NST December Challenge - Festive and Frugal

apple_muncher

Ooooh, confession time: been to a coffee shop!! Met a friend - but ended up in cheaper Pret as C0sta was heaving and smelly! I now have a cushion ready for my naughty step sessions...

Dd ended up with a magic set for her bday in Jan, a carousel ride, a bag of candy floss and a pink Cmas tree helium balloon with princess baubles on it, and 5 books. All for £12. Not bad! The place was getting busier and busier but not manic or silly. And we did park for free - about a 10 minute walk away from town, but it takes us over a railway so we always hang around there to wave to the drivers. Today we saw 4 trains and got 4 waves and one huge toot .

And we found 6p roadkill :j.

traveller

Hi everyone. Well i've had a very costly afternoon.Finished shopping and food now apart from potatoes and gravy. Tomorrow will be mega busy as prep for meats etc start, but I so cannot wait for the festivities to begin. Have a great evening everyone :-)

mothernerd

Another NSD. Tired and aching today (did something last night, not damaged the leg but it's aching) so just plodding on. Have put lots of washing to dry, kitchen is mostly done (favourite herbs and spices, kettle and 5 x 2l nearly full water bottles by cooker/ bread away in freezer/ pots done/ started veg mountain). Bins are out (DS2 should have called but have been told he was ill). I took one and neighbour's visitor volunteered to do the other.

Goals for 2015
1) BE DEBT FREE Selling the other house is the solution but need to make every effort to reduce spending in the meantime and going forward for a sustainable lifestyle (9 and a bit years to retirement, income and health uncertain).
a) Currently looking at each area of spending in turn (have a 3 year diary which I used for challenges last year) and identifying what can be done. Sure there is lots of scope to make food more frugal. Also using up toiletries etc and possibly cut down on toilet paper use.
b) Consider each purchase and identify any alternatives to buying. Use the (anti) Shopping List.

2) BE HEALTHY Continue weight loss. Eat healthily. More vegetarian meals. Start sensible exercise (mostly walking). Avoid stressing about things you cannot do anything about.

3) BE SELFISH Treat myself as well as I do other people. Remind myself that my needs are important and should not always be subordinate to those of other people. Start small (tell mum I do need a garden). Identify what is important to me and why.

4) KEEP LEARNING Doesn't have to be big or formal - learning the functions on my phone or computer. Consider new skills - camera course next September (probably not mobile enough by January). Check out online learning as well.

5) Go confidently, in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined. Inside my diary I have written the first 4 goals. At the bottom it says "Read the cover - Practice and repeat". This quotation is on the front cover.

Today I am grateful for satsumas, cheese and organistion (decided the bit of cheese I was cutting was too generous, tried to turn it into a wedge and the knife went into the end of my finger - luckily I had put a lone plaster away in the cutlery drawer not 5 minutes before).

Calling14

Hi folks

Went to sainsbobs to use my £6 voucher off £30 spend. Got some pressies in that as well plus ham for January. Freezer and fridge jammed. No shopping needed in January.

Well over my food budget just going to chill out now. Laughed at my friends Facebook status in supermarket trapped between indecisive mother and a live lobster. Truly silly season, went to my car in sainsbobs car park guy sat on his car next on me his wife locked him out of the car but still refusing to go into the shop.

Calling14

My neighbour just given me lots of toys, may wrap one up for grandson 3yr old won't care.

Windy day here nightmare living on a hilltop. Dog blew over so strong.

Fmess how many dogs have you got?

Who makes overpayment into their mortgage. Think I can only permitted to pay a set figure per yr, just wondering how much you pay and the difference it makes to yr mortgage. I have about £36600 left on mine.

Still concentrating on CC first.

Fmess

Calling your dog blew over?!

I now have 5 dogs, and a cat.

