The end is in sight

powerspowers

I think children off all ages have forgotten how to play together- including the adults I work with! Roll on half term x 

beanielou

Scotland is awesome of course 

Niallworldwide

recently re mortgaged through lloyds was paying 4.89% interest my advisor got me a deal of 2.2% so i have kept my re payments the same and can see my balance coming down month by month at this rate we will be mortgage free in 5 years 

Porridgecat

Niallworldwide said:

recently re mortgaged through lloyds was paying 4.89% interest my advisor got me a deal of 2.2% so i have kept my re payments the same and can see my balance coming down month by month at this rate we will be mortgage free in 5 years 

I wish we had managed to do that sooner, unfortunately we had other debt that we focussed on paying off and then when we started looking at remortgaging we found that we didn't owe enough to get the lower rates. That's why we're just paying off as quickly as possible. 

Porridgecat

We've had some friends over for breakfast / Bruch this morning which proved to be a very civilised way to entertain. The rain kept off and it was lovely in the garden. They left around 12.30 and we had everything in the dishwasher and going by 1pm. We've been to the local garden centre as I needed bean canes. I've finally planted them out but they were definitely making a bid for freedom. It's been raining here and its already perked them up and got them climbing the canes properly. I was horrified at having to pay £9 for 9 canes though, I was expecting about £3 which I guess shows how long the last lot have lasted. We also made an impulse buy of some individual solar lights at 5 for £10 and a set of bee shaped stake lights for MIL. I was quite cross when I got home and realised that the batteries in the lights weren't replaceable so they'll probably only last one season, normally I wouldn't have bought them, mind you I bought some quite expensive ones a year ago and half of them have died. We've hung the others over the pergola and now we just need some nice weather so we can sit out and enjoy them. 
We've only paid in just over £800 extra this month and I've topped up some pots and put some aside for our trip to Scotland (if we get to go) and I've found it less stressful than chasing every penny, so I've budgeted for £1060 next month and will add any extras at the end. 

Porridgecat

Happy Sunday, not doing much today although the weather isn't conducive to doing much anyway. MrP and I blagged our way into getting the second dose of the vaccine without appointments yesterday , it was nine weeks from dose one for me and eight for him. My original appointment was for the 6 June but then they've been saying we could move it forward to eight weeks, however that's easier said than done as you have to cancel your appointment and then hope there's one available sooner. We've got quite a big centre near us so we went down yesterday and I explained that I was reluctant to cancel my later appointment but wanted the second dose as quite a few of the students I teach are in a new variant area. MrP just said he was with me No problems, they filled a form looked us up and we joined the queue. Very pleased to have it done. 
Not much happening on the money front, just waiting for the end of month to see what I have left (if anything) to move. It has been a bit of a speedy month with quite a few garden purchases - nothing exciting just compost, bean canes and a few plants but it does all add up. Really looking forward to being off to Scotland next weekend.

Chiglepig

Spendy Garden months are my biggest weakness . But compost is always exciting - I have four compost bins, a leaf mold bin, and a wormery, but I'm still at the farm shop most weeks through April and May for bags of the stuff!

beanielou

Enjoy none too sunny Scotland next week 

Porridgecat

Back again, work has been very busy both the last week before we went to Scotland at half term and this week just past. 
We had a fantastic week in Scotland, it was great to see friends and just to be out and about again. We stayed in two fantastic hotels in Ullapool and Castletown and one very disappointing one in Inverness but we had fantastic weather, some really good food and saw lots. Will definitely be going back, especially to finish the Southern part of the West coast that we didn't get to. 
Unfortunately it wasn't very money saving but it was budgeted for and came out of holiday spends, I'm just always shocked by how much UK holiday places cost.
We've paid another £1062.75 extra off the mortgage which is now sub £20 000. 
I'll hopefully catch up on everyone's diaries later this weekend. 

f0xh0les

Ooh you are in the teens!  Hope this does not mean sulks and tantrums. Congratulations on being sub £20k, that really is fabulous news.