The long road to being mortgage free!

[Deleted User]

I think a social budget is a must - otherwise I would go mad for sure!!
For me I allocate £150 a month for "fun" money - somtimes I blow it all, other times some of it gets diverted to top up on food shops (places like market/lidl where I cant use cc) so its swings and roundabouts really

But I figure if I was MF but hadnt been able to eat out/ get takeaway/ go to the cinema or drinks with friends I would end up feeling fairly rubbish and resentful!

I wish I could be a bit better at not blowing my fun money each month but I work very hard to earn it so £150 to myself seems a reasonable sacrifice as everything else gets pretty much chucked towards the house fund !

ammonite

I think next month I will have to set some aside and budget for fun properly as paying for our days out last month and days away next month has left us feeling skint this month.

Absolutely nothing going on here until payday which is still more than a week away.

Been taking advantages of the bonuses on Ciao and DY this week, almost up to £50 again on DY and at £13 on Ciao. Waiting for a £26 payout from Ciao which has finally been actioned so should be here at the end of the month. Every little helps ! All will go into mortgage savings.

Kept grocery spends to a minimum this week too, around £20 per week for the top up lunch/fresh food shops and been making the most of the freezer food. All meals are made and frozen for the week. Have very little meat in there now except a bit of mince and some sausages, the rest of the meat has a purpose in life aka it has been cooked into something and frozen as a meal. Makes each day so much easier ! Doing quite well with the grocery challenges and been doing well on yellow stickered stuff too!

Hoping to hit 8% on the savings this month but a few expenses on the house and a weekend away, it might not get there, but I'll try hard!

Have a few bits to eBay in the next few weeks but nothing that will make me a fortune I don't think.

ammonite

Complained about being overcharged for an item (which had money off coupons in - but they weren't there) and was given a £10 gift card to say sorry. Very pleased! Will be used for the baby fund/buying I think.


After being screened out of everything last week, I've had about £1 off onepoll in 2 days. Worth checking throughout the day.

The Christmas fund is looking a bit thin on the ground (all eBay profits go there from now on) so will have to have a look around the house for pointless gibble that can be sold.

Got a nice free posh notebook using an eBay code last week which I may re-sell! Worth £10 !


The long term grocery budget seems to be working quite well. I don't need to go to the supermarket until at least Sunday, hopefully even longer if I can make some lunches up from what we have in the freezer and cupboard. Lots of sausage rolls in there! I think keeping a check on grocery spends has been really useful.

And finally...used a 5p off a litre petrol coupon and saved around £2.50

ammonite

Phew! Made it! Payday! This has been one of the most poorest months I've had and not sure why really! Have had to buy some clothes and a few things for the house along with saving quite hard it seems to have killed us off. Things aren't looking much better this month although I can't figure that out for sure until OH has been paid.



Seriously tempted to start overpaying the mortgage now rather than saving it for an annual payment. I've fiddled with both on the mortgage overpayment calculator and because of the interest, it is financially better to pay £2000/12 monthly compared with £2000 once per year.

Just not sure what to do as we may need access to the cash in the next year. Just upsets me to think how much interest we are paying on the mortgage! Any advice?

7.6% of the mortgage now in savings.

Beckyy

Could you overpay half of it monthly and keep the other half for an annual payment? That way there is something there if you need to fall back on it, but you're also savings a bit more on interest.

quintwins

It could be worth contacting your mortgage company and seeing if you can acess your overpayments later should you need to, i know a few allow this.

If you really want to overpay and your know you can still afford to live and save for the next few months i'd say pay half of it and keep enought to cover you for say 3 months billwise, then split your monthly savings in 2 half to the mortgage and half to the rainy day fund, then set a target for the rainy day fund and anything over that goes mortgage.

We're also having a tight month today is ds's birthday my baby is 3!!! and then hubby was off for 2 weeks as you know, our savings stayed the same (gotta dip into them for the meal tonight but it'll go back come monday) but we've saved next to nothing it's only 1 months tho .

ammonite

Hi Quintwins - will definitely contact the mortgage company to see if we can access the credit from overpaying.

We are potentially doing some work on the house - trying to cost it up at the moment and if we decide to do it then we definitely can't risk overpaying as well and leaving ourselves too short. Just as we almost get somewhere, something else comes in and gets us!

Not feeling quite as poor this month - not sure what happened last month really?! Hope your DS had a lovely birthday Quintwins and that you enjoyed your time away

Really looking to save money on groceries this month so will be eating as much as we can out of the freezer and cupboards (I try this every month but feeling confident this month!).

Still waiting for my DY and Ciao payments - not doing well on either at the moment but will get another spurt on soon I'm sure.

Hope everyone else is doing well?

quintwins

ammonite wrote: »

Hi Quintwins - will definitely contact the mortgage company to see if we can access the credit from overpaying.

We are potentially doing some work on the house - trying to cost it up at the moment and if we decide to do it then we definitely can't risk overpaying as well and leaving ourselves too short. Just as we almost get somewhere, something else comes in and gets us!

Not feeling quite as poor this month - not sure what happened last month really?! Hope your DS had a lovely birthday Quintwins and that you enjoyed your time away

Really looking to save money on groceries this month so will be eating as much as we can out of the freezer and cupboards (I try this every month but feeling confident this month!).

Still waiting for my DY and Ciao payments - not doing well on either at the moment but will get another spurt on soon I'm sure.

Hope everyone else is doing well?

:rotfl::rotfl: remind u of anyone? to be fair i have to do it this month

ds had a lovely birthday thank you and his meal out was alot cheaper than we expected, we would def go to that resurant again.

i wasn't away hubby was just off we had lots of day trips tho.

good luck with getting work done on your house you never know it might not be as dear as you think.

ammonite

Yes quintwins - it reminds me of lots of people on the foodie boards! :rotfl: Glad you had some nice days out - we did that a few weeks back, almost rented a cottage but didn't so we had some days out instead and saved ourselves a few pennies.


You'll all be glad to know between my Quidco payment and 2 lots of interest this month totalled £6.87 :j:j:j:rotfl: I made it up to £10 and put it into the mortgage pot. Baby steps after all!

ammonite

Wahoo after over 2 months my first Chow payment came through - £26..made it up to £30 and popped it in the savings. Making the most of the bonuses there this month so will be really good and do lots of reviewing.

Have a good day everyone