Project Mortgage Neutral Begins

ajmoney

Day 3 with no exercise and it is driving me crazy, even a walk would do but no real time and I feel I can't just abandon my family! I will definitely need to escape for walks or to the gym on holiday.
My dad has given us some holiday money each so I am hopeful to not need any more :money: it will be tight at the end of the month so every little helps. I am going to use the week away to have a think over my finances and see how to move forward.

ajmoney

Happy going on holiday day to me it is still meant to be 27 degrees when we land tonight. I have quite a lot of trepidation about the holiday, it is the first time my sister and I have been away together in 16 years, never spent this much time with my niece and it is the first summer holiday in 14 years not with Mr AJM. I am not very good just going with the flow but I will try and do that for the next week.
I spent most of yesterday at Mr AJM's with my sister and niece as it has been a while since they have seen him and I am keen to preserve the relationship for my niece. We didn't get back until fairly late so have a little bit to do before we head to the airport.

A_Frayed_Knot

Hope you have a lovely time and try not to think too much about finances, there will be plenty time to think about that when you get back.

Just enjoy.

Moneyfordreams

happy holidays

ajmoney

I think I need to rethink how I holiday. Mr AJM and I had talked about that over the last few years as we always seemed to be missing something and this one is no different. It is not as bad as I first thought when we arrived but I was certainly swayed by the price (I paid for it all) rather than what the hotel offered. I am missing Mr AJMs easy holiday company and knowing what we would do, especially as my niece's constant need for everything to be about her and the sulking when it isn't is becoming very wearing. The warmth is great though, a sea swim on Tuesday and a mile pool swim the last 2 mornings. Hopefully I will combine both tomorrow

savingholmes

Sympathise on the holidaying by price and the niece. Hope your enjoyment of the sun and swimming make up for it.

ajmoney

savingholmes wrote: »

Sympathise on the holidaying by price and the niece. Hope your enjoyment of the sun and swimming make up for it.

Erm kind of but I am currently thinking I may as well have paid the same price just for me. Niece in hotel room in her own company, sister and I by the pool (with sight of the room) but not how I expected it to be. I am sitting here trying to make the most of it while looking at options for future holidays. Kind of counting the days until I am home in my own company, maybe I needed this holiday to see it isn't so bad :rotfl:

ajmoney

Ooops, nearly a month since I came onto my own diary.


I have tried to book a financial review for my stocks and shares ISAs and the earliest appointment I can get is 19 Dec :eek: I am going to use October and November to try and get a grip of my spending so I can look into investing more if I have a regular surplus of funds.


The work on my guttering finally started on Monday and should be done by this coming Monday :j

I had forgotten who I had booked to do the garden bits but after doing a bit of digging I have got in touch with them, they had lost my number and I couldn't find where I had put their info either. They are popping out next week to confirm what needs to be done and should hopefully be starting soon. By mid-October the outside of my house should all be sorted and I will just need to keep on top of the falling leaves.

ajmoney

Today is all about resting and having some me time (although I have cleaned the house and need to do the ironing).

I went for a lovely massage this morning as I am struggling with niggles through my body. The therapist actually ran out of time so I am going to make sure I go a little bit more regularly to allow him the time to do everything.
I am sitting watching the grand prix and doing a bit of planning as my life is running away from me a little at the moment.

I have been given some advice to map my week out into hour chunk put in the work, travel, eat and sleep time then see what time is left for me, exercise and anything else I want to do. I have been feeling overwhelmed with what I feel I need to be doing ad so end up doing nothing. Obviously I am not restricted to this but it should help a little.
I would like to try a cash month in October and take all my cards out of my wallet (I may leave my credit card in my car for fuel as I am not including that in this). I am planning £10 a day for everything, it will be a challenge but I am struggling to get on top of my money so need to go back to basics like I did about 20 years ago. I will have a contingency in my account in case this is not enough. To help with this I need to meal plan and make the most of bargains in the supermarkets.
I seem to have lost my enjoyment for holidays at the moment. I have an account that I am putting money into which is building up nicely so depending on what I do at Christmas I may take some of this money and overpay it in the new year.
If I am honest (and it is easier to do that on here) I have lost my enjoyment for a lot at the moment, there have been so many changes in my life in the last year and I don't seem to be keeping up with them. I had a bit of a realisation in the early hours of this morning when I couldn't sleep that there may be a key in my drop of mood a few years ago so I need to make a doctors appointment tomorrow to discuss this ASAP. A few messages to Mr AJM this morning about it confirms my suspicions and while no change will be immediate I may be able to start making a difference.
My guttering should be finished tomorrow and the gardening company are coming out to confirm what I want doing.

ajmoney

In theory making a doctors appointment should be easy but it turns out we only have a doctor at work on Tuesday's and they are already booked up for tomorrow for official appointments and the other base we can go to are full today and only have 2 appointments for tomorrow. The problem is it is an hour each way from where I work and I can't really take the time away tomorrow no matter how much I could really do with seeing someone before Wednesday. The only option is to go in first thing as a fresh case at work tomorrow so I will be doing that, officially a fresh case is something that has occured in the last 3 days, well I guess my realisation that I need to see someone will have happened within 3 days. I guess it is a frst world problem as most of the public can't get an appointment for weeks however typically we have always had better health care provision.
So to distract myself from this rather annoying start to my day I have already meal planned for the rest of this month and all I need to buy prior to Friday is some pasta and probably milk. I also ave all the meat I need for September so it is just veg, milk and bread and I am going to do my best to buy everything from @ld! or l!dl to try and keep the costs down. I have £77 in my account and I am going to try and stretch this as best as I can, the only other costs will be petrol, lunches at work and a meal out on Thursday but I am sure I can manage it.
I have a list of things to try and get done today, always helpful that I have today off, if I can get my jobs done this morning I might try and get some gardening done around the roofers.