Thirty something dreaming of not paying mortgage

kaycastle

Hi all, hope you had a brilliant bank holiday weekend, what did everyone get up to? 
I got a lot done and my OH and me spent some lovely time together and ate lots of nice food. We taught ourselves to play cribbage which was good fun and I did lots of things in my new veg garden. I have time off for the next couple of weeks so I'm really excited - going to relax and get lots done. 
I've got lots done already this morning, I did the washing and hung it out, updated my forum signature and sorted out all my spreadsheets. Almost finished sorting my email inbox too. Might be the final last fiddle with my budgets and savings for a while as I think I've got to a happy place. Will have a review once we're out of lockdown to see how it goes - it looks like £1000 OPs should always be possible so fingerscrossed. 
Here is my to-do list:

• Downgrade the 123 account as its definitely not going to make its money back now. Had to do this again as first time didn't work
• Repot my basil plant 
• Work out how I'm going to protect my young cucumber and tomato plants from the wind before I put them outside...our garden seems to have turned into a wind tunnel this year  - I constructed something, will see whether it works. Did most of my potting out yesterday
• Work on bucket list Didn't do much this weekend as was quite busy having homemade fun and going on walks
• Review savings accounts and organise them according to this structure: Emergency fund pot, Holiday fund pot and extras
• Make sure all my spreadsheet reflects the last few pages of planning  and tidy them up  
• Read Nerdy Farm wife's soap making book/making plans for making things. 

 It looks like it might be time for a new to-do list as I think I've made enough progress    I'm feeling so productive and happy. Will post new to-do list tomorrow. 

Baileys_Babe

You sound positive and are making good progress.

I haven't played cribbage for years, I wonder if my daughter would be able to play? We played various games including introducing the children to triominoes, dd was very pleased when she placed a tile thinking it would get her 1 point to also be awarded 60 bonus points, she's not the most strategic of players. 

We watch a couple of films as a family and enjoyed making and eating good food.

Me and OH discussed money and plans for the next 3 months. We are going to overpay the mortgage but we haven't decided by how much. We are planning to divert the £590 OH usually spends on commuting and other work related costs to the mortgage, plus possibly free up a bit more, we are still crunching the numbers.

kaycastle

Thank you baileys_babe.  That sounds like a lot of fun.Ooh I couldnt resist ordering triominoes as I've never played it before but it looks right up our street. How old is your daughter? I think it's easy enough to learn, probably depends on age and how strategic she can be about the crib. I say give it a go, is good fun. We found a guy on youtube that did a good beginners tutorial for us.
Nice one on the OP plan, that's money well diverted!

Baileys_Babe

She's 11, very mature and capable at lots of things but in other areas, it's as if she is missing the ability to process.

Can you post a link to the crib video? thanks.

kaycastle

We thought this guys explanation was really useful and he has some top tips at the end: https://youtu.be/pf8tNm6k7pk

That's a great age, I think for sure will pick it up. I dont know a lot about kids though but Ooh I cant wait to have my own. I hope mine like playing board games too!!

kaycastle

Also I've been reading Bill Bryson's body book and I think the brain still grows until we are about 25. I think my parents used to say a similar thing about me - bright but pretty dopey sometimes haha. Which is probably still true. 

Right now that Ive finished my lovely cooked breakfast. My to do list for this week. I had a successful afternoon yesterday. Walked all the way to garden centre and got tomato feed and salad seeds so:
- sow salad leaves
- try to fix hose that broke this morning while watering. Trust hose to break when I'm finally in a proper watering routine as usually I forget and plants perish.
- decide what to do with flower seeds I impulsively got
- wash and hang out bedding. This week is washing catchup week.
- decide what soap to make first
- work on bucket list
- read. I've done that thing again where I've started several books at once. Need to finish some off as it's getting very untidy. 
- get sunglasses
- order new bedding
- deep clean house. 

That should be enough to get on with.

Baileys_Babe

kaycastle said:

I think my parents used to say a similar thing about me - bright but pretty dopey sometimes haha. Which is probably still true. 

Yes, that's her to a T

Good luck sorting the hose out, I hope it is a quick job.

Thanks for the video, I'll watch it later. Playing board games as a family is great fun and we find they are a good way of sending positive time altogether. 
Games are a fantastic learning tool. We used them extensively when ours were little as well as learning whatever the game is about, matching, counting etc they also learn turn taking, listening, patience, following the rules (of the game) and much more. To make the games suitable for their target audience they can be boring for adults, just grin and bear it and think of the foundations you are laying for future game playing.
Have young children with you and maybe 'help' when you play games so it is seen as normal and something they would like to do.

I often have several books on the go, both fiction and non-fiction, mainly in book form plus 1 or 2 ebooks and an audiobook. So I always have something to suit my mood.

I envy your gardening skills, I have no idea how to grow anything in the garden except mow the grass.

kaycastle

Baileys_Babe said:

kaycastle said:

I think my parents used to say a similar thing about me - bright but pretty dopey sometimes haha. Which is probably still true. 

Yes, that's her to a T

Good luck sorting the hose out, I hope it is a quick job.

Thanks for the video, I'll watch it later. Playing board games as a family is great fun and we find they are a good way of sending positive time altogether. 
Games are a fantastic learning tool. We used them extensively when ours were little as well as learning whatever the game is about, matching, counting etc they also learn turn taking, listening, patience, following the rules (of the game) and much more. To make the games suitable for their target audience they can be boring for adults, just grin and bear it and think of the foundations you are laying for future game playing.
Have young children with you and maybe 'help' when you play games so it is seen as normal and something they would like to do.

I often have several books on the go, both fiction and non-fiction, mainly in book form plus 1 or 2 ebooks and an audiobook. So I always have something to suit my mood.

I envy your gardening skills, I have no idea how to grow anything in the garden except mow the grass.

I think I was being very optimistic putting fix hose on my list. I've got better in recent years but I'm still terrible at this kind of thing. Luckily my OH is very handy so hopefully he will be able to sort it.

That sounds wonderful and great way of picking up skills naturally. 

Haha I have dreams of having gardening skills and I try hard. But I'm not very good or consistent. I'm hoping I'll learn, I have to post a question on a gardening fb group pretty much every day. I get so many things wrong but approaching with lots of focus and positivity this time. Will hopefully post some good photos in a few weeks once seeds have grown.

kaycastle

- sow salad leaves
- try to fix hose that broke this morning while watering. Trust hose to break when I'm finally in a proper watering routine as usually I forget and plants perish.  (a pipe dream some might say....heheehehehe)
- decide what to do with flower seeds I impulsively got - sown and will see what happens
- wash and hang out bedding. This week is washing catchup week.
- decide what soap to make first - made a lovely face mask and have put together plans for more
- work on bucket list
- read. I've done that thing again where I've started several books at once. Need to finish some off as it's getting very untidy. Only done a tiny bit of reading
- get sunglasses (I really do need to do this, I loathe shopping it turns out, even online shopping.  Preferablly need a pair I can mountain bike with)
- order new bedding
- deep clean house. Meh. I've kept things quite tidy, might do this next week

I have done a bodypump and bodyattack class in last couple of days which felt good. 
Virtual pub with friends tonight - can't wait  

Baileys_Babe

Pipe dream hehe