Flying to Mortgage Freedom?

Dragonrider

Amazingly, OH seems to be sticking to his budget, and has even been taking lunches in most days. I think having an amount in cash has illustrated so much better to him how little we really have as spare cash! He hadn't even worked out how much his budget worked out at per week or per day, so he was just spending and not keeping any kind of tally at all.
Still got half the month to go though!
The family fun spend jumped this weekend as we had DD2's birthday party. Still I think £120 for food for 25 plus her present isn't too bad!

Mortgage (DD/OP/Balance/Daily Interest)
September 2012: 1149.90/50.10/-261,033/21.38
October 2012: 1149.90/50.10/-260,472/21.34

Spending budget
Groceries: 262.17/300
Fuel: 50.01/100
OH spending inc travel to work: 110/200
My spending inc travel to work: 138.29/150
House & garden: 29.49/50
Family fun: 144.52/150
Presents: 30/50
Christmas: 20/20
Kids Activities (Tumbletots and swimming): 0/10

Have a good evening all!

Dragonrider

sj999

I opened a "One Account", cashed in all my ISAs and my shares. I have had a mortgage for 6 years and owe just over £35,000 which I hope to pay off in the net few years. Then financial freedom.

Dragonrider

Mortgage (DD/OP/Balance/Daily Interest)
September 2012: 1149.90/50.10/-261,033/21.38
October 2012: 1149.90/50.10/-260,472/21.34
November 2012: 1149.90/50.10/-259932.54/21.29

Spending (Groc/Fuel/OH/Me/House/Fun/Presents/Xmas/Total
Oct 2012: 377.68/80.10/178.53/169.34/9.82/168.77/71.50/20.00/1075.74

Spending budget (Total = 1020)
Groceries: 300
Fuel: 100
OH spending inc travel to work: 200
My spending inc travel to work: 150
House & garden: 50
Family fun: 150
Presents: 50
Christmas: 20

So we went £55 over our budget this month, but that's not bad considering we had a birthday party to cater for!

Our conservatory is going up quickly - all the walls now done and the windows and roof to be ordered tomorrow. It's going to be amazing to have the extra space! I can't wait.

Unfortunately I think we'll have to buy a new tumbledryer shortly as ours is struggling and I don't think I can get through the winter with a newborn without one

Dragonrider

gallygirl

Dragonrider wrote: »

Unfortunately I think we'll have to buy a new tumbledryer shortly as ours is struggling and I don't think I can get through the winter with a newborn without one

Dragonrider

THIS one is very popular on here (and it has an internal light :rotfl:).

Dragonrider

Thanks for that gallygirl - the reviews online look excellent.
I'm trying to weigh up whether to investigate getting our current one (a secondhand Miele) repaired or just to plump for a new one...

What did we do before the internet for research?!

Dragonrider

Dragonrider

November has NOT started well! Those balances are huge for so early on in the month, and plenty still to pay for.

Depressing.

On the plus side, our outstanding mortgage balance now starts with a 25 rather than a 26... :rotfl:

Mortgage (DD/OP/Balance/Daily Interest)
September 2012: 1149.90/50.10/-261,033/21.38
October 2012: 1149.90/50.10/-260,472/21.34
November 2012: 1149.90/50.10/-259,932.54/21.29

Spending (Groc/Fuel/OH/Me/House/Fun/Presents/Xmas/Total
Oct 2012: 377.68/80.10/178.53/169.34/9.82/168.77/71.50/20.00/1075.74

November Spending budget (Total = 1020)
Groceries: 193.38/300
Fuel: 92.14/100
OH spending inc travel to work: 123.42/200
My spending inc travel to work: 133/150
House & garden: 0/50
Family fun: 63.20/150
Presents: 0/50
Christmas: 20/20

Dragonrider

Dragonrider

Aaagh, there really never is a normal month. OH's motorbike brakes went, and when he took it in to get them replaced they found an un-repairable nail through one of the tyres, so another £100 on a new tyre!

Mortgage (DD/OP/Balance/Daily Interest)
September 2012: 1149.90/50.10/-261,033/21.38
October 2012: 1149.90/50.10/-260,472/21.34
November 2012: 1149.90/50.10/-259,932.54/21.29

Spending (Groc/Fuel/OH/Me/House/Fun/Presents/Xmas/Total
Oct 2012: 377.68/80.10/178.53/169.34/9.82/168.77/71.50/20.00/1075.74

November Spending budget (Total = 1020)
Groceries: 316.11/300
Fuel: 92.14/100
OH spending inc travel to work: 181.98/200
My spending inc travel to work: 133/150
House & garden: 3.83/50
Family fun: 132.80/150
Presents: 0/50
Christmas: 20/20

And we're already over our grocery budget because I had a couple of big, rare expenses (such as dog toothbrushes! Don't ask!).

