The long road to being mortgage free!

quintwins

I wa s just think 7% must be a fair amount, you've done very well and it's good to have that nest egg, we don't have an emergency fund as we have savings rather than a mortgage so won't be caught short, were verging £1000 a month at the mo but I know I can do better

ammonite

Thanks Quintwins

We will probably only be able to manage a few hundred now until the end of the year as the baby fund is looking thin on the ground - but hey! anything is better than nothing and we technically have our overpay for 2012/2013

ammonite

Didn't get chance to list on eBay but latest sales have about £75 profit - not bad for old "treasure"

This money will be going into the newly formed Christmas fund.

The money that used to be paid from my wages into the Christmas fund will now go into the mortgage savings fund instead

Inspired by Tilly I am off to count my pennies and tuppences to see what I can muster for one of my various funds.

Been chowing and dooyooing today. Trying to get past £40 on DY seems to have taken ages.

Still waiting for a payment from Chow - around £26 will go into mortgage fund when it arrives.

ammonite

Hmm the grand sum of £19 will round it up to £20 and pop it in the savings :money:

ammonite

Off to the bank today with all my pennies!

Does anyone else have a monthly "social/clothes/eating out" budget? I think this is where we come unstuck.

We have been saving so hard we haven't had much money for this and always seem to "get by" using bits of overdrafts etc. It would of course be much more sensible to budget for this but I have no handle on how much we spend socially. Sometimes unexpected things pop up. I wonder if it would be wise to put £100 a month aside for this - is this too much?

Weekly spends would be:

£5 max. for drinks at work - (don't always have this)
£10 night out
£4-8 swimming
£10 drinks on saturdays
£15 food on wednesdays


Monthly:
£30 clothes on average across the year.

Any extras can be saved for bigger nights out and nights away for weddings (which don't happen very often).

£100 just seems like a lot to put away but I guess if we are spending it anyway, it is better to have a handle on it and budget accordingly.

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Oooohhhh Ammonite, I have savings jars for everything. All offset against the mortgage. I found it was the only way to have money for activities for the kids, insurances, car maintenance etc. anything really, including clothes, dentist. The day I am paid it automatically switches to the various jars. Some jars, if not spent in month I OP, others I leave to grow if they are for annual things (insurances, clothes)

Good luck with your pennies

Tilly x

ammonite

I have savings "jars" (online) for insurances, car and house related things. Also have online pots for food and petrol but never for social stuff. I think I might try it and see how we get on. Will take it out as cash though, once it is gone, it is gone.

Paid in my pennies and coppers today - £19,rounded up and put £20 in savings. 7.285% of the mortgage as savings now.

DawnW

I misread savings 'jars' - I save actual jars to make jams and pickles, and wondered how that helped :rotfl:(apart from the obvious savings from making your own things )

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

ammonite

Heehee Dawn that is funny

Now have 4.5 months worth of full savings which is good news. Will still be getting money in the next 12 months but will be down around 1/4 of monthly income so I guess we have 11 months "top up" money if that makes sense? Going to try and not touch the savings if possible but nice to know they are there if we need them. Particularly going to save the £2100 so I can overpay next April.

Nothing new here, still reviewing. Less than 2 weeks until payday but money is tight until then

quintwins

your doing really well, i think a social budget seems like a good idea, because i'm savings and have no interest to worry about i keep a £100 buffer in my bank and can dip into it as and when, we get money twice weekly (hubbys pay and tax credits) then monthly we get child benefit so we always have more coming to replace the buffermoney we spend, we also have a free £200 overdraft which we havnet touched in years but don't want to get rid of it just incase.

Look at it this was £100 is £25 a week (or less) which is £3.57, which for 2 of you is £1.78 each really thats not much- it also goes to show how wee things add up. i would do a pot for socialising but once it gets to say £250 start sending the excess to your savings.