Mortgage Free For A Happier Me

Happier_Me

Think I might need to try that KolaKube. DH spent £1 yesterday on 7 bags of crisps, despite there being crisps in the cupboard at home. I think keeping his lunch in two places in the kitchen overcomplicated things for him yesterday:D

Anyway we're both determined to control the £'s we spend on food and the pounds we carry around our waist so I am hoping I can keep reporting MSE food related successes in this diary for many months to come.

DH has started to complain he is cold in the evening although he his still dressing for a day at the beach when he's at home. I admit when I venture out of my blanket at around 9pm there is definitely a nip in the air but we need to adopt as many tricks as possible to avoid putting the heating on too soon this year. We have an open plan conservatory off the play room which does not help. DH has been wanting to hang some curtains between the two rooms to try to reduce the heat loss for a couple of years now and I'm going to let him to this. I am not spending on new curtains and poles as they will only be up a few months, we'll be using what we have in the spare bedroom. It's not going to win me any home design awards but if it's keeps the heating bills down a little and makes the playroom a useable space in Winter then it will be worth it.

getmore4less

the trick with a budget is to make sure you have everything in it so nothing is unexpected.

then track.

remember that each month will be different so surplus cash varies.

challenge every spend.
look for the same benifit cheaper or free.

the key ones are utilities phones tv/ internet


eg.the cheapest mobile is ovivo

Happier_Me

Thanks Castlelough

Yes, the plan is to hit this hard, the aim being to be mortgage neutral by Dec 2015 and then mortgage free by August 2016, so big over payments needed. I am not sure we can stick to the budget we have set over the longer term but we have no big spends planned for the next 6-8 months, so the plan is to get stuck in and reassess if we need to the middle of next year.

Every month we stick to the budget is a month closer to mortgage freedom, after all:D

Happier_Me

Thanks for the advice Getmore4less,

We do have a budget and I track spend each month but if I'm honest I don't include absolutely everything or break down all types of spend.

I know where I'm going wrong and I plan to budget and track spend differently from now on. I actually do this for a living, but I think I am a little bit like the chef who never cooks at home - I just don't put enough effort into tracking my own spend. I budget for a set amount to be spent on credit card each month and a set amount of cash. This is £900 per month altogether and should cover fuel (£80 est), food (£400), lottery (£20), travel (£35). The rest (£365) is spent on clothes, entertainment and rubbish. I need to monitor this spend far more closely than I have been doing, strip out some of the waste and hopefully start saving towards next years holiday and the odd treat.

We want to enjoy ourselves on this journey but we also want to get the most out of any spare cash we have. I would much prefer to take the children on a day trip once a month instead of having three takeaways for instance.

Happier_Me

Wow, three posts in the space of 30 minutes, this must be a record:D

Some things I have done today to help me on my road to mortgage freedom:

1. I remembered to turn the coffee machine off before going to work this morning, saving electricity.
2. I put the dishwasher on before leaving for work as the solar panels were generating just enough to run the house and the dishwasher for free.
3. I have not spent a penny at work today
4. I walked into Bargain Books empty handed and left empty handed at lunchtime, which is probably a first for me.
5. I have committed to track my spend on non direct debit items much better than I have in the past.
6. I have downloaded approx 6 free kindle books from Amazon to feed my kindle obsession.

This stuff really is addictive, isn't it!

Happier_Me

Yay, my signature is working:T
Can't wait to update this for my first overpayment on the 25th:j

The cold got the better of DH last night so he changed the settings on the sneaky quiet which means the heating came on this morning at 6am. He was complaining last night that he thought he had a cold, but he couldn't be sure because he couldn't feel his face - he is such a drama queen:D

Anyway the heating is now off and it looks like we have some warmer weather on its way for the weekend so it should be staying off.

Happier_Me

Now I am close to the end of my credit card month, I have decided to do a financial damage assessment.

We got ourselves back on the MFW straight and narrow on 1st September. My cashback card runs from 22nd - 21st of the month. From the 22nd to 31st August we spent our entire months budget (and we have nothing to show for it) - this was my final wake up call.

So since the 1st September, we have added another £120 to the credit card (all food).

We have overspent by around £200 in our current account also this month.

So I need to cover a £320 overspend before I am truly back on track.
I have £205 in another account that I was going to use to start my holiday fund - this could go towards it. I have some ebay items to sell which should go some way to plugging the gap. I may also be able to find some extra savings from the budget - we have no big spends planned this month.

I would love to try to find this from next months budget but I think that's just too much of a challenge and I don't want to set myself up to fail just as I am getting back on track.

GemDoll

Hi Happier! I am going to follow your diary as we have same age children! I won't be overpaying nearly as much as you though as we're only on one income (my husbands) but we're trying to stick to a budget and make a point of over paying each month. Could you DH take homemade soup for lunch in a food flask? Very easy to make evening before and nice and filling! Also, could you freeze some simple filled cheese rolls so if you're in a rush you can both grab and go? I bake homemade rolls with my bread maker and they're lovely. Do you follow the Frugal queen blog? She has written lots about packed lunches in past. She bakes Hughes quiches and cuts them up and freezer separate slices, again to grab and go. And she makes huge fruit cakes too.

My money saving thing today is hanging washing outside and we have leftovers for dinner tonight. I quite often cook enough for two evenings and pop half in the fridge, seems to make the weekly shop much cheaper.

Happier_Me

Hi GemDoll, Thanks for the welcome.

I'm still quite new to the site so I need to figure out how to follow someone's diary and I will certainly follow yours once I know what I'm doing. I don't think I've read any of your posts and will do this tonight.

Our packed lunches are a little boring if I'm honest but I haven't got a lot of spare time to cook or bake. I work full time and I also work flexibly (I take my children to and from school on a Monday and Friday). This means I work from home at strange hours to make the time up (I started at 5.30am this morning for instance ). I am in a high pressure job too so at times I work very long hours - I enjoy it but I also think I am mad doing it with such young children and this is one of the reasons I want to be mortgage free.

I often cook two days worth of food at a time though and I want to start batch cooking with my daughter at the weekends - she really enjoys it. I will look into the blogs you've mentioned and I will be adding quiche to my shopping list for lunch this week too, DH loves it, so thanks very much for the tips.

Happier_Me

Well, I've managed my 4 NSD's at work this week.

My spend day consisted of 60p on drinks on Thursday.

Need to do an online shop later but this should be reasonably cheap. It will be Sainsbury's online bcause I have a money off voucher.

Also had two alcohol free nights this week. DH led the way on this which is nothing short of a miracle. It is Friday though and if he denies me a glass of wine tonight I think that's grounds for divorce:D

Have a good weekend all