One more exercise session to record after walking all the dogs whilst OH was at work. Not much else to report, waiting on payday on Wednesday to make the next money shuffle and debt repayments

Samiszel

Calling- I overpay on my mortgage every month. Each extra penny makes a huge difference in the long term. Usually you are limited to 10% of your current mortgage total per year. There are mortgage overpayment calculators online to help you calculate the difference overpayment makes to your mortgage term. I'm with N@twest and they have their own version which I use almost weekly as motivation. I pay 55% extra of my mortgage per month and this will decrease my mortgage term by 15 years!! Search for mortgage overpayment calculator on G00gle.

apple- this is your field of knowledge too?

apple_muncher

Oooh, you think I have knowledge, Samiszel! What you said about overpaying is spot on. We have an offset, so as long as it is paid off by dh's 65th, we are ok. We only 'have' to pay the interest, so if we were really strapped for cash, we could resort to this.

And offsets behave very differently to 'normal' mortgages!

But I want to pay it off asap. Partly to give dh the freedom to take a part-time job, or one he enjoys without the need for a certain wage. Although both he and I earn the same pro rata, he's doing 5 days and I do 3.

We would have been mortgage free, but bought my mum a house, so drew down (the joy of an offset - we kept within the agreed 130k limit and didn't have to sign any paperwork, just inform the bank that we were going to do this)and wiped out most of our savings. Mum has been in her house a few days over 2 years now, and 'our' mortgage (paid for her property outright as she needed to own it) is now down to what you see in my signature - currently close to 60k.

One of my goals for 2015 is to pay off another 13k. Another goal is to see dh's mum,probably for the last time. In Texas :eek:. Hmmm. Mutually incompatible goals? The 13k plan should work; the Texas plan - possibly coupled with visiting dsd in Canada!! - needs tweaking.


Anyhow, my advice is to pay off your mortgage asap. Don't give the banks any more money than you have to!


Sorry for wittering on! Nighty night!

liltdiddylilt

Wow apple I hope that house is in your name! That is a very very nice gift there. A kind heart you are, which I already knew.

I know nothing about overpaying mortgages, but since my mortgage and house supposedly do not belong to me, I leave ex to deal with the running. I do know that when we signed up we had a 5 year fixed rate. The figures on the key facts illustration told us that we would be borrowing £80,000 and paying off £147,000 in the long run. Personally if I am ever lucky enough that ex takes me off the mortgage on our house which stands empty and unloved and I get back on the market, I will be overpaying every last penny to it!!!

Here's something I do know about. Blowing budgets. In the grand scheme of things, everything is blown, but only to a small extent.

Groceries £132.48/£100
Christmas Food: £129.71/£100 - I refuse to be sad. This really made me happy!
Christmas presents: Overbudget by £48.75 - worth it.
SFDs: 12/18 - I still may hit this target.

I will rebuild myself stronger for a very frugal January if you don't count the £850 on a macbook *faints* - having read MrMoneyMoustache over the last few days I am wondering at the compounded cost of that laptop and thinking it may be worth putting off a bit longer...

Night all xx

LoveaDove

Good evening all!

Sorry to hear of those with poorly relatives and those in receipt of sad news- sending you Dove hugs and love!!

What splendid plans you all have for the new year! I have to admit I am still finalising my goals...over the weekend I have made the decision to move in with a friend and rent one of her rooms in January. It is much closer to work and is in town so free parking! It is only a short-term move as her house is up for sale, so no deposit is required or contract. At the moment though I can not afford to rent alone so may have to continue with room rentals for the next year until I know what is going on with Uni in September (2nd goal). I was hoping to move in with my OH in the New Year, but after he revealed that he had magically doubled his debt in the space of a couple of months recently (with nothing to show for it), by doing a second money transfer on a card he promised he would only use the once to clear an OD and card... Until he pulls himself together, I am going to have to go solo on the moving stakes. It is tough as I have tried really hard to help him manage his finances but his head is well and truly still in the sand and I can not stay at my ma's any longer.

I will need to set a goal around saving for uni/ other venture if I do not get a place. This I have not decided on yet.

At the moment I still have my work head on, so will have more time over the 5 days Christmas break I have coming up (can not wait!) to continue planning my goals!

I am up to 12 sfds now, but have an outing tomorrow evening and Christmas eve so no more until Christmas day I imagine (pyjama day!

Have a good evening all, stay warm! x