Washing Away My Mortgage & Debt by 2035

MFWannabe

I was just about to reply to your previous post from yesterday to say doesn’t sound like relationship is working and then have just read your latest update 
Could you just cancel his part of the holiday? Rather than still having to pay it and trying to get someone else to go? 

Squirrelz92

MFWannabe said:

I was just about to reply to your previous post from yesterday to say doesn’t sound like relationship is working and then have just read your latest upda
Could you just cancel his part of the holiday? Rather than still having to pay it and trying to get someone else to go? 

I have never done this before but presumed that once you booked a trip for X amount of people, you have to cough up regardless of how many end up going in the end. I will ring them today and explain. Perhaps they can do something about it. Would be great if they could!

MFWannabe

Squirrelz92 said:

MFWannabe said:

I was just about to reply to your previous post from yesterday to say doesn’t sound like relationship is working and then have just read your latest upda
Could you just cancel his part of the holiday? Rather than still having to pay it and trying to get someone else to go? 

I have never done this before but presumed that once you booked a trip for X amount of people, you have to cough up regardless of how many end up going in the end. I will ring them today and explain. Perhaps they can do something about it. Would be great if they could!

Always worth an ask x 

Squirrelz92

Well what a pleasant surprise to wake up to this morning. Snow! So much snow! Its not very often we receive such fabulous alternatives to rain and more rain here in the North West 😂 Jumped straight out of bed, layered up and took the pooches for their early morning walk. Clocked in just under 3 miles at our local dog walking park and the boys had a blast! Wanted to get out and early the peace and quiet of it all before the neighbourhood children emerged to enjoy the sledging and snowman building.

Felt extra empowered today after returning home so managed to get my shopping list done before heading to A@da for 10.30am. Spent a bit more than I do on a standard weekly shop but I needed to restock with certain baking items for the kids to use. Picked up a few ad hoc items such as a lunchbox, a small tupperware set and some wax melts for the kitchen Not very often I venture out buying things other than food at the weekly shop so I thought I would be naughty and live a little 😂 

My daughter made her batch of chocolate chip cookies from scratch whilst her brother made his batch of brownies. I am not a fan of the packet mixes and its good to get the kids thinking for themselves and reading/paying attention to instructions on the recipes. These will serve as their 'treat' in their lunch box as I have decided to try and aid the household into eating cleaner this year. Cleaner as in less additives/preservatives etc. More fresh food! Also would like to lose a few pounds of chubbiness this year. Nothing extravagant ... perhaps 14lbs? The twice daily dog walks gave me a kick start late last year so it would be nice to fuel the very small fire by choosing to eat a bit better. Already made my lunch for the office tomorrow consisting of ready-oats with a tsp of choc spread, portion of homemade stew, apples with peanut butter, fat free greek yoghurt with some honey and 2 hard boiled eggs. More than likely wont eat it all but rather have healthier options instead of toddling off to Greggs in the morning for sausage roll!

Ended up going through a mad cleaning surge this afternoon after my ex came for the last of his things (chest of drawers and the tv from the bedroom). Decided to hoover and wipe down the skirtings to move my own chest of drawers in its place, then ended up doing the rest of the skirtings, hoovered some cob webs and then went mad on tackling my window! Got the toothbrush out with some Pink Stuff and scrubbed away! Looks beautiful now. So pleased I did it Another load of washing done, kitchen cleaned, every room hoovered and dry washing folded and put away. 

Have £75 sitting in my Tesco CC space on my online banking ready for the first payment, I am just not sure when it is due ... might have to wait a full month for the statement to release for it to tell me what my minimum payment is and when it will come out via DD. If this isnt due until the beginning of next month then I will put this to the mortgage overpayments too. Every little helps!

Right, off to get into my jimmie-jams, make a hot chocolate and get some more studying underway.

Squirrelz92

First day back in the office after working from home over the holidays and what a lovely feeling it is to crank that heating up to full blast and not have to pay a penny of it 😂 With me completing month end whilst everyone else was off over New Year I had a fairly relaxing day. Plenty of catch ups with those that I share the office with. There is only 6 of us in total so its a nice setting where we all get along great which is always a bonus when having to spend 40 hours a week there!

No movement on the disposable income front. Have pushed back a £20 delivery of senior max strength joint tablets for my eldest dog as I still have 3/4 of the last tub left. Next delivery shall be 4th Feb so that pushes that spend into my next monthly budget.

