Trying to make my dreams a reality!!

Lois_E

Just caught up on your diary. Sounds like you are doing a great job in motivating your DH. Well done!

newgirly

Hi, good luck quitting smoking, that would help with the op's a great deal, I wish my dh would stop but he is still out in the garden come rain or shine puffing away!

Clearing the mortgage in 3 years would be amazing, I would be very interested in how you are doing it, I know you are on a super frugal budget for food but are you concentrating on cutting back more on everything or upping income more? Very nosey I know but both can be quite time consuming and I'm trying to work out a balance for next year.:D

gallygirl

Just wanted to say good luck with it all and come on here if you want a ciggy - there will be plenty about to inspire you! Have you worked out what your weekly/monthly/daily interest is? Maybe you could equate a ciggy to how many more hours you'll be paying the mortgage, or how many days for a packet etc?

£828 is a great start :T.

Do you a shiny spreadsheet set up? Analyse your mortgage in as many ways as possible as that way you will be able to have lots of little achievements to colour in - I colour cells in green (or sometimes red ). So, you could have:

• Balance - green when drops below another thousand
• Overpayments this year - green when over another thousand
• Overpayments in total - green when over another thousand
• Estimated pay - off date - green when you knock a month off
• Interest - annual, monthly, weekly, daily (hourly if you are exceptionally sad/obsessed :whistle:) - red when total goes over another thousand, green when drops below x£ per day etc.

That will really help you stay motivated :j.

gg

icontinuetodream

LavenderBees wrote: »

Just wanted to drop by and say "Hi". :wave:

Your "Drivel" is inspiring me, so please keep it up!

Good luck with the giving up of the ciggies. No doubt it will help your overpayments and your health too. I'll join you in the "challenge" but not for ciggies as I don't smoke - I intend to give up "carp" like chocolate and wine, and watch my portion sizes. So, if you can give up the ciggies, I can give up the carp....it's boredom that makes me turn to the food cupboard, but after Xmas, it'll be no more...

Enjoy your Solstice. Keep up the good work :T

L x

Right, LavenderBees....you're committed now!!! After the holidays, no excuses!! We'll keep each other on track

newgirly wrote: »

Hi, good luck quitting smoking, that would help with the op's a great deal, I wish my dh would stop but he is still out in the garden come rain or shine puffing away!

Clearing the mortgage in 3 years would be amazing, I would be very interested in how you are doing it, I know you are on a super frugal budget for food but are you concentrating on cutting back more on everything or upping income more? Very nosey I know but both can be quite time consuming and I'm trying to work out a balance for next year.:D

Its mainly cutting back more and literally accounting for every penny I spend, but also increasing income....with dh not getting another car, its an additional £200+ a month towards the mortgage, I am now in reciept of child benefit for dil as she is in college, my lodger is paying rent for his room and in the middle of this year we have a debt which will finish and that money will go to the OP's....I also intend to sell some stuff which I have at car boots...not a great amount but will all help in the long run

gallygirl wrote: »

Just wanted to say good luck with it all and come on here if you want a ciggy - there will be plenty about to inspire you! Have you worked out what your weekly/monthly/daily interest is? Maybe you could equate a ciggy to how many more hours you'll be paying the mortgage, or how many days for a packet etc?

£828 is a great start :T.

Do you a shiny spreadsheet set up? Analyse your mortgage in as many ways as possible as that way you will be able to have lots of little achievements to colour in - I colour cells in green (or sometimes red ). So, you could have:

• Balance - green when drops below another thousand
• Overpayments this year - green when over another thousand
• Overpayments in total - green when over another thousand
• Estimated pay - off date - green when you knock a month off
• Interest - annual, monthly, weekly, daily (hourly if you are exceptionally sad/obsessed :whistle:) - red when total goes over another thousand, green when drops below x£ per day etc.

