our forever patch challenge

Jessy103

Hi Sammy! Just finished reading through your diary, great journey and congrats on doing so well! I especially love the horsey,sheep and chicken stories and look forward to reading more!

Take care

sammy70

what a lovely sunny day, if a tad cold!  looking forward to ride out on mr chunky poppo in the morning.. his latest trick is trying the door handle to let himself into the porch to get at his treat tin, thankfully since the day he walked  in and nearly got stuck i always lock the door!!  its so funny listening to him rattling it when he thinks hes being crafty .. animals are so funny 

sammy70

well ive neglected my diary this month!
As of today, after the £1244.54 d.debit clears, we are out of the £200,s!
the balance is £199,902.92! 
i made a £200 overpayment on my payday- 25th February, which i hadnt logged on here!

Couldlnt resist a nice rounding off mini overpayment of £2.92, so the mortgage as of today stands at £199,900 ! yey 

sammy70

forgot to add, interest for February- £459.46
Daily- £15.84 

Jessy103

Congrats on being under £200k sammy!

sammy70

Well what a difference a month makes!
As of today im at home on the goverment furlough scheme until 31st May . Ive been working up to yesterday, as the transport industry ia classed as essential.. Its been stressfull and impossible to follow distancing due to ammount of sfaff, so its a relief to be home feeling a bit safer, even on 80% salary..
So, the next few weeks are going to be a challenge, as aswell as my pay , and at anytime hubbys pay could be drastically reduced, my son is self isolating as he takes medication which affects his immune system, so he is trying to arrange going on furlough with them, but they arent clued up on it so its difficult.. in the meantime we are covering his bills and basics too till he know what he is getting pay wise.
Due to covering his bills,as a precaution to free funds through the crisis/next couple of months, we have taken a 3 month mortgage payment holiday for us, and so has my son..
This goes against the grain, but we intend holding all funds outside of essentials in a holding account. IF in 3 months time we are back at work, and no job losses etc we will just pay the excess and extra to catch up.
We have an emergency fund too in our premium bonds, and this months food/petroll etc cash in all the relevent pot savings accounts, and anticipate getting paid this month too, so its just a matter of being really carefull with the budgetting, saving where we can, as well as meal planning and avoiding any waste..
But most important of all this, is keeping healthy throughout this nightmare 
Who would have thought we would all find ourselves in this situation!

Jessy103

Sounds like you have a sensible plan in place sammy.

Take care and stay safe

sammy70

i think i can safely say my target to reduce the mortgage to £180,000 by my birthday has gone out the window 
My plan is to at pay day cover all direct debits, transfer cash to each account for food/fuel/animals, then all (if any) spare goes to the "holding" savings account to have as a first defence emergency fund..
Fingers crossed we wont need to dip the p.bond main emergency fund, but its such a relief to know thats there too..

sammy70

day one of my furloughed weeks hasnt been too bad. Got weeks shopping and delivered it to my son who is self isolating. Hes asked to go on furlough with his company, but not getting anywhere. Looks like he will have to go back to work, and try to maintain distance from others.. its a nightmare..
its the first time for me shopping in the new queueing and spacing. the staff where so tense it was an awful experience, i feel for them having to be in the thick of people.
on a positive note, out in our garden today we have-
at least 10 rabbits of varying ages/sizes, from teeny tiny to adults, loads of pheasants, a large brown hare, variety of birds, our greedy sheep stood on the bank in front of the house staring in the kitchen baaing to be fed (again), and my chunky cob keeping the lawn down. im not riding him for the 3 week lock down even though we are right by the transpennine trail, im not sure if its allowed as daily exercise anyway, and  we are trying to stay at home and exercise on our own bit of land, theres enough people walking that really shouldnt be out here anyway as they are driving to join the trail in our next village, they are so selfish not doing as they are asked and exercising in their local area i think.

sammy70

my 1st mortgage payment holiday was today
interest for march £488.77 went on, so im sad to say we are  back in the £200s at £200,388.77
I guess we will just have to get on with it, and hope things improve with this awful virus soon, our health is the main concern at the moment, money will have to take a back seat at the moment.
Saying that, we are still saving where we can, meal planning, not as much costs for fuel i suppose with me being home..
We are lucky compared to some, just hope i have a job to return to after this is all over to allow us to get back to our quest for financial freedom.
im wondering how alot of work mates are doing, i know loads live month to month, and will be really feeling this 80% pay