New House, New Mortgage!

jodles16

Just bobbing in to bore you all with my walking! Yesterday I didn't go walking, just played in the field with the dogs. Today I have managed 5.13miles!! It was a route I haven't done for a few years and is very hilly compared to my usual walks! So pleased I managed it and kept at an average of 2.82mph. My right foot is sore again, boo! Stepdad is a physio so should really seek advise.

Tonight is my last night alone, will be good to have hubby home, I know he hates being away as well. I am a light sleeper at the best of times but when he is away I wake up loads!! House is looking really mucky, really needs a clean. Today I will tackle the kitchen, will do the pots and pans, dishwash other stuff, clean the sides and maybe do the floor...may leave that until the weekend. Will dust in the lounge as well I think... Hate cleaning!!

Jodles

PaulC5

I work away from home Monday to Thursday too so can sympathies but only recently with hours being cut (still 44hrs per week) I have been finishing at 4pm on a Tuesday and driving home. My wife doesn't seem to mind but at the minute whilst our new house is being built she has her parents company but we both managed it before we sold our old house. 3 day weekends with not working Fridays is a bonus, usually spent moving money around with getting paid weekly (Think I get the same satisfactory as you mention, Great feeling being in control of your finances) then the afternoon washing my car

jodles16

Hey PaulC5! As the nights went on I did sleep a little better, perhaps it's easier to get used to if it is consistent? Sounds good to have the three day weekend though! Oh moving money around is such a strange thing to feel so much joy about, but it really is joyful, weekly pay must feel awesome!

Did the 5mile walk yesterday and a 1.7mile walk on Fri, today off to a pack walk to try and improve my confidence! It isn't a long walk but will take an hour at a slow pace and is more about socialising. Have found an online booklet of walks in the area and we are thinking of trying some out when we are off for Easter!

Jodles

jodles16

Pack walk was good, looking forward to the next one in a couple of weeks! Was 1.7miles, not bad for a Sunday! Hubby has planted more hedging and I have pottered around threading brambles and checking on my bulbs and seeds!

Hubby felt he has managed his money well this month so sent off the £300 today taking him to £1000, so we both have made our extra 1k payments now. OPs wont be as impressive as that from now on but every tiny penny helps! As it stands mortgage is: £173,795.51 into the 173's!! Amazing! Not sure how many more TT's we can make this month but will keep checking!

Jodles

cookie9

Well done for getting into the 173s.

jodles16

Thanks Cookie! Feeling a little obsessed at the moment...wondering if I can get the mortgage into the 172's next month after...hmmm!

Have been onto the Early Retirement Extreme blog, read day 1 of his 21 days, his advice is to move right now into something small and cheap in order to achieve ERE. Now I get this logic, it does make sense but to be honest I love my house, we are comfortably mortgaged and I would prefer to carry on living here and ERE can be further away...Will see what day 2 holds and work my way through out of curiosity, always interested to see what ideas and things people do to achieve financial independence, also caught up with MMM on the weekend as well.

Jodles

jodles16

So I have cruised through the 21 days and made a list including summaries of where I am at next to it!

Day 1- Find some place to live…covered in previous post!
Day 2- Declutering and managing stuff- this is fine, upstairs we have 5bags of stuff we are taking to the charity shop, I am sure that we could find more, one step at a time!
Day 3- Grocery Shopping- He reckons 50-70 dollars a month pp, we are currently spending about £100pp a month, I thought this was ok and was much better than before swopped supermarkets, we were spending a lot more! Always room for improvement so this is a work in progress!
Day 4- Drop the cell phone plan- I am happy to spend £10.50 a month on my contract phone.
Day 5- Find a free hobby- I think walking is becoming a bit of a hobby…perhaps I will try harder to engage with it!
Day 6- Clothes! Basically try and wash less, buy in charity shops and don’t buy! Oops just bought some new clothes! haha. I don’t buy clothes that often and tend to go for ones in the sale. Again there is room for improvement here!
Day 7- Going car free- Having no car is not an option, I travel around with work wth no fixed abode, we are rural and public transport sucks! Aldi has to be about 8miles round trip away…maybe one day I will challenge myself to channel MMM who has a bike trailer, then I could cycle do the shop and come home. Not actually cycled for many years, do have a bike though.
Day 8- Get engaged! He talks about engaging with the free hobby again, finding things that interest you and get you excited, he finds that writing his blog does this- I do love writing in my diary on here!
Day 9- Budgeting. He catagorises: Money I keep, Money I spend. He makes very interesting points about how money you keep ‘is’ invested therefore earns you money compared to money you spend. He theorises that you have to work out the true value of the item and how much you will use it too work out if it is viable or not! Again, more improvements can be made in this area, plus I would have to look more into his calculations of how I would work things out!
Day 10- Calculating Net worth. Now this is interesting, he believes that you add all saving and checking accounts, brockerage accounts and any real estate you own and rent out- minus the mortgage! You don’t include tax-deferred/locked retirement money, the house you live in, any cars or jewellery etc. You then take away your expenses, if you own your home the expenses are less than paying the mortgage. Once figured out, times by 30 to find out how it looks! I already know this way we have no real net worth!!
Day 11- Connecting with your neighbours etc. This is about setting up borrowing lists or a ‘free’ table where you can leave items for others to take in work. Not sure about this one, I will obvious share with people but not actively manage this.

