A treehouse for the twins

PrincessLou

I have been tackling the freezer, fridge and cupboards this week so we can use up what we have instead of spending money on more food. The only food I have bought is being delivered tonight but I had enough vouchers to pay for this, so effectively a free shop.

Here is my meal plan for the rest of the week:

Tonight we are fairly busy so will be eating separately - Pasta from fridge for me, Chicken and bits from freezer for DH.

Tomorrow - Spaghetti Bolognese - made using up mince from freezer/

Friday - Cajun chicken and cous cous stuffed peppers

Saturday - Separate meals again - Lentil curry with rice for me, pasties out of freezer for DH.

Sunday - We're hopefully heading over to MIL & FILs for a barbecue


All breakfasts/ lunches/ snacks will be whatever we can find in freezer/fridge/cupboards. Naturally because I order and unpack all of the grocery shopping, I know where.all the good stuff is hiding :D

atypicalblonde

Fabulous plan, well done you :j

PrincessLou

Well payday came and went. I sat down and went through this month's budget and we have no money to overpay or save....well that spoilt my fun :mad::p

I have got to work at lowering this month's expenses so we have more to overpay next month. I also need to keep plodding away at earning extra income via Ebay, FB, and so on. I made a small sale from Ebay a couple of days ago of £13, plus we got a £4.30 credit back from British Gas, all of which has been overpaid. I have put together a bag of items to list tomorrow afternoon when DH is taking the boys out, so hopefully this generates a bit more OP money.

I wish I could think of a (very) small business idea that I could do in my spare time. However, this area has an abundance of dog walking businesses and similar enterprises...I just don't know what I could do.

PrincessLou

Well I've been away for a week on holiday We stayed in the most lovely little cottage in a rural village - completely silent apart from the birds - heaven Fairly low spend too, only spent on petrol and one treat meal out. We spent our days visiting towns, national trust properties (free with our family pass), sitting in the lovely garden (with a treehouse I might add! ) whilst the boys ran around and played. It's just what we all needed and getting away from it all has refocused my mind on paying the mortgage off ASAP, so we can live that kind of lifestyle sooner rather than later.

We had only been back for a day and then I lost my voice I still can't find it anywhere and have been scaring myself reading horror stories on google of people's voices never returning :eek: I must say, DH has surprised me with how excellent he is at lip-reading and my made-up sign language. :rotfl:

DH has taken the boys out for the afternoon so I have had some time to look through the budget for this month. It doesn't look too bad actually (compared to last month anyway!) and by my calculations we will definitely be under 105k by the end of the month.

Hope everyone is having a lovely day in the sun

PrincessLou

The house is quiet once more (a rare occurrence around here ) so I am back again for another update.

DH and I had a really good chat yesterday morning (another rare occurrence around here with two small boys ). He said that he would definitely consider moving to a different part of the UK in a few years, providing he could find a job. Don't get me wrong, I love where we live currently, and I wouldn't go back and change anything. However, it is very suburban and not where we have always dreamed of living and finding our forever home. If we pay off the majority of our mortgage in the next few years then we will be in a good place financially to look for something bigger and more rural. I feel really good about things now, like we finally have a plan in place. It has also provided even more motivation for overpaying :T

Whilst it is quiet I have got some bags of treasures out to Ebay Nothing of huge value today but all the small amounts definitely add up and make a difference. I have also sorted three huge bags of items for the charity shop, so very happy with progress indeed. :j

In OP news, I made a £73 payment to round the mortgage down to £105,500

PrincessLou

Wow - I can't believe it's been 18 months since I last updated my diary.

Just before Christmas our mortgage figure dropped under 100k.:T Something I have been waiting for for a long time and thought it would be a celebration. Don't get me wrong, it felt wonderful but now we're still looking at another 100k to clear so it was somewhat short-lived. I know right....i'm a party pooper

Our mortgage, as of today, stands at £99, 238. I have set the goal this year of overpaying to get the figure down to 90,000.

Financially, we're doing quite well at the moment. I have started a small business and have been busy decluttering and ebaying, which has been bringing in some extra ££.

One thing I want to remember this year is to not get so into overpaying that I forget to take time and money out to have adventures with the boys and DH. As a result, i have a couple of short inexpensive trips planned this year. I also want to set goals for myself so that for every 5k overpaid, we go on an adventure to reward ourselves, thus keeping the balance between overpaying and living for the moment. :j

VelvetFreak

Just read through your diary
Well done on getting below 100k! Yay!!

EatingTheElephant

:j :j congratulations on getting below 100k