That will really help you stay motivated :j.

gg

GallyGirl, I wish I could set up a spreadsheet for my mortgage... I am fine with normal spreadsheets for my budget but working out interest, current balances etc justs puts me into a tailspin!!:o I fear maths, I really do :eek::eek::eek: I might see if dh can do something for me when we are on hols.... now that he seems to have got on board, it may help keep him motivated!! :rotfl:

Am spending the day being reasonably lazy today....only another three days at work before my hols too :T I am soooo looking forward to my time off, I feel like it has been a lifetime since my last break...have already told the tribe that I am doing no taxi service over the holidays and am doing only the things I want to do...I can't wait!!!!:D:D:D

pink_poppy

Reading about your new goals has made me feel all motivated again I really need to up my game next year as I know there's loads of things I could be cutting back on - food & wine expenditure especially

That's great about not getting another car - I worked it out a while ago that we are paying £85 a month on running 2 cars & that's without including petrol!! :eek: Absolutely shocking!! :eek: I think just having one car between us is the way to go as well, just need to convince DH.

Well done on the OP :j that's a brilliant start, you must be so pleased!!

Enjoy your Solstice celebrations

icontinuetodream

pink_poppy wrote: »

Reading about your new goals has made me feel all motivated again I really need to up my game next year as I know there's loads of things I could be cutting back on - food & wine expenditure especially

That's great about not getting another car - I worked it out a while ago that we are paying £85 a month on running 2 cars & that's without including petrol!! :eek: Absolutely shocking!! :eek: I think just having one car between us is the way to go as well, just need to convince DH.

Well done on the OP :j that's a brilliant start, you must be so pleased!!

Enjoy your Solstice celebrations

Thanks Pink..:D and OMG - just seen your OP's to date and seriously impressed!! :T

I would definatley work on dh re the car....it really is such a huge cost and if you can talk him into it you will smash your 5k target no problem at all.....mind you, with your current success, you'll do that anyway!!!:j:j:j

pink_poppy

Haha, the total so far is 2 months worth but I was saving like mad before we were able to make overpayments so that accounts for most of it!! It certainly won't be that much from now on, but I'm hoping I've given myself a fighting chance to make my target of £5k for the year

coldcazzie

Hello dreamer just read your diary so far; you've a huge Target, but you sound on the right track for getting to grips with it
On the smoking front, you'll not regret it! Another thing it makes a difference to is life assurance: once you've been smoke free a year you can ask them to recalculate your premiums and see if you can save a bit. I am eagerly awaiting being able to do that for both myself and the man-wife. While I haven't properly smoked in 3 years now I've been guilty of having the odd one on a bad day or with beers (you know the way!) but when he stopped we agreed never again. 4 months and counting! :j
Finally, about the spreadsheet, I believe there is a pinned topic at the top of the mfw forum which will help you: a member called locoblade created a spreadsheet which you can download and edit to your specifications. I'll warn you now, it's like Pringles... once you've started playing with it, you can't stop! :rotfl:

newgirly

GallyGirl, I wish I could set up a spreadsheet for my mortgage... I am fine with normal spreadsheets for my budget but working out interest, current balances etc justs puts me into a tailspin!!:o I fear maths, I really do :eek::eek::eek: I might see if dh can do something for me when we are on hols.... now that he seems to have got on board, it may help keep him motivated!! :rotfl:


Hi, I am afraid I don't know how to do spreadsheets, but found a fantastic one on here, if you go to the mortgage op calculator sticky athe the top of our board its on page 16, and its called "this much I know", you can change the interest/op's monthly so it is very accurate, i love it!

Sorry the above part was supposed to be a quote, you can see how technically minded I am ...

LavenderBees

icontinuetodream wrote: »

Right, LavenderBees....you're committed now!!! After the holidays, no excuses!! We'll keep each other on track

Ok, M'Dear, the gauntlet is beng thrown down. I repeat...the gauntlet is being thrown down..:D

I've just posted on the grocery challenge for Jan a budget of only £100...which includes pretty much everything BUT food. I certainly can't be getting alcohol and chocolate with that budget! :eek:.

We can do it....:eek: