The ups, downs, and occasional sideways bits of trying to be mortgage free

-taff

My hair is ashy blonde [ because I'm nostly grey now, started going grey at 18 ] and I usually ask the hairdresser to throw in some semi permanent colours, one of my favoruites was orange and pink flashes, looked like tutti frutti, very uplifting to have silly hair
well done on the car sale.

I left an very well paying job for another not so well paying, with more responsibility, and just left that one for an office job with even less money. On the plus side, I have evenings and weekends back after 20 years of shift work, and I'm looking forward to summer evenings in the garden with some wine and maybe even a barbeque.

armchairexpert

Hello! Lovely to meet you!

mfmaybe wrote: »

Hi armchairexpert, just enjoyed reading your diary and will follow along with your journey. I'm in a similar (less sunny) position of having my mum in my BTL property. My downside is the tax is changing in the UK so that the mortgage payments won't be tax deductible any more. Similarly we know it would be cheaper if she lived with us (not right now as we don't have a spare room, house is for sale); but like you I think our own space is preferable!

Are you going to share adorable chick pics?

I don't know how to share pictures, but I will if someone talks me through it! The tax deduction thing is a bit wobbly here as well: Australia has some of the least affordable housing in the world, and it's largely because it's such an attractive investment proposition for the wealthy. Every think tank on affordability says get rid of the tax concessions, but the actual MPs are all multiple property owners, so... But it might go, come the revolution, and we'll have to move her in with us! I actually think that is the right move politically - young people are just locked out of the market, and it's not fair. I'd rather have to share my space with my Mum if it meant that affordability improved.

NH789

Hi, I have subscribed - loved reading your thread armchairexpert, made me smile. I'm also on a mission to become MF so will follow your journey and do some occasional cheerleading :T

armchairexpert

Cheerleading is always much appreciated, thank you and welcome! Us long haulers have to stick together.

Nice quiet-ish weekend here. Sunday we went out with friends, and it was so awful and hot - 34 degrees and humid, it is AUTUMN HELLO - that we bought a round of gelati for my poor wilting children and their poor wilting father. But we brought enough snacks and water that the damage was limited, which is pleasing.

The new vanity is finally in, although we're still waiting on the tiles to be inset into the doors. The bathroom looks SO much better; it had only a pedestal sink before, meaning that everything else was stacked on the floor or on little table things around the place.

The whole thing cost about $700, which is nothing considering what a quality piece of furniture it is (and DH installed himself, so no plumber fee) but I'll still be glad for next month when I don't have to keep moving money around because we need just one more S bend or whatever.

The baby chickens are growing like weeds. They've all got grown up feathers on their wings now, although still baby fuzz on the rest of their bodies so they look a bit ridiculous. I set up an open air play pen for them yesterday so they could go outside and discover grass.

Unfortunately the grownup girls and my kitten all got very interested in the whole affair and started trying to break into the play pen, meaning I was stuck there supervising because I couldn't leave the kitten alone near the chicks while I locked up the hens, and I couldn't lock up the kitten and leave them alone with the hens! It was like that old riddle with the farmer and the boat and the bag of oats.

They had fun though. Lots of cheeping to one another for the rest of the evening: '...and then there was a wriggly thing on the grass and I tried to catch it!' 'did you see me try and fly?' 'I would have pecked that big furry animal if he'd tried to get us, I'm the biggest!'.

armchairexpert

Autumn's finally arrived, and because it realises it's late it's rushed in making a big fuss about It's Been Here For Weeks, In Fact, It Just Popped Out For A Meeting, and today is 20 degrees colder than it was a week ago. My poor baby chicks aren't getting an outside play today!

Creaking towards the end of the month here. I am embroiled in stupid school politics which saw me ignore the budget yesterday and buy in comfort food: $25 on pork ribs and corn instead of my planned $3 dhal and rice meal! Ah well. Then I went for a nice long run/walk/stop and work out where on earth I am, how can I be lost three blocks from home, and I feel a lot better. Stupid school politics.

I'll update totals tomorrow, when I get paid. My salary from my business runs a month behind, so this is what I earned in February, and it's the first month in half a year I earned under my minimum so I'll have to dip into my business savings to pay myself. It;s back up this month so not worried.

armchairexpert

This is the first whole month I've been budgeting. We also had around $3600 in lump sums coming in, thanks to the car sale and a couple of other once-offs.

However! From last month, where we owed $229K or thereabouts, we now owe $223, 326. Even allowing for the once-offs, that's almost $2K paid off on top. Some of that is because last month was a short month and so DH got paid just after the end of the month, and this month he's been paid most recently only yesterday but it's definitely progress. I'm quite chuffed!

armchairexpert

Kicked off the new month with some serious spending: my last sports bra gave up the ghost the other day so I had to go and buy some more. Unfortunately, from an MSE point of view, I am a size that is very very limited in the shops, so I could only find one that was even remotely acceptably fitting and supportive, and it was $90. Then I realised there was a 40% sale, and I had an old $50 voucher, so I bought two and they came to $55 in total, which - as I said to DH ruefully afterwards - is what I would have spent, full price, if I were smaller.

(It was pretty funny: DD2 is just learning to read at the moment, so I gave her the task of looking at bra labels and helping me find things in my size, and it only took her about five minutes to start saying "I wish you were a B or a D, Mummy, there's loads and loads in those sizes". Yes, child. This is the reality of my life.)

Anyway then we spent a fortune ($125!) on two pairs of winter pyjamas for DH, but if it stops him running the bloody heater every night I'm counting that as a win.

Then we took the girls out for bicycling practice. DH and DD1 lagged behind, because she's just mastering cycling without training wheels. DD2, who's still on her trainers and therefore faster, went ahead with me. Near the end of the path, we cycled past a party, and I realised as we went past that it was one of her classmates, and it looked like all of her friends were there. I was hoping DD2 hadn't seen, but the end of the path was just a little way on, so we had to stop and turn around, and by then her friends had spotted her. So they all came running up to the path to say hi, hi, have you come to the party, why don't you come and give A her present? And I had to say "well, we weren't invited actually" and they were all jumping up and down saying "I was invited! I was invited too! Me too! Me too! Why weren't you!" and bless them, they're only five year olds, they weren't being mean, but I was almost in tears for my poor DD2.

I finally made excuses to get away, got back to the start of the path to find a very cross DH and DD1 who'd been waiting for us for 20 minutes (I didn't have my phone with me) and all in all, that was a bad day.

armchairexpert

It's all gone a bit wonky this week. Last week was hard, emotionally, and I didn't do the Sunday baking/advance cooking that I usually do, which means the week's lunches have been very scratch and fresh salad ingredients are sitting in the bottom of my fridge, moulding at me reproachfully. And then DD1 had a hard day and asked if we could have a cafe chat while DD2 was at tap class, so of course I said yes because we hardly do that any more. And a parent-teacher chat ran really late yesterday so we ended up stopping at the supermarket for rotisserie chicken and pita bread. And there's a few small social events coming up, none of them huge but all of them important (one's a work-related networking event, one is some old friends with whom I haven't caught up in months),

And then someone forwarded me an article that predicted we had maybe a couple of decades left before climate change ravages the planet to the point where our current economy, geography and safety are decimated.

So I guess I'm feeling like, is it worth worrying about these simple pleasures - the coffee with a friend, the new nail polish - to pay off a mortgage for a future that might never come.

mfmaybe

Those are big worries that merit more than a phone reply. But for now, I think it's about the balance. We must enjoy life otherwise what's the point. But at the same time I don't fancy gambling my worry free retirement on a scientific study or the vague concern about weird illnesses or a fear of flying; or whatever random act might cut life short.

So buy the nail polish and the coffee. But maybe not a new Ferrari

armchairexpert

Thank you. Yes, balance. I'm not very good at balance. But I did just encourage DH to book tickets to the Nutcracker with the DDs, which he wanted to do. And I think I landed a well paying new client today. So all good!