My mortgage-free journey

LannieDuck

My first trip to Lidl! In the old flat, Aldi and Lidl were both v difficult to get to/park at. But here, Lidl is really easy - yay

It was a bit stressful with two little ones in tow, but £140 for a whole trolley-load of food and some really excellent bargains.

Looks like the second payrise won't happen - I'd failed to account for a few adjustments - which isn't too much of a surprise.

Almost certainly need to get a new car soon. The garage couldn't find anything wrong with the transmission, but it's giving me trouble on my commute, so I think I'll be digging into my S&S ISA to get a new one. Thinking of a Honda Jazz atm because I've heard they're v reliable - basically want one that will last as many years as possible without going wrong.

LannieDuck

I have a shiny new (used) car, and managed to negotiate £300 off the list price. Was still a lot of money tho *sigh*

Hopefully that will be the last big expense for a while. I really want to settle down and start overpaying on the mortgage.

LannieDuck

I've got almost a month's worth of YNAB information on our spending now. I've got to get our food budget under control. We spent so much on food last month that I'm not going to post the figure - it's just embarrassing. The worst part is that we thought we were doing quite well with frugal shopping.

I think the problem is that I've been so busy since we moved that I haven't done any meal planning. That's changing right now - I've got a plan for the next week up on the fridge and it doesn't require us to shop at all.

MummyEm

Meal planning is definitely the way to go. I find we can spend £3-400 more a month if I don't meal plan :eek:
There are some weeks when I struggle to find the motivation the plan meals but it makes life so much easier mid week when you know what needs cooking without having to give it much thought.

LannieDuck

I don't know how we've overspent quite so much on food this month (it's about over our budget by £400). It's not like we have loads spare, and we've been buying from Lidl / Tescos. My husband thinks a lot of it is because we started with an empty freezer (post house-move), and now we have a full freezer. He might be right, but I think a lack of meal planning is also to blame.

I'll just have to find the time/energy to meal plan for the next month and see if it makes a difference.

SavingRaven

Hi LannieDuck,

Just found your diary. Another big mortgage here - £280,000 when we took it out in Sep 2013 and have just started OPing after a year of spending hand over fist renovating.

Will be subscribing to your diary!
Best of luck
SR

LannieDuck

Hi SavingRaven. Thanks for subscribing, it really helps to motivate me to post Do you have a diary I could subscribe to?

I haven't started OPing yet. I'm still trying to figure out quite how much money we're going to have at the end of each month after all bills are paid. It doesn't help that my pay uplift has been delayed by a month, so our income will change next month (with uplift+backpay) and then again the month after (just uplift), and we're starting to take childcare vouchers from my OH's pay (as well as mine) this month, so his income will change too... and i'm in the process switching the gas and electricity suppliers this month (I just stuck with the suppliers that were at the house originally when we moved in), so that's going to change too... *phew* I'm hoping in a month or two I'll have a good idea of our new monthly budget!

We're not renovating, but I think I'm in the period of spending hand over fist getting set up. It certainly feels like it - new bed for oldest daughter, new car for me (my old one apparently wasn't up to my new commute), outside table for the garden etc etc.... hopefully we've got passed most of that now!

You've reminded me that I must update my sig - I made a second mortgage payment at the start of this month, and have a third due to come out in a couple of days' time.

egoode

Hi LannieDuck, I also have quite a large mortgage of £260k although I'm doing it on my own, but living in London it's almost impossible to avoid having a large mortgage.

I've also been using YNAB and I'm finding it really good to stop me spending quite so much although this month I've been a bit lazy with it and my spending has been a little out of control because of it. Good luck with your plans.

If you want to check out my diary it's here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5035985

SavingRaven

The first couple of months in a new place are always a pain and everything seems up in the air. Sounds like you're already on top of what's happening/ expected to happen jobs-wise which is great.

Good that you don't have to renovate either, wish I'd had the common sense to buy a place that didn't need work!
And really well done on the OPs so far, fantastic work.

I do have a diary where I fret about losing work (self-employed) and juggling different goals if you can stand my ramblings!!

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/search.php?searchid=161873975

SR

pavlovs_dog

Hi Lannie,

found you via the Mortgage free in 2025-30 thread :wave:

LannieDuck wrote: »

I used to have a £10k easy access 'emergency fund' that I'd very much like to build up again.

I'm sure there's loads of opinions on how much of your cash you should put into savings vs overpayments. Is there a general consensus?

I think it depends on your personal circumstances. How secure are your jobs? The greater the risk that one/both of you could be made redundant, the more money it makes sense to have behind you. This could be tempered slightly if you work in an industry where you could easily pick up other work. For example, as a teacher I could pick up supply work with relative ease, so am content with a smaller emergency fund because I know that I am unlikely to be unemployed for an extended period of time.

Work out your bottom line (all essential, non-avoidable outgoing for a month). Then, depending on your job security, multiply by 3,6, 9 or 12.

You then need to decide whether this is your '!!!!!! hits the fan' fund alone, or will it also save the day if your boiler packed in tomorrow? Again this depends on your personal circumstances. Our current mortgage would not allow us to draw down OPs, but would allow us to take a payment holiday until we had exhausted our OP reserve. For this reason, we have one emergency fund that exists to cover any and all emergencies. Our jobs are as secure as you can wish for, we have a healthy emergency fun, good access to credit and family who could help if we were in dire straits.

I know some on here mentally offset any money in savings against their mortgage balance, with a view towards mortgage neutrality.