inigma's bimble to mortgage freedom

inigma

New years resolutions:
1) read a book each month that I have been meaning to read, Tarzan this month.
2) join a club or society, I am joining a ramblers club.
3) get good at chess again.
4) update this blog once a month.
5) overpay the mortgage by £6,000 again.

So last year was good, overpaid my mortgage and have now knocked 2 years off the term! I can only overpay by £500 a month so that's what I will try and do again.

Student loan should be paid off in a few months so that will be nice having the extra cash. Will also try and carry on cooking for myself where I can, worked out that buying lunch is as cost effective as packed lunch this year (I did a spreadsheet to work it out) the cheapest method is to buy sundries on Monday (4 pack of yoghurt, crisps, bag of apples) and then buy sarnies, waitrose do a few for £1 which suits me!

Wishing you all a prosperous and mortgage slaying new year x

inigma

Hello debt busters, another month another post!
It's Sunday morning, got some Prodigy blaring in the background and a cup of tea next to me! i was at the rugby yesterday, always nice to watch a match against the Auld Enemy (even if 4 pints of Guinness come to £20)...
January was quite a good month for doing things, my friend won tickets to see Spurs play (not a Spurs fan, I am a Corinthian casuals fan), also late last year I picked up tickets to the snooker at Ally Pally for a couple of weeks ago, something about live sport that is so invigorating.
When I was a kid I went to school with a boy who was given £40 a month pocket money (late 90's) he said this wasn't enough because he was expected to buy his own pants, socks and toiletries with this paltry amount, whenever I go shopping I always check the price of these items and the frequency of how often I need them and still can't understand how he thought he was getting diddled by his dad. That said when he went to uni (all paid for by his dad again) he ended up taking out the maximum student loan and having 3 student overdrafts, from my economics back ground I now see that he was applying the Keynesian approach of making sure that pants, socks and toiletries companies didn't go bust, I now tip my cap at that boy for doing his bit for the economy, not sure his Dad saw it that way when he found out but he always was more of a Hayek chap. It's odd though because I was always under the impression that your childhood was for cocking up so you could learn from your mistakes and other people mistakes (I now buy value for money toiletries, ok I wear branded boxers but that's just the diva in me), but that said he went all out and he was able to buy a few properties from 2005-2006 on the grounds that property never loses value (yes the father bank rolled this, who doesn’t want a son who is a well to do property developer), sadly though as with gravity after a point things come down again and as we know house prices did leaving the boy leveraged with even bigger debts that had to be covered by the dad again. I always wondered why the father kept bank rolling this boy, if I lent someone £40 and they said the spent all of it every month on underwear and deodorant I would wonder how much common sense they were using and remind myself not to overly invest in them. As with the great lover of Hayek Margaret Thatcher she saw the mines weren’t profitable and weren’t ever going to make a profit so she just closed them, cold hard love but then when it’s flesh and blood it’s always a lot harder.
So when people find it odd that I am a careful budgeter I just shrug my shoulders and say it’s from my childhood spent having to work jobs washing dishes, packing boxes and having to pay for everything from the age of 18, my parent’s helped where they could, for which I am forever grateful but they let me understand how important it is to respect money and how hard you have to work for it.
(My dad now loves bragging how his son who owns a docklands apartment how his son is taking him to the rugby, not sure if the other boy’s dad appreciates it though...)
Till next month

linz

Nice post!

Another careful budgeter here..

My parents were the same, gave me a couple of quid pocket money for sweets or a comic then made me get a paper round when I was about 13. Been working ever since and it was the best thing they did. I learnt how to save for stuff without getting it on credit.The only big thing they helped me out with was my driving lessons as I was still at 6th form at the time.

inigma

Thanks Linz, my dad said I could have 20p a week pocket money back in 1990, he paid the first 2 weeks then forgot, might take it up with the small claims court! I don't care if I win the lotto if I have kids they are going to get jobs, working in pubs and kitchens from 14 onward was the best education of money I could have ever got.

