mortgage free by 45 diary

pennyforthepot

Great start to the year Suse*

PFTP x

suse*

Bag of clothes done to be picked up by courier tomorrow.

I had first day back in the office today and I remembered to take a packed lunch. I also froze some sandwiches for the next few days too, as I bought some reduced posh bread from marks. So that I can see then how they turn out once defrosted, as then it might be easier to make a week's worth of work lunches at once, so there are no excuses as I am not a morning person at all.

I have done a couple of yougov surveys and some more swag bucks so they are ticking along nicely. I am trying to start doing nectar ads as well while I'm watching telly, as I'm not really shopping anywhere that you can get points from that often so this might help to keep them going up.

Looks like there might be some overtime coming up soon at work so keeping my ear to the ground for that.

I am getting a handyman to come do a quote hopefully later this week, to clean the gutters out as I haven't done it while I've been here, and I noticed some algey stuff the other day. Just with all the bad weather I think it is best to get that sorted really. He said it normally costs about 40 quid but will say better when he comes to look. Does that sound ok do you think, I have never done it so I can't tell how much work is involved. How often are you meant to get it done as well do you think?

I got a load of cooking books from the library on sunday, to help with the meal planning and see if there is anything else easy I can do in the slow cooker possibly.

I do want to try and grow some veg but it comes back to not being able to do the work myself. I don't mind the fact I'll have to pay out initially to get raised beds made etc potentially, but if I need to pay to have someone to maintain it all I am wondering just how cost affective it might really be. Or is there a really low maintance way to grow things with no digging / lifting / bending over etc do you know?

suse*

Second day in the office and I remembered to take one of the sarnies out of the freezer the night before, and it tasted fine so I will keep doing that I think.

Today was a nds but I finally got to do another tilly tidy of 50p, as a direct debit went out. It is mad how disapointing it has been in a way that I haven't been able to do one for ages, as I haven't been spending money without thinking. It is surprising how quickly something simple like that turns into a game, to login to check if I can do one, then I remember I haven't spent anything so the balance will be the same.

The bag of clothes was picked up by the courier yesterday, so I will have to see if they accept them all, and then maybe do another bags worth. I have a dentist bill to claim back on the insurance again, so that will just go into the op pot when it comes through.

The o2 sim came through today so I am going to try that tomorrow to see if I can extend my evernote subscription for this year.

suse*

I was just having a play with Locoblades spreadsheet as I hadn't seen it before and saw it mentioned on another diary. I hadn't managed to find one that did both overpayments and offset calcuations so this is perfect for me.

If I keep really motivated though it thinks I could save myself interest payments that equal a year of my salary. So by doing this I would get a whole years worth of wages extra in a way, than just doing the standard payments. That is amazing if you think about it, a whole years money "free" well more than that actually as that is before tax too. All that just by going to aldi and cutting back etc and getting really focused on this rather than holidays etc. I could go on a pretty amazing holiday at the end of it all, with saving myself that much interest I think over the next 10 years after it is paid off early too.

Yorkielass

I love that spreadsheet suse* - I've highlighted the month in the year where my mortgage term should end, then the where I was at the end of last year and where I am now and I'm going to keep doing that to remind me how much earlier I will have paid the mortgage off with the overpayments - the empty lines between the original payoff month and where it is now make me smile.

BlueMoo

Yep, agree with the Spreadsheet being great.

The only problem for me with that spreadsheet is it doesn't calculate 30 or 31 day months. My interest paid for the month is calculated daily, so I use it as a guide more than anything. Still a very impressive spreadsheet though!

suse*

Mananged to get the evernote deal with the o2 sim so that is £35 quid saved. Although I might have considered cancelling rather than paying that again this year, as I don't really use it enough to warrent the higher data amounts.

I managed 2 and a half days of pack lunches at work out of the three I had planned. Just as friday was a bad day, and I caved and had chocolate sponge and chocolate custard from the canteen to go with my home made sarnies.

I am doing well at not going food shopping as often so far though, as I have a only spent £34 out of the £150 I had given myself this month. I didn't want to go too strict straight away and make it 20 a week, but I have managed to not automatically think I have no food in. I have had a couple of takeaways still though, which were also in the budget and had vouchers too though so weren't full price.

I have been going great guns on swagbucks and already have enough for a £5 amazon voucher so requested that today. I think I will try and get another one then use it to order some different cheaper dog food I've seen. She currently has james wellbeloved which is very expensive, but does improve her behaviour. There is a simliar one on amazon though called skinners which is nearly half the price, so with a voucher too that would be even better.

I need to catch up and do some more adpoints today, but I have also been trying to get through some coursera.org videos today. I keep signing up for these amazing courses then getting distracted or not doing enough to keep up. I am determind to do better, and I have picked just one 12 week course to start with this year that I will complete. Then the more I get into the routine of doing them I might look at ou courses again or similar to gain qualifications next year. If I can prove to myself I can at least do the equivilant amount of hours on coursera, when that is free then maybe I can risk paying to do a course. I have failed at attempting ou before, which has wasted a small forutune for different reasons, so before I sign up for anything else like that I want to be sure I have the energy and comitment to see it through.

