looking forward to having a great year next year, with a house and garden that I love and a budget which is workable and productive.....

Well, if you have managed to stick with it so far, I am amazed...and eternally grateful!! I am really looking forward to getting back into my mfw journey and these boards, they are always inspirational and I love hearing about everyone else...with that in mind, I am off to catch up with everything you have been doing!!! :wave:

gallygirl

icontinuetodream wrote: »

I have had a very bad experience with one of my 'friends' over the summer - he is disabled and was in really dire straits financially due to a benefit mix up so asked me for a loan for a few weeks to see him through....stupidly, I agreed to help, took money out of my savings to the tune of £700 to lend him and he has basically skipped town with my cash :mad: I am devastated....it's not because of the money (although that is a major blow) it's more to do with the betrayal......

Well, if your friendship was only worth £700 to him then good riddance .

Kitchen will be great when it's done . In the meantime, onepot dinners in the slow cooker sounds like the order of the day .

sofaman

Just got 20k, so should be home dry soon.