Eldest squirrel had his football training session this evening. I had great pleasure in staying in the car where its warm! Managed to get 12,000 steps in too from my twice daily dog walks and have also done well on eating clean today. Porridge, 2 boiled eggs, korma for tea and 2 fancy chocolate soft gingerbread men for a treat

Squirrelz92

Another work day done and dusted. More budget requests coming through thick and fast so these have kept me busy for the day. Hit 12,589 steps from our morning and evening dog walks Stayed on track with food again today! Leftover stew for lunch, apples and peanut butter plus fat free greek yoghurt with some honey for a snack. No tea for me today as I had lunch late and I am still full. No point in eating when I'm not hungry. I did however give in to the factory manager trialling out his new shiny toy; the air fryer in the office. He made me a bacon sandwich for brekkie at 9am of which I could not refuse!

Had another joiner round to quote me again for the skirtings, replacement of folding doors and the architrave in the kitchen. Waiting for this quote plus another before I make a decision. 

Felt weird last night not being able to turn on the TV in the bedroom to watch an episode of my programme before bed. Used my laptop but it strained my eyes so I shall have to retreat to the living room from now on to watch it on there. I think I switched the HDMI cables so the one currently plugged into the TV doesn't work ... I shall have to steal the working cable from my office! How inconvenient. 

NSD again today. Waiting on my Vanguard S&S ISA to hit my current account. Decided to use this money for further reno work and to up my EF. Its not a lot, only £2,800 give or take, £1,400 is money I have been saving for the kids once they turn 17 to help with their driving lessons etc so that will stay in the EF earning interest on top of my own EF balance. 

Off to study (almost completed the syllabus) and then to snuggle in my electric blanket to continue my series on Netflix.

Squirrelz92

A rather expensive few days £110 for an electrician to come and replace a plug socket, supply and fit a new outdoor flood light due to my old one not having worked since the summer, and to replace my pull cord bathroom light. We have been bathing in darkness for almost a month 😂 My daughter needed a new school coat (£30) and two new fitted sheets with the ones we have left almost unusable. I hung on as long as I could!

My daughters first gymnastic competition invitation of the year was sent via email and if I booked within 48 hours I would receive 20% discount. There's another £32. Dogs require their monthly food supply so I shall trot off to PAH after gymnastic drop off at 2pm to purchase (£56). Also require a bulk bag of shavings for the rats (£10) so will stop by there to collect on the way home. An exhausting 2 days of money simply disappearing even though I can justify it all Hurts to see my bank balance go from half decent to practically non existent. Pay day seems so far away right now. I will still be able to overpay my mortgage by the target amount of £333, I just may not have as much left over as I had planned to for some reno work.

Have just accepted a quote for the remaining kitchen work to be done being the skirtings, architraves and new glazed doors to the back room so hopefully this work can be done in the next few weeks. After that I need to find myself some good paint to go over the 1 coat of standard white. Can't stand to look at it anymore as it has mud and food splatters in places from the dogs and kids. Lovely contribution.

Have seen a fair few vids on TikTok recently about DIY'ing and I think I am going to give some little bits a go this year. The only other main thing I want to do is get some raised beds in the back garden. I had so many beautiful flowers on my border seperating the patio from the grass and with all the rain it has completely wiped out and drowned them all. Very upsettting as so much love and attention went into those. With my garden being clay based, the water just sits and floods. I don't think I could afford for someone to come in and dig it all up again just to save it turning into a swamp over winter. Have thought about some more trees that love soaking water up, but I think I am picturing their efforts entirely differently to what will actually happen, which will be nothing 😂

I booked another holiday for May 2026 to Turkey, just me and the kids. £2,200 5* all inclusive with daily ocean water sports included! Booked it 3 days before they break up from school so I don't have to pay the fine 😂 Turns out if I had booked to fly a day later being the Thursday, another £1,500 would have been added to that cost! Its utterly ridiculous and an outrage! Shall be doing this from now on I think!

MFWannabe

Did you manage to amend this years holiday? 

Squirrelz92

MFWannabe said:

Did you manage to amend this years holiday? 

I rang them and they said it would cost £200 to remove a person and then on top of that they would have to recalculate the whole holiday based on 3 people instead of 4. Didnt want to take the chance of it costing the same or more so ploughed on ahead with asking my Mum to go. She has agreed and has sent me across £1,000 as a contribution. I didn't want her to have to foot the whole amount as its my issue and its not fair on her. So this years holiday is now sorted minus the airport parking, travel insurance and spending money

MFWannabe

Makes sense 
Need to get travel insurance as soon as you book though 🤔