I would like to welcome two new followers, Trudie and J Stevens. Thank you so much for following.
I can't promise you a fantastically exciting life or wonderful pictures of exotic places but I can show you our hopes and dreams, our journey to debt and eventually mortgage freedom. I will be sharing with you our day to day life, the things we do to save money, the food we cook, the reduction of our debts and the path we travel on to do all this.
The debts we have are from renovations to our house. We moved in a year and one month ago and set about improving and decorating. We did a lot, from new windows, new walls, removing the 70's crazy paved fireplace and installing a woodburner. Peeling off 4 layers of wallpaper, ripping up old carpet, replacing the whole central heating system. I could go on but you get the picture.
There are still things we need to do but for now, for my sanity and purse and just for a break to enjoy our house as it is we have stopped. There is nothing drastic that needs doing. Yes, it could do with a new kitchen, I'd like some long curtains in the lounge, the porch needs replacing, as does the fascia and guttering, the chimney stacks a bit wonky and the garden needs a bit of a rethink. But we have no more money and I need a break from house stuff.
I have gone through every part of our lives to see where we can cut down.
Food shopping-old ways £100 pw. New ways £50 pw
Eating out-takeaways at work £30 pw (for both of us) New ways £0
Meals out at restaurants £100 New ways £0 (we have had treats over the past 2 weeks holiday)
Hairdresser for me £80 every other month =£480 a year. New ways £0
I wanted my hair to grow anyway and have just used the occasional home dye kit.
The gas bill remains to be seen as we have really cut back on heating. We use our log burner whenever we can and turn the gas off. It does heat the water so we try to shower instead of baths.
I used to holiday upto 3-4 times a year. We haven't been since 2012 and we won't go until at least 2014, if we can afford it. I do miss a proper bit of sunshine and heat.
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| Before we moved in |
This was the crazy paved fireplace that we photographed on a viewing. We were pleased to find a real fireplace behind that electric fire.
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| After |
We will pay these debts off, it will be hard sometimes, We will feel frustrated and cross, hard up, poor and cheesed off but we WILL get there we WIlL be debt free and hopefully you will watch our
journey as we travel it.
Drop in, say hi and let me know how you are doing.
Much love
S. x
Thanks for the welcome - after 36 of either paying a mortgage or owning outright - believe me - no home is ever completely finished - theres always something else that could be or needs to be worked on - you've done such a lot in such a short space of time well done and dont worry the rest of it will wait till you're ready to do a bit more xx
ReplyDeleteHi Trudie,
DeleteIt's like a constant money pit. Aaaaagggghhhh!
I worry that by the time we've done it all it will need doing again. Thanks for following and commenting.
Meant 36 years!
ReplyDeleteHi, I am like you have been spending around £100 a week on groceries, but mine too is also gonna halve, so will be interesting and hard work for us both, good luck x
ReplyDeleteHi there,
DeleteOh I could spend more especially if I'm hungry! I now go to Lidl as its so much cheaper. I don't care if people think they're not so good, they are fine for us. What are you changing to cut your shopping bill down? Let me know, we can spur each other on.
Well at the moment my freezer is packed, so I could live a month and just by fresh bread, milk, fruit, veg etc, I am hoping to try and get as many yellow sticker products as possible and do some batch cooking, also get some more approved foods in.
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly the same as ours although I do have a lot of dried foods from AF, especially cous cous. Seemed like a good idea at the time!
DeleteI feel your pain re the renovations. We've been in our house for 23 months and we're on the last 'room' - the hall and stairs.Apart from the death trap electrics, some roof repairs and replacing the unsafe front door, the leaking gutters and rotten fascias we've done everything else ourselves. Hubby has just handmade all the new spindles for our staircase as we couldn't buy them to fit ( it's a 1950s custom built staircase up to an attic room). As Trudie says, a house is never really ' finished' ( we were in our last one for 19 years, and the first one for 8). We would like some new windows, but they will have to be saved long and hard for , so once the hallway is done I'm counting it as finished - at least for a while!
ReplyDeleteOh Scarlet, it's just ongoing. I can't see an end to it and I really would like a holiday next year. I think we are just going to have a break this year and just potter in the garden. It all looks better in the summer doesn't it?
DeleteI've just got home from hospital and catching up on blogs so apologies for the many rambling comments!
ReplyDeleteI think you should put more before and after photos on here!
I constantly go over Scarlet's pictures looking at them and getting ideas for renovations. As the other ladies have said, it's never really done. We've just had our spindles hand made by my lovely cousin as they were a strange size and sadly I can't stop looking at them!
Time for more drugs and bed and to stop rambling on your blog!! :-)
Oh don't worry, ramble away, it's fine. I didn't want to keep going on about my house but we have got loads of pics. I hope you are ok? Drugs and bed, you sound like a rock chick!
DeleteMuch love
S. x