:) The Night before Christmas...

SJ1

Hi everyone

I have lurked on here for quite a long time now and have been so inspired by all your diaries. I love reading through them, I have been known to go back to the start with some of them and read the whole way through:D

I feel a bit guilty about starting a diary here as I am not planning on paying off the mortgage this year, this year is going to be a year for saving as much as possible with a view to beginning to pay the mortgage off next year, 2013. I would like to pay my first overpayment the night before Christmas 2012 - there I have said it now I have to do it!!

I want to use this year to see how well we can do and how motivated we can be before starting in earnest. I REALLY need all your help to keep on the straight and narrow. I have done really well with money before but never for a long period of time. We go through phases of being really good and phases of being really bad! When good we can save loads, when bad the credit cards eat up all our excess money:o

Anyway, so this is my saving diary, apologies for probably being not quite on the right thread but this is where I feel most at home on the boards and mortgage freedom is my ultimate aim. We don't really have much debt but we do have a whopping mortgage.

So debts are as follows

£1,000 0% credit card (paying this off £100 a month - was for work on the car)
£1,500 overdraft

Savings are as follows

£5,000 in ISA

My main focuses, for a later post, are going to be on food and credit cards. These are my two worst areas! I have got the food down to around £130 a week but want to try to make further inroads into it bringing it down to £100 a week if possible. I also want to try to cut the credit card down completely.

Wish me luck, I am going to need it!

SJ

pavlovs_dog

welcome to the gang SJ1. Making yourself accountable to others certainly helps keep you on the wagon.

are your savings this year for your emergency fund, rainy day or for something specific?

ouch at the £1k car repair bill :eek:

SJ1

Hi there Pavlov

Thanks for the message. The car bill was certainly a big one, luckily we had time to plan so I got a 0% card out. It was originally £1,500 so we have made a good inroad since August.

Savings are for two main things, a newish car and emergency fund/rainy day. I really want to have some money in a bank somewhere so if one of us loses our job then we have some money to pay for things. Long term I would also like to get an offset mortgage, and it usually helps to have some money to offset, which we don't have at present! That's the plan anyway. I am restricted in overpayments to £500 a month which actually is no bad thing as that sort of sounds achievable!

We have both got too easy with spending money and forgetting the golden rule that a few pounds here and there add up to lots of pounds...

SJ

sweetdaisy

SJ1 wrote: »

Savings are for two main things, a newish car and emergency fund/rainy day. I really want to have some money in a bank somewhere so if one of us loses our job then we have some money to pay for things. Long term I would also like to get an offset mortgage, and it usually helps to have some money to offset, which we don't have at present! That's the plan anyway. I am restricted in overpayments to £500 a month which actually is no bad thing as that sort of sounds achievable!

SJ

Good luck on your journey to become mortgage free .

In a way, we have a similar goal. I am making small overpayments of £59 a month, it's not a lot, but all that we can afford this year as our priorities are putting as much money into savings as possible as DH is going to be made redundant at the end of the year, so need to increase our 'Emergency Savings'.

The positives are that as we have an Offset Mortgage, the more we save, the more we offset and pay less interest, thus reducing the mortgage term :j.

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Found you SJ1, so glad you bit the bullet and started up a diary. I really think it will be helpful on many fronts and part from anything as PD says above, everyone is really helpful and supportive.

I have looked at other forum boards and they frighten me to death, as some of them can be really agressive and scary in my opinion.

Anyway, I will be following your journey with interest. On the anonymous front, as your DH sounds concerned, just be aware of any comments which identify you to a specific place or company etc. I know you have read my diary and it's quite full and busy but still anonymous.

My very best wishes to you all on your journey.

Tilly x

SJ1

Thank you SD!! I couldn't decide whether to do something small repayment wise each month but I am better if I concentrate on one thing, if I try to do too much then I lose concentration and focus get disheartened and before you know it I am having a pedicure and buying shoes!

