Back down to earth

Well after the buzz of reaching my mortgage goal yesterday it's back to normal here. I'm ready to move on to the next goal and get rid of the next $10k from the mortgage and I don't want to wait. I want it and I want it now! Patience is not one of my stronger virtues.

As a reward for the boys for reaching this goal tonight I told them I would let them have tuck shop again on Friday. They are usually allowed it once each term and this term they had it last week. Man were they shocked when I said they could have it again.

Mr8 announced at the dinner table tonight that after our holiday in Queensland he will be saving for his own laptop. This does not surprise me at all but it does make me remember the days when only the very very wealthy had computers. Now 8 year olds have them. At primary school I do not remember anything about computers. At the end of high school I remember having a computer suite with maybe 15 computers for the entire school to share. Nowadays they have so many more. Mr8's class alone has 4 mini laptops and 2 desktops. Mr6's class has 3 mini laptops and both classrooms have access to enough computers for each child to use one. When did that happen?

Then after he has saved for that he's saving for a trip to Paris! It's great he has goals but I think it's about time I taught that lad about short term savings as well as whoppa goals. I'd better start saving too - he's not going to be old enough to go by himself!

One huge step closer to debt free

YIPPEE WE DID IT :)

Today we took a giant step closer to becoming debt free. We have officially kicked the $150k mortgage balance to the kerb and by the end of the month should hopefully be just under $149k.

Two years and 51 weeks ago I moved into the first house I have ever brought by myself. A huge mortgage for a single parent of $190k and interest rates of fixed 9.1% and floating 10.49% and to tell the truth I was terrified I had overextended us.

Logically I knew I hadn't because the banks had offered me almost $50k more than I choose to spend but to me it was huge - the biggest mortgage I had ever had and only me to pay it. And it's that little ME word that was where I hung my worries. But it was also the one word that was to my advantage. By only being me it meant we were totally on board and there was nobody to sabotage my plan.

Originally my plan was not 10 years to debt free. I would have been happy with anything less than the standard 25 year plan but the bigger picture involved debt free by the time my oldest boy finished high school. That's around 13 years from when I brought.

Then along came Simple Savings and a woman who goes by the name $and sense Kate. Kate has taught me more about paying off my mortgage than anybody I know. Many others on the site have taught me about frugal and sustainable lifestyles as a choice and lastly there is my own personal support team on the Recession Challenge Thread. To these ladies I say Thank You very very much. Without you all I may not have stuck with it this far.

This site alone has been at the base of my challenge along with my determination to not be like everybody else. I do not want to be facing retirement with a mortgage still hanging around my neck. I want to have 10-15 years mortgage free so I can save to my hearts content and also I can chose how much I work and until what age. I want that to be my choice and being debt free can do that for me.

So now it's on to the next challenge. At this stage I am going to set 4 month goals. That's until work is sold and I know what is happening with my job. So from now until the end of the year I am aiming for reducing the mortgage to $145k as well as funding the rest of my back yard renovations. Easy peasy maybe?

Um I was wrong and it's not spring

Okay so I definately got the whole spring thing wrong. It's not so much that today has been cold and wet more grey and uninspiring. One of those days that it's very hard to find any enthusiasm.

That said after a very interrupted morning at work I did manage to get quite a lot of engraving done. That's great as there is a lot to be done in the next few weeks. It's peak engraving season and everybody wants their stuff NOW!

I cannot wait for today to be over though. Lol tomorrow is family assistance day and I will be up early to do the banking. Once the funds are transferred I will hit under $150k for the first time :O) and even when interest is added at the end of the month the standard repayment should see me around $149k. Not bad work for a single parent on a fixed income.

I have kind of become obsessed with this point of debt and it's time to really set myself a plan for the next 12 months. I'm finding that really difficult though as I don't know how long I will have my job for. It's easy to say I want to pay X/month for the next 12 months aiming for a final balance of X but that goal will only stay relevant if I am employed. I guess I might have to start making monthly goals for a while with them working towards a years goal. That way if I don't finish the whole 12 months I haven't failed. I don't like failure.

Could it be spring?

Today the sunshine broke thru the clouds and gave us a beautiful day. The neighbourhood was filled with noises of lawn mowers humming, washing lines everywhere filled with laundry, people out for walks and generally a great mood uplifting day.

I had planned a totally lazy day but even I cannot be that slack on the rare winters day that spills with sunshine so out to the garden I went (after a jolly pleasant sleep in and an hour reading in bed). Managed to chop up more green waste for the work bins and filled my bin as well. The chickens were allowed the whole day out of their run and spent their time pecking and exploring in the back yard.

