Eating the elephant

Seanymph

Oh I am slack.

Work has been just pantsy, no other word for it. And an old knee injury is playing me up - MRI this afternoon I am treating it as motivation, I NEED to stop working and start beetling about in my campervan sooner rather than later, if I wait until I properly retire I won't be able to get out of the chair at this rate.

I have a system!

I know, to my shame I should have had one earlier - I get paid half way through the month, and OH gets paid at the end.

So, my money goes into the S & S (my left over money) and OH's goes on the mortgage and campervan fund (Premium Bonds).

This month I had house insurance suddenly, so I paid that - but still with OH's I managed to o'pay £666 today.

And learnt several things;

My sub account two end of year is 28th October - I was allowed 10% overpayments this year, and managed all but about £100 of that - then I can have 30% until the end of December when our fixed rate ends.

The most important bit is that currently we are 4.19% on a fixed rate, and when that ends on 31st December it DROPS to 4%!!! I thought it always went up - apparently not.

I suspect, after this weeks overpayment I am in the 64k's - just. Our payment is on the 10th, so I will do a comparison then to the starting figure in March, but over the seven months we are definitely over 5,000 paid off. I feel very proud - it should have been only £3,150.00.

We have £3,000 now in the campervan fund - and are losing money at a steady rate in the S & S - but it's heading for £2,000 there.

So, I am actually starting to feel that progress is being made. It's the first time I have!

Seanymph

I am very tempted to divest the Premium Bonds of the £3,000 and pay that off sub account 2 once I can after the 28th October.

It is currently standing at just under 15,000. Costs £197 a month. and has 8 years and one month to go.

So if I can pay that off that's £197 a month we have to choose what to do with.

Interest saved.

But it does stuff my new system

Seanymph

£64,899.07! An average of £726 a month.

How exciting.

In other news we have decided not to take our two week break scheduled at the end of the this month in France, but to remain at home in England.

Partly because of errant children (and I use the term loosely - the youngest is 19!) - but also to get on with some of the projects here.

That is going to bang a big hole in my spendies this month - but it will be so worth it to get things in hand.

The bathroom has been a work in progress for almost two years now - and I have a list as long as my arm.

Whether we are moving, or renting in five years we need to get it in hand.

So, the OH and I decided last night we would have the famed 'staycation', take some days off to go visit his parents and such - but generally get our heads down and organise our house a bit. I know I'd feel a lot better for it.

OH is grumpy, he likes to get to France, but personally I find two weeks over there a bit tedious and I live in an unfinished property and think we should focus on this a bit more - so I'm not as grumpy.

Seanymph

£64,418.54!

The monthly payment has gone out.

£5568.03 off since 11th March - up to £795 a month on average.

I am very pleased - although because of the staycation and work on the house here we won't be pushing any new boundaries anytime soon. Yesterday we got the fence creasoted, took down the chicken run and shed and burnt all of the rubbish - and the timber left will be used to make the wood store.

I had big ideas when we moved here, a polytunnel, a beautifully kept vegetable garden. Nothing has happened. We have decided to grass the lot and buy a ride on lawnmower.

That sounds easier than it is - we will have to dig out endless trees (although I may fight for a few of my favourites - and the last tenants used the ground at the side of the house as a rubbish midden, so it can't just be cleared and grassed, it needs some sort of digging effect to clean it first - so far we have only cleaned a small area we were cultivating - the rest, although cleared on the surface so it could be gone over with a cutter is just nettles, docks, and springy with rubbish underneath.

Added to the work in the house there is a lot of money to be spent here - so until after christmas I think my focus will be off the mortgage and onto my environment which needs to improve, it's making me miserable at the moment.

The bathroom needs finishing, I'd like proper carpet in my bedroom, the other two bathrooms need finishing off, we need a new kitchen, all the barge boards need replacing....... there is a lot to do.

Youngest DD had her b/f here for the weekend, and abandoned him with us to go riding all day yesterday at Sandringham, so he got put to work with SS and OH and we really did achieve well. I'm starting to feel much more positive.

My 'to do' list at work, and home, and in France, had got so long that I was getting really overwhelmed. I usually do when OH is working 7 days a week, he doesn't help with anything else for a few months, just focuses on work and comes home and sits, and I always starting feeling the weight of keeping the house running - and getting short with the kids for not contributing enough.

And this year was worse somehow because I'm targeting retirement in around exactly 5 years from now - so I wanted to be seeing move towards it, and it wasn't happening!

Still, mortgage is going down at a pace - if I keep this up I think it will be cleared in five years - and now we are working on the house - so it will be finished and ready to rent out too. Excellent.

The only thing missing is the ability to buy the campervan, and the balance of the income. I have the two houses rented, and the FIT payments so far.

It's taking shape.

Seanymph

£64,469.78

As anticipated it has gone up not down this month - although the fact that I knew it was going to happen has not made it any easier to wear!

I have also got £650 sitting on my credit card until next payday - so it's even worse than that really.

