Mortgage Free by 50???

hatch_five

[Deleted User] said:

This is all most impressive! You are truly living a full and productive life. Your family are very lucky to have you!

Thanks, I have an inability to sit still! I have always needed a 'project' on top of work and home life. I did my Masters, then did four and a half years as a reservist and now write books. My brain gets 'itchy' if it doesn't have a creative outlet! Its fantastic for getting things done, but does make it hard to switch off and relax sometimes. I have taken to leaving my electronic devices in the office on an evening so I concentrate on reading or watching TV without getting distracted online as well. It is much better for me to be able to focus my energies like this without constantly being online and I am sleeping better for it!

hatch_five

Fairly relaxed weekend- the weather was so horrid on Saturday that I had a day doing very little, did some writing and watched a movie which is very lazy for me! Yesterday I did the usual round of baking for the cake tin this week, built a kit I had printed out years ago that was in the stash and DD wanted to make headbands with a kit she got for her Birthday back in August so had a fun half an hour gluing plastic flowers to a headband with her! Apparently my sunflower encrusted headband is ‘amazing’, although my wife insisted it didn’t suit me when I tried it on…think I will leave it to DD to rock that one! OH very kindly cut my hair which was looking rather wild. The barber in the village has gone up to £10 for a clipper cut now- not much by ladies’ hairdresser standards I know, but as I need a cut every six weeks, that’s £80 a year so it does save a fair bit doing it at home, plus I like to be able to jump straight in the shower afterwards. Dentist today- boo!!!- and after paying my bus fare to get there and back I will have 1p in my current account. Can’t wait for payday on Thursday, even if its going to go out of my account as quickly as it arrives.

hatch_five

Want to cry! Went to the dentist and thought it would be a good idea to get the actual balance owing for my treatment rather than my calculation. Its £36 more than I was expecting...I was already short £40 on my budget for Thursday, now its £76 short. I will get a pay rise, but it certainly won't be £76. I am going to have to redo my budget, and perhaps just make the minimum payment on the Capital One card to free up cash to cover the dentist. I won't be going forward but at least I won't be going backward and adding more to the credit card that way. I can't make a payment to the emergency fund this month, but hopefully if I do that, I won't have to dip into the money that's in there either- £40, its not much of an emergency fund but its £40 more than I had a couple of months ago!

hatch_five

Payday (yay!). Everything is spoken for, but it has been very satisfying to update my signature this morning and see the totals going down, even by a little! Have to remind myself this is a marathon not a sprint but its nice to see the savings going up and the debt going down for once in my life.

peb

It's frustrating on the dentist cost but it's necessary and you aren't going backwards.   You are doing incredibly well.

birdsfoottrefoil

You’re doing really well! It might be worth another go on the PIP, I think there’s some charities that can offer advice on applications. Good luck! 

Sarahwithlove

I agree might be worth trying the pip again. We have a guide for it at work, I'll see if I can find out where it's from. It details what's needed for the points etc. Sadly alot of it is about wording and it's also worth appealing if gets declined as 70%+ get it awarded at tribunal which is totally wrong in itself as it's very stressful process. 

hatch_five

Friday check-in. Very happy to get signed off and out of my probation period at work yesterday. My boss was very pleased with my work and gave me a glowing report which was very nice. I like my job and having gone back from managing a team of ten staff to just being one of the employees I am so much happier than I was. The pay is lower, but the stress is completely gone and I can just get one with my work at my own pace, giving me the mental ‘bandwidth’ back to deal with the family, enjoying my hobbies and trying to live a simpler cheaper life once I turn the laptop off at 4pm. I need to go into the office next week, which is a little trying as its two buses and a train to get there, but as I haven’t needed to go onto campus since July I really can’t complain!

I got really tempted by a black Friday email from one of the geek stores today for a 12” figurine that had been put down from £319 to £119, but I have resisted temptation- that’s my big monthly shop budget, I can’t afford it and I certainly don’t need it so after going back to the page three times I closed it down and walked away and didn’t put it on the credit card…yay me! One thing I did treat myself to yesterday was a proper cake carrying box to put the Christmas cake in when I’ve iced it- very sad I know but I am quite excited to finally have something other than the old Celebrations tubs! The cake will be too tall for them when its iced and I don’t want it to get smooshed before its even been cut!

