Back from the brink of disaster....now to pay off £160,400 interest only mortgage :-(

Cheapskate_Kate

Things have been manic at work and as when things get manic the careful budgeting for food etc goes a bit to pot. Anyhow as things have quietened down a bit I've sat down and assessed the damage!

All direct debits have gone for the month and the work on the guttering and roofing is done and paid for as are the school trips which were £45 in total :eek:. But then that's 4 kids for you. 2 theater trips and 2 zoo trips so hopefully they should enjoy them.

Current thinking is that if i stick to spending £175 a week until the end of the mth for food, fuel and entertainment then I should have £800 to pop into my ISA bringing to total to 2K. Then another 1k to go before I can start adding to the mortgage payment. All seems to be taking so long.................sigh

giggles_alot

Hi Kate,

Just found your diary, very inspiring. Now subscribed to follow your success.

Best of luck.

giggles_alot

Cheapskate_Kate wrote: »

3. Having had a problem with a download for my kindle i phoned amazon and during the conversation discovered that you can return any downloaded book within 7 days - no questions asked. So this means I've read loads of books for free!!! You just have to make sure you have the time to read them within the 7 days.o

Wow, I've had a kindle years and didn't know this. You could have just saved me a fortune on future reading. Thank you

niftythrifty33

Just wanted to say helloooo Kate, I love reading your diary and look forward to new installments. You're doing so well. Do you work full-time? if so, you are doing really well to find the time to keep all this up as I know working lots leaves little time for anything apart from feeding, cleaning, to-ing and fro-ing!

Keep going, you're doing so well

Cheapskate_Kate

niftythrifty33 wrote: »

Just wanted to say helloooo Kate, I love reading your diary and look forward to new installments. You're doing so well. Do you work full-time? if so, you are doing really well to find the time to keep all this up as I know working lots leaves little time for anything apart from feeding, cleaning, to-ing and fro-ing!

Keep going, you're doing so well

Thanks for your well wishes - yes I do work full time but am lucky enough to be home based and am able to plan my own diary and work pretty much the hours I please. As long as I hit my targets and meet KPIs they pretty much leave you be. I like this level of autonomy so do my damnedest to exceed targets, visit all my clients regularly to keep my contracts and keep on top of the work so I tend to pretty much work non-stop until the in tray is clear and then wait for the next bit to come it.

Am very lucky as there's not many jobs that you can work flexibly around children!

Cheapskate_Kate

Grocery shopping is not good...haven't had the chance to do a big shop so have been going to local shops everyday for bits I need and as you all probably know this costs alot more!

And the lawnmower has broken so I've strimmed the lawn instead but its a bit of a disaster. We're lucky to have a large garden but unlucky in that I have to try to keep on top of it when I have minimal time and not at all green fingered and generally cba. So am watching some lawnmowers on ebay but really resent spending money on such things!!!!

Have had £30.30 payment from topcashback so that's winging its way to my ISA. All a bit slow really....not sure I'll make the £800 target this month for the savings account.

bewilderedhelpneeded

Im a single mum too oping my mortgage. Ive subscribed to this thread - goodluck ill be watching it with interest to see how you get on!

Lois_E

Hi Kate

Just been catching up having been away from MFW for a while because work was too busy.

Big big congratulations on getting rid of your debts. You have done so well. Now you can really get cracking slaying the mortgage.

I agree with GG's idea about calculating your own personal version of an offset total by subtracting your savings from your mortgage. Can I suggest that you might like to do a sig with your numbers in? As you can see from mine, I track just about everything possible, and I just love being able to update the sig every time something improves, even just a little. It helps me stay motivated.

Cheapskate_Kate

Not been about for a while as work is still very busy and I'm now back with Lionbridge and taking what I can from them when its available! Different role but still gets just as monotonous! Mystery shopping has been a non-starter though. Not been able to make any of the assignments offered.

So to update last months plans didn't pan out as I'd hoped and I was short of the £800 that I wanted to add to my ISA. Still I added £530 which brings savings up to approx £1800. Still shy of the £1000. Spending went a bit haywire with it being half term and again food shopping is out of control!

Hoping to hear whether I get a bonus for work this year or not - should know by end of the month and then it's paid in July salary - am tempted to whack this straight off the mortgage even though it'll be less than 1k I would imagine.

And still not MOT'd the car - it runs out end of the month....really need to do this and will book it in today I think.

Still, it could all be worse - I am living within my means and have a small pot of savings now! Also have to pay the balance on the holiday and that and spending money has been safely stashed away for 6 months (static in Devon nothing flash!).

Thistlewhistle

Keep going Kate, you're doing great things!!
Tx