My mortgage-free journey

LannieDuck

pavlovs_dog wrote: »

Hi Lannie,

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



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.

Hi, so sorry for not replying earlier - MSE didn't tell me I had a post!

Our jobs are reasonably secure - mine more than his. We're just about to both go down to working 4 days a week, so that gives a bit of security. If one of our jobs went, the other could probably increase their hours (him more easily than me). He also has an alternate career possibility that he's keeping ticking over, and I was looking around at the next step up for my career lately (just out of interest) - I think I'm well qualified for it now. So we have options if need be.

Will definitely be sorting out a good buffer before I start overpaying. I used to have a lot in savings before this move, and I feel vulnerable without them.

LannieDuck

I didn't realise it had been almost a month since I last posted. We've been so busy settling into the new routine and trying to get the house sorted.

Finances got really tight this month. We started the (pay-)month with a £2k buffer in our account just before the pay cheques went in on 25th of last month. When I went to check our finances on 17th of this month (to update my signature with recent mortgage payments), I discovered our account was down to £200!! :eek: We'd managed to spend all of this month's incomings plus nearly all of our £2k buffer.

As you can see, I didn't get around to updating my signature because the rest of the afternoon was spent working out what had happened! It turns out three months' worth of nursery fees had come out in one month. I was expecting 2 months to come out, but had thought June's fees would come out in June, not May. Silly assumption on my part, and thank goodness we had the buffer in to accommodate it.

Added to which, nursery hadn't taken our childcare vouchers into account, so I got them to quickly reimburse us £400. Plus we're switching gas and electricity, and the gas switch hasn't completed so we got charged by two suppliers! That was a bit more chasing required from me, and should be sorted by this month... with a refund from one of them, hopefully....

But we've had a tight week this week. I had to put the kids' Waterbabies termly fees onto the credit card to push the bill into next month. We also had a new gardener starting, so that was £50 out. On the plus side, the gardener reckons she can deal with the nasty holly tree that's shedding prickly leaves all over our patio and spiking my children (3yo and 1yo) as they try to run around outside. I'd been expecting to have to pay a tree surgeon to do it, so that's a bonus!

We're trying to spend as little as possible on food (see earlier post about ridiculous food bills!). Milk for the kids is an essential (our 1yo still drinks a lot of it), and it turns out squash for our 3yo is an essential too :P We'll need some nappies in the next few days, but as of yesterday we still have £400 to get us to pay day (Thursday), so I think we're good.

We had the in-laws visiting today, and my OH always likes to try and do some lavish entertaining. I let him have a budget of £50 to include alcohol (non-optional with his parents who are used to the French style of hospitality...). He did really well and went for a roast chicken. It fed 4 adults + 2 kids, with enough left over for a yummy thai curry he's making at the moment with all our left-over veg (which will do for our lunches tomorrow as well), the kids' dinners tomorrow, and sandwiches for at least two days. We might even have enough meat on the carcass for a stir fry later in the week.

Next month's money is going to be a bit tight too. The affore-mentioned Waterbabies bill will come out, plus the nursery bill will be a bit higher than normal (only one childcare voucher next month for complicated reasons, but back to normal after that). However, on the plus side my pay increment should finally be coming in with backpay to April, and my OH got a small payrise too. He also got an unexpected cheque for £100 from the insolvency service from a company he used to work for that went under and owed him some holiday pay. Must get that paid in...

I'm really looking forward to having all the bills nice and steady so I can start some proper budgeting. It's so difficult at the moment with everything still changing. We're all change again in July because work's approved my request to drop down to 4 days a week, and my OH will be increasing to 4 days a week at the same time. It means the kids will only need to be in nursery for three days (as they are now), we'll both have one day with them a week, and we'll both be working nearly full weeks.

My OH has been very keen to get this happening for some months now, so he's pleased I'm... nervous. I really struggled at the end of maternity leave with looking after two children plus organising the house move (I did 90% of the admin). I think I may have had some PND at the end. There were evenings where I was literally sat on the sofa sobbing. Getting the house move finished went some way to alleviating the stress, but going back to work was what really helped. So I'm quite nervous to be picking up a day of solo childcare again each week. Hopefully this time it'll be much easier - no housemove to navigate and only one day a week. Plus my 1yo is sleeping through now and isn't nearly as clingy as she used to be. It should be fine. I'm just crossing my fingers

YNAB isn't quite up and running for me as it should be. I seem to have an overspend even though I have money left in my account. I'm awaiting my paper bill to come though the post so I can reconcile properly. I think once I get it all sorted and used to the YNAB-way, it'll be a big help.

*Phew* huge update!!

PrincessLou

Have you considered doing an SOA? It could be helpful to get another pair of eyes to look over it and suggest areas you could cut back.

