Wishing your life away?

whatyadoinsucka

Saver-Rob wrote: »

Yep! I work with people who have earnt a good wage for decades and who have spent most of it down the pub.

never understood that don't get me wrong i p1$$ed away my teens and 20s but for people to go to the same old pub with the same old faces for decades of a life is ridiculous..


my motto has always been to enjoy life..
holiday and travel wise i have done alot and those are my memories, all these people who must have a new car every 3 years its mad,
much rather overpay and keep my older car..

its amazing how many range rovers / bmws / mercs / audis you see at mcdonalds
20 years ago people with posh cars like that would never have considered eating at a mcDs far too lower class..

uzubairu

I find that making the money you earn work harder for you helps to maintain a balance, so that you don't feel like you have no life whilst you strive for mortgage freedom.

4 years ago, our monthly household outgoings excluding the mortgage and car insurance were an average of £1,150.

February 2011 and the monthly average is £800.
This includes £200 (SO) set aside in the holiday fund and £30 (SO) donated to a few charities (which wasn't included in the 2006/7 monthly budgets).
We still manage to eat out regularly, sometimes with a discount voucher attached.

We still get to have nice holidays (as cheaply as possible from our annual £2,400 budget):-
2009 - Egypt, New York, Florida and Yorkshire.
2010 - Egpyt, Portugal and San Francisco.
2011 - Yorkshire so far

I have found that using this site (MSE) has given me lots of info on getting the best for less and not wasting money.
The money saved becomes additional overpayments.

Since January 2009, we've reduced the mortgage by £39,000 and still enjoyed a decent standard of living.

Like whatyadoinsucka said, 'Being a dinky (double income no kids) you forget how easy life can be..' and we were previously guilty of spending money on c**p and being wasteful without realising it.

Last summer my OH was facing redundancy, and although there was cause for concern, there wasn't the mad panic about how would we cope on one income.
The revised budgets and healthy mortgage reduction meant that we could cope quite easily with just my income.
Fortunately, he has been able to secure a new position, so we have upped the overpayments a bit more whilst we still have the opprtunity to be able to do so.
Hoping to be free of the mortgage within the next 3 years.

My advice, is to get a balance and don't deny yourself the odd treat.

JournalGirl

We have the best of both worlds. With an offset mortgage from First Direct (i do love those guys), we massively overpay, but also have separate savings which are offset against the interest. If we want to slacken off for a purchase or a holiday, we dip into one of these, but overall we maintain the overpayments. I will be mf in less than 3 years now

juliebunny

Hello

What a nice and sensible thread this is!:T

I agree with the person who said she doesn't discuss OP with her real world friends as they look at you weird or think you must be mad/loaded! We have a bonus at work once a year - even the people here with massive mortgages are planning to spend it on holiday/ conservatory/car etc....they think I'm boring if I say I'm stacking it off my mortgage. I too was facing redundancy so it's been good to see how frugally I actually can live. Buying clothes and other items at the local car boot sale has been life changing - I'm much 'greener' - can discard things to the charity shop that I don't like without guilt (they were cheap and I'm recycling them on for a good cause) and I have masses of new clothes (often Next/Per Una etc) every year that are in brilliant condition but the seller obviously just got bored of!

I once read a book by Alvin Hall (picked up at the booty of course) - he suggested (he was talking about savings, but could just as well apply to OP)- don't wait until the end of the month to 'see what you have left' - just set up that Standing order, then forget about it and enjoy the rest of the money you have left. That has been my theory ever since.

I've got 2 mortgages, hoping to pay one off this year :T