100 months to turn the money situation round

elantan

i have to admit we dont live by it yet .... and i dont actually know how we will manage to live by it ... but i think it will deff be the aim ....

i think our main problem is the 70% for the home life ... well our mortgage alone comes to 40% then we have contents insurance, gas, electricity, diesel, council tax, food, money for work etc etc ... so we arnt managing to pay the 20% to service our debts or save the 10% either .... but i think i am going to start on the 10% for ourselves and then slowly work down the amount that we pay for everything else so that we can get to 20% to pay off the debt till it is all done

but it is a very amazing book ... did alot of thinking about it last night... and gave it to our son today , i had told him about it and instantly he said i like this can i borrow it ... so i handed it over and he is off reading it just now ... thankfully he is wise when it comes to money ... well...wise in some ways not so wise in others lol ... he has no intention of ever paying into a pension as he plans on having property and shares eetc ... he also never plans on having a mortgage ... he wants to buy a piece of land and build a sustainable house on it ( earthship type thingy) grow his own produce and have his own animals for slaughter ... i hope he gets it and i know if he carries on the way he is he will do so no problemo

se999

El - Not sure how much experience your son has in the self-build/smallholding field, has he heard of WWOOF - it could be a way to gain more experience http://www.wwoof.org.uk/ I've thought about trying it at times.

elantan

hey see thanks... yep he has heard of the wwoof scheme ... i have friends that take in woofers often and have heard the good and the bad about it all .... i think he was hoping to do something like that this summer ... he knows his plans are a few years off yet but he is saving like mad ... he has alot more savings that we ever have had ... he even offered us a loan for florida ... that was kinda embarrasing i can tell ya lol

elantan

ohhhhhh exciting stuff ... slava is coming back to glasgow .... i cant wait .. ok budget totally blown to hell and i will no doubt have to get about 8 tickets but it is slava ... few things i would blow the budget totally for ... slava, avanue q, levellers, twisted sister, and other bands that is in my wanna see before i die list

just to re-iterate SLAVA is coming to glasgow yayayayayay slightly excited there lol

se999

It does seem like it's a good way of finding out what that lifestyle is like, it's OK reading the books and watching the TV programs, but I think hands on is probably best. I might ask for more info on your friends experiences later. I suppose it's like house exchanging and hospitality exchanging, you need to get a match of expectations and personalities for it to really work.

elantan

yeah your totally right .... they own a farm which required alot of work done to it ... i know alot of it they also had to do in the old traditional way so they paid for professionals to come in and train woofers etc ... it worked out on the whole very good ... but they also need to take a break from it every now and then .... quite funny as well cause i met a couple of woofers whilst harvesting willow ( they were working/staying with some one else i know) and whilst there they organised another trip to another person that takes in woofers ... all totally different experiences for them ...willow cutting , polytunnel building and then they were off to ireland i think for something else ... they seemed to enjoy it but found it much harder than they thought it would be lol

elantan

well today was our last marriage guidence counselling session .. in a way i am sad it is finished as i saw mr el really getting alot out of it ... but in another way i am glad it is done as it is time for him to make the changes now ...

have handed the book onto others to read ... and discussed with yet more people ... a few have asked for a loan ..... but i am sure a library will have it ... although in one instance i dont think they have libraries in nica lol

elantan

well this book has been playing on my mind ... so has the slava tickets ( bought them 9am today just as they went on sale) .... now these 100 months are aimed at changing the money situation round and 180degrees is what i am looking for

so with that in mind and to make this really achieveable and workable i am going to have to think percentages ... into this i am going to have to have what i want to call experiences ... i love theatre ... i love gigs i love the great out doors ... i love experiencing so many things in my life and living life to the full ... however today i had to use money we didnt have effectively putting us into more debt so that we can go to see slava ... now i have no regrets about this i love slava the show is awesome amazing wonderful and worth getting into debt for ... however other things are going to crop up in my life that i am going to want to experience and i need to have budgetted for it ... cause if i dont i wont have turned the money situation round will i ?

so i am going to work out percentages for debt repayment living saving and experiences ... i also want to have a few types of savings thingys ... even if it is only a few pounds i am putting in i will be putting it in ... i want a long term holiday things for the house and car one .... so a few types of saving vehicles will be required ...

i think i need to also decide what money goes where ... before i was counting my mortgage as my living expenses ... and i think i should stil count my interest and insurances as such .. but i think i should count my capital payments as debt repayments ... cause after all that is what they are ... council tax gas and elec will be living expenses ... food will be living expenses but meals out will be experiances so if i want to go to a gig theatre experience etc i have to make sure i dont eat out alot .. if that makes sense?

am going to sit with pen and paper and see exactly how i can work this ... but work it i will ... i think by the time i am through i will have alot more to thank the wonderful people of this site for

in other news ..... mr el had a bad day today ... we were taken out for dinner by his mum the place was very noisy and shortly after arriving he had to take his first of many breaks away from the building ... he started to shake and panic so we finished up and left ... slowly he has felt a little better as the night went on but took to his bed when we got home ...

elantan

ok i have a loose percentage list .. to be finalised when i get more time to sit down ... but so far

debt 30 % approx
living 35.5%
saving long term 12%
saving car house etc 10%
wages to mr & mrs El 10%
experiences 2.5%


let me know what ya think

elantan

well i slept on that last night and had a good think about it all ...

i noticed that not quite but in some ways ( the debt for example) this is how things currently are we do pay alot to debt and we dont save ... our saving is much much lower (if anything) ... with no budget at all for experiences ... we do use alot more for living expenses ... and i think in a way that is a good thing

so ... ultimatley what i am looking to do is get the debt lower the experiences higher and the living higher ... my dream would be 0% for debt ... this would free up so much for us for experiences and living ...

however 0% is currently a pipe dream ... although it is what i am aiming for ( 99 months and counting) but right now it is sitting at 30% and it has to stay this way in order to achieve the 100 month challenge .... so the obvious answer is to up the income ... i am thinking it is time to maybe think about a new job ... i dont want to do this till after the summer as i really love my day's off ... but my son has basically informed me that i am the type of person that his company are desperate for ... they have a company pension ...which mine does too but doesnt pay a penny into... hence the largish % on long term savings ... they have a bonus system which mine doesnt ...my son often earns up to £25 an hour (ok i dont think i will earn that) ... i could get to work day shift ( i'm still nights) ... but i would have to give up the joy of my seven days off ... i love my seven days off i really do ... so i need to think more about this

living expenses should be much higher but we do tend to cut back on all living except meals out and gigs etc (which is now in the experience file) ... so we dont spend money on clothes alot ( ok just bought some for our holiday but not too much) we dont do hair cuts ( once a year for me... i cut hubby's) ... we only do basic xmas ( nothing for hubby or me... just son and hubbys parents) all this should actually change ... it feels like we work hard just to pay debts and because we dont actually save when the next thing comes along that we need we have to take out more debt to pay for that and so the cycle continues

we know that sooner rather than later we will need to buy a new car ... and we have nothing saved for it ... so that will be more debt that we will have to take on .. that will push our debt repayment to 40% of income putting our living down to 25% ... now that is unsustainable and i dont think it is actually possible for us due to the amount it costs us for things like gas and electricity ( £150 a month)

ok i am rambling again ... will leave it here and pop back later ... gonna have some more thinking space