LannieDuck

PrincessLou wrote: »

Have you considered doing an SOA? It could be helpful to get another pair of eyes to look over it and suggest areas you could cut back.

I have, but my bills have been all over the place for the last few months, plus I know exactly where we need to cut back - food!

The food bill is more a problem with my OH (in the nicest possible way!) - he loves buying what he fancies as and when he fancies it. Plus he takes the kids out to the shops to get them out of the house sometimes. I used to meal plan and shop online before the house move and that helped to control it, but when my mat leave finished I suddenly got soooo busy that I stopped. Meal planning has now started again and online shopping really ought to start again too.

SavingRaven

Hi LannieDuck,

Sounds like you've had one of those months when all the bills hit at once - they're annoying aren't they! But brilliant that you had a buffer in place that could soak it up.

I hope the move to 4 days a week goes well for you.

Let us know how you get on with YNAB. I've heard good things about it but whenever I try and log expenses etc I always forget, it would be good to hear some first hand experience.

Have a good weekend
SR

LannieDuck

Got through to payday without tooooo much more spending We've got a tight month coming up tho, so I'm determined to get our food budget under control. We're going to try for a weekly budget of £150. I know that's high for a lot of people on here, but I want to find a level that we can manage on for the next couple of years, and I think cutting back too heavily would be counter-productive.

£150/wk will cover all household expenses, toiletries and nappies/wipes etc as well as food and drink. This week I started with a £73 Lidl shop (including two wine boxes). Then my OH did a trip to Sainsburys to pick up some things we couldn't get at Lidl. He was supposed to spend £30 max, but it came in at £45 because he got some things for the store cupboard. This is an ongoing problem - he seems to be forever 'stocking up' :rotfl: Nm, it just means we only have £30 for a mid-week top-up instead of the £50 I was hoping to have. That'll need to cover milk, bread, juice etc.

I think alcohol may be a large part of the difficulty I have keeping control of the food budget. My OH drinks a lot. He knows he does, but he can't just have one drink. So it's either 3-4 glasses a night or nothing. Because the last year has been so stressful with the house move, we've both been drinking most evenings (for me that means a glass a night). We really need to go back to our previous rule of not drinking during the week. I mentioned it yesterday and OH agreed, albeit reluctantly Not sure if he's quite ready to start it this week, but if I mention it again in a few days' time, maybe we can start it the following week. We need to do it for both our wallets and our health!

My first 4-day week starts this week. Wish me luck!

PrincessLou

I see you've been (almost) mortgage free before, how much did you pay off the first time round? Maybe you could apply some of the same principles this time?

katep23

LannieDuck wrote: »

I think alcohol may be a large part of the difficulty I have keeping control of the food budget. My OH drinks a lot. He knows he does, but he can't just have one drink. So it's either 3-4 glasses a night or nothing. Because the last year has been so stressful with the house move, we've both been drinking most evenings (for me that means a glass a night). We really need to go back to our previous rule of not drinking during the week. I mentioned it yesterday and OH agreed, albeit reluctantly Not sure if he's quite ready to start it this week, but if I mention it again in a few days' time, maybe we can start it the following week. We need to do it for both our wallets and our health!

My first 4-day week starts this week. Wish me luck!

Oh God, this is us! I'm fine on cider, I can have one or two but with wine - sheesh, I swear it evaporates! Either that or it's the wine monster, he comes along and pinches your nose until you open your mouth then he pours the entire bottle in :eek:

Hope your 4-day week is going well for you

LannieDuck

PrincessLou wrote: »

I see you've been (almost) mortgage free before, how much did you pay off the first time round? Maybe you could apply some of the same principles this time?

It was my husband's relatively small mortgage. When I moved in with him, I paid him a set monthly amount that covered the mortgage for him (in lieu of me paying official rent), and he paid all the utilities. When we married, I was able to use my savings to pay off (most) of the rest of the mortgage.

This time around we don't have any savings left and the monthly mortgage is much larger... and we have two children in nursery 3 days a week, so quite big childcare costs. But there are two of us working nearly full time. We'll do it

LannieDuck

katep23 wrote: »

Oh God, this is us! I'm fine on cider, I can have one or two but with wine - sheesh, I swear it evaporates! Either that or it's the wine monster, he comes along and pinches your nose until you open your mouth then he pours the entire bottle in :eek:

Hope your 4-day week is going well for you

lol! Definitely a wine monster :rotfl:

My OH has tried all sorts of ways to limit himself. It just doesn't work - it's all or none for him. And at the moment with two v young children getting him out of bed at 6am every morning, he really feels the need for a glass or two after a hectic morning getting the kiddies off to nursery, a full day's work, a very hectic evening getting the kids into bed, and then cooking dinner for us. We just collapse at the end of the day, and I just can't bring myself to deny him a glass of wine! He knows he needs to cut down tho, so I think alcohol-free weekdays are the way to go...