Mentally I planned out how things will look and where things will go when the two new raised gardens are built this coming week. I cannot wait to get started on them. Hopefully they will be done tomorrow or Tuesday weather permitting or else they have to wait another week. I really want them done this week as it's my week to have Friday off work and if the weather obliges I plan on getting compost on Thursday afternoon. I want to get half of it unloaded on Thursday afternoon even if it means fish n chips for dinner and then there will be less to do on Friday morning.

Mr8 has been happily planting seeds to transplant when they have grown enough and I have been busy reading about which plants to sow when and what grows well next to what. Between the two of us we are mucking along quite nicely and I am taking notes of what we are doing and when so at the end of the growing season we can look back and figure out what worked well and what might need some changes.

And on the money saving front there is a new blue star on my calendar under today's date. A blue star means I have spent no money at all today - it's blue because that's my favourite colour. Days with a gold star are the ones where any spending has been essential only. No star means unnecessary spending :(

It wasn't much but

My house is empty and when the lads aren't here it doesn't feel quite as much like home. Don't get me wrong the peace and quiet is a very pleasant change of pace but the silence like this at bedtime is something I have never gotten used to.

It's funny how I crave for the silence and then when I get it it feels wrong. Knowing I will get a good nights sleep however never feels wrong.

I had a busy morning at work this morning and managed to achieve quite a lot which should put me in a good place for the coming week. This afternoon the lads and I wandered down to the supermarket to get our groceries. Lol only needed to take one reusable shopping bag as there was very little on the list.

Broccoli, bananas, another type of fruit and bread was all we had to get to see us through the week after last weeks big shop. The bread however was our little treat and boy did we enjoy it. I could hardly contain the lads from racing off to the bakery department to see what the taste samples were. 2 of the specialty breads to choose from - garlic and pizza. We all voted for the pizza sample and it was fantastic. Would you believe it - if we waited about 5-10 minutes they would have more straight from the oven and we could purchase one of those. We love getting one of these freshly baked loaves as our weekend lunch treat. At $3.99 a loaf they are certainly not cheap but boy are they worth every cent and this loaf was no exception.

In fact if anything it was better than any loaf we have had as it was so hot and fresh I could hardly hold the paper bag. Quickly we raced off to the checkout and out the doors. Lol we hadn't even made it out to the car park before we were devouring the bread. Boys were on their scooters but they weren't going to let that stop them from enjoying something so yummy. So they managed to scoot one handed and eat with their free hand. By the time we got home all we had left was one tiny piece each and big grins about how fast we had scoffed that loaf.

So while it was only a loaf of bread, something many take for granted for us that loaf symbolised a week of a job well done and a fantastic reward for budgeting so well. I love it when it is the little things in life that are the best :)

Holiday saving

Today the boys holiday savings has had a huge boost. Being Friday it's pocket money day which means they add 50 cents to their Australia pigs and on top of that they had their share of this weeks eggs sales. Today they each had $2.50 worth of egg money and $1 each from putting stickers on bases for me at work. I was very proud when they both popped all that in their pigs rather than their spending. All they need is another $85 to cover the rental car which is their contribution to the holiday and then they will be saving spending money from that total until holiday time. They will each colour in additional bricks on the savings thermometer and will no doubt do their little "happy dance" as they realise they are getting closer to the top.

My holiday savings are coming along slowly but surely and I am well on track for Feb 26th. So far I have almost $3000 saved which has covered airfares, accomodation and some of our spending money. Not bad considering my main savings goal is the mortgage.

And the mortgage is only days away from going under $150k which is very exciting. You could say I am obsessed with this and at the moment even more so than usual. This goal represents a huge amount of progress for me - and I cannot wait!

Mummy I am sick too........................

That's how Mr6 started and spent most of his morning before school today. Mr8 has a rotten cold and after a rough night and ending up in my bed at 4am I decided there would be no school for him today. Well Mr6 seemed to think it was only fair that he had a day off too but I planned on getting into work for a bit and wasn't planning on taking both boys with me.

The first and by far the funniest excuse was "Mummy my tummy is all pushed in" hmmm maybe some breakfast will help it poke out again. Then every time Mr8 coughed or spluttered he did his best fake cough in hope that would work. Lol even shed some tears and then complained his eyes were watering. Eventually I spat the dummy at him and said no time off school unless he vomited or had problems at the other end. Next thing he raced to the bathroom making retching noises. Short sharp shift out to the car and to school followed that performance.

Luckily his teacher is a Mum of 3 and has seen every trick in the book and after a quick whisper in her ear all was sorted. Not surprising I had no phone calls from school for him all day.

Managed to work for 3 hours and even employed some slave labour - Mr8 earned himself $2 for his Australia fund and made my day tomorrow a little easier :) Then a nice quiet relaxing afternoon with dvds. Going to aim for an early night tonight just in case it is disrupted again.