When it gets to this point in the month and it's going badly, the temptation is just to keep spending

And on top of it all, I think my eldest has come out with chickenpox spots tonight, which means that DD2 is probably about 24hrs behind :eek::eek::eek:

Need chocolate.

Dragonrider

Dragonrider

So, we went over our budget AGAIN, mostly in groceries. I'm not sure why this happened as it didn't feel like I was spending that much more than normal. However, we did compensate by spending less in other areas, so overall only £40 down which isn't too bad.

Mortgage (DD/OP/Balance/Daily Interest)
September 2012: 1149.90/50.10/-261,033/21.38
October 2012: 1149.90/50.10/-260,472/21.34
November 2012: 1149.90/50.10/-259,932.54/21.29
December 2012: 1149.90/50.10/-259,369.56/21.25

Spending (Groc/Fuel/OH/Me/House/Fun/Presents/Xmas/Total
Oct 2012: 377.68/80.10/178.53/169.34/9.82/168.77/71.50/20.00/1075.74
Nov 2012: 449.16/30.01/243.87/136.49/38.00/112.95/31.48/20.00/1061.96

This month's budget is going to be a complete write off, I think! I have been putting aside £20 each month for Christmas, so I'm not too worried about presents, it's just that we're still in the middle of building work and the project keeps growing and growing! Each time we think we've decided what we think we're going to do, we say "Well, while we're doing that, shouldn't we do this as well because it will be much cheaper/easier to do it at the same time and it needs doing anyway..."
So we're going to have to put a lot of our monthly spends on credit cards this month to have enough money to give the builders etc and hope we have enough in our Dec pay packets to pay off the credit cards. Slightly worried, and baby number 3 is due in 2 weeks and we currently have no boiler or kitchen floor. Oh well, there's nothing like a challenge!

Hope everyone else is keeping warm!

Dragonrider

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

I'd just rub your baby bump lots and mention the two week deadline everytime the workmen are in! They'll soon get a wriggle on rather than be birthing partners!!!

Dragonrider

Well, a lot has happened in the last two months..

Daughter number 3 arrived on Christmas Eve and quickly proved that she has a good pair of lungs. Slightly rocky start with feeding, but 6 weeks in we're back on track. 3 is a BIG step up from 2 though!

The building work is broadly finished apart from painting and the garden, and we're really pleased with it. The house works so much better, and having a playroom/utility room on the back has relaxed the rest of downstairs. We ended up taking some money from our ISAs to pay for the remainder of the work as the finished project ended up being a lot bigger than the initial plan, so we were over budget. I'm glad that we saved most of it in advance however, it felt very virtuous!

So now the plan is to top-up savings again, and then decide what to do with our spare cash. I still have some space in my ISA which is 0.5% over the interest rate of our mortgage, so it makes sense to stash it there to me.

Budget update below:

Mortgage (DD/OP/Balance/Daily Interest)
September 2012: 1149.90/50.10/-261,033/21.38
October 2012: 1149.90/50.10/-260,472/21.34
November 2012: 1149.90/50.10/-259,932.54/21.29
December 2012: 1149.90/50.10/-259,369.56/21.25
January 2013: 1149.90/50.10/-258,826.56/21.20
February 2013: 1149.90/50.10/-258,283.91/21.16

Spending (Groc/Fuel/OH/Me/House/Fun/Presents/Xmas/Total
Oct 2012: 377.68/80.10/178.53/169.34/9.82/168.77/71.50/20.00/1075.74
Nov 2012: 449.16/30.01/243.87/136.49/38.00/112.95/31.48/20.00/1061.96
Dec 2012: 438.62/147.04/180.23/108.63/50.00/197.50/10.50/20.00/1152.52

What the above has proven to me is that my budget is unrealistic!!!

So, new year, new budget.

And rather than post all the details, I'm just going to post the grand total...

Drum roll please...

Spending for January 2013 was £102.44 over budget. Nooooo! To be fair, OH delayed his paternity leave over Christmas and took it in the middle two weeks in January, and we said that we weren't going to worry about spending for those weeks, so we took the kids out a fair amount and ate out a bit too. But that's a good reason to be over budget, if you ask me! OH works 4 jobs, so actually getting him to ourselves for 2 weeks was luxury and needed celebrating!

Let's hope my new budget actually works for February.

Evening all,

Dragonrider