Getting a grip and saving towards the mortgage

Busy_Mee

I have been a long time lurker and occasional poster on here and have now decided to give this diary business a go. I had my light bulb moment last year - we have a large :eek: ( I will come to the numbers later) mortgage split between repayment and interest free. My OH has started to talk about early retirement and I realised we need to stop the haemorrhage of money and start saving seriously..

So some background
We are four/ five adults - me, OH, DS (24) and DD (21) and DDs boyfriend who spends a fair amount of time at our house.
We acquired our gigantic mortgage 6 years ago when we decided to build our own house - we had actually paid our previous mortgage down to less than £30 k when we started on this madness. However we had a dream and needless to say it cost more than we were expecting, there were unexpected problems, the plans got grander and costs spiralled out of control. The BS wouldn't lend us anymore money and we ended up we loans, credit card and even borrowing from the kids...it got so bad that for the first time in my life I was refused credit.

Anyway fast forward 6 years and we have paid off most of the debt and are now left with the mortgage and 2 0% credit cards. We have also supported DS through 5 years at university and he is now qualified and earning. DD is currently at uni but lives at home.

I started saving this year and with lots of help from this forum have managed to get a grip on our finances and I want to really get cracking in 2015 so that if OH gets offered early retirement we have more choices about whether we sell the house or can afford to stay here.

Anyway hopefully the diary will help me to focus and maybe it might also help others on here too - I really found reading other peoples diaries helpful so it is a bit of payback too...

Busy_Mee

The numbers...

Mortgage = £271,751 1.19% (lifetime tracker 0.69%)

Credit card 1 = 7984.86 0%
Credit card 2 = 9042.37 0%

Savings
Leeds Permanent ISA 15297.10 (2.85% fixed for 5 years)
Newcastle Building Soc. ISA. 5103.71. (2.85 regular savings)
Savings Pot. 1680.00. (Offset against mortgage)

As you can see we were extremely lucky with our mortgage product and it makes sense to save in higher interest accounts than overpay the mortgage. We use ISAs rather than high interest current accounts because we are both top rate tax payers and I don't want to have to do tax returns

Over the last year we have completely overhauled our spending to start saving using all the good advice on here. So

Have shopped around for all insurance/ utilities etc
Zapped gym membership
Been taking lunch to work
Bought myself a flask rather than spend £2.20 for a cup of tea on the train
Switched from Sainsbugs to Ald@i and reduced my weekly shop from a whopping £150 a week to £75
Sold scrap gold
Sold on ebay
Used cash back sites

And generally budgeted and watched where we spend every penny - it now breaks my heart to think about all the money we have wasted over the years. So now I have got a better grip I want to save at least £1000 per month in 2015...ooh and lose a stone while I am at it.

There I have committed in writing now, so I will have to do it !

Busy_Mee

I have been on a mission to use up all the leftovers from Christmas:

So far I have made a turkey and ham pie on New Year's Day, Hairy Bikers one pot spicy pork on Friday ( the pork was not strictly leftover but has been lurking in the freezer for God knows how long ) and quiche yesterday to use up elderly eggs and streaky bacon. I still have the Turkey stock in the freezer which I will make Turkey and sweetcorn chowder with when we can face turkey again.

Today I am making stew - one pack of stew meat stretched with all the wizened veggies from the bottom of the fridge. Hopefully this will do tonight and lunch for my son tomorrow who has a long shift.

It is a beautiful day today and just debating whether to go for a walk...

Mrs_Boo_Boo

Just to say well done on your achievements in the past and here's to a wonderful 2015.

Busy_Mee

Thank you Mrs Boo Boo I have to say we had some very scary financial moments and I never want to be in that position again.

Nothing much to report on MSE front - back to work yesterday and it was really busy so no time to spend any money and eat anything bad.

I seem to have misjudged my meal plan - the stew on Sunday was supposed to stretch to LO for my son's lunch on Monday. It didn't : / I also bought a big ham joint that was supposed to do sandwiches for the majority of the week and that has gone too. ..grr

I have done better tonight I made corned beef hash by special request from DS, and I took his lunch portion out before the locusts descended. It makes me laugh how much he likes corned beef hash which is such a cheap meal - he once even made me cook it for a very posh girlfriend he bought home from university lol

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Good luck Busy, sounds like you are on the right path,

Squirrel x

Busy_Mee

Thank you for the encouragement Squirrel - your diary is one that I have lurked in the background and got a lot of inspiration from, so thank you.

I had a bit of a result last night - it is my daughters birthday in a couple of weeks and we usually go out for a meal that ends up costing us. I suggested inviting her Grandparents and I'll cook a nice meal instead. Wasn't sure she would go for it but she was quite keen and I already have a large joint of beef in the freezer so it will be very cheap,,,,but ssh don't tell her!

Just arguing with my self about whether to go for a run and do circuit traing or just one or the other- am kn@ckered, this working lark has come hard this week !

greent

Just found your diary - hope 2015 is a good year for you I look forward to following your journey


x

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Eating at home is always more fun and you can have more wine!

Busy_Mee

Hi GreenT - thank you and welcome. I hope this isn't going to be too boring

Squirrel - I like the way you think

Anyhoo decision made for me - the weather has turned properly nasty, so it is just the circuit training tonight

Busy_Mee

So these are the savings totals so far this month:

£650.00 - normal standing order ( think I might increase that to £700 from next month - nice round number and all that)
£2.34 (Tilly tidy)
£3.84 (Tilly tidy - it is ridiculous how happy this makes me)
£25.94 (saved from last weeks grocery budget)
£20.01 (topcashback - love free money! )

Total £702.13

So to reach my monthly target of £1000 I need to find another £297.87. We will both have some expenses to claim back from work and there will be the monthly interest on the account of about £11 but other than that we need to save this out of our grocery and cash spends budget.

I budget £100 per week for food but try and spend £75 and £100 per week for cash spends. This sounds a lot but we both have quite a lot of travel expenditure for work, which we can then claim back.

Have done well this week on the cash spends, only drew out £60 and still have some of mine left - need to check how OH is doing.

Have had a bit of a expenditure this morning - dentist £18.50 and petrol.

The dentist has given me a bit of dilemma - I would really like to have my teeth whitened. Yes I know this isn't MSE at £265 and is very vain but I hate my teeth and think this might help... Anyway didn't commit and think I might do a bit of research on home whitening kits...