Buying a little piece of Middle England; Manifesting my way to mortgage free.

ladybird1106

Enjoy your break
love 🐞

debtfreewannabe321

Ah thanks @seventh88, @beanielou and @ladybird1106 🐞
I'm so happy to be off work finally!
It's not been a hard week work wise but I think I've been battling the bug going around as I have just been exhausted with sore throat and weird heartburn feeling all week. 

Cinema today! Woop 🙌🏻 and then present swapping with the kids and pizza (we get 50% off with the taste card we have) ...
Looked at our itinerary for sun-tues and it's packed! Only money we've paid out though is parking £38 for three days inner city, £69 hotel two nights and that's it. The rest is all free tickets or restaurant bookings so we can be flexible ...
Saturday I have to drop the kids half way to their dad's house and put the food shop away but aside from that I'd like to rest 😁

DD has been cleaning her room ready for us going in and doing some diy and decorating.... honestly I'm not sure where to find the energy and will for that one yet. Will have to cross that bridge when we come to it.

DP and I had a thirty quid budget for one another and neither of us have bought anything yet 🤣 so we've agreed to pool funds and buy hedging for the front garden instead. Merry Christmas to us 🎄🎁🤣 it means we won't have anything to open on Christmas but also we won't have tat and waste our money so I think it's a good thing. And we live on a pretty busy road. We'd love the hedging in ASAP so that it can grow! 

Right cuppa number two then wake the kids for the cinema. Really looking forward to it as it's a lovely oldie worldly cinema from my childhood that we're going to. And in fact the cinema screen I wanted to be in dictated what we are watching as I wanted to be in the big one 🤣 so the kids had no choice but I'm hoping it's a good day anyway 😀

HotDog2020

Ohh my gosh exciting times, totally well deserved, good idea on the Christmas present idea, Glad DD getting in there and getting the room ready for you. Forget the room for a few days and just enjoy the rest and pleasure and all things good. And then you'll probably find all your energy restored once you get to DD room time. Enjoy all the good stuff, I am looking forward to reading your experiences. All the best HotdogXXX

Watty1

Love the way you are thinking about next year and what to schedule.  Particularly liked the one thing a month to look forward to. That was thought provoking.   Like you I've been in survival mode for a while now.  Perhaps time to try to change that.

LadyWithAPlan

Love your mutual hedging gift ! 

On your friends it’s probably more than we are all so busy and stressed rather than a deliberate
quietness from your friends 
 I deliberately organised a couple small (9 people)  dinners at mine  and people loved it but it’s easy to not make the effort .. when so much is going on - kids, ageing parents, divorces, job worries. 

debtfreewannabe321

Watty1 said:

Love the way you are thinking about next year and what to schedule.  Particularly liked the one thing a month to look forward to. That was thought provoking.   Like you I've been in survival mode for a while now.  Perhaps time to try to change that.

On my fortieth I said the same. I had the best year. I tried sweat lodges (never again) solo camping, dating by myself, cinema on my own, theatre trips and museums etc alone and re-started dating after three years of refusing dates 🤣 it was the year I said yes to all Instead of no. It built my confidence up and I met my DP now. Then, well, immediately after that ...covid hit and back to square one. So here we go again.

I already have two more preliminary dates lined up with my DD and one with a friend 👏🏼😁

debtfreewannabe321

HotDog2020 said:

Ohh my gosh exciting times, totally well deserved, good idea on the Christmas present idea, Glad DD getting in there and getting the room ready for you. Forget the room for a few days and just enjoy the rest and pleasure and all things good. And then you'll probably find all your energy restored once you get to DD room time. Enjoy all the good stuff, I am looking forward to reading your experiences. All the best HotdogXXX

I think I will just ignore it for now. Good plan 🤣

debtfreewannabe321

LadyWithAPlan said:

Love your mutual hedging gift ! 

On your friends it’s probably more than we are all so busy and stressed rather than a deliberate
quietness from your friends 
 I deliberately organised a couple small (9 people)  dinners at mine  and people loved it but it’s easy to not make the effort .. when so much is going on - kids, ageing parents, divorces, job worries. 

Yes it's why I've reached out to them again. I do feel it is always me making the first move of asking if they're ok and that doesn't always get returned...but I will continue I do like them all 😁

debtfreewannabe321

Morning all, 
Yesterday's cinema trip was fun and enjoyed by all. We love this cinema as they have an intermission half way through and we get to stretch our legs. Quite a spendy trip in all but I knew it would be. £35 for tickets, £20 for initial treats in there - drinks and popcorn and sweets and £8 for half time ice cream. It's still cheaper than the 0d3on and has a nice unique feel to it, comfy seats, free parking and has half time entertainment 😉(nostalgic to me too as it's my childhood cinema - think I've given enough clues anyone local will know it).
We came home, swapped presents and ordered MORE food. Pizza this time, 50% off £38 for lots of food! But £100 all in for the day. Not bad for four of us. And I didn't spend all that much on presents so overall it's one of the cheaper Christmases I've ever done 🤣

Shopping is due later, I forgot a few things like coffee oops, so DP is going to pop out in a bit and grab them bits for us. And I will drop the kids off to their dad. Once back we need to pack for our getaway and make sure everything is locked up. We're leaving early tomorrow so we can use tomorrow for sightseeing as well as Monday & half of Tuesday (church and cathedral visits planned for Christmas eve). 

Money-
I get paid on Monday and so does DP. I've done a budget with the aim of paying the carpet loan off in Jan- Feb pay. And once that is done we will have more money back in the budget for diy/ mini hols/ and date nights etc. I can't wait! I'm going to let the EF payments tick over at just £100 a month going in still and any survey/ cashback money is going to be redirected to the MOP. UNLESS we have anything going on that needs extra payments temporarily (like my phone I just bought). We remortgage in '27 and I don't want this great big amount going on double the interest we're paying now. So I'm carrying on with a set £60 MOP which is like to up to £100 and any extra I will send over too from surveys etc. ..

Right time to get up and see my children off in a bit. They don't look too happy about going so it makes me feel a bit sad they're going..I think they're only doing it for their dad. I have a feeling they won't last a week there....which will be awkward trying to get DD room done that quick (dp will make a start today whilst I drop kids off!)

debtfreewannabe321

PS it's Winter Solstice 😁 - dark days be gone!!