Project Mortgage Neutral Begins

savingholmes

The final swim sounds good and raising money for a good cause.

Good that your mum can help with sitting in awaiting sofa delivery.

Sounds like good prospects longer term too. The near car crash sounds scary - but glad you have a car like mine that gives you a little extra help when you need it!

ajmoney

My sofa was delivered safely, shame I have been away since then with work so haven't had much of a chance to sit on it. It does my feel a little happier sitting in my house as it is more homely so it is all good.

I feel my spending has got a little out of hand recently but Christmas shopping might be skewing my perception of it plus some spends will be reimbursed through work so it might not be as bad as I think. I have had a walk around some of the shops during my time off (staying in a rather nice part of London) and have seen some clothes I have had my eye of for a while on offer with a good saving. I don't have many things I can wear away from work and need to refresh my wardrobe but this spending thing has got me wondering if I should actually spend the money. I might try the clothes on, take some photos to look back at them later and then decide.

We have been away for a week and still have 3 days before we head home again. I will be glad to get back and have some me time, maybe this is what I have needed to show me being at home isn't so bad. I have blocked some days out over the next few weeks to make sure I have some time alone and don't reach the burn out level I was close to a few weeks ago.

ajmoney

My first day off at home in 2 weeks and while I have a lot of stuff that needs to be done I am trying to stick to a few of them. I need to get used to being in my home and finding a way to enjoy it and make it homely so I want to be here.

Today is going to focus on Christmas. I have a couple of presents left to buy, decorations to put up and presents to wrap in front of the tv later tonight. I am fluctuating between hope and dread of the festive season and hope that once my house is decorated I can move forward with it a little.

I have spent a while trying to put things in place so my mental wellbeing can start to improve and my main focus for each day is to find one thing I am grateful for with no explanation but I am not allowed to repeat it. Yesterday's was a tough one and was actually simple in the end. I have woken with a bit of positivity (I normally do with a day off) so am going to use this to get things done.

12 days until Christmas and 19 until the new year. I have slowly been trying to come up with ideas for things I would like to achieve next year and also in the next decade. It is quite hard ending this decade, one where so many things have changed across the course of it. My focus needs to be towards my financial goals as they are unlikely to change. Originally I would have been mortgage free at the end of the next decade and while the date is now 11 years later I am still working towards clearing my mortgage by the original date if not before. I also need to continue building my savings and start making some real plans towards finances after my current job and pension age.

Watch this space...I am still on a tough rollercoaster and am not sure when it will be time for me to get off but for the first time in a while it seems a little less bumpy.

ajmoney

Credit card payment gone out today and I have also transferred across the money for my sofa from my ISA so I am left with a sensible payment in January for standard spends. Depending on how kind December is to my bank balance I may transfer the rest so I can start 2020 with no credit card debt. The next 3 weeks will be a challenge money wise but I think I have enough without dipping back into my savings. I like fresh starts when it comes to money as it is something I can control and with an account due to mature and be moved across to the mortgage I am going to use the rest of the year to overhaul what is going on.

I am armed with a long list of things to do but I have given myself 3 days to do it which is more than achievable. Just waiting for the house alarm guy to finish servicing system and then I am heading out.

Radish72

Well I think you have done amazingly well this year, with all the changes that have happened, enjoy your time off


And if you are stuck for something positive, reading your diary made me determined to up my OP's and get rid and probably other people as well


Did you buy the new clothes by the way?

ajmoney

Radish72 wrote: »

Well I think you have done amazingly well this year, with all the changes that have happened, enjoy your time off


And if you are stuck for something positive, reading your diary made me determined to up my OP's and get rid an dprobably other people as well


Did you buy the new clothes by the way?

Aww thanks Radish. Not sure I could face reading my diary back, I am not in a place mentally to look at back at where things were yet. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, I am yet to find out the reason for the last few years but I refuse to believe this has all been for nothing.

I have been out twice for a Christmas outfit but each time I have left without anything (apart from one blouse on the day I saw all those lovely things). There are many reasons for this and I am tryign desperately not to bring too much doom and gloom to my diary so wont go into that here. I will have a look later or tomorrow to see if one of the dresses I have from previous years will work as I am fighting the urge to cancel next Friday's evening and hide.

House is nearly clean-ish, maybe when rooms are decorated I will feel like they are cleaner but for now I have done enough for what is required, just one room left to do. In the new year I will find the energy to do some thorough deep cleaning in each room to see if I can change my mindset towards the cleaning as I am not decorating just to get the effect.

Suffolk_lass

If you are not feeling the urge to deep clean, you could ask for a one-off clean from a contracting company that clear and clean rental properties. You could ask for it for Christmas because of the impact it would have on your wellbeing. As a reader, it feels slightly as though you have a monkey on your back (if you know that old saying)

ajmoney

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

If you are not feeling the urge to deep clean, you could ask for a one-off clean from a contracting company that clear and clean rental properties. You could ask for it for Christmas because of the impact it would have on your wellbeing. As a reader, it feels slightly as though you have a monkey on your back (if you know that old saying)

I had to search that saying as I had never heard it before but I get what you mean.


Not getting far with putting up decorations, the "tree" I was planning on using doesn't quite work in the way I had hoped it would. We bought it years ago but never managed to find a base for it, I bought one a few months ago thinking it would work but it doesn't...I really should have checked it when I bought it. The bonus is I should be able to use it in the garden so the money is not wasted. Now I need to work out what to do...try and find a new base, get a new tree or not bother. I don't have many decorations so the house won't look very Christmassy, I don't want to do a keeping up with the joneses kind of things (everyone around me has trees, outside lights etc) but I think it would be good to do something. I will have a look online and see what I can find.

Suffolk_lass

I just checked to see what you get if you check out "monkey on your back and it isn't the addiction thing. There is a management training saying about getting to the root-cause of what is wrong -

Do you drain the swamp and kill the crocodiles or do you continue to carry the monkey on your back so the crocodiles can't reach him? I just want to be clear I was not insinuating some sort of addiction :eek:

It translates to always feeling you have to keep up with a thing or do something (like wipe the mould off a wall without treating the cause of the damp, so it just keeps coming back).

ajmoney

Suffolk lass I got the addiction answer the first time I looked so did a couple of searches and found the right answer so no worries there x