Wishing on an ickle star

icklehelen

Just popped onto the forum to update MFiT-T5 and very happy to report the mortgage is now under £25000

We're past half way of our Easter hols now and spending has been reasonably low - £5.50 for one activity, £5 for charity event, 20p for ice lollies at an otherwise free event and lots of cycling which means I've also not used much fuel. Only extra spends have been on food as we hosted an Easter Sunday BBQ and maybe one or 2 chocolate items :rotfl:

Had a sort out of DD's clothes and looks like all she needs for the summer are some school gingham jumpsuit/dresses and some sandals.

I've also found time to set up my details with HMRC self assessment...I'll tackle the next step once the hols are over.

icklehelen

Happy May Day!

Trying to get back into the swing of things after the holidays. So far I have tackled the washing mini mountain even though the weather isn't great here. I've also restocked the packed lunch drawer of the freezer. Getting back into a routine of sorts and managed to get some housework done too. Meal plan is done ready for shopping straight after work tomorrow morning.

The second week of the holidays was fun and had some great quality time with DD. We fitted in a movie and swimming, seeing a friend and her new baby and some family birthdays.

Managed to get DD some summer playsuits (as requested) and sandals for school.

Moneywise I've set up the regular saver with FD, started working through pensions to see what we have and where and I'm still working on a couple of PPI claims.

Also had an email to say the 25% bonus has been added to my LISA :j

Now I just need to find the oomph to do mine and DH's tax returns

icklehelen

A slightly overdue post on my diary!!

The sun is starting to set on 2019 and I am so glad this year is over!

It started with my dad being diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and got worse and worse and worse.....

As mum is wheelchair bound since she had a stroke in 2000 I was in charge of getting dad to his chemo and appointments here, there and everywhere!

My uncle (mum's bro) died in May so I had to go and identify his body. Helped dad to sort his estate (almost) and with my DH emptied his bungalow over the summer.

A lifelong friend who had battled cancer for many years died in July. She was an amazing woman who I am glad to have known.

By this point dad had finished chemo and it was doing it's job. He started getting back to things he enjoyed and was able to care for mum again.

Then in September he got an infection and in the space of a week I watched my tall, strong, rock and best friend die!

I have had to put my mum into care as I cannot do what he did for her.

It's been tough. Weirdly one of the things I have struggled with most is money - my DH is 100% on board with our finances but it was my dad who I would go to for advice and each time I hit a goal. He taught me how to look after my money - I remember him teaching me to fill in a paying in slip when I was about 3 :T

So I've spent today catching up on it all as best I can and am proud that I have still maanged to hit my MFW target this year. I think he would be too :A

So on to 2020.....

• I haven't fully sey my targets yet but we hope to pay off the mortgage.
• Sort out my uncle's and dad's estates and (with the help of an IFA) get it all working for mum as I am now her attorney.
• Tax return asap (I believe I'm due some tax back)
• Get our pensions in some sort of order - this has been on my list for a few years now so time to stop procrastinating!
• Fill my LISA allowance for this financial year.
• Have a holiday :cool:

Sorry for the long post (if anyone has read this far!!)

Hoping 2020 will be kinder to me

icklehelen

So far so good. Getting organised and trying to simplify things for a while.

DH and I met with a mortgage advisor yesterday to check that we were not going to incur any ERCs and had the good news that we are not :beer:

So today I have raided our accounts which were no longer on a reasonable interest rate and paid a massive £16000 off the mortgage!!!

I've just checked online and we now have £2500 left to pay :cool::D which means we have 5 payments left to make and I will be mortgage free (just) before I'm 40!

I have also transferred into my LISA so that is full for this year.

Next to sort is tax returns (tomorrow) and then get on with my dad's estate.

Determined to make this year a positive one!

ickle

icklehelen

Well that was a reasonably productive January:

• Tax returns submitted (looking back on here I saw that I had hoped to do these last May!)
• Paid off a couple of stoozed credit cards that were coming to the end of their 0%
• Lots of overtime done and been paid for it today
• Finalised plans and budgets for the year
• Sorted study out - I can now see the floor and my desk!

