Busy Mee's Last Leg

Cornish_mum

Congratulations to DD!

 I second thinking about seeing if DD would like a dressmaker to make her dress, mine was made by a family friend (exactly how I wanted it) and a perfect fit. Pattern was £6; fabric (raw silk) was about £50... I think my outfit was the cheapest at the wedding!!

I have never regretted it and when one of our friends split beer down the back of the dress during the reception, it didn’t matter at all.

I won’t scare you about quite how much we all spent on the rest of the wedding (which lasted an entire bank holiday weekend and involved hiring a fort😄.)  But I did have an MSE dress.

savingholmes

My sis got married with advice from the special occasions board on how to keep costs down... I think it is still there...

Your plans sound very exciting and doable.

Busy_Mee

Thank you Suffolklass, Cornishmum and Savingholmes. It never would occurred to me to have her dress made, I will ask around re dressmakers. I have also had a look on the MSE wedding thread. Lots of useful information on there.

The excitement this week has been completing my self assessment to claim tax relief on my pension contribution to my SIPP and the working from home expenses. The SA was completed on Monday and just over £1k received into my bank account on Wednesday. Thank you HMRC 

I have paid £500 off the IO mortgage, which now stands at a lovely tidy £150k.

I have put £500 aside to pay for an arbour with bench for the gin and tonic corner at the bottom of the garden. This was going to be a summerhouse but we have changed our minds and gone for a bit more of an open structure that I can trail plants over. I might also have ordered one of those hanging egg chairs, just because I like them 

We have a fixed rate savings account due to mature today and I am going to use this to pay the £30k of the repayment mortgage on Monday. This will significantly reduce our monthly outgoings by £800 a month ready for retirement. 

I have actually ventured out this week, and had a trip to the outlet mall to return some jeans to Gap bought in December. It felt fine but there were a number of shops that have closed down. Very sad.

We also went to the pub yesterday for lunch in the sunshine. I managed to grab a sandwich and a lime and soda before my phone started ringing me and I had to go back to work. I left Mr Mee there with his pint to walk back with the pup. It just made me look forward to finishing work even more.....I can't wait now.

Nothing much else to report. I have got back to exercising this week. I restarted C25K, walked most days and had a PT session with DDs bf. I just need to stop eating.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend in the sunshine.

South_coast

All sounding excellent over here 😀

Suffolk_lass

Ooh, an arbour! DH designed an outdoor kitchen for our friends in France - they changed it (their prerogative, of course) but he suggested a wind-out awning so that they could cover the overhead part (theirs was for a bit of shade as so hot there, but a bit of rain shelter here as we have one). Worth considering...

Busy_Mee

Hi Suffolklass. 

We decided against a covered structure because this is at the bottom of the garden and gets the last sun in the evening, so would miss the point.

We have thought about an awning or sail on the terraces by house. We are South facing and it does get hot out there, even in Yorkshire 

Suffolk_lass

Ours is a bit like the "Outsunny" that Amazon sell and sits on the lawn with slabs round the base because there is no shade here at the back of the house. It's getting a bit old now but has been a great choice. I covet one like they have in Italy, all electric extending and retracting - even the market stalls there are electric awnings with roof and sides

Busy_Mee

Thanks Suffolklass I will have a look at those.

Another Monday post, mainly because I couldn't wait. Yesterday I paid £30k off the repayment mortgage.I have logged on to my mortgage account this morning and my mortgage balance is:

£4875.47       

Our total mortgage, along with the IO part is down to £154,875.47  I know by most people's standards that is still a lot of mortgage outstanding, but it is great knowing we can just pay it off at anytime now and our mortgage repayments are reduced by £800 per month.

There was £1,153.79 left over from the matured savings product when I had paid the mortgage ( effectively the interest ). I have therefore added £1000 to our S&S ISA, put £100 in holiday savings and £53.79 in the odds and sods account ( towards DDs wedding dress ).

My meetings start at 8.30 and are pretty much back to back all day and for the rest of the week. However I only have 49 days left to work 

try_harder

Wow, wow, fantastic ,so very pleased for you ,

beanielou

Just awesome