Pay off mortgage and start having even more fun 😁

newgirly

Hi Daisy, thanks for posting 🙂 It’s really odd you wrote that as that’s what I’ve been feeling a bit the last few days! Maybe we will do a night or two in a cheap hotel or York but not a holiday as I just can’t find anything I feel is worth the money, and if spending a lot I want to be able to look forward to it if that makes sense, I think it’s just hard to pay last minute school holiday prices. 

I don’t think dh will leave, he has been there since he was fifteen and he loves the actual job of making stuff, luckily the “boss” only pops in for a few hours every few weeks so it’s not as bad as it could be. I don’t think he’s got over the fact he lost the business though which is sad. But weirdly for us it has meant us fully owing the factory which is a much better outcome, I’m very sure dh doesn’t see it like that mind.  

Another car is not something I wanted to pay for before being mortgage free and it opens up a whole other can of worms - buy a decent car to keep and go away in or another old banger 🙄 I think I know the answer to that though. I know nothing of tax stuff and car costs per mile etc. however I vividly remember a cross dh coming home a few weeks ago saying they wanted to charge him 45per mile! He told them he won’t pay it and his boss backed down and is now getting this spreadsheet done instead. 

Busy day today, went to see Barbie and am going again tomorrow now 😆 Oppenheimer was too busy so we are going tomorrow daytime as ds2 is off again. We just went for a couple of drinks with ds1 and girlfriend and a friend and they were going on to a restaurant after which we were invited to but turned down as I felt bad not paying for them all (especially as ds2 would have come if he’d known) none of them would expect us to pay, but I feel we should 😬

Bit of spending done today on a cake for ds1 , dinner from Costco of wraps for ds2 and bottles of birthday fizz , the Scottish orange coloured stuff not booze mind 😆

CathT

I'm going to watch Barbie with dd next week, we're not generally cinema fans so going to an earlier showing then some food afterwards. I really want to watch Oppenheimer but 3 hours is sooo long. 

newgirly

I shall let you know if it’s worth the time commitment Cath after today 😆  I’m sure you will both enjoy Barbie, you should wear pink if you can, most of the the people there were and I thought we might be in a minority 😁

Moneyfordreams

We went to see Oppenheimer the other day - plenty of sweets helped pass the time plus it was very good. 
DD2 and her BF raved about Barbie, so that's on next weeks agenda. 

Good luck with everything NG - your DH has a rough ride with work. Hope it gets better soon.

newgirly

Oppenheimer was really good, Barbie the second time around was ok too 😆 we had to go to a different cinema and pay as ours was sold out as it was the only time ds1’s girlfriend could go  - only £4.99 instead of £15 ticket plus bogof but wow it was awful there, noisy and full of people chatting and eating! I am a cinema snob clearly 😂

My mortgage spreadsheet I’ve had for years has gone a bit weird, I’m useless at this type of stuff but managed to find another copy in my email and redo it, however it’s taken ages yesterday 😩 

newgirly

Oops, busy week! We went to a funeral Friday, then away to York Saturday for a couple of days. I couldn’t decide whether to book a trip to Manchester for one or two nights, we went for one night and I used a Tesco club card reward voucher for £75 so spent and extra £34 on a nicer hotel than we would have got. Unfortunately I woke up with an upset stomach (again) and it was stressful trying to decide either to book another night or risk the journey home 😂 luckily had tablets in my holiday first aid box I take everywhere and I made it home ok. 

Mortgage wise I’ve added another month to the length, it was a 33 month challenge that I was hoping to trim to 30 (ending March 2025 when I turn 50) so now the estimated end date is April 2025 but I can see it stretching a bit more as we may book a holiday next year.

The month op’s are so large that is quite a bit of extra money, so instead of spending it all on a holiday as I originally planned, we went to York and Manchester which was WAY cheaper, mainly meals and petrol. So I’ve been able to also add an extra £50 pm for the food budget for the rest of the term, this is what we really need as it’s getting hard. Plus I’ve taken £500 out as I want to take the kids and partners to Thorpe park fright night if I can get them all together at the same time. 

