Half way there and a slight change of direction

Karmacat

Powerful stuff, El. Stick with it - you've made a boundary, about not shouldering all the control and responsibility - the figures may wobble a bit while MrEl takes up his share of both, but this is setting you much more firmly on the right track. Good for you.

elantan

Thanks KC ... I have put on the white board a weekly financial update, I REALLY just need to keep it up now

skint_spice

Just wanted to say how much I love GG's 'super'

Did you not have a wee spell recently when about 3 things went wonky including the washing machine? Might explain the holiday money.

elantan

Yeah I love GG's emoticons as well

I did have to get the new washing machine yep, I have had to spend loads of money on needs not wants, so I know I didnt waste any money ( went for a meal the other night ... the first in a long time... buffet and £20 for both of us)

I think the problem is the whole we dont have a slush fund tbh, and I dont want a slush fund, I know this board talks about slush funds ( emergency funds... 6 months etc) and I know they also dont agree with remortgaging debt and I know I do everything backwards but I try and work it the best way for us.

If I was to have a slush fund I know Mr El would a) be happy with it, and constantly say " yeah we have emergency money should we need it, lets not use it for anything else" ... and then I think we need a holiday, a wee break away, a take away, a day out etc etc it's an emergency and we have that money sitting there and that's what it is to be used for. Then before we know it there is no slush fund left, and something breaks and we need to find the money anyway, only this time we are down the money that was in the slush fund.

Once we are mortgage free then I will work on having emergency money because at the same time we will be working on having a holiday fund, a house repair fund etc etc... we will have the money to be able to do all these things.

Anyway current situation is this, I did a shift yesterday, and happened to have my already damaged shoulder damaged even more so, so I may not be able to work on Sunday if it doesnt settle down soon, its currently spasaming and has started to freeze so painkillers, heat and ice packs, massage and the tens machine it is.

Finance wise we have been keeping a note of every penny spent so Mr El and I will have a better picture when we do the finances on Friday, I am hoping he starts to see the whole picture

edinburgher

Belated congratulations on being mortgage neutral El! :beer:

Really sorry to hear that your shoulder is playing up, I find that few things are as discouraging as illness or injury.

Part of me was considering coming across all financy pedanty about your description of an emergency fund as a 'slush fund', but it wouldn't help (and life happens). I honestly don't think that such monies should be used for wants such as a takeaway, but we don't always plan as well as we might like and I bet there are very few people who haven't pinched a few ££££ from their 'emergency fund' for a car repair, or some other predicatable but inconvenient bill.

I disagree with your view that you can't budget because you're focusing on the mortgage. Surely you can't afford *not* to budget it you're serious about paying it off? Focusing on the mortgage to the extent where you don't trust yourself not to waste the EF makes me think that your current pace might be a bit of a false economy? Sometimes a wee bit slower doesn't hurt

Also tracking every penny spent at the moment, learning some humbling facts re. unrealistic budgeting

elantan

Thanks Ed, yeah the shoulder injury is from a car accident years ago, it hopefully will settle soon and I can get back to normal

Oh we do budget Ed ... we budget a lot, we just dont always stick to it lol ... I agree with you that we should have an emergency fund ( slush fund ... whatever) I just know ( from past experience of having one) what happens when we do, maybe it is something we can bring back in the future if we keep up the whole looking at the finances every week idea, I think some of the reasons it didnt work was because it was just me dealing with the finances and even though I would say to Mr El look we dont have the money for a take away etc he would go on and on about it till I gave in.

edinburgher

Because we're human and don't always plan 100% as well as we should, it's sometimes important to put a few hurdles in our way to make it harder to spend money. I've got personal experience of this, there is a 50% chance that we will dip into our 'emergency fund' to cover loss of earnings due to maternity leave.

Is there any chance that you could tie up some slush in a fixed term/similar account that would impose swingeing cuts on your interest rate if you withdrew money, but that you could still get the money out of in a pinch? I'm switching 10% of our EF into P2P lending for this reason - better growth than typical cash, but essentially locked up for a long time.

elantan

edinburgher wrote: »

Because we're human and don't always plan 100% as well as we should, it's sometimes important to put a few hurdles in our way to make it harder to spend money. I've got personal experience of this, there is a 50% chance that we will dip into our 'emergency fund' to cover loss of earnings due to maternity leave.

Is there any chance that you could tie up some slush in a fixed term/similar account that would impose swingeing cuts on your interest rate if you withdrew money, but that you could still get the money out of in a pinch? I'm switching 10% of our EF into P2P lending for this reason - better growth than typical cash, but essentially locked up for a long time.

Oh yeah I have that... it makes up the offset part of the mortgage... this month we will be more than offset as well, so it free's up the amount of money every month that we pay off the mortgage ( thus building up the non mortgage savings/slush fund) if that makes sense ?

edinburgher

That makes sense, but aren't you free to take money out of the offset? Wondering how you manage to maintain offset mortgage, but give in to the demands of the Wily Mr El re. other monies...

elantan

we are technically free to take money out but it is like you say we loose interest etc... Mr El is aware of this and doesnt like losing money so he wont touch it, he also loves being offset so wont touch it, this however is part of the reason why I am now putting the extra I paid to the mortgage to the Pension, so that Mr El cant claim it lol