Plans for the next few weeks:

• Pay for DDs school residential
• Check power provider is the cheapest and if not switch
• Sort out cars, insurance etc
• Look into deals on credit cards
• Meet with solicitor to see where we're at with dad's estate/how much the bill is so far
• DD has asked to go to London to see Matilda for her birthday in the summer so I need to start saving for train, hotel, tickets....
• Continue tidying up the house and decluttering

After all that I'm hoping for a relaxed weekend :cool:

icklehelen

We've had a lovely half term with a couple of days out (spend £0). DD has enjoyed some lazy days and recharging her batteries which helps! In fact the only spend was a spur of the moment buy of theatre tickets - but they were bought out of savings (see below)

Mortgage is now under £2000 which I could pay off now but I'm sticking to my plan (somehow).
Looking back at my last post:

• Pay for DDs school residential  Deposit paid final balance due 13th March
• Check power provider is the cheapest and if not switch 
• Sort out cars, insurance etc  One car done need to start planning for the other
• Look into deals on credit cards Waiting to pay one off at the end of it's 0% then looking at a cashback one
• Meet with solicitor to see where we're at with dad's estate/how much the bill is so far Done and way less painful than I was expecting
• DD has asked to go to London to see Matilda for her birthday in the summer so I need to start saving for train, hotel, tickets.... May have ended up buying tickets for Everybody's Talking About Jamie with the savings...it was soooooo worth it! Need to start saving again   
• Continue tidying up the house and decluttering Done quite a bit but still loads to do...one step at a time!

And now to add to my list:

• Next steps with dad's estate
• Look at Direct Debits and shuffle to ensure bank accounts gain interest (not much I know but it's still better than nothing)
• Start selling some of the items that I've put to one side when decluttering

Time to go and get ready for back to work/school tomorrow 

ickle

icklehelen

Ooh another few months since I last posted - I'm missing the notifications of the old forum!
Well, so much has happened since I last posted, just looking at the list in my last post it's crazy to see what has changed.
I'm so glad we have got ourselves into the position we are in! When the interest rate was dropped our mortgage was We are curently waiting to see how much we still have coming in - DH has been furloughed. His company had said they would either top it up to their minimum hours or it will be 80% of their average hours over the last 12 months whichever is higher. I think this keeps things comfortable but as I am self employed and unable to claim anything I'm being very cautious.
Obviously DD's residential was cancelled, along with many, many other activities so we have some money due back to us. We've switched power and hopefully will be saving £15 a month. We're still decluttering and making a few changes in the house that we had already planned and now have the time! We're not selling anthing at themoment as we don't want to be making trips out to post things when we dont need to. 
Time to go and enjoy the rest of today and the weekend before home learning starts again Monday! 
Stay safe everyone!

Bargainhunter30

Sounds like you've had a crazy few years Helen and who knows where it will end! 😳 you've done an amazing job with the OP's though, must be so nice to be so close. I'm a couple of years behind you, but with the same goal of paying off by 40, hopefully this crisis won't derail everything too much, but so thankful for the position we're currently in x

icklehelen

So DH's furlough has left us in a comfortable position and I was able to pay off a further £400 in April keeping me on target for paying off the mortgage in June. 
Today I did some juggling and thanks to a little savings account and the interest from my regular saver I made my final OP and am now MORTGAGE FREE  

I keep logging into the app on my phone to check!! DH has put a bottle of bubbles in the fridge for this evening (hope it's ok as we've been saving it for this occassion as it is a rather expensive bottle we were gifted a while ago!)
For now we are going to give ourselves a little leeway in frugalness and enjoy a couple of treats. We need to take a good look at our finances now, check our pensions and savings are working for us and plan accordingly. The savings will now include a new 'holidays' budget which will hopefully be nice and healthy by the time restrictions are lifted and we can go somewhere!