our forever patch challenge

sammy70

:j its the weekend!!
Work has been a mixture of ok, and craperooney this week:p

My payday yesterday, hubbys tuesday. There wont be any surprises, just shuffling money to the correct accounts, including paying back xmas money 'borrowed' for early overpayment :j:j

I had a little cash surprise this week, i paid my last £3 for our bonus ball at work, and let the guy know i was packing in, thought it only fair to give a weeks notice, and i won! so glad i gave notice, £41 in the kitty, and from now on the £3 will be going in the 2018 extra overpayment pot. Ive also let everyone know the works lottery ends 23rd december, so after that another £3 a week to the pot:)
i felt a bit awkward cancelling these, as everyone seems to think you are just being stingy. since we got our new house in general some work colleagues have been off with us, i think its a bit of jealousy, but if you try to explain that we got our house by saving/overpaying on our old house, and that while they buy new cars/go on holidays/nights out etc and we dont thats how we do it, i think they just dont get it, so i keep my mouth shut, its not worth it .
No doubt if we reach our goal in 12 years of paying off this mortgage and going part time, people still wont get how we do it, ive found in the past if you try to explain how overpaying and prioritising short term going without what they class as needs, and we class as waste of money/luxury, people think you ere either weird, or tightfisted, you generally get the 'live for today, whats the point of paying debts off early you could die tomorow' response, so i dont waste my breath anymore.:)

Anyhow, must crack on with some housework! we awoke to a winter wonderland this morning, snow!! winter is here!:eek:

EatingTheElephant

Congratulations on reaching your OP goal :T

We are off to collect wood from our little copse this afternoon and I’ve just caught up and read about your wood collections too. Are you planning to replant any trees to replace the old ones? I’m trying to decide if/when/how we replant any so would welcome any thoughts!

I’m thinking we could plant some Christmas trees at some point too, that could save some pennies

sammy70

hi ETE, wood collecting/chopping/storing is our weekend pursuit at the moment. We have ALOT of trees requiring felling due to age/damage , and at the moment every weekend we manage to do a little more clearing of undergrowth and some aspect of either chainsawing a tree, or log sawing and storing.
Our land previously belonged to a lovely couple who had lived here 40 years, and had brought a large family up. Over the last number of years the land has obviously become too much for them to manage, and had become totally overgrown in places. Trees had fallen, and just been left where they fell. We have at least 50 self seeded trees at different stages of growth, and different types, and i would guess at the same amount of fully grown trees, most healthy but huge, just requiring management and care, alongside i would estimate about at least ten more that are dead/ damaged and requiring felling.
At the moment, our priority is getting the dead ones felled for fuel, alongside clearing the overgrown jungle surrounding each one.
im thinking replanting of the larger trees due to the number of self seeded ones wont be needed for a while:eek:
We did plant 100 hawthornes alongside our stockfencing earlier this year though, which we hope eventually will grow into a lovely thick hedge, which will provide a home for birds and other wildlife, whilst hopefully keeping our animals inside our land
We have only one area of land now that is that overgrown we only last weekend after living here nearly a year, just managed to nearly get to the otherside of, we are going to use that area next year to hopefully get fenced, and put a couple of weaner pigs in to have an adventure clearing!:rotfl:
We want to keep the land a little oasis for us and the wildlife living here, we just want all the land usable and passable, which when we arrived you couldnt, except for the garden at the side of the house, and yard. We have some really old trees, one huge beech has initials carved in it, a love heart,and the date of 1959!! i like to think it was a couple who met under the tree on the way to work at the workshops that used to be here years ago, who knows..
We havent really looked into woodland management as such with any experts yet, we are literally clearing up at the moment .
I must admit, its a good feeling after hours of chopping/wheelbarrowing etc seeing the logs that will keep us warm for the next few years at least, and save us a fortune in fuel, growing . Our workshop has already enough log for the next couple of years at least.
Good luck with your tree planting ETA, there are some lovely british varieties to choose from:)

EatingTheElephant

It really does sound wonderful there Sammy, so much history. Our weekends sound quite similar. People may think I am odd, but I really love the satisfaction of reclaiming another section of land, plus it’s a better view than going to the gym

I can see why you wouldn’t need to think about replanting, our little copse is much smaller, but there is a huge tree that has fallen many years ago and just left. It’s going to be a tricky one to clear as it is stuck on another really tall tree, but I keep imagining how long it will keep us warm for! I think I need to add some woodland management things to my reading list.

sammy70

we love it here ETE, i get funny looks too from workmates when they ask what i did at the weekend, and i say we spent it chopping logs/clearing blackberry bushes, and having bonfires.

they think im odd, when they think walking around rammed shopping centres and buying crap is a perfect way to while away a weekend day, followed by watching reality tv , watching other people living their life, while eating overpriced takeaways.. we are all different, and thank god everyone isnt the same, or someone else might have got our lovely home before us :j
monthly interest for november was £404.55
daily £13.48
Our mortgage payment went out today, the new balance was £229145.72.. of course i had to do teeny £5.72 overpayment, making the new balance £229,140 :T

FloppyDisk

I have just found your diary Sammy, it sounds like we have similar aspirations but I have 29 pages to catch up on first!!

sammy70

hope you dont find my ramblings too boring Floppy!:rotfl:

We have won £25 on the p.bonds this month, all winnings are set to just re-invest, so a little more in the emergency pot :T

Ive just finished our house clean/tidy/washing etc, not too bad as it was also my saturday morning to work, only 4 hours, i was home by 10am

just catching up on diaries while i finish my cuppa, then taking doggy for a quick walk and to check post, then date night with lovely hubby :smileyhea:

sammy70

Well how fast has December flown by!

We have been without internet for 10 days yet again, engineers out twice, I'm sick of it!!:mad:

Since my last post ive made a couple of overpayments, the new balance is £229,000, a nice rounded amount :rotfl:

We have had snow/ice over the last couple of weeks too, our yard is still under cover, so not a lot been done outdoors the last couple of weekends

Anyway, ive done loads of overtime the last couple of weeks, I'm using the hours for time off in 2018, why not work extra when the weather is poo, and enjoy extra time off when the lovely summer comes around again :T

Anyway, I worked this morning, home now, must finish off house tidy!:)

sammy70

At home today feeling lousy, some horrible flu type virus which seems to have gone through my workplace

I have zero energy, might just do budget for payday, which is Friday for both of us..

sammy70

budget done, should have enough to make £500 each payment off both mortgage and workshop roof costs :j

Also want to buy £100 p.bonds for emergency fund, and plan on another £50 worth for future small business savings

Overall 2017 has been a busy but productive happy year for hubby and I, when I think back to this time last year, we were desperately decorating/recarpeting the living room so we could get the xmas tree up for our 1st xmas in our forever home :rotfl:

We haven't spent a fortune on xmas, we just plan on a nice family day, stuffing our faces and relaxing, then we have a week off so hopefully the weather will be kind for at least some of it, so we can get some more land clearing done