We are off to a friend’s 40th birthday party tomorrow night, as we are all on a tight budget we are all bringing a contribution to the buffet so I need to make forty Eccles cakes tomorrow morning, but as they are incredibly simple it shouldn’t be too taxing. Rather more challenging is going under the eaves to get the Christmas decorations out so we can decorate on Sunday- there are half a dozen very heavy boxes of Canadian and Australian army kit in front of the doors into the eaves that I will have to bring down the ladder and put on our bed before I can even get to the decorations. Not my favourite job but at least its only a couple of times a year they need shifting. Sunday will then be all about trimming up with the children, and depending how delicate I am after Saturday night, I might even treat myself to an afternoon tipple whilst I do it…Christmas and all that!

hatch_five

Very busy, but productive weekend. Saturday morning was in the kitchen. Made the Eccles cakes for the party and having found some rather old and freezer burnt mince in the back of the freezer, I made some pasties for my lunch this week. Went to make some cakes for the family for after tea though and found I only had about 2oz of sugar left. As I didn’t want to go to the shop again for just sugar, I turned to Marguerite Patton’s Wartime cook book- this is always great when you are short of sugar, margarine or eggs because you can find a recipe that uses very little of each so I made an Orange Marmalade cake and some jam tarts with the left over pastry from the pasties.

Saturday afternoon I dragged out the Christmas decorations from the loft which was not much fun, but I did find out OH’s big spell book and tarot cards we packed away before DD (now 9) was born that my wife wanted me to get her out, so I earnt some brownie points with that one! Saturday night was the party and great fun- me and DD danced the night away although my feet were killing me the next day. OH and DS don’t like dancing, but we did get them up for a few! There was far too much food, so we all brought a tray of left overs home and that was lunch yesterday!

Yesterday we decorated the house for Christmas. OH wouldn’t let anyone help her with the tree as it has to be perfect, but DD helped me decorate the tree in my office which she loved and I did all the other decorations- the house looks like the Christmas aisle at Poundland threw up on it, but that’s how I like it (Christmas should be a bit OTT and tacky in my book). Nipped out to the shops in the village and picked up seven cans of jackfruit at 10p a can (down from £1.80). I have never cooked with jackfruit before, so any advice would be good. I am assuming I just drain and chuck in curries etc. instead of meat? I’m not about to go vegetarian, but at that price I am more than happy to give it a go!

hatch_five

End of the week check in and my usual ramble. Went into the office yesterday for the first time since July as I had to make a presentation in person. Everything was fine until time to come home when the rain was biblical. The bus shelter next to campus is open on the road side and the road was partially flooded so I had a choice of standing outside and getting soaked or standing in the shelter and getting soaked by the passing cars throwing water at me! Luckily the bus was only ten minutes late and all my other connections worked perfectly so I was home in an hour and a half, but I got the stove lit and then straight into my PJs to try and dry out a bit!

I am planning a stay-at-home weekend as the weather looks awful. OH is taking DD to the cinema to have a Mummy-Daughter day and watch Moana 2, so my plan tomorrow afternoon is to put on ‘White Christmas’ and get a load of presents wrapped. Also want to get my cakes marzipaned and I need to make a big meringue for a pavlova. I managed to break the drawer front off one of the drawers in the divan bed in our room, so I really need to get that repaired, but as the workshop is full of the Christmas decorations boxes, I need a dry day so I can spread out in the back yard- think that job will have to wait!

Found out from work that we will get paid on the 20th this month rather than the 28th. That is great for Christmas, but I have had to do some very careful budgeting to make everything work as it means January will be super long! It will be effectively be 5 ½ weeks between paydays. My mum’s birthday is in January and I always end up rushing to find a present after Christmas with no money left. This year I have been uber organised and already bought the present in December, and budgeted in the transport needed to get us all over to their house for the Birthday celebrations in January. Part of me feels very proud to be this organised, the other part of me is depressed to see all my wage allocated to things two weeks before its even arrived. Trying not to feel too church-mousey though and focussing on the fact I finally have control of my spending and I have a lot of fun (free) things line up to do over the next few weeks- DD is playing Mary in the Cubs Christmas concert this week which she is very proud of and I wouldn't miss for the world. DS has grunted and said he wants to stay at home and play on the Switch rather than watch his sister...