Sweetdaisy's aim to be mortgage-free

sweetdaisy

southerndave wrote: »

Hi Daisy, sorry stuff like this bugs me, its the engineering side of me!! Had a quick Google and I reckon you should try and claim under the gauruntee as I think there has been an issue with these bins.

Thank you Southerndave, you are a star . I phoned Brabantia and they are sending me a replacement bin lid free of charge (even though I don't have the receipt). You have saved me £34.80.

southerndave

No worries! It's bin good......:D

sweetdaisy

Shifted some money between the accounts. Trying to concentrate on putting more money into the Emergency Fund and Car savings pot at the moment.

Bought a Christmas :xmassmile present for my Sister using TCB and earned £2.04 cashback. Purchased some model trains for my Dad which were on his Wish List, so he'll be pleased with these.

Had a wobbly day last week where I was about to throw in the towel with all this MFW lark . It was a combination of being unhappy at work, not getting to see much of the children as I am working full-time and my commute to work each way takes around 50 mins - 1 hour 15 mins. It crossed my mind that if I were to stop all overpayments then I could afford to change jobs and drop my salary by around £3,000-£4,000. But then again, if I carry on with my MFW quest and pay off the mortgage early I can afford to change jobs and take a pay cut of £9,000 :eek:.

southerndave

That balance is the key Daisy, but don't give in. There will always be more work, the only truly finite resource for everyone is time and it is how we spend it that counts. I try and balance my hours at work with what I need with what I want to do / be with. Its hard though, I grant you.

How old are your kids? I promised myself and so far have managed to stick to it, that while our son was very young, we'd both spend as much time with him as possible and that we did. Money wasn't an issue, not because we had any, but compared to spending time with him up to a point was something that alll the money in the world couldn't buy, ever.

Now he is at school, the balance has shifted back towards work a little and paying the mortgage off. This is on a sliding scale as he spends more time at his studies and naturally is progressing on the path that ultimately leads him away from us and into his own independence. That's my only bit of advice for anyone is not to sacrifice the early years of childhood in favour of work/money.

sweetdaisy

southerndave wrote: »

That balance is the key Daisy, but don't give in. There will always be more work, the only truly finite resource for everyone is time and it is how we spend it that counts. I try and balance my hours at work with what I need with what I want to do / be with. Its hard though, I grant you.

How old are your kids? I promised myself and so far have managed to stick to it, that while our son was very young, we'd both spend as much time with him as possible and that we did. Money wasn't an issue, not because we had any, but compared to spending time with him up to a point was something that alll the money in the world couldn't buy, ever.

Now he is at school, the balance has shifted back towards work a little and paying the mortgage off. This is on a sliding scale as he spends more time at his studies and naturally is progressing on the path that ultimately leads him away from us and into his own independence. That's my only bit of advice for anyone is not to sacrifice the early years of childhood in favour of work/money.

DS1 is 5 years old and DS2 is 2 years old. DS1 is in school and DS2 will be in full-time school next September (they go full-time at 3 years old in our neck of the woods), but currently attends Nursery.

I am finding it awfully hard to balance everything. I have always been the main breadwinner so have always worked full-time. DH has been in his new job around 8 months. He is still on a temp rolling one week contract and if he gets taken on, possibly in June 2014, he will then become the main breadwinner. But, if I reduced my hours now and DH gets made redundant again, it would be a big struggle without my full-time pay. I am happy to work full-time (hopefully in another job) as long as it's closer to home, as my commute will be less and I'll have more time to spend with the children.

Both my parents worked when I was young and when I look back I don't feel I missed out on anything, but the children are growing up so quickly I feel that these early years are passing me by.

southerndave

As I said, its a difficult balance and circumstances dictate to a degree what you can and can't do. The kids usually don't mind, but its the adult perspective as we are aware of how fast time goes. I am sure you'll work something out that hits the right notes!

sweetdaisy

Monthly mortgage payment of £750 made and mortgage balance is now £67,839. Monthly interest is due to be added around 22/23 of the month, so hopefully we will stay in the £67,000s by the end of the month.

southerndave

Soon be in the 66's!

sweetdaisy

southerndave wrote: »

Soon be in the 66's!

Hi Southerndave, I hope to be in the £66k's by the end of the year. We started the year with a balance of £76,600 and it would be lovely to have reduced the mortgage by £10,000 in one year .

My Brabantia bin lid has arrived and I thought that my bin was Shiny Steel, but I now realise it is Matt. So my new bin lid is shiny and the rest of the bin is matt, but it looks Ok.

Food shop done this morning and I was £17 under budget, so pleased with this. Also spent £15 on having the Tracking done on my car as it has been knocked out of line by the numerous pot holes near my work. Luckily I have had it done in time so that it hasn't started to wear my tyres.

southerndave

IF the garage will confirm that in writing, it might well be worth sending the receipt on to the council for them to pay. Lots of people have successfully claimed for tyres and other damage from pot holes. Document the holes in regularly used roads near you and hit them with the bill. It angers me they can take so much money in taxes for roads and then ours cars are getting damaged just driving over them! Grrrr.