The impossible dream

Tahlullah.H

Thanks for that Savings.  It is positive news, but when I was younger, I was planning to retire at age 50.   I am way off the mark.   I thought that just saying it would make it happen.  I had no plan of action, I just believed it would happen through sheer force of will.  It has been a steep and rather sad learning curve.  But, I have achieved a lot of other things, all of which meant I could never be mortgage free at 50.  Swings and roundabouts.

savingholmes

I think that as you say - you could have retired earlier but it would have required a different path and sacrifices along the way. If you were to sell up your gorgeous sounding home and move somewhere less salubrious - you could be mortgage free earlier. Life is all about trade offs - some are worthwhile, some aren't.

I think when you look at the equity you have you are doing really well even if it's not quite what you'd hoped.

Tahlullah.H

Thanks for that savings.  To be fair, when I bought the house over 20 yrs ago, people weren't interested in houses in the country by the sea, they wanted to be in the city near the hustle and bustle and near work.  As time has gone on, more people are recognising that city living isn't everything.  I was just lucky.  And yes, if I were to sell a property, then I would be in a different place to now.  But they are my pension as I do not have the good fortune of having a decent pension, it wasn't a big thing back in the day in the NFP sector.  Anyway, we are where we are.

My next big problem which is looming, is that my 2 year fix on my mortgage ends next March.  I will not have long enough to take out another 2 year fix, so I will probably have to go onto their SVR for the final 1.5 years of the mortgage.  I have never been on a SVR and I am already concerning myself as to what the interest rate will be then.  So, again, I really need to bring the capital owed down so that the interest rate is manageable for the final bit of the mortgage.

This is the consequence of what I chose to do.  My trade-off.

badmemory

If you are going to have to go on the SVR then saving as much as possible now to pay off as soon as your fix finishes would seem like a plan.  If you cannot the it is what it is and you WILL deal with it

Tahlullah.H

@badmemory, I would never be able to save £40k to pay the mortgage off in one year, whilst paying the mortgage.  I don't have a high enough income to do so and I do budget, and ensure that I have enough for everything, but the reality is I don't earn enough to be able to save that level of capital.  I can only continue to pay it down as and when I can pull money together to do so.

I had hoped, like many people, that as I paid off the mortgage, the interest rate difference could go to help pay down the capital, but instead it will have to pay off the high electricity bill we are all getting.  But this is is our reality.  Balancing one expenditure against the other.  The only saving graces are that my only debts are my mortgage and my car, and I am actively looking at ways to reduce my heating bills over the year in preparation for October.

badmemory

so you have dealt with everything so far & you will deal with it again.

savingholmes

You are juggling a lot. If renting that room works out in the summer it could help.

Tahlullah.H

Yes, but the room can' be rented out until the scaffolding goes, because the house isn't very attractive and they won't get to the garden easily.  Everything impacts something else.  But, as you said badmemory, I have dealt with it before, I can deal with it again.

Tahlullah.H

General moneysaving not going as well as planned.  It's the small things that get you every time.

On a positive note, I just cashed out another £11.82 on Prolific, so the total earnings this year so far is £396.28.  I am managing to keep to the plan of earning £100 a month and long may this continue.

Things I have bought which were not budgeted for includes liners for my air fryer - hopefully this will be a game changer, as I am ready to get rid due to the cleaning involved.  Also bought a large planter and some bamboo plants to deal with my extremely nosy neighbours.  Hopefully, they will grow to a decent size and thickness to stop them overlooking my garden, but this will not be instant, 2 or 3 years.  In a pot to ensure it doesn't run rampant through the garden.  One can but hope it works.

The garden office is due to be delivered next month, so will pay them this week once the money comes through from cashing in the premium bonds.  However, the scaffolding is still up for the chimney, so this will cause problems for manoeuvring the garden room into position.  I have 1 month to get them to come and deal with the chimney before they cause any more problems above and beyond what has already happened - loss of room rental over Easter.

Managed to get an absolute bargain from Freecycle - someone was giving away 450 dishwasher tablets and 2 x 5L bottles of rinse aid.  I cannot believe my good fortune, so that will save a lot of money for over a year, assuming I set the dishwasher once a day.

The new electric throw has arrived.  Much comfier than my old one, so it will get a lot of use.

I got a Nest report for March, which said I only had the heating on for 3 hours all month.  An excellent result, which shows my attempts to reduce gas consumption are going the right way.  The open fire has been a blessing, as has the electric throw and electric blanket on the bed.

I will try to list my bread maker on ebay shortly.  I never use it and it is taking up valuable cupboard space.  I thought I would use it more with the soup maker, but I haven't so time to go.  My downsizing and clearing out isn't going as well as I had hoped, but Rome was not built in a day.

Food is still doing great, along with the £1.50 fruit and veg box from Lidl, food costs are still under control, plus the freezers are still full despite my eating from them.

Mortgage payments still on track, so something good is happening.  Still waiting to be hit with the shock rise in costs of everything on the monthly budget.  Perhaps I won't really see it until  October?

savingholmes

Well done on all your efforts to cut costs and bring in new £.

Your spends don't sound extravagant. Hope you manage to get the trades on schedule