£161,044.25 reasons to be mortgage free

wantabetterlife

Thanks CathT...yeah I am still finding it difficult getting over xmas to be honest...lesson learned...next year will definitely be sticking to a budget.
Pay day today!! feels great to have money in the account as I had the grand sum of 96p in there yesterday:eek:
I have went back to keeping a spending diary because I honestly cannot tell you where the money goes...it is the only thing that keeps me on track and makes me super aware of my spending.
This month I want to try and get a lump paid off the holiday and get the kids passports sorted so I feel a bit more in control.
We haven't had a takeaway in about three weeks which is an absolute record for us, as we had fell back into the Chinese every Friday night habit!
Mortgage goes out on the 28th so that will be another few hundred knocked off capital and there will also be £160 coming off the BTL...after almost ten years on interest only it really feels good to be paying something off it.
Hope everyone else is winning the battle with the mortgage.

wantabetterlife

Another mortgage payment has cleared and another month closer to freedom:j:j
Balance now stands at £124,369. Next month we will be in the 123's

wantabetterlife

Has any one here ever used the Dave Ramsey zero based budgeting technique that involves envelopes? I am watching a lot of his stuff on you tube at the minute and it makes so much sense!
I have never really had a budget but would really like to give this a go..the trouble is I am not very good at planning my finances. Theoretically we should have quite a bit of money left over at the end of the month..but we never do!
The idea with this budget is that you give every pound a job and when the envelope for say "entertainment" is empty, thats it...you have no more money to spend in that area until next month when you fill that envelope again. I have my husbands head literally melted talking about envelopes
Free listing on ebay this weekend..will I or wont I???

Brodiebobs

Haven't seen the dave ramsey method but i have cash out for food, petrol and 'spends' and we make do. Occasionally end up drawing out more, but in general it has reduced our outgoings loads, especially food shopping.

Hurdler

I don't use envelopes either but have accounts for weekly cash, entertainment, car fund and emergency - Martin's savings pots really but had those when I had to get myself out of financial grief many many moons ago - long before I came to MSE... I remember the days of not going out at the weekend if there was nothing in my Ents account. It was hard going but taught me a valuable lesson.

wantabetterlife

Thanks guys, BB glad to hear you have saved money by working with cash. Hurdler this is where I struggle now, having the discipline to stick to a budget for the long term gain. Pay day is the 27th so I will start our monthly budget from then...oh seems to be on board but that could change when he runs out of money. We have agreed that he will get £100 at the start of the month for golf and anything else like soccor that he goes to. It is up to him how he manages it...currently he takes money out when he needs it but I have explained to him that in order for this to work he has to be responsible for his own spends and not me..will keep you posted
On the plus side I have listed 15 things on ebay...think this is a record for me! Even have a bid on one already for £2.50

Muser1

We used to use envelopes but now we take out £140 per week and this covers Petrol, food and anything else we need eg playgroups, coffee out, wine, trips out etc.

Its amazing how much you make it stretch when it is actual cash. We are much stricter in the supermarket for instance because it has an impact on the rest of the week.

Muser.

wantabetterlife

So where are we? We are now in the 123's :j:j
The envelopes are going fairly well but still have a bit of work to do...it is so hard to get into the mind set of working with cash all the time, I am so used to just getting my debit card out!
I am now working three days a week instead of five and I love it but it means I definitely need to make the budgeting work for us.

gallygirl

Going great :T:T:T

Alchemilla

I really like Dave Ramsey (but not his politics).