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Hope is not an Effective Financial Strategy
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Glad to hear the school is reverting to what was the original purpose of school uniforms - which was not to see how much they could bleed out of the parents. I wish more of them would do that.
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Sounds good about the uniforms.Achieve FIRE/Mortgage Neutrality in 2030
1) MFW Nov 21 £202K now £174.8K Equity 32.77%
2) £2.6K Net savings after CCs 6/7/25
3) Mortgage neutral by 06/30 (AVC £24.3K + Lump Sums DB £4.6K + (25% of SIPP 1.2K) = 30.1/£127.5K target 23.6% 29/7/25
4) FI Age 60 income target £16.5/30K 55.1%
5) SIPP £4.8K updated 29/7/253 -
Oh goodness, I remember well the constant loss of kit. Football (hockey) boots at least twice a year, and lunch boxes (how?). Our son went to a prep school until 11 and it was a licence for the school outfitters to print money.Save £12k in 2025 #2 I am at £4863.32 out of £6000 after May (81.05%)
OS Grocery Challenge in 2025 I am at £1286.68/£3000 or 42.89% of my annual spend so far
I also Reverse Meal Plan on that thread and grow much of our own premium price fruit and veg, joining in on the Grow your own thread
My new diary is here4 -
Thankfully school uniforms have come in significantly under budget due to the changes. A small ray of sunshine amidst all the other price increases!
Another week begins of juggling attended work, home working, online meetings and school holidays...
Yesterday I OP'd our payments round up pot which was £4.97 and then some interest from our savings pot which was £5.29. The savings are very short term and is just stuff like Christmas money, car maintenance cash etc..., so not a large amount of cash in there.
Pooch number 1's pet insurance has renewed this morning, and only a minor increase considering we claimed every penny of it last year and he's now 8 so it starts to climb naturally. Pooch number 2 is due next Monday so need to encourage Mrs SJ to give them a ring to make some adjustments.
Tomorrow I'm going to detail our 'savings section' now that I've finished moving a few bits of cash around.
MFW: Was: £136,000.......Now: £47,736.58......5 -
Glad you didn't feel too robbed by the school uniform spends.Achieve FIRE/Mortgage Neutrality in 2030
1) MFW Nov 21 £202K now £174.8K Equity 32.77%
2) £2.6K Net savings after CCs 6/7/25
3) Mortgage neutral by 06/30 (AVC £24.3K + Lump Sums DB £4.6K + (25% of SIPP 1.2K) = 30.1/£127.5K target 23.6% 29/7/25
4) FI Age 60 income target £16.5/30K 55.1%
5) SIPP £4.8K updated 29/7/252 -
Savings
Avid readers may recall my posting about our home ownership and mortgage journey and a notification that I would detail about further segments of our finance pie chart. Well this afternoon I'm going to talk about our savings.
It's fair to say that everyone does this differently in a meaningful way to their situations. Ours has changed and moved around at various stages of our journey and this is how we currently work things (without mentioning specific amounts).
We currently classify our savings as money that we are putting to one side to pay for things in the short or medium terms. Any cash that is allocated towards retiring early or reducing working hours doesn't count. However... one such 'pot' that is outside pension wrappers is also there for any major emergencies that could crop up (but isn't included in my 'savings').
Overall we allocate 15% of monthly income into the following savings pots:- Holiday Pot
- Christmas Pot (also includes a January birthday element as we have 5 family birthdays in January and 2 are our own kids)
- Car Pot - Tax x 2, MOT & Maintenance
- Kids 'University' Fund (may well get used for other things if University isn't their route)
- Kids Miscellaneous Fund - uniforms, school shoe replacement, coats, parties, school trips etc...
- I do allocate money to a new car fund, however rather than classing this as a saving I mentally put it as 'car loan' so that I'm, not tempted to tamper with it. It ends up a set & forget and hopefully won't be required for another 5yrs yet.
Whilst the cash is only small amounts in the instant access saver I shuffle the interest each month into an OP (approx £5 a month) for the psychological benefit of trying to make regular OP's. I will then move the interest from our reg saver as a chunky OP next summer, and start the process again.
Hopefully these parts of savers interest, alongside TT's and payment round ups will get me to an overall total for the year of £526 which is equivalent of making 1 extra mortgage payment per year.MFW: Was: £136,000.......Now: £47,736.58......5 -
Sounds really well organised - not that I'm surprised!Achieve FIRE/Mortgage Neutrality in 2030
1) MFW Nov 21 £202K now £174.8K Equity 32.77%
2) £2.6K Net savings after CCs 6/7/25
3) Mortgage neutral by 06/30 (AVC £24.3K + Lump Sums DB £4.6K + (25% of SIPP 1.2K) = 30.1/£127.5K target 23.6% 29/7/25
4) FI Age 60 income target £16.5/30K 55.1%
5) SIPP £4.8K updated 29/7/252 -
shangaijimmy said:LadyWithAPlan said:Indeed, this forum is full of new figures to aim for for motivation. I am currently just TTing daily but it all helps keep me focused forwardDON'T BUY STUFF (from Frugalwoods)
No seriously, just don’t buy things. 99% of our success with our savings rate is attributed to the fact that we don’t buy things... You can and should take advantage of discounts.... But at the end of the day, the only way to truly save money is to not buy stuff. Money doesn’t walk out of your wallet on its own accord.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6289577/future-proofing-my-life-deposit-saving-then-mfw-journey-in-under-13-years#latest3 -
shangaijimmy I still subscribe to your very quiet diary, in the hope you will come back. I hope all is well with you and yoursSave £12k in 2025 #2 I am at £4863.32 out of £6000 after May (81.05%)
OS Grocery Challenge in 2025 I am at £1286.68/£3000 or 42.89% of my annual spend so far
I also Reverse Meal Plan on that thread and grow much of our own premium price fruit and veg, joining in on the Grow your own thread
My new diary is here5 -
Me too! Miss your posts @shanghaijimmy and hope all is well love Humdinger x3
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