ajmoney's bid to be mortgage free

ajmoney

I have thought for a long time that I needed a hobby, if nothing else then it may keep me off here. The only things I can come up with at the moment are getting better at my old hobby which became my profession (music), tracing my family tree, sewing or knitting, reading more books, walking or more exercise.

What hobbies do other people have? Maybe I should concentrate on cooking/baking first and see if it saves us some money.

ajmoney

Slowly getting an idea of what things will cost us in the new house, just waiting for a few final things to be paid in the old house and 2 companies to get in touch to let us know how much we will be paying for their stuff.

From today I am making a note of anything I spend to see where our money goes. DH and I love our lifestyle so I don't want to change it too much but I want to make sure we are not too wasteful. I know I treat myself too often to cakes and coffee/tea out in town so I am hoping this will highlight just how much and how often I do this.

I mentioned again to DH last night about my 11 year idea for OPs. I pointed out that if we can clear the mortgage in that time frame then we just need to earn money to pay bills and to cover our luxuries. He seemed really keen on that and we have a rough idea what we could do which would involve us both doing something slightly different to what we do now. It is a very exciting thought, even if it doesn't end up being fulfilled.

Sepa74

Hi AJ, I reckon you should do the cooking thing... just don't give in to the temptation to bake more cakes than you eat now, not only will it cost you more money, it will add to the waistline!

My hobby is gardening, which has the (slight) advantage that if you grow vegies you recoup a little of what you spend on the garden.

Crafting is the same, from what craftingmad says in her diary!

Let us know what you decide.

ajmoney

Sepa74 wrote: »

Hi AJ, I reckon you should do the cooking thing... just don't give in to the temptation to bake more cakes than you eat now, not only will it cost you more money, it will add to the waistline!

My hobby is gardening, which has the (slight) advantage that if you grow vegies you recoup a little of what you spend on the garden.

Crafting is the same, from what craftingmad says in her diary!

Let us know what you decide.

I think cooking/baking will be the way forward, although work is not allowing me to start my new hobby at the moment as I am too busy. It should calm down in a week's time so I will start then, my plan is to bake once a week and cook something new once a week and see where we go from there.

At the moment everything seems to be going well money wise. The proceeds have come through from the house...not very much after solicitors fees etc have been paid but enough. I have just spent some time with our accounts from the last month or so seeing what we have each paid for as things have been going from everywhere. I have one thing to pay off with the money so I am hoping we can sit down and work out what is what. All our final statements should be through by tomorrow and then all we have left to set up is payments with BT and our utility company.

tootallulah

Hobbies are great. I sew, usually clothes but as I have renovated my house more recently it has been lots of curtains, blinds and loose covers. At present I am in the middle of making a coat for me and lots of Barbie clothes for Christmas presents for my three god daughters, 5, 7 and 8. They really appreciate dolls clothes at this age it is great fun.

ajmoney

Money is sorted (I think) enough to cover the first month's bills and pay my extra bit off which will mean I have an extra £75 a month in my wages

My mum used to sew and I learnt from her and used to enjoy it. I don't have a machine but had mentioned to DH that I might get one for the small spare room when we moved so maybe that will be a Christmas wish.

ajmoney

We are doing really well financially seeing as this is our first full month in the house. We have plenty of surplus income and haven't changed our lifestyle much so it is a good sign that we should be able to start OPing soon. Our weakness is definately eating out and takeaways but we have both been working wierd routines so it has been hard to try and cook at home. Things are starting to calm down now so I am hoping we can start to eat at home more.

We have been getting out in the evenings for walks locally, we have spent a lot of time watching basking seals as it is quite a haven for them here, this was what we were looking forward to, a change in lifestyle and getting out more, we know we will need to stay motivated during the winter months but if we can get used to it now it may be easier.

Hoping to start a bit more cooking and baking next week as I think at the moment this is the better hobby option. My aim is to cook or bake 1 new thing a week.

ajmoney

I am still here but never seem to have the time to get on MSE. We now know all our bills for the new house, everything is sorted for the old one with final bills and just waiting for a rebate from the solicitor then that will be sorted. We both had plenty of surplus cash left at the end of last month which is reassuring and I nearly OPd £50 but we have a few things coming up and I would rather we didn't eat into our savings. I think once Christmas is out of the way we will be able to sit and work out what we are going to do OP-wise.

ajmoney

Just coming out of hiding to prepare starting this journey again in the new year. I want to build my savings up slightly but would also like to OP even by £50 a month. At the moment it would knock 2.5 years ish off the mortgage which I guess is better than nothing. I kind of feel like I am starting from scratch again but hopefully I won't find it too hard.

sweetdaisy

ajmoney wrote: »

Just coming out of hiding to prepare starting this journey again in the new year. I want to build my savings up slightly but would also like to OP even by £50 a month. At the moment it would knock 2.5 years ish off the mortgage which I guess is better than nothing. I kind of feel like I am starting from scratch again but hopefully I won't find it too hard.

I have just started overpaying £59 a month. It's not much, but it's a start as I want/need to build up more money in savings before increasing mortgage overpayments. Psychologically, overpaying (even a small amount) makes me feel better .