The ups, downs, and occasional sideways bits of trying to be mortgage free

armchairexpert · 20 February 2017 at 10:01AM

Do you know, he did! They spent four hours at his office, colouring in and doing crosswords, with hardly a murmur of complaint. I am both very impressed and very envious. I can only imagine the reception I'd get if I told them they were to sit and colour in for four hours while I worked!

Even better, I took them out to buy birthday presents for a friend later and while we went a little bit over budget because I forgot we also had no cards or wrapping paper in stock, we did manage to avoid our usual temptation of going to a cafe for afternoon tea afterwards and wandering out $25 lighter.

I just discovered that in YNAB, you can collapse the categories or expand them. Which means I can collapse the 'mandatory' category - bills with a set amount to be paid, nothing I can do about them - and see at a glance how much I have left for the 'soft' costs - groceries, clothes, extra curriculars, spending money. What a revelation!

armchairexpert · 22 February 2017 at 12:42AM

So here's a thing. I've never been a big spender on clothes. I buy cheap basics and try and hit thrift shops when I can manage it. But yesterday I walked into a high end fashion store and tried on a jumpsuit and it is $330 and I adore it more than anything I've ever worn.

For reference, I think with the exception of my wedding dress, my most expensive clothing purchase ever would be around the $150 mark, for a special occasion. This is NUTS. But I love it. Am I just pushing back against budgeting, do we think? I did, late last year, swear to stop buying cheap crap and start trying to buy occasional investment pieces and decent brands instead. But $330. But it's gorgeous. But I never spend that on clothes, ever.

Anyway, the answer to Should I Buy It is: do I have things in the house I can sell to make up the cost, and if so, yes. But I'm interested that I've got this impulse at all! Normally, high end stores are super safe for me to step into because the prices are so far outside my comfort zone that they're not really tempting. Like looking in a jeweler's window.

(It's really gorgeous)

In other news, DH divided the chicken I bought on the weekend into 2 and not 3 portions so there is none left for the fajitas I had planned to make, meaning a last minute top up shop yesterday, and today a friend invited us out for an afternoon picnic tomorrow, which means another top up shop, I think I'm going to end up over budget on the groceries, and I gave myself a super generous budget, so that's quite startling!

iquit · 22 February 2017 at 11:22AM

I am a jumpsuit junkie, own about 6

. I usually buy them on sale. The sudden urge to splash out may be a little bit of a rebellion against your new financial targets. I get that way on occasion and have to pull back from the edge. Not always successful. A trick I try is give it a week, if I still want the item I then try to cut back in other areas to be able to afford it.

armchairexpert · 23 February 2017 at 12:38AM

Thanks, yes, I think that's the trick.

In the meantime we're inching towards the end of the month, and:

Wow I spend a lot on groceries! I have been pretty disciplined about not picking up snacks, sticking to a meal plan and if I need milk, only buying milk or whatever. But I'm going to have to be careful this week to come in at an average of $300/week. I can cut back further by bulking things out with lentils and whatever, but I was hoping not to have to get to that point so I'll tackle other things first.

Average Australian family with kids the age of mine spend less than we do at $260, but I am wondering if that takes into account the fact that none of us buy lunch out during the week, get takeaway, etc. Or maybe I'm more crap at this than I thought!

Nothing else to report, really. Going out for a picnic in the park with friends tonight, so I have bought an oven pizza to make ahead of time and bring with us and it's a nice cheap way to socialise. This month was always going to be tight because there were some quarterly and annual costs that I hadn't saved up for, and decided to pay in one go (like $800 in annual school fees), so next month I'll start throwing the excess at the mortgage.

Moneyfordreams · 23 February 2017 at 7:14AM

At least your conscious of what you are spending.
I love nice clothes but live in jeggings or a uniform. Will you wear the jumpsuit often , then buy it

its the day to day discipline that can get monotonous without the occasional treat.

I'm reading your diary in an Australian accent.

armchairexpert · 24 February 2017 at 1:24AM

Ha! I'm actually an English expat, so you'll have to read it in a complicated hybrid accent really.

Took Older Cat to the vet today for yearly vax - $115! And the school's having its annual fundraising event, it's the can't-miss thing of the year, that was another $71. Next month had better be cheaper than this: i have moved every last cent out of the rainy day funds just to break even this month, because of so many upfront costs. School alone has cost me $1K, but then that's mainly it for the year.

