Freedom At 50!

southerndave

OUCH. No really, OUCH. Just paid off our car and our loan and sundry other debts and paid for holiday and road tax, car insurance, house insurance, my son's birthday treat and a once in a lifetime day out later in the year. OUCH.

Although painful and probably THE most expensive month in my life ever, I think this has laid the foundations for our future on the best footing we can get. We owe NOTHING except for the mortgage and this is currently less than half the value of our property so really we are in a better position than many and are grateful for it.

So I decided I will keep updated and updating on here just as a motivator for myself and if it encourages others, great.

So as it stands today we now owe an eyewatering £93,000 out of a mortgage of £100,000 and are frighteningly £18,000 behind where we should be at this point.....:eek::eek::eek::eek:

From this point on the plan, is SIMPLE.

1. Pay into the account as much as possible every month. Apart from the few fixed payments and occasional unavoidable expense and the quarterly bills, nothing comes out of this account at all.
2. We live off my wife's earnings for the weekly expenses like food, petrol, days out, etc. The surplus if not earmarked for future events like birthdays, Xmas, etc., goes into the mortgage account.
3. Any extra from other income sources (Overtime, eBay, boot fairs, extra work, self-employed work, etc) all goes into the mortgage account.

And that's it, simplicity itself. We pay as we go.

We are also hopeful of continuing with the plan to pay this off in 8, or now nearly 7, years for when I am 50.

In line with a simplified approach I will add a simplified signature now we know where we are. Thanks all for support so far, this forum at its best is an inspiration, thank you!:T

elantan

I've recently done similar to you Dave, it's so much easier and simpler just paying the one ( cheaper) debt off, we've found it easy not to re spend on the available debt as I feel our heads are in the right place.

We're also trying for a much simpler lifestyle and whilst just now I am hammering the overtime ( trying to make a dent in the debt) I know that when we settle back down to a normality life will be much sweeter

Please do keep journaling its good to read different approaches to the same ultimate solution

Good luck

sweetdaisy

I love your approach to simplicity Southerndave .

I_want_a_baby

Hi just popping by to say I love your diary, approach to life and everything you are doing, keep it up and please keep posting!!
Stacey

southerndave

Again thanks all for the support!

southerndave

Momentus day yesterday...I turned the damn heating off!!! I cannot remember it being on for so long....nearly six months this winter. Terrible. We have gone back to big jumpers and hope this cool spell goes soon. Weekend meant to be good then back to the cold again early next week. As I am back at work then, I am sure it will be scorching....!

My son's birthday this weekend and big day out tomorrow to HP World (not the sauce, the film) and he doesn't know about it, so be good surprise. Going to have bit of a blow out, food, family etc, then back to fiscal and gastronomic sense on Monday...got to lose weight and save money!

southerndave

Back to life, back to reality. Fun week over and now back at work and clocking up the overtime already. Slight bit of minor aggro in at the weekend with the horrible family up the road (who everyone hopes are moving soon) - on of their guests parked close to our car and when they left, hit it! Despite me leaping out the door and shouting, they drove off. Why are some people so bloody rude? Luckily, no damage, but even so a 'sorry' wouldn't have gone amiss.

This spurred me on though, so I cleared the garage out of junk and the car is now being kept where it belongs and away from idiots on the street. As our insurance was going through its renewal we asked if this would get a discount as now garaged over night and to our amazement, it would incur an increase of £1.07!!! If that doesn't prove the insanity of the great insurance swindle, I don't know what does. I am sure they have a room full of monkeys with typewriters and get them to make the prices up as they go along!

That aside, we are well within spending limits this week and it will be insteresting to see the balances at the end of the month.

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

southerndave wrote: »

This spurred me on though, so I cleared the garage out of junk and the car is now being kept where it belongs and away from idiots on the street. As our insurance was going through its renewal we asked if this would get a discount as now garaged over night and to our amazement, it would incur an increase of £1.07!!! If that doesn't prove the insanity of the great insurance swindle, I don't know what does. I am sure they have a room full of monkeys with typewriters and get them to make the prices up as they go along!

Something similar happened to us a few years ago, so the garage was cleared and we put both cars away. Same as you, no discount but a price increase :eek: Complete madness.

Now we keep one car garaged and the other outside - means I have my larder in the garage.

Beyond belief.

Tilly

gallygirl

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS wrote: »

Beyond belief.

As is your garage :rotfl:.

Annoying about the car/garage Dave. I put my car in the garage 1/2 the year so I don't have to de-ice etc., 1 other chap in the street also parks in garage (well, every night he parks his car then reverses his wife's car in garage so she can drive it straight out in the morning :rotfl:), apart from that no-one I know does. Be careful - if you don't park in there for a day or two the stuff round the edges expands back out onto the middle of the garage. Or maybe that's just mine .

southerndave

LOL! That's why we cleared it right out...very little to expand now!