Pollyanna's Diary!

pollyanna24

Haven't been on here in a while, but the overpaying is still going well.

Me and my brother have just decided to put £1,500 on the mortgage every month for as long as we can afford it, and every month, the monthly payment goes down by a few quid, so that means more overpaying, yay!

My daughters are going away with their dad for a couple of weeks and I am completely redoing their room while they are away. Not spending loads, but also not scrimping on what I/they want. Pink walls, white bunk beds, lino flooring and some lovely butterfly stickers to go on the walls.

I've let them choose two bedcovers each (although can a 2 year old choose?!) and the four year old is getting Hello Kitty and Me to You Bears. The two year old will get Peppa and something else. Just have to source nice cheap ones on the net.

Just need to get some material for the curtains for Mum to make, buy a lilac rug and some other bits and pieces like lights to go on the wall as I don't want the four year old to get scared in the night if she hasn't got a light and she in the top bunk. Oh, and I have to buy a little table to clip to the top bunk so she can put her milk there.

All sounds like it's still going to cost me a bit, but I'll just have to cut back myself and they will use the room for years, so it's all good!

pollyanna24

Another month down the line, although it looks as though I haven't written anything in my mortgage diary for three months. Ooops.

Plan still going well with paying £1,500 on the mortgage every month. Monthly payment this month was £531.63, so a lovely whopping £986.37 was an overpayment.

Not leaving myself with very much each month, but I keep saying that I don't know where I'll be in five years time, but I just want to be as financially secure as I can be (probably said this a million times on this thread, but it's been a while and I haven't read back).

This month will probably go over my budget, as I have been doing quite a lot recently. I've got about £260 left for the month for everything as in food, petrol, me spends, spends for my little girlies, but hey if I go over, I go over.

That leaves me with £280 to my name. My savings are going up slowly, but it seems to be very slowly at the moment due to some outgoings. Did a bday party for my girlies last week and that sure adds up. They had fun though and got lots of presents (the 2 year old (well almost 3) even forgot to open some of hers, so I'm storing them away for when it's her actual birthday or even Xmas, aren't I mean?!).

Plus have a wedding to go to next Sat. Family wedding. I was planning on bussing and cabbing it, but now my parents have booked a room at the hotel, so I guess I'll have to put in towards that. It's more than a cab between the three of us wold have been, but hey ho.

They were talking on the news this morning of when interest rates are going to rise. This worries me a little bit as it means that it will probably put our MFD back a bit, but at least we should still be able to afford the payments which is better than what would have happened if rates had gone up a few years ago when there was a lot more on the mortgage.

pollyanna24

Ooh, took me a while to find me diary, but eventually I managed it.

Should be able to update more frequently as I have gone and got myself a laptop, yay! Have done without one for almost two years, but thought enough is enough and went and shelled out £320 for one.

Not very moneysaving, but I haven't half missed having a laptop.

So I'm into my overdraft a little bit (well not really overdrawn, but there just happened to be £320 in my account which belongs to my daughters - I'll pay it back, just don't know when!) and
overpayments still on track.

Currently doing spreadsheets for my spends for the year. Hoping when I see how much I've spent on alcohol, cigarettes and bingo (yep bingo!) over the year, it will shock me into being extra good in 2014!

pollyanna24

Well another overpayment done. And the mortgage is down to £523.44 for the beginning of 2014! Yay!


Think I've given up on this year as I seem to be spending money like nobody's business. But then it is almost Xmas.


Next month I am joining another thread where we are all committing to cut back on stuff, and that is something I defo need to do, esp after seeing that I have spent over £500 on cigarettes this year!


Like my friend said, that money could have gone towards a holiday for me and my kids or (being the MFW that I am, I could have put it on the mortgage if my brother was able to match it), but nope, I smoked it away. Love my spreadsheets though, hoping they have shocked me to being better with money next year.

pollyanna24

Just a few quids spent on groceries today, didn't really spend anything I didn't need to:-
Peas
Chips (very essential!)
Philadelphia (again, more important than butter in my house)
and a carton of Ribena (better than her picking up a magazine I guess!)

Dad came up and got all the decorations out of the loft, not actually a lot there, but enough to make do with. Lots of tinsel of various colours which the girls had fun putting all over the house. And the tree will go up tomorrow, so all is good and fairly cheap day.

