Renovations and Repayments.

turtlemoose

I'm just reading your dfw diary Alex. I'm up to post 750. I have to know, have you still got any pens?!

AlexLK

edinburgher wrote: »

If you use 'save as' and save the PDF to your desktop as a file, no. If you save the shortcut and the link moves/changes, yes.

Thanks, I had only bookmarked the file but have now saved as.

turtlemoose wrote: »

I'm just reading your dfw diary Alex. I'm up to post 750. I have to know, have you still got any pens?!

Yes, I've got about 20. About 10 are worth less than £50 each and in total there's only about £5,000 worth left now, though.

Not really sure why so many on here are obsessed with the pens??

AlexLK

newgirly wrote: »

Hi Alex, just wanted to come in and confess my history of being useless with money . We bought our "stepping stone" house 14 years ago for £120k with the intention of moving to a nice big semi with a garden a couple of years later. We are still here, we added to the mortgage many times over the years until it had grown from £93k when we bought it to £173k.

A combination of overspending on food/toys UK holidays and cars (sounds silly , nothing extravagant!) Also having three kids and one not very high wage.

I also have fairly well off parents and did spend a lot of my time feeling guilty that my kids would not have such an "easy" childhood as I had , in house with a tiny garden to play in etc. But they are nearly15\15\18 now and are all good with money , don't get spoilt (except Xmas and birthdays) and my 17 yr old is fiercly independent and trys to pay her own way all the time.

I will try and give them a helping hand with deposits for their own places in the future , but they won't get an income from us as I feel it would dampen their desire to succeed and take away the satisfaction of looking after themselves.
The safety net is our home is always here if they need it, if they have fnanacial\health \relashionship problems they will have a bed and food until the are ready to move on again. (Finger crossed this won't be needed :rotfl:)

Joining mse 5yrs ago has turned our lives around and we only have 7 years left on a mortgage that was 33 yrs, we don't earn a massive wage and it's been hard work ,but on here you feel part of a small little gang doing something others don't seem to do. The support has been amazing and is the only reason why we have achieved so much.

Maybe wanting the best for your child may mean doing things differently, providing a lot of money for their future is a big pressure to put on yourself and is only one element of trying to be a good parent anyway.

I would defiantly read the millionaire next door and although very extreme maybe take a look at Mr money mustache blog. Not so much for the frugal tips but there are some interesting posts on there about the benefits of not making life too easy for yourself and your kids by using money to provide happiness, a bit heavy maybe but thought provoking stuff.

Sorry to hijack your thread, I hope you are feeling a bit better about things today

edinburgher wrote: »

I agree with newgirly, you are putting yourself under undue pressure by seeking to achieve an arbitrary goal of x houses.

While I'm painfully aware of the vomit inducing schmaltz at the end of this sentence, the future happiness of your son depends on the confidence that he will gain from growing up in a loving household, not the number of bricks he inherits

Money is not a panacea for all the troubles that we will face over our lives and it won't cushion him from stresses etc.

In fact, there is clear evidence that happiness does not increase beyond a certain point, no matter how much money you have.

Thank you.

I suppose a lot of my issues at the moment are because I'm not good enough to do what my parents did and had they been like me, my family would likely be rather poor.

edinburgher

You are not your car
You are not your parents
Poor people can be happy too

Will stop ragging on you now, I hope it is taken with the sense of silliness and good nature intended.

I can imagine 5000lbs of pens, but £5,000! :eek:

AlexLK

edinburgher wrote: »

Will stop ragging on you now, I hope it is taken with the sense of silliness and good nature intended.

No offense taken, I know you're right and if I was able to accept my shortcomings I'd be in a better place.

edinburgher wrote: »

I can imagine 5000lbs of pens, but £5,000! :eek:

:rotfl: Not you also.

AlexLK

Friday 24th April, 2015.

Dear Diary,

If someone had told me a couple of years ago I'd be on here whilst on holiday and looking into a bank account paying 5% interest, I would not have believed them. :rotfl: However, that is exactly what I have been doing this evening whilst not feeling very well (no, it's not the over consumption of alcohol). Perhaps it's even more sad that I'm looking forward to doing some more work to the house and further investigating how I can make the savings work a little bit more for me.

Unfortunately, I've got no further with the book reading as I have started the work for my course instead. As this year isn't the summer dissertation year because I'm studying part time, I think I ought to at least get this semester complete before making my mind up whether or not to complete the course.

Yours Faithfully,
Alex.

gallygirl

AlexLK wrote: »

:rotfl: Not you also.

Ha, you see, not just me .

How is Costa del Crime . I hope you and the young un & old uns are having a good time

AlexLK

gallygirl wrote: »

Ha, you see, not just me .

How is Costa del Crime . I hope you and the young un & old uns are having a good time

OK, OK ...

Lovely, thank you. The weather has mostly been nice, apparently forecast to be not so good on Sunday though. My son is having a great time and we've not fallen out yet, I did get close to losing my temper yesterday when my parents took my son out for the day but I realise they were just being nice. Unfortunately, I didn't make the most of my day, though. Tomorrow I'm meant to be taking him to Gibraltar to see the monkeys, he's been looking forward to this for weeks now.

It's nice eating together as a family and think I'll rather miss my mother's breakfasts when I'm back home. Would be better still if I could get to sleep earlier - my parents get up awfully early.

edinburgher

Would be better still if I could get to sleep earlier - my parents get up awfully early.

Don't worry, they're probably just old. I've been walking to and from work this week and have been setting my alarm from 06:00. Unfortunately this meant that I was up too early today :eek:

Well done for looking at savings on holiday (just think of it as a way to secure more holidays!) and enjoy the monkeys

AlexLK

edinburgher wrote: »

Don't worry, they're probably just old. I've been walking to and from work this week and have been setting my alarm from 06:00. Unfortunately this meant that I was up too early today :eek:

Well done for looking at savings on holiday (just think of it as a way to secure more holidays!) and enjoy the monkeys

I think you're right, father is 80 this year. Not sure I could do the 6.00am wake ups these days, to be honest but the walk to work sounds quite nice.

That's definitely a good way to look at the savings. I think I could have a free holiday (from savings) here every year as it's only the flight I would have to pay for. I'm rather looking forward to investigating what I can make from investing the profits from things I've sold as a hobby. Unfortunately, I'm now terrible with numbers, must be something to do with no longer really doing any Maths, but still hopeful I can manage to make something from interest.

Today has been great fun, my son loved going "monkey hunting", now he doesn't want to come home though. :rotfl: Can't be long now before your little one arrives.