Project Mortgage Neutral Begins

ajmoney

So the 1st of the month and doing my financials doesn't have quite the same enjoyment as it would normally.  I have made my normal OP as it was in my budget and I am fortunate enough to have a secure job.  I may adjust the amount I OP in future months, it will depend on what is happening.  I will certainly be sending all spare cash through the month to my savings though and have already tidied £42.74 to my ISA from cash left in my account from March.

I know I shouldn't really be surprised but my S&S ISA lost £3473.80 in March (blue shocked face required here).  I first started investing in unit trusts and S&S ISAs around the 9/11 attack and until a couple of years ago didn't track the amount as much as I do now so I have never observed such a drop, even with all the chaos after the EU referendum it didn't dip this much.  It will be interesting following the progress over the next months and years as I think it will take a long time to bounce back.

We often use the bathtub method at work (good news, bad news and finish with good news) so I am finishing this money related post with some good news.  At the end of this month I will have been in my house a year, it hasn't been easy getting used to living by myself and the budgetting that goes along with it but I am really happy to see that I own 44% of my home based on the purchase price.  Next month my mortgage will permanently drop below £100k (it may happen this month once all the payments clear) and I will hit 45%.

juliejim

That's great news aj!

ajmoney

Yesterday's monthly mortgage payments are now showing online and my mortgage is below £100k, even with the interest added for this month it won't go back above that level :)and next month my smallest mortgage will fall below £6k

My enthusiasm for sorting my house out has dropped dramatically.  The things that need organising aren't always that big but they are overwhelming me, I think I need to do small amounts that eventually will get them done.  I am going to pick one of the cupboards in my main spare bedroom this afternoon.

Suffolk_lass

Can you use a parking lot to "park up" the things you cannot resolve at the moment to stop them overwhelming you. Or another technique is to draw the rings to focus on things you are in control of and the ones you are not, so you reduce the pressure on yourself? Personally I write huge lists and then put them in order. Often this very act reduces my anxiety and it frees me to do the things I want to do without losing sight of the things I don't want to do!

savingholmes

Well done AJ on the mortgagereduction
HI Suffolk Lass - some nice techniques there - thanks for sharing.

ajmoney

Suffolk_lass said:

Can you use a parking lot to "park up" the things you cannot resolve at the moment to stop them overwhelming you. Or another technique is to draw the rings to focus on things you are in control of and the ones you are not, so you reduce the pressure on yourself? Personally I write huge lists and then put them in order. Often this very act reduces my anxiety and it frees me to do the things I want to do without losing sight of the things I don't want to do!

I am a list writer but have been going off plan since I finished work to try and ease pressure on myself but I am not doing anything at all. I will try writing one and put it in an order that I think I can cope with and see if that helps. Most of the jobs aren't that difficult or time consuming but I am unsure what to do with some of the stuff once it is out of its current home.

ajmoney

So I have made a list (on the laptop) which breaks the jobs down by room and looking at all of the jobs it makes me wonder why I am putting most of them off as they really aren't that bad. I daren't put them on here as they seem very trivial!  I am going to put them in the order of what I want to do, then what is easy for me to do alone and finish with the things I am perfectly capable of doing by myself but doubt I can do.

This is definitely a thing for me.  My mum used to joke when I was a child that I would worry if I didn't have anything to worry about.  While there is some truth in this I think it is possibly a control thing that while I still have things to do I am in control but once everything is done from the lists I have nothing to do and have no control.  I have some different projects (knitting, clothes making, soap making, try my have at making candles, baking) that will keep me going and my list doesn't even go as far as the garden.

savingholmes

You could post some photos of your makes....

ajmoney

So this was my first project, knitted teddies for my friends newborn baby girl, unsure how I put a smaller photo up.  More to follow...

ajmoney

Tea cosy trying out my skills for Mr AJM as I had taken all the tea cosies...