Had strata meeting the other day, I'm up for an immediate $500 for a building report and there is a good chance that we'll need expensive underpinning work under the entire unit block within the next year, which may well run into the thousands per tenant. It would be so much cheaper to have my Mum live with us, but we'll all hate sharing the space. If I can hang onto the unit, one day it'll make a good little launching pad for the DDs as they go off to work or university. But it's making things super tight right now!

armchairexpert · 25 February 2017 at 6:15AM

Final weekly grocery shop done for the month, with a luxurious $44 left in the budget - except that I didn't pick up anything for our dinner. Our thing is to give the kids a separate dinner on Saturday nights and then have an adult dinner which is something they won't eat: vindaloo, or whole fish, or something. So I sent DH out to buy the ingredients for that since he cooks it, and if anyone can spend $44 on dinner for 2 people it's him. We might be limping to the finish line here! :rotfl:

Apart from that, having a nice MSE weekend. Took DD1 out for a jog/walk/chat this morning, always nice to hear the thoughts of an 8 y/o. Washing flapping in the breeze. Almost finished my baby-chicken brooder, just in time for next month's discretionary spends to go chicken shopping!

armchairexpert · 26 February 2017 at 1:20PM

This weekend I stayed home except for the grocery shop, made progress on my chicken maternity ward and this evening I cooked a pineapple cake, pizza for the DDs school lunch (it should do two days each), pea and ham soup in the slow cooker and saut!ed a couple of bunches of spinach ready to be made into spanakopita tomorrow.

Would have been a NSD except my sweet mum took DD2 out for an amazing day and I gave her some money towards the costs since she's far more skint than I am.

Bit knackered now. Also feeling a bit discouraged about the maternity coop - I thought I'd finish it today but I think it needs more work and it's all a bit of a slog for what is supposed to be just a temporary/occasional second coop. But I did get to practise with the power drill and the jigsaw which will come in handy come the apocalypse :eek::rotfl:

armchairexpert · 28 February 2017 at 1:52AM

Well, it's the last day of the month, and I'm just waiting for the mortgage payments to come out so I can wrap things up. Because that's the kind of dare devil excitement I live for.

I didn't start my budget on the first day of the month, so there were some monthly charges that had already come out. But on the whole I think we've done really well! We had some huge annual costs come out this month, along with several quarterly bills and two months' worth of mobile phone costs (it costs us $150/month, would you believe it? And neither of us have huge data plans, nor very new phones: we both have an iPhone 5c, and mine keeps freezing and shutting down and the battery's conking out) because DH forgot to pay the previous month.

Normally I'd react to that by just going "oh well, next month will be cheaper and it'll all even out" but I decided to try and end the month on a zero balance instead of borrowing from the month ahead. And we did it! I had to wipe out any savings goals for this month, but we kept the discretionary spends to an absolute minimum, spent a lot of time in the garden for free, and I'm really pleased.

Now to budget for next month!:T

-taff · 28 February 2017 at 5:16AM

Well done. That was pretty much your introductory plan to saving and not spending because you'll probably find so many of us decide to save/pay off mortgage/ bills etc, and that;s the month where everything goes pear shaped...
It does however give you the urge to do better next month and so on...My biggest failing as far as spending money used to go, was saving the odd £1.50 on something and feeling great I'd saved there, while simultaneously spending £20 on something that was either unnecessasry or would become so, or I'd waste it, but never counting that £20 as money down because I'd saved £1.50!!

I've got YNAB now and that has really been good for me to see where I'm spending, and I'm not wasting money now. I don't go to the supermarket or go shopping just to buy the odd thing and come out with fifty pounds of food I don't need.
And I've just changed job again, so now I/we [ being as he says he wants to learn to cook] can meal plan because myself and the other one will be working more or less the same hours....
I used to have access to a massive garden to grow in, I made raised beds etc, weeded it to an inch of it's life, and now I have one that's full of horsetail, it's ineradicable, so now I need a rethink on how to keep it down....
I rambled too, good luck next month...

The ups, downs, and occasional sideways bits of trying to be mortgage free

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free