Mortgage Free by 50???

vampirotoothus

Hi I think it's great for the reasons that you point out. Perhaps you could make a small payment to one of your CCs for each sock you darn, so you can see the monetary saving having an impact too. Good luck on the rest of your journey V x

Sarahwithlove

When did your wife last apply for PIP as it may be worth trying again, there's quite a lot of help on the forums with PIP claims. 

Sarahwithlove

Do you have any local hairdressing colleges or does your hairdresser have an apprentice. They tend to be much cheaper 

linz

Hey, just stumbled across your diary and thought i'd suggest geocaching as a free activity you could do with your children? Don't know if you've heard of it. There's a free version and a paid for, but the free version has plenty of caches I think. Combine with a nice walk, and picnic when it's nicer weather and it makes a really fun and cheap day out

Muddy_Walker

Hi! I am stupidly wide awake at this time of night and have just read your diary- love it and your very wholesome outlook! 

Keep going you are doing marvellously!

browneyed_girl

Congratulations on making it to January payday without major incident!  Have just caught up on your diary - it has given me the urge to start baking and (more importantly) eat more cake!  Unfortunately, I never seem to find the time anymore and got horribly depressed when stumbling upon a very neglected piping set that had seen better days

I think it's amazing how much you contribute to the household whilst also working - your OH is very lucky!  I know how hard it is for DH working part-time but taking on the bulk of the childcare and housework due to my demanding job - hats off to the both of you! 
 

Cara_

I've just ready through your diary. You are doing really well with budgeting/saving. I'm impressed with how organised you are and everything you do - love that you are darning your socks.

Good luck with the budgeting.

Cara

hatch_five

Thankyou for all the lovely comments, its nice to see that people are actually reading my waffling! Well last weekend I fell off the wagon quite spectacularly! I spent £54 on 54 DVDs (so £1 each)- they are specialist DVDs that normally retail for £15 each new and about £8 each second hand on eBay, I didn’t have any of them and I will watch them, but its still £54 I feel a little guilty for spending. I then went into town to go to the model railway show, I had budgeted some spends, but then spotted a ‘bargain’ and ended up putting an extra £19 on my debit card, so I have spent an extra £75 I didn’t budget for! This will have to come out of my emergency fund and I will have to put extra back in on the next payday to cover… definitely feeling a little guilty about it but heyho. Being good all the time is hard, especially when you have a lot of hobbies and you see a ‘bargain’! I still have a few other things budgeted for this month, so I will try and bring them in under budget and claw a little money back to make up for my lack of will power. On a plus, a friend has asked me to help him lay a carpet on Saturday and said he'd give me a tenner for helping- I would have helped for free, but this side of payday the £10 will be very much appreciated and hopefully I won't have to transfer as much money from the emergency savings as I had planned!

hatch_five

Busy weekend- I helped my friend get his carpet down, I hate laying carpet but we did a reasonable job and the worst bits will be hidden by the bed! He gave me a tenner for helping which was much appreciated. I also collected a box of model railway engines to clean and service for his brother (plus a bottle of ten year old Jura single malt as payment which will be greatly enjoyed although it will probably last me five years as I am not much of a drinker). This morning I did a mass of baking- lemon iced fairy cakes, rolled oat macaroons, shortbread and a coffee cake- so the cake tins are filled for the week. I also got the kid's homework sorted out. DS's maths is always a right pain. I am pretty good at maths (but it was 25+ years ago) but even I was struggling with the angles homework he had this week, OH took one look at it and said we were on our own! We got it done in the end, but it was painful! 

I got serious brownie points yesterday as I found a My Little Pony t-shirt for DD in the charity shop for £2, it was the 1980s one that OH used to watch as a kid and still has all the toys for so they were both over the moon with my find. This afternoon I have the joy of painting some Animal Crossing figurines I 3D printed. DS wants to give one to his g/f as part of her Valentines gift, but its fallen to muggins to actually print and paint the thing...

vampirotoothus

Oh, how frustrating for you! It will get better....keep going. Good luck V x