Coffee Cup's Journey to a Guilt Free Latte :)

Coffee_Cup

Thanks WIW. Still a minefield to me but just uploading all my visa and bank transactions I can see I spend a LOT more on food that I thoughts I did!!!

Just had an email from Furness to say they have received my £8500!! Yay, I was worried I had paid the wrong account etc with it being my first payment. I like I now have the girls email address who deals with it as I can bug her for figures etc when I need them and she has asked that I email her everytime I make an overpayment so they can allocate it Yay, lets hope I am emailing her often

egoode

Hi CoffeeCup, congrats on the first over payment.

I think YNAB is brilliant it's definitely making me more aware of how much I spend on things I really don't need. However I do highly recommend a few of their free classes as I didn't really understand how the system or software worked until I did that now I just can't believe I didn't know about this earlier!

WishIwasstill25

I'm still YNABing every transaction - think I will need to budget for it next month…...

Coffee_Cup

I seem to be straying off track and spending, spending, spending. Ooops!

Good things

I managed to get the littlest cup a new pair of shoes (proper ones this time not trainers) in J&hn L3wis for £9!! Clarks ones reduced from £38! Result

Mr Cup decided he wanted a fitbit flex so I used £60 I had in J&hn L3wis vouchers towards it and in return I will use the cash to buy a docking station somewhere else.

Bad things
We strayed and went out for tea on Saturday night (oops and lunch too). It was our 12th wedding anniversary though and I thought we deserved a treat for long service Was just Mr C and the littlest Cup as the boys were both away for the weekend so not a huge expense.

I just commented on someone elses diary that I dont think I have ever had a NSD. Isnt that terrible. I really must try and see if I can do it. Perhaps if I just leave my purse at home

On a really positive note I have just done our VAT return and it was about £3k less than I had budgeted so maybe, just maybe I can pay a little more towards the mortgage in the next few months other than the £500 OP I have budgeted for each month. We do have two credit cards on 0% though that need cleared by feb and apr and a rather large holiday to pay for in January (our first family holiday in 8 years - I am SO excited about it but it was booked before my MFW journey began and now I am wondering if we should be splashing the cash on it BUT the past two years have been awful here so I think we need some good family time now).

I would like to say I feel a NSD coming on but alas its tuesday tomorrow and very often we do lunch with a friend so it likely wont happen. :beer:

WishIwasstill25

I don't think I'd ever had a nsd before I started my diary, now I have a couple a week. Maybe a few more when back at school properly.

Goldiegirl

Don't feel bad about the holiday - they are important.

We try to live reasonably most of the year so we can splash out on our holidays, which we love, and have had some fabulous experiences.

jodles16

Holidays are very important! Its important to have that nice balance of feeling like your making a dent but relaxing as well! Well done on the great overpayment!

Jodles :beer:

Coffee_Cup

Been absent from here for a LONG time Other things in life got in the way and sucked my time but I feel I really need to refocus on the mortgage. I have been making overpayments and have shifted a fair chunk. Have updated my siggy accordingly but still need to recalculate the current finish date. I had planned to be mortgage free by my hubbys 50th birthday which is Nov 2021 but now my focus seems to have shifted to Dec 2020 so I can surprise him as he knows it is his 50th I am aiming for. I had planned on paying £800 OP per month but I am going to *try* to increase that to £1k per month but to manage to do that I am going to have to start managing our money a LOT more. I also plan to OP a one off payment of £10k every year too (we get dividends from our company so I should be able to do that). Mr Cup will also want a new car at some point too so I need to figure that into the budget too.

In other news, we are not long back from our Florida holiday. It was FANTASTIC!!! Loved it Thankfully we didnt go too wild shopping so didnt spend too much thank goodness. It did give us the holiday bug though so I find myself planning where to go next (somewhere cheaper for the next one I imagine). I find myself imagining all these fab holidays we can have once we are mortgage free and then I shocked myself when I realised our eldest will be at least fifteen by then so really we have to strike that balance and not focus too much on the mortgage at the expense of living now and enjoying family holidays while our kids are still at home. In eight short years, our eldest will more than likely be at Uni and our chance for holidays as a family may well be over. So we will make sure to have some more holidays as well as pay the mortgage off :rotfl:To do that though I need to get more savvy and stop spending money on all the useless stuff we dont really need.

I am going to try and use my diary here to record my financial progress but also to try and organise my life a little better too. I am such a slacker when it comes to doing anything. Why do something today when you can put it off until tomorrow is my motto

So, on that note I am going to go and make a cup of coffee and bring it to my desk (this is my desk at home, not my office one as that is always surprisingly clear) and spend the next half hour clearing my desk and make a to do note from all the paperwork that is mounting up on it. I honestly cannot see the surface of it. Wish me luck

Luckyinlife

Amazing youv overpayed 15k+ so far well done in less than a year :]

im sure that target of 2021 will be achievable at this rate

Coffee_Cup

Thank you We have had a fairly good year work wise so I have been throwing every penny possible at it but things are changing at work so dont know if the next few years overpayments will be quite as easy. Fx I can manage it