Day 12- Establishing a Savings account. Another bit of food for thought, he says you should be saving 50-75% of our earnings, I am way way off this…Mortgage is very high but this will reduce as we are overpaying ultimately helping in the long run? Another area to look into, perhaps work out %spending. Have already made some changes to spending and increased my own savings a little but not much yet.
Day 13- Insurance. He talks about insurance as weighing up risks against costs and whether it is beneficial, also talks of emergency funds not being relevant if you have good savings, bonds, investments etc.
Day 14- Investing part 1. I have such poor understanding of investments…will leave this for now!
Day 15- The first two weeks of the makeover. He says day 1, 3 and 7 are the most important to financial changes.
Day 16- The stuff you keep and use. This is about making the most of what you have got and considering quality over quantity for overall best spends. He says you should: plan to keep everything you own forever, consider everything you own as for sale and minimise the use of resources.
Day 17- Maintaining and repairing things. This boils down to acquiring things that can be fixed and maintained and then learning how to fix them yourself. This includes darning socks etc.
Day 18- Join a challenge. This makes a lot of sense, I am part of the NSD challenge, the MFiT and yearly mortgage challenge on here as well as setting my own challenges as well. It is true that it is a motivator!
Day 19- Getting rid of your TV (addiction). He feels that TV stops you becoming dissatisfied with your life, stops new ideas and prevents you learning anything new. This is interesting as though we are not planning on getting rid of TV we have been talking about getting rid of sky and getting a freeview box as I refuse to spend time watching adverts instead of the TV!
Day 20- Classics. This seems similar to the stuff you keep and use, about how more cost can be a good things as it doesn’t lose value/lasts a super long time.
Day 21- Investing part 2! Again this is something I need time to digest and try and make sense of!


Lots to think about in this epic post!


Jodles

Moneyfordreams

I understand the buy cheaper... I would do that if my house would sell.. OH doesn't want to move anyhow.. so looks like I'll have to keep trying to increase income and not downsize.

I will have a look at this blog.. Thank you for sharing. maybe if a few things wore off on me I would be more successful

MuffinTops

Hello Jodles. That list of ERE is interesting. I always used to see the money I paid onto my mortgage was part of my savings, as it was reducing the interest I was paying and showed that, once my mortgage was clear, that's how much I potentially had spare. It set me up well once I did pay off my mortgage.

I'm looking at working towards ERE myself, so maybe I should look up this blog and see what I can do. For me I feel that I need to work out a parallel budget, if you like, as maybe having a car is important for work but if retired I wouldn't necessarily need a car. So that expense would fall off, as would commute fares etc. Even grocery shopping could be reduced based on me not having to be up and out the house by 6am each work day. When I have time to prepare meals I spend a lot less and eat a lot better.

Well done on all the extra mortgage payments you've made. You're steaming ahead!!!

MTxx

jodles16

Hey MFD, it makes total sense and is very logical, our house is only two bedrooms so not too big for us but its the acre it comes with that I wouldnt be willing to downsize on, not yet anyway! I was surprised at how much stuff I do already but how much other stuff there is to do! Am slowly working my way through the blog, totally recommend Mr money mustache as well, though he doesn't break it down into 21 days he has some very strong ideas!

MuffinTops, I think you are totally right and I am sure I have seen it somewhere before that you work out a retirement budget minus mortgage, car etc if they wont be there anymore, makes total sense! I love the way you re-framed the whole mortgage thing, I like that and to me makes sense! I do say to hubby look how much spare we will have if we get rid!haha. Throwing lots of bits at the mortgage at the mo, makes me happy!haha.

Met my dad at 7.15am for a walk, did 3.8miles, my feet are sore again, more sore than the 5miler on sat! Ridiculous! May look into buying new shoes today...did 1.5miles walk on the beach last night, so hard on sand!!

Also, a demotivator an ERE, when you want something break it down into how many hours you have to work, if its £10 and you earn £10 a hour, you have to work an extra hour to afford it! May help with impulse buying!haha.

Jodles