I can't believe it is sunday already though I don't know where this weekend has gone to. I will hopefully have some overtime before the month is out too, but I will have to try and find out when next week and remember to plan the course around that.

suse*

Well after all my boasting about doing well with food shopping I seem to have gone a bit wrong today. Well only just due to the amount, as it was a lot of things on special which will last a good while I'm hoping.

I am a bit miffed as the bag of clothes I sent to returntoearn were rejected as the bag wasn't heavy enough. Considering I couldn't get anything else in without closing it though and I don't have any super light weight clothes, I can't see how else you could get paid. I will have to have a rethink with what I have left and maybe look at a local place or something.

I think I need to focus on books next instead, as at least that is priced per item.

I have done an ipoll survey and earnt a couple of swagbucks, but can't seem to even get over 30 every easily the past few days.

Work tomorrow so I will defrost the last of my sarnies I made the other week. I am not in again till friday after that, so I will take cous cous or something in with me for that I think, and go get some reduced bread again next week to make some more freezer sarnies.

suse*

Pay Day - woop woop. I thought it was next week so shows how I am getting better at being organised, as I just checked it on the off chance. Just as I don't spend any of that money until the 1st of the month so was never sure exactly which day I get paid, but now every day counts with the mortgage interest, so that can sit in the offset and help bring the rate back down. The only slightly annoying thing is the last of the overtime has been paid, but it vanished into the extra tax I am having to pay from getting the ppi refund. I guess once it gets to april though any other overtime I get I can keep, after normal taxes, and that can go straight into the op challenge, and it is better than being paid less than normal per month I suppose.

The mortgage interest has slowly drifted back up over the month from 8.97 to 9.04 a day and 7p difference might not sound a lot, but as soon as it went over 9 again it was very annoying. So as I am still on track for doing well this month, and keeping well withing the inital budget I set for things like food etc hopefully for Feb I can stop it going back over 9 quid a day. Also just with how my Tilly Tidies are going up so quickly it shows every penny helps.

I have cancelled a very big overdraft I had on my current account, as I needed it more when I had a different job as the wages were very hit and miss, but I haven't used it for a year or so now. I thought it is better to get rid of it even though it doesn't cost me anything, and also to reduce the credit limit on the 0% credit card down to what I have paid off. As that needs switching in a few months time to a new deal, so that might make my credit history look a bit better. That and I want to get some kind of cash back credit card to pay off in full in month too, so I don't want it to look like I have 15k in credit when I am not actually using half of that anyway.

I have to go on a training course with work in a couple of weeks, and had to pay for the hotel for that. Normally I just use savings for things like that rather than a credit card, but it makes more sense to have a credit card in future for that kind of thing really, so it isn't taking money out of the offset and I might be able to find one where I can get cashback for the hotels maybe.

I will need to have a think about what to do for lunch that week, as I get an allowance for breakfast and dinner but not for lunch. I will have to see if the hotel includes breakfast, or if I could just spend the breakfast money on lunch type food maybe, as I am not much of a breakfast person anyway. I need to read though the expenses rules as they have changed them at the start of the year.

suse*

So I am very pleased how well I have done this month so far. I have under spent on a lot of the sections I gave myself at the start of the month. I thought when I set some of them they would be impossible to stick too, but it hasn't actually been that hard to stick to so far.

I have my 6 months wages redundancy emergency fund sorted, and a chunk of that was from the ppi refund - thank you mse.

So by doing the new budget with the ynab software, I want to self insure for a few other things I suppose, so I don't have to touch my wages emergency fund. As all the money goes into the offset anyway it goes towards saving the mortgage interest. I am just finding it easier to not spend on random things when I have a goal, so if I think of that big amount of money divided up for lots of seperate things, then I can't spend it by mistake.

So I just wondered what amounts other people might have for their targets, and if you can think of anything else I've missed? I am still doing a £5100 overpay target too this year, but this is to run along side that for big spends for the next few years so this will take a good while.

So I have the following down so far

white goods £500 - is 500 enough or does it need to be a bit more just in case 2 things break around the same time do you think. The washing machine and the dishwasher for example as they were bought at the same time.

technical £500 - new laptop and smart phone in the next 18 months or so.

"new" car 8-10k - I really want an automatic that can park itself too. Mine still has a good few years left in it yet though, as it was newish when I bought it as it was only a year old, and had only done 1000 miles as it was their test drive car. It is just how long I can manage with a manual really as to how quick I need to replace it.

big holiday for my 40th in 4 years time - eeek - 5k - maybe vegas again, or oz and nz or somewhere.

new couch and chairs - £1500 - current couch is a hand me down, and is starting to sag a bit - sexy

new boiler - 2.5k - mines 7 years old so should have a good few years life in it yet, but it will need replacing eventually

So that lot comes in at the grand total of nearly 20k. I think that will help keep me movtivated for longer though, as most of those things I won't need to buy for a good few years still yet hopefully. By that point I might have enough in the offset to cover the mortgage too if I'm lucky, and can start on new emergency savings then instead. It is shocking when I think how much money I have wasted over the years, but this is a new start. Mortgage paid then semi retirement somehow after that I think.