Pay off mortgage and start having even more fun 😁

Queen_of_the_Hive

Sorry to hear life is so stressful for you @newgirly. Try to remember its not going to always be like this. Enjoy your weekend in York, i've never had the ££ for Centre Parks. I know mum friends that go to the european parks as they are much better value. 

LadyWithAPlan

A lot going on here, sorry to hear re DP but you seem v organised and focused. I am sure the right solution will come up, id also pay for some employment legal advice if acas cant help.

Jellytotts

You must do a visit to Scarborough! It’s beautiful.  Make sure you have a trip out on the pirate ship from South bay to see the dolphins and ice cream sundaes at the harbour bar.  

Queen_of_the_Hive

Jellytotts said:

You must do a visit to Scarborough! It’s beautiful.  Make sure you have a trip out on the pirate ship from South bay to see the dolphins and ice cream sundaes at the harbour bar.  

Agree its highly recommended...know the area well! But haven't yet made it to Scarborough fair nor the stained glass centre. Don't have a car nor drive which means its a bit more limiting atm.

newgirly

Will try Scarborough maybe in summer 😊

Hi Queen of the hive, it is SO expensive there! 

Hi lady, I’m not sure if it’s worth the bother as his redundancy would be a few thousand as he signed a new contract on their insistence when they took over and to be honest they will probably just stiff us on the rent 😳

This week is not going well, not sure if I mentioned I got my first ever speeding fine this week , coming back from Whitby 😩 then dh gets one two days later driving to work! Honestly I’ve no idea how as we usually drove slowly, in fact I was nagging him in holiday to drive a bit faster. This has been topped off by a broken toilet in the main bathroom today, the place where I never venture as I hate that room. Anyway it’s caused a very worrying coloured flood in the hall and dh has spent the last few hours removing the toilet and trying to fix it, he seems to think the macerator is dead but I persuaded him to at least have a look before calling someone out to replace it. I want rid of that bathroom as we flipped it from the back of the house to the front a few years ago now and it’s been a nightmare ever since. A replacement machine on its own is around £700 without fitting which we would need, so annoying. Luckily we do have a top floor bathroom so will be expecting visitors in the night to use the loo, poor dil 😂

newgirly

The spending continues 😩 after a hellish few days the macerator does need replacing, I’ve got one for £470 coming today (0% cc) which Dh will try and fit, if it’s tricky we will have to get somebody in. Todays unexpected bill is a large mobile bill including date roaming in Albania which we must have passed through the waters on the cruise and for some reason the roaming was on - no idea why as I’m very careful re mobiles while on a ship! It’s almost £40 so I’ll ring and see if they will take pity on me and remove it. 

Ds2 and dil have exchanged on their flat, they are due to complete next Tuesday, they  will painting and getting new carpet everywhere before moving in, but I doubt that will take too long. I’m so happy for them but sad for me as I will miss them like crazy 🥲 we have had a house full for our whole married lives so it’s a big change! 

Finance wise I’ve decided to track our food spends again, we have a budget still of £400 a month but I’m sure we are regularly going over and ds2 buys some bits, when they move out I’m not sure exactly what it will be. I’d like to think we can have more nice food as it’s just us 😆
 I’ve been watching frug@l Queen videos online , I used to read her blog many years ago and its Inspiring me to be a bit more frugal and it may be time to be tracking and being more realistic about our expenses. 

While we do have savings pots for certain things, Xmas, car ins etc. they are nowhere near as comprehensive as they should be, for example no dental costs, vet costs, home repairs etc. I think as we tried to fast track the mortgage ops the last few years everything else was just done on a hope for the best basis with all money being focused on the mortgage.

I think loosely the plan I’m thinking of is one where we take the next three months wage and rent (hopefully) and put all the surplus after frugal living towards the credit cards, then perhaps divide the last remaining balance at the end of August  (will need to check but around £3000k ish) and clear that over the remaining interest free period, so until, about feb 2027. 

No idea what dhs wage will end up being yet but it will at least be a full time minimum wage, well hopefully a bit more but that’s worst case. So our expenses can be managed with that if we are wing it like we have been in past years 😆 once the factory rents out we need to start properly saving and budgeting. I think my previous dreams of spending a fortune on travel for a while have dampened a little, I still want it do it but it would also be nice to feel a bit more organised and be one step ahead instead of playing catch up. 

So for June I’ll be tracking food spending , so far it’s £48.67/ £400 spent in sains yesterday. 

newgirly

No more food spending done yet, but there will be some today. We have lots of cupboard packets and some from veg and a few fridge bits but not really much for dinners at the moment. I’m making a concerted effort to lose weight again, this time going for a shake or porridge in the morning, then soup and crackers for lunch or salad then whatever dinner I fancy (that’s not terribly unhealthy) followed by yoghurt with fruit. Will see how it goes for a bit, it can’t be any worse than WW where I lost nothing and ended up messing up my INR blood levels 😒 

The toilet is fixed, hooray! No need to get somebody out and pay to fit the new macerator. It wasn’t a pleasant job for dh I have to say but he came good 😆  

I need to pay for the first cardio appointment, I had an invoice a couple of weeks ago but was waiting until I got the second one but it’s taken way longer, so best I do it today really. I paid the balance on our girls 50th mini cruise in August yesterday too so the cc is shooting up this week 😩 I guess it’s all big kind of planned spending,  nothing else will be going on the except the heart scan and second cardio appt. when the bill arrives. It’s a good job we cancelled our sept cruise as the balance of £2500 plus spending money would have taken us over the limit 😱 The cancelled Centerparcs trip has helped too as we only lost the £20 fee we paid to enable us to cancel for any reason if we wanted to, so i got a £420 refund back to the cc on that. 

Most trips we book we do take into account what happens if we cancel, but as it’s usually cruises it still works out less of a risk often to book years in advance than closer to the sail date, the downside is of course loss of deposit if you are unable to transfer it. 

Right well today is one of the better days of the week, out with best friend to the shopping centre for a coffee and a top up shop of food should be quiet there now the kids are back in school, at least it’s dry there as it’s pouring here today. 

newgirly

More money spent on food yesrday, £42.15 spent in m@s, I would normally only buy the odd veg and milk/bread in there if it was more convenient, but clearly i got a lot more this time, some was dearer, some was the same price. What a lovely experience though 😬 made Greek cheese pie and potatoes last night which was very nice. Today will be some form of veg curry perhaps,with a Dahl and rice with flatbreads too as it’s Friday, if I get time to make them. 

Dd has just handed her notice in at work, it’s something that has been on the cards for a while. It’s a shame as it was her dream job and she works for a company that does events for the largest most appealing companies. But I think she’s literally burnt out from it at nearly 28, nothing is worth that and without too much detail one small example is her colleague was expected to be on call throughout the day on her own wedding day 😱 so she’s done it and will now take time to rest and refocus before starting again in that crazy world. Luckily her dh is very supportive and money won’t be a worry until she finds the right company. It will be nice to see more of her for a little bit though as I see more of her on video calls than I do in person. 

Right, off to the gym now and maybe a top up shop in sainsbugs for some chips for the freezer and salad afterwards.

Watty1

On call on her own wedding day - Words fail me

daisy_1571

Glad she's recognised an employer like that is not worth it.  Hope she has a well deserved rest

Dxx