Mortgage freedom..Shala_moo's attempt at a diary..

shala_moo

Lazy weekend for us this weekend, with just a theatre trip planned for this evening to see a musical. Tickets were bought by OH for my birthday back in March, should be fun

Garden has been tidied this morning and the pots watered, can't believe how dry they were, although it's been overcast a lot here lately we haven't had much rain. Strawberries, blueberries, gerberas and a fig tree all doing well, unfortunately I lost my beautiful buttercups to the late frosts

Only spending done this week was a prepayment for my Slimming World classes - £50 gets you 12 weeks fees and a free food diary - saving of £15 over the 3 months and I would be going anyway :T I've just convinced OH to do the same next week (I have to buy it and he will give me £5 a week because he doesn't like buying in bulk *confused*) and I will get another diary free! :T I love stationery :rotfl:

Off to give the kitchen window a wipe, I don't understand how it gets some splashed!! then a good cup of tea and diaries to read whilst OH is visiting his mom...

xx

shala_moo

Hi,

Been a while, but I don't tend to do much money shuffling anymore now that I have the offset

The trip to the theatre was excellent and cheap as it's in the local city rather than trekking into Birmingham and paying for parking/train etc - free parking, less petrol and home by 10.30 sounds like my perfect evening we're going again in two weeks to see a comedian!

Few OP's made this week

• £63.43 water bill came in under budget
• £7.74 interest from T$B
• £5.35 from surveys
• £231.58 normal OP for the month

I have another survey pot to OP - £15 ish - but just waiting for the last survey to clear tomorrow or Monday.

Money savings

• using halogen oven for most meals :T so glad I found a cheaper replacement for the remoska
• small grocery shop this week, did a meal plan for the week to try and use up the odds and ends in the freezer before a bigger butcher shop next week

hope everyone is ok xx

beanielou

I just love my halogen.
Cant remember when I last used the oven!!

Weather here improving :j

shala_moo

Hello..

Bit of a mixed spending week this week.. it was payday on Monday so some money shuffling was done and everything is in it's rightful position.


:(OH has crashed his car (again! I give up) anyway this has to go through insurance so excess of £300 to pay out..
:(butchers trip - this always costs a bit but last for weeks - £87
:DOH has redeemed himself by getting sk* to reduce our bill - was £62 now £33 for 12 months - free internet, reduced tv and normal line rental
:Dbooked tickets to see Independence day 3D using meerkat movies - saving £15 (never been to a 3D show before :j) but still costing £20 :eek:
:(my S&S ISA has plummeted obviously with what's happened :eek: not to panic though it'll go back up..
£13.80 requested from Panelb$e - OP'd to mortgage
£5.35 interest from T$B - Op'd to mortgage



And that's it really.. just on countdown to my week's staycation in July, got a trip to Cheshire Oaks planned but that's about it really. Need to think of some other things to do otherwise we'll just sit around getting on each others nerves!

The only thing I really want to do is go to the creperie in the craft village by us for breakfast or lunch :drool: persuading OH to do that should be pretty easy!

xx

shala_moo

Its that time again..

Jun Monthly figures
Outstanding Mortgage = £131,822.27
Mortgage Offset % = 18.30%
Approx. Monthly interest saved and OP'd £25.99
Mortgage Neutral Date = May 2028

Total Debt as present moment £107,702.78 -1,667.55:T:T

I checked my S&S ISA this morning and it's recovered well after Brexit, i'm pretty much break even again now. *phew*

My list of things to do on our week off turned into a list of things I want to do in general so I joined this website https://dayzeroproject.com/ i'm up to 92 ideas at the moment, some will cost money i.e. cruise and some are cheap/free i.e. get a health check done.

First one ticked off - watch a 3d movie - just something we'd not got round to after my eye got fixed a few years back. We watched Independence Day Resurgence (using Meerkat code obvs ) and really enjoyed it.

It's nice to look through the photos of the others that achieve their goals on the website. There are a lot of adventurers out there

x

shala_moo

Hi :wave: still just ticking along nicely, not much to report.

Payday today so normal OP made of £231.58 and an additional £25 from a premium bonds win, then overtime got put straight into the offset savings.

We're off on holiday from work this week so we've been out spending money although I haven't bought anything I didn't need..

- clothes - dress/cardy combo for a wedding in a few weeks, tshirt, joggers, sundress, underwear (although body shaper thing needs taking back saving £28) needed as all my clothes are starting to look a bit big - all come from my birthday money so didn't actually pay for it:D
- paint - dining room needs refreshing, gloss for skirtings and window sills and testers for the garden furniture that's arriving on Friday :j
- dentist visit -
- parasol lights - needed obviously so we can see at night :whistle: it's took me an hour to fit them, so tangled up :mad::rotfl: sweated buckets as it's so hot, it was like a workout in itself.

