Starting over 2017

Dorastar · 4 August 2019 at 8:38AM

Lots of odds and ends to get finished today, most of which involve sitting down and just getting on with it for a change! Teen is going away for a few days tomorrow for a uni summer school so she might need a few bits & bobs buying but hopefully not too much.

Weather seems nice so far so trying to persuade the boys (dad & lad) to go to the park instead of playing on PS4 all day. They want to go to cinema but would be cheaper if they went on Wednesday with meerkat vouchers. Neither of them seem very keen atm but we're all going to get annoyed if we have to spend all day together! Thank goodness hubby is at work all week - taking packed lunches and staying out of our way.

Dorastar · 5 August 2019 at 9:34AM

Brand new week and the dishwasher has made all the dishes dirtier and fused the electrics again. We probably need a new one as it's 11.5 years old now as it came with the house! Going to see if it behaves today but got to handwash everything that was in it as the dirt has been welded on now!

Bit fed up of trying not to spend much while I'm not being paid so going to dig out some of my crafty stash from the garage as I have loads and I have time to do it atm. Want to really sorry the house out too as I'm moving year groups at work and expect it to be harder going this year. Going to do one part of the house at a time, followed by some crafting, and be more ruthless this time.

Anyone got any good ways to stay motivated when you feel broke?

Dorastar · 5 August 2019 at 8:29PM

Felt quite a lot meh today, am much better being busy and working as the holidays mean I have time to slow down too much and overthink things.

Got a letter from mortgage company today asking me to contact them to discuss how we're going to pay off our interest only mortgage. At the moment it looks unlikely any time soon and unless I can get a permanent job I can't see them changing the mortgage to a repayment one to help us overpay.
We can overpay a bit but we need to build up some more savings to counteract any future unemployment, add to that a teen going to uni next year and we have very frugal times ahead of us. I know we are better off than this time 2 years ago when my world came crashing down but it still feels hard some days - I didn't even have any chocolate to cheer me up, fruit just doesn't cut it some times.

Going to have a nice, long bath and wallow tonight then get back on the moneysaving wagon tomorrow.

beanielou · 5 August 2019 at 9:12PM

Keep plodding

Dorastar · 5 August 2019 at 9:46PM

Plodding, but through treacle today! Have done some surveys and swagbucks to cheer me up financially since I came on and whinged - 'be reet' by the morning.

Dorastar · 6 August 2019 at 4:32PM

Woohoo successful day Chez Dora!
Plucked up the courage to phone mortgage company and they have put us on a new fixed rate at half the interest so we can actually start overpaying a decent amount each month. They were really helpful and this means I don't feel like we'll lose the house tomorrow. Be ready to watch those numbers start going down.
Also rang pensions people to see if I can sort out the mess they've made of payments over the past few months.
Also finished a pile of clerking work, submitted timesheets, done some surveys & swagbucked a bit. £6.18 in paypal from surveys and should be over the £5 by the end of today to cash some more out.

beanielou · 6 August 2019 at 8:27PM

Great news on the new mortgage rate :j :j

Dorastar · 7 August 2019 at 11:15AM

House looking loads better downstairs after two and a half weeks of being off, going to tackle the upstairs today which may take considerably longer. The boy is having a friend over this afternoon, movie and a sleepover so plenty of time to get decluttering, tidying and cleaning while they mess around downstairs.
More surveys done yesterday so another £11.23 to cash in once they've all paid up, every penny helps.

redofromstart · 7 August 2019 at 1:47PM

That is brilliant news on the mortgage rate, I would have put off making the call for months. So pleased for you.

Dorastar · 8 August 2019 at 12:31PM

Thanks, wish I'd done it months ago now, but at least we can start overpaying properly, we've been overpaying about £50 a month but this new rate means if we keep the static payment we can overpay nearly £450 per month without really trying. Also means if I don't have work at end of this contract we can just pay the minimum for a while till I am working which takes a lot of pressure off tbh.