So this months mortgage figures will be very reduced but I think we needed a break away and had not a penny spare, I think it’s a good balance of doing nice things and buying more food! I’ll see how we go this month food wise, I’ve been really bad lately and we haven’t been eating well, so I will up the food budget again if I need to. There’s also a little left over of around £100 I shall save towards our cruise at the end of the year, it’s paid for and so are the excursions booked but we don’t have money for drinks on bars yet! 

newgirly

💙💙💙💙💙MONTH 10 of the 33 MONTH CHALLENGE 💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙

Start balance 1st October 2022: £61,452.11

Balance 29th July 2023: £45,390.82

Total reduction since month one : £16,061.29

Total reduction for July: £737.28 

So this months figures are way down on what they usually are, due to me allocating an extra £50 pm for food, plus going away, as well as putting by money for Thorpe park at Halloween for everyone. 

The plan this month is to stick to the budget and cook better meals, I started to tonight with a big roast chicken with thyme and garlic, homemade roast potatoes and fresh broccoli and carrots, two are missing so they can have theirs tomorrow, this is what always happens if I cook 😆

Bit of spending done today on some new autumn clothes for me ( personal spends budget) I’m still doing the capsule wardrobe thing which I love, I’ve just given dil loads of stuff I won’t likely fit into anytime soon to sell that I cleared out a while ago. Also bought three lamps in Asda sale, two black and white ones as bedside lamps for £1.80 each and one silver with a white shade for £1.25! Very pleased with those 😬

newgirly

Still not feeling right tummy wise and have another dr appointment booked for a few weeks time. Its put a dampener on having much motivation really. Dh is at work again today, he left an hour ago, he was there yesterday too, hopefully not for too long as he think he wants to go to the cinema later. 

I spent a bit more money Friday taking dd and dil out for coffee and cake (just water for me so a bit cheaper 😆) other than that and buying bread at the bakers around the corner I’ve not been out. Talking of which is £2.25 for a sliced bloomer expensive? It seems it , but is so much nicer than shop bought, I’ve bought a few lately  😬

I’m going to get up and go for a walk since the sun is out for a change, I’ve turned into a bit of a slug recently….

Moneyfordreams

I baked a loaf from a co op mix yesterday, mixed seed granary - it cost me 64p as it was a sticker packet back in March. Really nice Heat from the oven warmed up kitchen diner too

newgirly

Oh nice mfd’s, I do love making a loaf in the bm the house smells so good. I find it doesn’t go far though  the slices are so much thicker 😆 I’ve switched from a sandwhich loaf to a large bloomer at the bakers for this reason too.

Poor dh must be very tired, home at 3pm form work yesterday and after a whole day Saturday, I ended up going for a walk and drink at the forest cafe with dd and her hubby and step dd, they came back for a drink at lunchtime and stayed until 9pm 😆 Our sil (and dil’s) dad keeps messaging dh to meet up and go out, he’s an unusual character to put it politely, anyway I said ask him over now while his son and dgd are here, he came over and spent virtually the whole time talking to dh and not them 😡 so poor dh had hours of being shown pictures of cars and the very young foreign women he dates! 

On a more relevant note, dh has been offered a job (again) by the builder that owns the factory next to ours, he has a company with all trades that have a council contract for a few London boroughs doing their maintenance work. He’s been told he can do the decorating as he’s not qualified to do electrics /plumbing etc. and he even has a spare van at the moment, it’s nice to have a fall back but I think it would be a very last resort as he enjoys doing what he’s good at. I feel we may be at a cross roads soon regarding his work as the lease is up very soon and I’m not sure what dh will do to be honest, the rent is considerably cheaper than it should be and to be frank the owner of the business is a multi millionaire who hasn’t even visited since the day he popped in for an hour to view it all years ago before taking it off our hands for free! 

Still since finding out that dh is unsure of his next move rent wise, I might do a deep dive into some “what if” scenarios to put my mind at rest that we can manage ok, and perhaps a look at what our minimum spending could go down to, although I think that may end up being more or less what it is now.