inigma

Hello mortgage slayers!
Another month another overpayment, the weather is warmer and the mornings are lighter, spring is on its way. Not too much to report this month, Inigma got promoted at work (let me tell you Inigma was cockahoop about that one), Inigma started going to the gym again (Inigma is way out of shape), no live sport this month (not for the want of trying to get tickets to the France match).
Having watched the news and read some newspapers recently it would appear that we have been in some sort of economic downturn since 2008 (hands up who knew about that one). Interestingly when I read interviews with people who have been affected by this downturn they all say this hitting families hard with cases of parent’s missing meals so children can eat (incidentally since the start of the recession food prices in France have risen by 0.1% whereas over the channel we are at 6.3% that said horses are very expensive...). Typically in a recession take-away restaurants do well (note to self that korma is why you suck at the gym Inigma), makes sense in the boom years we go to a restaurant as a treat in a recession dominos is our treat, check the stock prices if you don’t believe me. Most people on this board will be savvy enough to know packed lunches and cooking from scratch is the most cost effective way of getting the most for your money. What I find perplexing is that people are buying cheap meat ready meals for their families and then complaining that it was horse in the lasagne and not Kobe beef, i always ignored the ready meals, even in my student days (funny story I once had £15 to last me a weekend at uni, I got a family pack of cornflakes, a large milk and then spent the rest on fosters). One of the interviews with a woman who was horrified that her Tesco value meals contained Shergar, I watched the interview listening to how she can’t afford to spend a lot on food as she is on a budget due to this recession; my problem was that they were interviewing her in her home and her home looked lovely, flat screen TV, Sky, Xbox, kitchen looked fairly new. It dawned on me as a society we sort of suck at priorities, since the start of the recession BMW have reported YOY profits rose 51% last year whilst 45% of the country has a smart phone. Whilst there are genuine families on the breadline that need the state support I worry that people confuse breadline with having to give up luxuries.
Of course we could all just become vegetarian, I did a Monday to Friday veggie thing once for 6 months, felt the benefits of it healthwise and in my pocket, contrary to popular belief the veggie burgers don’t contain uniquorn...

Barbeduk

Hi Inigma, just caught up with your diary, glad you're keeping at it.

Biggest joke about the recession is . . .we bought a small business in 2007 and funded it by, oh yes you guessed it, increasing our mortgage. Doh! Didn't life just turn around and laugh at us. But it taught us the best lesson, budgeting, which means we are saving more on the reduced income than we were before!

I don't get the cheap ready meals thing either. We're a batch cooking and packed lunch kind of family. We're also meat free for at least 2 dinners a week.

Have a good weekend.

inigma

Sorry to hear that Barbeduk but at least you have a budget now and you can forecast for the future, I also found it gave me peace of mind!

abouttimetoo

Hi Inigma

Just dropping by to say well done you, you're going great guns. Keep up the good work

Regards
ATT

inigma

Thanks ATT,

It's frustrating having a mortgage, even with the over payments it's like watching an iceberg melt!

inigma

Hello Mortgage Slayers, another month another over payment. Hands up didn’t feel a bit cold during the last month, no one? Thought so.
I am a few payments away from having my student loan paid off, only took 4 years to pay it off, as much as people complain about having to take out a loan for an education I don’t understand, it means people from less well off backgrounds can go to university without having to worry during their time how it will be paid for. Even after graduating you have to be in permanent employment before repaying it. During my student days (almost 10 years ago now) I was given £3,000 a year, given that my tuition fees were £1,100 and my rent was £2,100 per annum meant I had to learn money saving during my carefree days. Not that it was a bad thing although I never fully enjoyed watching the kids on the maximum loan not have to pay tuition fees but when life deals you lemons you make lemonade.
I often wonder if being money savvy is something you learn or inherit, inigma’s Mother is one of the savviest people he knows from using every scrap of food to feed her family to keeping the inigma clan entertained in holidays without spending a penny. She also taught me the difference between needing something and wanting something, many a time little inigma would say “Mother I desperately need a pair of Nike Airs” she would turn to me and say “need?” (on a side note little inigma was being heavily mocked at school for having a pair of air ascots) but now that I have my own income I still adopt the need or want approach, whilst there is nothing wrong with wanting nice things you have to get the balance right. I recently found out the incredible Lord Foster (Architect of most of the most incredible architecture from the Gherkin to the Milau Viaduct, google him after reading this) absolutely amazing man who is of incredible wealth still brings a packed lunch to work. The great Sage of Omaha worth billions still takes public transport to get to the office and will chastise anyone who works for him that has a private car (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/todd-hills/warren-buffett-personal-finances_b_1777297.html). So maybe being money savvy is something you learn but it helps if you have someone to learn from, thank you mum for helping me with my priorities.
Till next month!