2015 - the penultimate year!

DebtFree2012

Hi, welcome and thank you

Well I have managed to get the savings back to 1k as I had to dip in to them to pay a few bits and pieces. Pay day is creeoping round and is a week on Wednesday and we will get the kids Christmas gifts with those. Christmas will be in the interim house which is now a family members. We'll make it as Christmassy as possible.

My older dog is very poorly, he took ill over the weekend and we're taking him to the vets today. That will be more expense but of course, animals are more important than savings. Fingers crossed for him making a speedy recovery.

This week is a key week wrt the move. We need everything signed and sealed by Friday ideally. We went back to the farm on Saturday for a measuring up viewing and it was even better than I thought. Seriously love the place, it's just perfect, more than perfect, for what we want to do with our lives. We're making a lifestyle change, not just buying a new house.

What a mixed up, emotional few months!

LAM2011

Aw hope your dog is ok.

I dont envy all the moving you have to do - I remember when we moved from the farm back to a house and the horses to DIY - it was a nightmare. BUT you will moving everything to one place and what a happy moment that will be. I bet you cant wait.

DebtFree2012

Morning all

Well what a week. We are supposed to be exchanging contracts tomorrow. I hope so! We are renting through December and Christmas so I am hoping to make the most out of that as it's not going to be easy with our crowd of dogs, kids and other animals.

Money wise, nothing has changed other than minimum payments made (which is still a fine £700 a month!) and I will continue in this manner into next year until we are settled.

We have the budget set up for the new house but of course, everything comes at once but at least we have planned for most of it.

Fingers crossed for a smooth exchange?

DebtFree2012

So far no exchange.....more lame excuses. It is getting closer though.

We move out of ours this week regardless as that is a definite.

There_Is_a_Light

Fingers crossed that it all happens soon. Exciting times!

DebtFree2012

I meant to say, the best news is my pooch seems to have picked up now

DebtFree2012

Pay day today. The £100 I pay to the CC every month has been sent over. The minimum payment is £60 ish however I like to continue to pay £100. Potential problem is the 0% runs out on February 01st so once we move in to the new place in January hopefully, I need to sort something out to not pay interest on that. The balance today is around 5.7k. I have a limit of 15k so I was thinking, should I take 5.7k out as a money transfer (4% fee maybe?) and then pay it off again leaving me with the same balance plus the handling fee, or wouldn’t it pay the older balance off first making it pointless? Anyone know?
The payments to the loans will go out as normal this month. A sickening £660 a month. I was also considering taking them out over 5 years again to reduce the payment but that will kill me length wise so I will stick with this as long as possible. Who knows what the future holds so I am better doing it whilst I can. Work seems to be volatile for everyone at the moment so it wouldn’t make sense.

House wise, we’re moving out tomorrow into the rented (family owned) place. It’s great as it will save us money, but it’s not without its downsides. I’m going to try and make the most of it, get a few decorations up, some home cooked meals and enjoy the time off over Christmas without thinking too much about everything.
We are hoping to hear about the purchase tomorrow but given their track record, I’m not going to hold out too much hope.

DH and I have limited our spends on each other to £30 this Christmas as it just doesn’t seem right to be spending money on items we don’t really feel the need for, in our current situation. Kids will also have a reduced budget but at their age they won’t know, nor care as it will be great for them anyway.
So now I am planning on getting back on the frugal boat, not that I ever really left it, by meal planning mostly and saving every penny possible. I have some expenses due in which will be used before my bank account money and I’ve also saved this month’s bills money (as it won’t need to be paid now we’re moving) into a savings account. That way it needs transferring before it can be spent.

DebtFree2012

Happy times! I have now sold my house, completely but the best bit is we have exchanged on the purchase too! So come January we will be moving in to the farm (smallholding) of our dreams, having our horses at home and beginning the life we can't wait to begin.

Of course we don't need to wait until the move in date to start making some of the changes we want. These can start now with regards to food intake (what we are eating opposed to how much), being frugal, living off the land (good luck in December!), preparing for next year, getting orders ready for delivery when we move in, general thoughts on how we want to live our lives and so on.

So for now I need to write a Christmas list as we said we'd wait until we'd moved to get the gifts and also think about what we will eat this week. Tonight I have some fish cake with chips and salad for us all. Tomorrow I think will be shepherd's pie and Wednesday will be lasagne (I will cook the ragu tomorrow when I do the shep pie).

We are living in a family members house until we move in January and it's testing shall we say, already! It will all be worth it in the end.

I need to find my breadmaker, I think it went in to storage . HM bread and soup is just what we need in this weather!

LAM2011

Whoo hoo - happy times. So excited and pleased for you. Life will be such fun with the ponies at home. How are the horses in this weather?

DebtFree2012

Crazy!!! Trying every trick in the book to stop littlest one from being silly. The fields are swamps so that's it for us now really. I wonder how I will feel when they are at home about turn out.