First steps on the road to being mortgage free

Lois_E

What a lovely description of your family. You sound very happy together.

kirstypark

hello:wave:

how interesting, to hear how moneysaving goes on in Germany. Good luck with your aims this year?

*Jellie*

It's really interesting to find out about your MFW exploits in Germany. It seems a bit weird ordering clothes from the UK as they are cheaper- we usually feel we pay top price for everything here.

egon

*Jellie* wrote: »

It's really interesting to find out about your MFW exploits in Germany. It seems a bit weird ordering clothes from the UK as they are cheaper- we usually feel we pay top price for everything here.

We found out, that a lot of things are cheaper in the UK. We do compare the prices in both countries and look for the best option.
Even my brother loves ordering from the UK sides, just that his english is non exciting, so we tend to bulk order for everyone.
Ten years ago, it was the opposite way.
Even food etc is more expensive here.

I can't wait for our next UK holiday, so we can do a proper ASDA or Tesco shop!

egon

Been sorting the tax paperwork for 2011. We have to hand it in to the tax man by the end of this month. :eek:
The accountant will have fun. :embarasse

The overpayment has now shown on the bank statement. Has taken over a week! :shocked::shocked:
They also debited back 350 Euros from the overpayment. I am not sure why. I haven't managed to get to the bank yet. Better sort it out this week.

I have updated our budget spreadsheet. Just have to keep at it.

I also have to sort all our paperwork. We managed to totally mix it all up. This will be a rainy sunday job.

Good news on the wages front. The government is taxing less on German statutory pension insurance scheme. It is going down from 19.6% to 18.9%. I have to see, what difference it will make on the wage itself. The difference will be paid into our building fund, as this is down to next to nothing.

I wish you all a nice week ahead.

Egon

egon

Now the german banks are really confusing me. (And I am German.....)

We now had a letter through, that our mortgage payment is 350Euro short. Even though they debited it back to us. After asking, they couldn't tell us why. I will pay the money back. It all helps on the road to been mortgage free. :rotfl:

Lots of white snow over here. Because of it, I got a lot of the paperwork sorted and now cracking on with the garden.
We have a huge garden and want to grow our own veg.
Been out today to measure. So, tonight I will draw up a plan, to see what I can grow where.

Now I just need to figure out, how to post pictures.

Egon

elantan

egon, its great to read of differenct countries, and like lois says really surprising to find out its cheaper over here for some things, how often do you get over to the u.k for holidays? do you take a suitcase full of clothes back with you when you come over? do you have relatives that you could stay with here whilst here? i'm asking as i'm wondering if that would work out cheaper for you all

egon

Yes, we do have relatives over in the UK. But we tend to stay with friends, as they have more space and also have kids, the same age as ours. The in laws are nearby,so we are able to see them a lot when we are over.

We only visit the UK once a year as a family. My husband tries to get over a second time by himself.
We usually take the ferry and when we get back, the car is overloaded with all the things we can't get here in Germany. :rotfl:
Last time, we couldn't open the boot without things falling out. :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

A lot of companies also deliver over here. So we tend to bulk buy clothes when they are on sale and have them delivered for 7.99 pounds. I can't argue about that! :T

It is a sunny day over here today. I will sit down and make a plan of what I want to grow in the garden, and where.

I also want to do some charts for our budgets. I love playing around with them. It is just, that we have a Mac at home, and it is slightly different to how to do charts on it. Something to play around with tonight. If I can get that sorted, I will post them on here.

Egon

elantan

Well you certainly can't beat 7.99 for delivery

I can imagine you will have the car full though when you head back from a visit, I can just imagine the things falling everywhere, I say that as I've done it myself when camping

Octobergirl

Hello egon:hello:

Lovely to hear about Germany, I spent a wonderful 4 months in Munich as a student and have very fond memories. Your eldest sounds like my 4 year old , amazes us at times with his learning / knowledge, but woefully lacking socially:o