However the shower is taking shape - the door was over £300 and had to be ordered from Spain, Mr Sea didn't research the size of doors available, so built his shower then learnt he had to have one made to fit.

But, everything is now paid for - it's just a question of the finishing touches.

In the dining room the disability ramp and door connecting to the living room has gone, and is ready to be plastered - and excitingly the septic tank has new covers.

But money is going out faster than coming in, and the mortgage is not getting anything extra.

Back to work Monday - the two weeks off has shown me that I really really have no desire at all to work, I am thoroughly miserable at the prospect of monday. So either I need to reconcile to it, find a quicker way to stop, or find something I enjoy more.

Seanymph

What a slack two months - I have just read it all back, and the value of a diary is lost if I don't fill it in!

The bathroom is finished - yahay. It took two years, Mr Sea keeps saying 'I know it took me a year'. It didn't, it took two. But I'm letting him delude himself.

Youngest has now bought the horse, and the 4 x 4 - and owes me money....

The roof is now nearly paid for bar £177.00 - we had insurance and taxes in France that came out of that account, and it's being done this week, so that needs sorting. Mr Sea is flying over on 8th Jan to check it out. Only for a couple of days though.

So;

I currently don't have mortgage figures to hand - but haven't made any overpayments.
My credit card has got out of hand - I think it will take me two months to rein that in, and I am overdrawn on all of my accounts.

However we have finished the bathroom, paid for christmas (mostly), done one length of hedging at the house, mot'd and serviced the car - and lent youngest some money.

My wages are currently in clearing. And will go on the credit card and repay the overdraft.
OH gets paid Thursday - and will also go on the credit card and overdraft.

By February I want to be back on top, and am setting a target of £600 overpayment monthly.

I don't know how I will hit it - but that's the target.

Seanymph

£63,561.33

So, going down slowly! £6,425.24 since March. £713.92/month.

This months money has cleared both overdrafts, left enough (just!) and there will be a carried forward balance to January on the Credit Card for the first time ever.

Hopefully by the end of January though my focus will all be back in the right places.

Of course the tumble drier is playing up, the cooker has lost half the grill and keeps tripping out, the deep fat fryer has died, I had to replace my balloon whisk, food processor, and something else which currently escapes me.

Seems like everything electrical in the house has decided to keel over at once.

Seanymph

£63,181.42

What a couple of months.

I should, really, lose my debt free sticker - I have £900 on my credit card, £600 of that is my daughters (which she will pay back from her next student loan) but I have not cleared it this month. I thought this would happen in January.

We had so many repairs last month - not to mention my car, which some herbert drove into at work, then didn't come and tell me - it can only be one of about 20 people who used the car park that morning, they all know my car - and it's a private car park up a no through road! So, a cash repair was necessary, a tree needed felling professionally in the garden, christmas happened, and my step son finally got engaged to his girlfriend and the mother of his child so a decent engagement present was necessary.

Personally I think I did well keeping it to £300 carry forward!

On the other side OH has £750 carried forward this month too. I spent boxing day with my ex FIL who has had a stroke - and came back with the 'life is too short' mantra. So we have two weeks in Las Vegas booked for May.

I have the savings to offset the cards, I COULD cash in and pay them off - but I don't want to dip, so we have two carry forwards that will be cleared at the end of this month.

The french roof is completed and paid for - just the bakehouse to go. And the roofer has broken his foot, so that won't happen until at least March.

So No overpayments. No savings. No investments.

But we are afloat, we have paid off all sorts this last month or so (a thousand towards my daughters car - she still owes the balance) - endless bills, a car bodywork repair - and I feel ok.

I am looking forward to the holiday - it was on the bucket list, can't be driven to in a camper van when we get it - and we CAN afford it, it just means there isn't anything for anywhere else for a few months.

So I don't deserve to be here really.

Seanymph

Feeling a bit more bouyant (sp?) today.

Despite the carry forward I'm going to make a payment on the mortgage.

The FIT reading has gone in, and I was going to use it to buy heating oil, but I've managed to cover that already, so from the FIT money I will pay off around £80.00

Not a huge sum, but another tiny mouthful.

Seanymph

£62,718.17

It's nice to see 62.

OH's son is looking to change his job - we had a chat about it, and OH has told his son that we will be looking to sell the house, and he should bear it in mind. (SS and his g/f live in the house we have the mortgage on).

It has made us VERY unpopular.

We have though subsidised their living for around 5 years now, and it will never be a good time for them to buy their own house (or this one) or move elsewhere. And I'm not sure I want to be paying a mortgage on a house someone else lives in in my dotage!

The house is worth around 160k. The mortgage can be seen here.

It is, unfortunately, in an area where the house is not appreciating, we could buy a house nearer us with the left over money, and generate an income which doesn't go out on a mortgage, AND have a house that will appreciate - or perhaps do something else with it.

We don't have to decide now, OH has told him that it will be at least six months before we do anything, but I am keen to keep up the momentum - as it is, for us, a second home, it will be amazing to pay off the mortgage in one fell swoop!