A treehouse for the twins

EatingTheElephant · 25 February 2016 at 6:24AM

Hi Princess, you're making such great progress :j

I can have issues with certain types of food, I can eat a small amount of bread but any more than a couple slices a week and I feel rough. I have given up on gf bread as I thought it was all pretty terrible. I tend to eat weird combinations sometimes! For pasta I really like the raw courgette strips you can make with a veg peeler. I also love the banana pancakes. Whizz up 1 banana, 1 egg and then I tend to bake in the oven on grease proof paper rather than get in a mess with the frying pan

PrincessLou · 2 March 2016 at 10:24PM

Hi all,

Apologies for disappearing for over a week - things have been so up and down, the boys have got colds and I feel a little worn out

Still working on my MFW mini challenge number 2 - however, still £99 to go. Made an overpayment of £10.85 this morning thanks to an Ebay sale. Have got about 10 other items listed and am planning to list more thanks to an unlimited free listings in March offer.

In other news, we have managed to save £1000 this month. Feeling a bit :shocked: about that, as I have no idea where the extra has come from. Not complaining though.... :j

Almost hit my savings target for our easy access savings. After April I expect that the majority of money which would have been previously directed to savings will go to OPs.

Hope everyone has had a great day. I've been keeping up with diaries and everyone is doing an amazing job. :T

PrincessLou · 24 July 2016 at 4:36PM

So I'm back after almost five months of being away

:think::whistle:

To cut a long story short...2016 has, up until recently, been the worst year ever

A very, very much loved and close family member is fighting a terrible illness and to top it off, our beautiful DS1 was diagnosed with a lifelong condition.

At times like this, nothing seems to matter, particularly paying off the mortgage, but five months on we are coming out of beneath the rain cloud and loving life once again. :j

Our mortgage now stands at £114,344.13

Recently I have been dreaming of getting the mortgage down to £100,000. It just seems like a massive milestone to get the mortgage below six figures, but the first aim is to get below £110,000 (which will hopefully be by the end of the year!).

Our mortgage deal ends in September (I think!), so we need to get looking for a fantastic new deal. However, I'm still waiting for the letter from the bank to tell us our LTV as I have no idea what it will be.

Oh, it's so wonderful to be back - I've missed MSE (and you all) terribly

Let's get going!

A_Frayed_Knot · 25 July 2016 at 10:09PM

Welcome back, sorry to hear of your rain cloud, but good to hear your loving life again.

Nice to see you have a new target, getting below £110,000 by the end of the year

Best Wishes to you, your family and close family.

PrincessLou · 25 July 2016 at 10:24PM

I forgot to mention yesterday that we have now filled up our savings pots to where we want them to be for now. This means that any spare money from here on out is fair game. One last thing though - I must set aside some money to pay the first month of preschool fees in advance for my twins in September.

It's payday in around 10 days time and we haven't done too badly this month, despite having a large cc bill and a service and repair for DH's car. I expect (hope) to have around £100 left at the end of the pay cycle to send to OP.

I may have gone slightly crazy in an order from GAp this evening for the boys. They are just about to go up a size in clothing and they had 40% off and 7% cashback and it was too good to miss. Spent £120 but got around 15-20 items for that amount. Won't have to buy anything else now for them for a while apart from some new vests for the autumn.

:grinheart Things to be grateful for:

Enjoying relaxing time at home with the boys - we are officially on the six week countdown until preschool starts.

PrincessLou · 25 July 2016 at 10:27PM

Thanks AFK - feels great to be back

PrincessLou · 7 August 2016 at 8:18AM

Regular payment and OP of £83.11 to round the mortgage down to £114,000. Was ever so tempted to add an extra penny to get me into the 113s but resisted the urge

Really motivated to get to £110,000 (or under, of course!) by the end of the year.

Had mortgage paperwork through as fixed period is about to come to an end. So confused as to how to compare those with or without fees, etc. Thought I had found a 'true value mortgage' calculator online but after entering all the details, the site stopped working

Really keen to do some Ebaying but all of the seller offers seem to have stopped lately. Was listing lots of items a couple of months ago when there were big offers on reduction of final value fees etc. Not sure whether to get going on it regardless, as I have some good items put aside that should fetch a couple of hundred pounds for the OP pot.

:grinheart Things to be grateful for: A day out with DH in the city with NO CHILDREN

The first in many months, so a lovely treat :beer:

PrincessLou · 14 August 2016 at 9:29PM

Lovely weekend spent with both sides of the family :j

In OP news -

1. Sold a piece of recording equipment DH bought for a project a few months ago. Made a profit too and should have around £170 after fees.

2. Waiting for DH to transfer £50 out of topcashback too.

I'm currently sat with my feet up watching Location, location, location on catch-up. This, combined with browsing on rightmove at dreamy and completely unaffordable properties, really motivates me to keep OPing so we can move and get a treehouse in the garden one day.

A_Frayed_Knot · 17 August 2016 at 12:10AM

Nice profit - keep going.

I suppose I could list watching all the housey programmes as one of my "hobbies" along with a peek every now and then at rightmove - got a house for sale (part of) on there atm - one my DB bought at auction and I invested in.

PrincessLou · 18 August 2016 at 9:55PM

Yes, I do I love a good house buying programme. I'm a real homebody at heart, I love my home and pottering around in it (not that I get alot of pottering time with two three year olds around!), so where I live is really important to me. I'm not very materialistic when it comes to flashy things, but I do certainly dream of a beautiful (larger) home in the future.

Looks like a rainy weekend is approaching

but I shall use the time wisely and see if I can do some decluttering/ebaying. I've already made a list of potential items to list!

In terms of OPing and savings, I reached my savings goals a few months ago but I'm finding now that i'm just making excuses to hoard money

I get cross at myself because I have alot that could be transferred into OPs but I keep making up excuses to save just that little bit more....I need to stop it

On a side note - I found a fantastic 'piggy bank' app that allows me to track all of my savings in different categories e.g. holiday, nursery fees, etc, etc. It even has a wishlist function that allows me to list what I want to save for in the future. Hmmm....this could definitely be my OPing downfall.... :rotfl:

A treehouse for the twins

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