Hello Dear Reader,
Today, the last phase of double glazing was installed. In all, it's been a major expense and we have other major expenses to cope with this year and next. I tackle major purchases in the way I tackled debt; in manageable chunks. Some people would have taken a slower approach but if I have to do something I don't want to do, and let's face it, no one wants to be without any spare money for months on end..........then I like to get it over and done with. It's why I don't borrow money anymore, I can afford to fix up our home but I won't be able to afford anything else whilst I do it. It was like that when we were paying off debt, we could afford to pay off our debt but we certainly couldn't afford to pay off anything else.
Dearly Beloved and I have been together since 1996 and we have been without money more often than we have had any more that just to survive. We had to save to buy the children's clothes, we had to save and go without to pay for their school trips and certainly had to save and go without to buy they Christmas and birthday presents. Going without for periods of our life is just what we are used to.
It didn't kill us then and it isn't going to kill us now.
We decided to replace the rattling and warmth leaking single glazed original window and replace with double glazing. I know, not to everyone's taste but they keep noise out and the warmth in. As you can see, our new neighbours are really close, we're also a mid-terraced cottage so we have noise all around us. They have cost thousands and so we could spread the cost, we had some fitted in February, some in April and the last fitted today. That has meant that we could not spend a penny on anything else over the last few months which included not over paying the mortgage. Whilst the interest rates are at an all time low, it's been a nuisance not to have the money to do that but we will catch up over the next three months and bring the mortgage balance down.
Finances will continue to be a challenge and we'll have to watch every bill, every menu plan and every journey by car will have to come out of a very tight budget. So, how do we afford to budget for the major purchases? We go without to sacrifice to afford it. We are currently saving for a new boiler, new chimney and new wood burner so we'll be sacrificing for another year and one thing is for sure, it won't kill us.
Over to you, what's your philosophy on budgeting for the major purchases? How do you save?
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxxx