Hope is not an Effective Financial Strategy

debtfreeoneday

Great work if you can get a year off! I'm waiting to see mine reduce by a month in term in the next few months..

shangaijimmy

My workings out are actually 11 months, but we can call it a year between friends...;)

I'm thinking that the extra £35 per month will end up averaging out at an extra month payment for per year. So although £35 doesn't seem like a great deal, it will for over 108 payments, especially when we take into account the cumulative effect.

We'll see anyway...:money:

ourcornercottage

I'm thinking of upping my standard OP again (currently about £185) as I'm paying more than this every month anyway.

I've upped my monthly target from £400 to £425 recently and £700 on my FIT payment months. It seems for us as long as I don't go too mad with these gets we manage to hit them.

To hit my £5000 annual target I've gotta pay about an average of £650 per month for the last 3 months. I'm going to try anyway.

shangaijimmy

Knowing you OCC im pretty certain you'll do it.Us MFW sorts seem to set a target, leave it for a month or two, then up it!!

We've gone from standard OP of £300, to £423, to £453 and now to £488 - in 9 months!!

shangaijimmy

Pooch is fine too. Bit mithered with his cone, and feeling a tad sorry for himself but thats all.

shangaijimmy

Well we're nearing the end of the month which means we can really start to countdown to major OP day and accounts posting day. Exciting news is that depending on the size of TT's for the next 3 days we may sneak into the 128k's, and colour in 2 bricks!! If we do it'll be by less than £5 so we will slip back when interest is applied, but once its coloured in...

We've done really well this month and that's with the boiler, the fridge, the toilet and the pooch spends. So although its been spendy we've proved we can cope with these extra spends and still throw a load at the mortgage. Our OP pot will end up at about £550 for the month and give a reduction of just over £1k, which is fantastic.

Mrs SJ still thinks we're on the breadline though, so keep quiet...!

Maybe_its_because

shangaijimmy wrote: »

Mrs SJ still thinks we're on the breadline though, so keep quiet...!

Interesting this.

I was talking to my OH last night about possibly reducing my income/hours to be more with DD.

We buy everything we want and need (within reason). We're OPing the mortgage and we're increasing our savings and our holiday pot of money. We don't go out as much as we used to - but thats because of DD (tired or lack of babysitter) not because of the ££s.
We havent stopped spending, we just KNOW what we spend on.
He has interpreted this in a similar way to your Mrs.(i.e. we're skint!)

Not saying its a bad thing, its just that I find this perceptions quite interesting.I may need to pitch our OPing in a more positive way on the day-to-day basis.

shangaijimmy

Your right MiB. How to 'play' it with non financial half is a tough one to judge. Just last week Mrs SJ came in and told me about a woman at the petrol station who put £1.50 of petrol in her car as that was all she had in the bank. Mrs SJ actually thanked me as she reckons sh'e absolutely be like that if i didn't control all the financials!

So i suppose i have the money 'fear factor' on my side too! My overall pitch is that once the mortgage is paid Mrs SJ can reduce her hours. I don't actually think she'd want to but having the option is a nice thing i suppose.

In the end i make sure we have frequent bits where i pitch all my money plans and progress to her, and i just have to find the right moment. Overall we both realise that the mortgage we took was a massive risky decision and in hindsight (with maturity) we acknowledge it was a bit reckless. We're now in a strong position and both want to reduce our financial 'risk', so we're both on board. I just don't think Mrs SJ realises quite how hard we're going for it.

shangaijimmy

Accounts posting day tomorrow - Woo!
Plus signature update day - Woo!
Plus brick colouring in day - Woo!
Plus first target crossing off day - Woo! I was thinking about amending my targets on 1st post, or adding a sub line in a different colour, but can't decide whether to wait until the 1st year ends???

shangaijimmy

Early check in say £1 TT'd this morning. That closes the daily TT for September at £23.46. I'll OP that pot at lunch then make a start on monthly accounts. So excited for this months figures, it may be out best yet...!