So sorry to hear about your DH possible redundancy, really good to plan for these things if you can so think what you are doing is very sensible. I accepted a voluntary redundancy a few years ago now. Do you know it was the best thing that could every have happened to me although I didn't think that at the time!! We were able to upgrade our house and I am much happier where I now work. There is always a silver lining....

Loving the offset idea, this is what I would like to aim for ideally. Although do you see lots of separate accounts or one big balance - that sort of scares me, negative x thousand!!

SJ

SJ1

Well, thank you all for the lovely replies!!

I suppose I should let you know a bit about the mortgage. Well I warned you it was a whopper! Total mortgage is £320,000 almost exactly at end of Jan 2012. We have a 25 year mortgage with a 5 year fix at 4.99% (I know) until 2014. We are on a repayment mortgage so we are paying some money off but the interest is (I worked this out quickly so I could be wrong) £45 per day......

We can overpay £500 per month but that is it. I am a little worried about this as it does limit us but actually having a smaller amount to aim for will, I think, be helpful for me.

Starting in Feb I want to try to save about £1,000 per month. I should be able to save more than that but that is my present aim.

I really like Tilly's idea of not spending anything that you haven't accounted for so if the cash isn't there you don't buy it. We spend a fortune on books, itunes, bits and pieces really. It all adds up very quickly so my aim is to avoid that at all costs as if we can cut the credit card bills and keep an eye on the food bills then we should be able to do this!

Will try to track each week and also set up some monthly aims a la museum worker. I am only good at the baby steps......

SJ

TwinnyD

Hi SJ Good luck with your targets for this year. I've just started a diary too and already feel so much more focused. Like you I'm trying to cut down on the grocery bills, find doing it online easier as can go back and remove the goodies that we don't need, would never take them back out of the trolley if I was in store!

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Popping back briefly SJ1, think about joining the over £100k mortgage thread as yours s bigger than mine and it will push me down the list :beer:

Tilly x

SJ1

Hi Twinny

Thanks for stopping by! I find shopping online good too, I especially like popping out (not to the shops but to the cupboards) to investigate what I have and haven't got! If you haven't already had a look at mysupermarket.com I would recommend it. I don't use it to shop on as it has crashed too many times on me to remember. There is nothing worse than working out exactly what you need, removing the chocolate and treats and then going to the website of whatever supermarket you prefer only to find the interface didn't work and you are back to square one!!! I use it to check if there are any specials and then go and target shop! We have a Mr S and T and COop near us so I can target those. I got a mega pack of fairy dish tabs for £5 in the c one!! Was v pleased, stored away for future use.....

Tilly I will have a look but now worried how close to the top I will be!!

SJ

sweetdaisy

SJ1 wrote: »

So sorry to hear about your DH possible redundancy, really good to plan for these things if you can so think what you are doing is very sensible. I accepted a voluntary redundancy a few years ago now. Do you know it was the best thing that could every have happened to me although I didn't think that at the time!! We were able to upgrade our house and I am much happier where I now work. There is always a silver lining....
SJ

DH was made redundant about 8 years ago and it took 5 weeks for him to get another job (the job he is currently in). At the time we were devastated but it worked out better for him as he was on more money and he enjoyed his job more. However, we know that this time around it's going to take a lot longer for him to get a job.

SJ1 wrote: »

Loving the offset idea, this is what I would like to aim for ideally. Although do you see lots of separate accounts or one big balance - that sort of scares me, negative x thousand!!

SJ

We Offset one current account and 3 savings accounts against the mortgage and we are able to see our Mortgage Balance online as part of online banking. Whatever is combined at the end of the day in all accounts is used to offset against the mortgage, so that we pay less interest.

I like the Offset Mortgage because even if you don't make any overpayments, whatever you have in your accounts is used to reduce your mortgage term without you needing to do anything. Obvioulsy I don't get any interest paid on these accounts, but once I am fully offset (mortgage balance is the same as what we have in offset accounts) then I start receiving interest.