Plus Dad gave me £20 towards presents (well downloads) for the girls' LeapPads, so yay!

pollyanna24

Well Xmas and New Year are all over.


Getting a bit better at my budgeting, still not great though. Haven't spent any money this month on wine which is good as that is where most of my money seems to go!


£1,000 as an overpayment this month and apparently we should get money back from our old gas company as we switched recently.

pollyanna24

Haven't been on here in a while, but things are still going good overpayment wise. So far have put the extra £1,000 a month on like me and brother agreed, and I also managed to stick an extra £300 on when there was no water and council tax to pay.

Mortgage free date is still 3rd July 2021, but still hoping to shave a bit more off this, either if I get a pay rise or spare money in the joint account etc. But rates are expected to go up, so might not work out this way, but hey there are worse positions to be in.

I'm still not having much of a life, but going a little bit more with my girls and trying not to stress about the cost of things. Hey, I even put £10 in my car yesterday instead of deciding not to take them out places, haha. There is more to life than saving money, right?

And I'm taking them to Chessington in the Easter holidays as they deserve to go out on a big trip once in a while. I wanted to go London Zoo as it's closer (and free travel), but the other people going decided Chessington was the best of both worlds with rides and a zoo.

Nothing else money saving wise. We got our money back from the old gas company. It was about £350, but this was mainly because for a couple of months, both gas companies were taking monthly payments which I was fuming about at the time!

Spending a bit more on food as still trying to get my girls to eat more than the usual nuggets, spag bol etc. Decided to do a list of things I want them to try. The pulled pork did not go down well (it did with me, I ended up eating the whole lot). And next on the list for them to try is gchnocci (sp), prawns and gammon. Found prawns in the freezer, not quite sure whose they are, but might dig them out and cook them, but seeing as both my girls refused to eat an almond cake that we baked this afternoon, can't see that going very well!

pollyanna24

Ooh, I haven't written on here in a few months, but thought I'd visit my diary today as things have changed somewhat for me.

Me and my brother are still overpaying to the tune of £1,000 (occasionally more, depends on how much we spend on groceries), but he has now gone and got engaged. When he moved into my house, he didn't have a girlfriend and the situation suited us both and got me out of a sticky situation and meant I didn't have to sell up.

He says he is taking things slow and not going to rush into buying a property with his fiancee, so we have a timescale of about two years to see where we are at.

Still going to overpay as much as we can for the next two years, and hopefully by the middle of 2016, we will have about £87,000 left on the mortgage and hopefully I will be able to get a mortgage by myself.

At first, I was horrified by all this this. But I think I am coming around to it and to be honest, I think I've had enough of living with my brother. We get on, but it would be nice to have my own space etc.

If I don't have enough deposit to put down on my own place (most likely a flat), then I could move in with mum and dad for a little bit. They have a three bed house (housing association), but it is 20 minutes drive away and I have to think about getting the girls to school (especially on days where I work, but hey, this is a while away yet and who knows, my brother mightn't even still be with his girlfriend by then - I know, what a mean and horrible thing to say!).

pollyanna24

Another month, another overpayment.

We have agreed £1,000 overpayment, but any spare money I just tend to put on the mortgage, so this month, put an extra £150 on it.

Kinda shouldn't have done this as after some groceries for the house (we share stuff like washing powder, bog roll etc), it is now £19.66 overdrawn and it's only 11th of the month! Eek! Ah well. Never mind.

Sticking to my own personal budget a bit better than last month. I've decided to break it down a bit more as I was lumping everything that wasn't a bill in a "Me" category. But now I have broken that down into:-

Groceries - ones that aren't linked to brother, like personal food/toiletries for me and girls.

Girls - stuff like magazines, stuff to do with school, trips out)

Petrol

Me! - everything else I guess (but no more cigarettes, yay!)

Over the next few months, I might try and break Me! down a bit more into categories like booze (yep, I like it!), dinners out etc. as although this month is better, still can't see me sticking to it!

pollyanna24

Me again!

Well another overpayment has been made and as the mortgage went under £500 this month, it was for the sum of £1,004.49 in order to keep our monthly payment at £1,500.

No extra overpaying will be done this month as the bank account only has £1.49 in it and no doubt, I will have joint shopping to do at some point.