our forever patch challenge

sammy70

well, no win on the p.bonds this month again, was dreaming of spending that million jackpot too :rotfl:

Oh well, another month of working and saving for us, that £4.53 on the end of the mortgage balance is crying to be gone, might log on after ive done cleaning, and do something about it!:)

try_harder

I do that too those odd numbers always irritate me .

Great few weeks for you and great figures .Well done on all the savings you have made.

sammy70

£14.56 overpayment made- new balance is a neater £226,690 :beer:

My mini challenge to myself is to try and overpay the £90 before payday, leaving the balance before 28/2 at £226,600 , I will do this by small savings etc, I have a payout due from q.co for £10.43, so that will be the next instalment!

The new total overpayments to date now stand at £6,679.95 :j

sammy70

decided to pay my q.co payout £10 off the diy costs, just £4,600 to pay back now, then will be dipping into the savings to fund the next round of work, fencing, gates, stable, and loads of sand/cement, skips and other odds and ends all needed to finish off the work on the smallholding before we can get our animals.
I hate using savings, but im going to work a payment plan, and the stonework will take us this year and next to complete, there is loads of stonewalling and an outbuilding to repair/re-roof, so once we have shelled out for the materials, we will be kept busy for the next 24 months, in which time , along with getting all the outdoor work done and dusted, we will also have to earn the money to pay back, and add extra, to our savings and emergency fund..
thats our plan anyway..:)

try_harder

Oh but think how wonderful it will be when you have all your animals ,so much to look forward to and work towards.

sammy70

ive sat down with hubby and we have made a 21 month plan, financial and practical.

We have planned to get the following completed/ using our savings=

All areas fenced, including gates, and a water gate to stop our animals going down a fast running stream on our land. dont fancy fishing for sheep and chickens! :rotfl::rotfl:

Buy and assemble two stables

re-roof, and repair large outbuilding that will be converted for animal housing

and the biggest and most time/labour intensive job- repair/rebuild/repoint a large area of stonewalling= we estimate this will take at least the full 21 months to complete, as its so labour and time intensive.. it will be worth the hard work in the end- we need to keep telling ourselves when lifting those heavy stones!:rotfl:

buy sheep :j

buy chickens , after the lovely chicken house is built that my lovely son bought me for mothers day last year

buy scaffolding to do stone walling

buy horse :j

pay for skip to clear crap from previous roofing work etc once land is dry enough not to get churned up with lorry delivering it

All this will mean using the bulk of our emergency fund, which we are paying back, with a little extra as if we were paying interest, over 21 months.

This is going to be hard work, but the end result will mean our smallholding dream will be fully up and running, all animals housed and fenced in safely/ and the main outbuildings usable .

so, February 2018 is month 1 of our 21 month plan, here goes !:)

sammy70

£20 paid to diy costs today, im trying to make small payments as and when i can as well as the fixed planned 'monthly payments', im treating the savings used as if it were a loan, which it is in a way, so from now on i will refer to any payments back to the savings as loan repayments;)

ive had quite a few nsds, this is where the £20 came from, unspent weekly spending money :beer:

ive decided not to bother buying valentines commercialised cr*p, instead we are having date night tomorrow, including pamper session- mudpacks the lot! my hubby loves the peel off ones- good job his workmates dont know about that little gem of info!:rotfl:

hope this weekend stays dry enough to get outdoors, so we can maybe make a small start with the stonework.
The range needs a clean out in the morning , so letting it go out tonight, no doubt it will be freezing in the morning, so will be a super fast clear out of built up soot!:)

try_harder

Well done ,thats a great start to the loan repayments.

sammy70

well its bucketed down with rain all morning, and the wind is freezing:eek:

Hubby has hoovered out our range, which is lit and we are toasty warm again, so that chores out of the way, and its burning better for a good de-soot:)

ive been doing chores, just rubbish to take to bin and collect post- been putting it off hoping rain will clear for the walk, plan on taking little mutt with me, thats the only walk she will want today, shes getting old and doesnt like the cold and wet now , though when the weathers nice she can still walk for miles:)

ive just paid £23 to loan, this was left from grocery spends :T

ive told hubby not to bother buying valentines stuff, thankfully he agrees we dont need to buy a card and go for an inflated priced meal to show our love, we show each other how much we love each other every day :beer:

try_harder

I have been sitting in the kitchen on the sofa in front of the television all morning ,it is lovely and warm in here and i have both aga lids up too but i think its about time i got up and walked my dog too as its quite dry here at the minute ,i wont be too long though as i should imagine it is very cold outside.Hope the weather stops for your walk its definitely not enjoyable walking in the rain although my dog whos quite old too doesnt seem to mind if its wet or cold he can go on forever.