Off to Cheshire Oaks tomorrow, I haven't got to buy anything in particular but if something takes my fancy i'll get it and we're having a treat by going out for breakfast and probably tea too.. :eek: the extravagance!

sending cooling vibes to everyone who still has this blistering heat xx

beanielou

Happy holidays
Enjoy tomorrow xx

shala_moo

Thanks Beanie, we had a nice day out and thankfully the weather was the nice heat rather than the stifling heat it had been earlier in the week.

So spends for the day could have been very high but I talked myself out of a handbag from Michael Kors, i'm not sure where I've picked up this new craving for handbags but it's becoming dangerous! :eek: It was beautiful, soft grey leather bowling bag style :smileyhea

I did buy some boots though ready for winter.. had to laugh at buying massive winter boots in the middle of the hottest week of the year :rotfl:

OH had set himself a budget of £200 but only spent £150 so he was happy and in the end we didn't bother staying up there for tea we came home and had dominos instead

The new garden furniture arrived on Friday - table and chairs made from sleepers which need sanding and painting. Free to me as OH paid for them! Just need to get some pretty material now to cover some cushions for the benches - I fancy something quite bright and retro but not sure where to get material from.. will have to google hopefully I can talk the MIL into making them as I have no sewing skills whatsoever!

Mortgage wise - I updated the MFIT-4 this month so just waiting to see if i'm green. I think I've just missed it as I updated a few days early, before i'd done my money shuffling on pay day.. never mind it'll balance itself out.

Back to normal routine tomorrow and work the necessary evil :rotfl:

e.t.a. OH has gone for a nap and I got a bit bored, OP'd 39.57 to bring the mortgage to £131,800 :rotfl: that'll teach him to leave me alone for too long!

xx

shala_moo

As I don't have the patience to wait until the 1st of the month to post figures i'll pop them up from my spreadsheet today instead!

Jul Monthly figures
Outstanding Mortgage = £130,896.64
Mortgage Offset % = 18.58%
Approx. Monthly interest saved and OP'd £30.45
Mortgage Neutral Date = Apr 2028

Total Debt as present moment £106,582.43 -1,120.35 :T:T

Didn't do as well as last month, not sure why as I don't feel like I've spent more money...

We had a bit of a sweetner given to us as work as they are upping our hours a little, so that got paid off as an additional OP this month, it also means I should have a bit of a pay rise when the new hours kick in.

Anyway, looking forward if we can OP an additional £270 this month then we will get under £130,000:j it's unlikely we'll just stumble across that money so I may just raid the savings instead it's not necessary as it's an offset account but it'll feel more like an achievement to actually OP!:rotfl:

We spent all day clearing the garden today (moss on paths! :mad:) and staining the garden furniture, very tired so a nice restful night is called for OH has gone out so I've treated myself to the hula pork recipe MuddyWhiteChicken linked on her diary a while ago.. pineapple and coconut :drool:

Off to get me tea and find something to watch for the evening. A good rom-com is needed I feel!

shala_moo

Wow another week has passed.. it goes so fast. Had my busy week at work so tracked some overtime :T only a few hours though but every little helps

Weird spendy week this week as I needed new bras did an online calculator thingy and ordered 3 from Br*vissimo £100 :eek:, they all didn't fit :mad: so returned those on Friday. Ordered 5 from Debenh*ms £130 :eek: they all didn't fit :mad: so returned those today - dread to think what my credit card is going to look like with all the ins and outs. Conclusion - the online calculator was rubbish, so ignored it and found some in a size I thought looked right.. 2 bought (with vouchers so free :j:j)

In other news, it's been a lovely weekend here so we borrowed a jet wash thingy and blasted the path and patio - can't believe the difference - I was cringing at how much water it used though, dreading my next bill

Couple of op's made this week

• £8.29 interest from T$B
• £25 win from premium bonds

I'm on a mission this week, we've been a bit naughty lately with the grocery shopping so need to cut it down.

First order of business - we'd started to buy those little packs of ham chunks from morrisons - £2.50 for 200g :eek: so I bought a 2kg ham (£7) from the butchers, roasted it and cut into portions for the freezer. Saved a fortune :T Greg Wallace and Chris won't be coming round here anytime soon!

So i'm off to the old style boards to see what other stuff I can start doing to save a bit of cash!

xx