Crunchy pays it down....£20k...the final chapter

crunch_time

Morning diary

Good news from last night! Mortgage advisor reckons we can get a mortgage for around £600 - £650 a month at 1.9% which is way better than our current £752 at £3.89%!! He is going to check a few things today but then thinks we can afford to wait a month or so and then the rates might have gone down even more.

He also said not to worry too much about overpaying the loan and that we should concentrate on the mortgage, especially if we want to move again. I still reckon I can do a bit of both. We shall see.

Cheap DIYing planned for this weekend. Front garden fence and painting a wall inside.

Happy Friday everyone!

Crunchy xx

abba1772

That's a huge saving.......I've got another 21 months before I can remortgage our rage is quite high due to hubby's poor credit rating but I'm just grateful we have a mortgage, our mortgage advisor has said when it comes to it we should be saving £70 a month but if we are happy to continue to pay what we are paying we might as well reduce the number of years instead of the amount xx

crunch_time

Morning diaryland,

That is a huge saving abba - every little (or big) helps!!

No heavy DIY this weekend - husband has hurt his back. He has gone out in the car with DS to run some errands. DD is napping and I'm out in the garden in shorts and t shirt and it is blissful.

SO my second to last pay check has now been spent or accounted for. Husband gets paid next Friday. He needs some new t shirts and summer shoes so we are going shopping in town on the Saturday. I also have a lovely voucher to spend to the value of £50 in the m and s place. We are going to buy some stuff for the house like a bathroom mirror or some picture frames. Anything from the long list of things we would like to buy. Notice how I refrained from saying 'need!'

I have decided to add savings to the budget from this month forward where we practice living on just husbands wage.

So after mortgage, food, bills, loan and car payment adding husbands £50 ISA savings and the childrens £71 ISA saving to the list. This means we will have £689 left over for....

- fuel
- Clothes
- spending money
- chiropractor
- car maintenance
- holidays
- dentist
- Christmas/birthdays
- hair cuts etc.

I am considering taking £80 out of cash and then popping the rest in one of our online savings accounts and making it a game to see how much is left by the end of the month. Over this debt pay back journey husband and I have gotten very good at (mostly) buying only what we need and rarely treating ourselves so instead of pots of money for all those things (which I think I struggle with on YNAB) we will mash it all together. These used to be lines in our spreadsheet and still are so this £600 is roughly budgeted but it will be an excellent exercise in my ambition to make us as frugal as possible.

Anyway, I'm off to make the most of my child free time!

Enjoy the lovely weather everyone!

Crunchy xx

crunch_time

Evening diary

Ive had a lovely day today. I made a chart for DS to show how many sleeps until he starts school. I'm also using it to chart my NSD's this summer. Determined for a frugal/happy one unlike last summer.

So today was a NSD. Just a play date here with friends. Had a 6-8 mile trip in the car though to the drs.

I also had a lovely chat with husband on Saturday night. We have decided to really try and hammer the loan down because once its gone its gone and we can get on with our lives. We have the lovely excuse of only being on one income so we can turn down expensive meals out etc. Its a great opportunity.

My first task is to get it down below £10k by January 1st.

This means overpayments of £189 a month till the rest of the year. I'm hoping this will come from a mixture of....

- bay of e sales/gumtree sales
- savings from our food budget with me controlling it to within an inch of its life.
- savings from fuel with me controlling trips in the car.
- supply work from me come September.
- Money from the £600.

My next step is deciding our budget for August.

DS wants to make a den in the garden tomorrow so that will be nice and cheap and cheerful. Just hope it doesn't rain...

Crunchy xx

crunch_time

Morning all

So here is the August budget.

- Chiropractor for me - £32
- Hair cuts for all - £57
- Husband clothes - £100 - 2 t shirts and a pair of shoes/trainers.
- Me dress for 2 weddings this summer - £50 - I have decided to make it to get what I want in the colour I want that actually fits me so £15 for pattern, £10 for pashmina, leaving £25 for fabric and notions. I'm planning to wear a pair of shoes I already own and make a clutch bag out of an old sparkly cardigan - thrifty eh?
- Cheap night out with a couple of mates - £10.
- wedding present £50 - I could use our M&S vouchers for this then buy something for us later in the year just to keep costs down this month.
- wedding spending money - £40.
- BBQ with friends - £30 for meat and beer.
- Fuel - £50
- paint for hallway and our bedroom - £30

This comes to £449 leaving £151 left for my over payment this month. Not quite £189. Perhaps I should use the voucher to give us some leeway. Either way its going to be tight. September budget should look freeer tbut then Christmas and birthday stuff (there are 3 out of the 4 of us having a birthday in the autumn) will strat to mount up.

Ah well its for the greater good.

Hoping for another NSD today. Husband has a bit of a jippy tummy so has asked me to buy some electrolytes. He doesn't really need them he just needs to drink water. To keep it a no spend day, the shop may conveniently not have any in stock.......

Crunchy xx

crunch_time

Evening all,

So today wasn't a NSD. I had to buy Imodium - well sains own version for £1 which was much cheaper than the Imodium - for poor husband who still isn't right and probably wont be travelling on a plane tomorrow and will be working from home. Poor love.

In between child rearing (and we did mange to build the den in the garden - hurrah!) and some small admin tasks such a visual aid colouring in sheet for our loan so we can colour a line each time we pay off £500 - to keep us motivated. I also did a cupboard inventory and started a list of toiletries that we will need for the month. I have done an online shop for these to the value of £50 so 4 lots of nappies, 2 lots of washing up liquid etc, To be honest this will probably last a few months but pretty much all of the items were on offer, I will have a stock, delivery only cost £1 and I wont have to go to lots of shops for my weekly shop. I'm planning to go to a*di on Friday to see what savings I can make. I'm going to go back to taking my calculator around!!!

I have decided to challenge myself and only spend £250 on groceries this month. This is food only. Nothing else. Its is scary to think this is only £62.50 a week but I need to get this loan smashing off to a good start.

I'm glad I have had a good wobble about whether or not to pay it off early or not. Now I have decided to smash it I feel so determined its amazing.

Crunchy xx

crunch_time

Morning diary

Horrid and rainy here. If it brightens up later I may have to go somewhere with the kids as we have been at home 2 days in a row and that's not good for anyone. I'm hoping a park but we shall see.

So two more days till husbands pay day. Just checked the bank accounts and all is well. 60p left over in joint account so transferred into car maintenance fund.

I am running low on milk and bread and need something for breakfast for the kids. I have seen a 'breakfast muffin' recipe on pinterest so will dig that out later and make them for tomorrow morning. I'm determined not to go to the shops. I only have a pound in my purse anyway and I really don't want to use my cards.

Husband is away tonight and back late tomorrow night so I have two evenings to myself to get some bits crossed off my massive to do list. I thought about sorting the loft but I also need to get started on some sewing projects. Will see how I feel.

Off to do the washing up! Such a lady of leisure! Ha ha Ha!

Crunchy xx

crunch_time

Me again.

Something noteworthy just happened. I was planning my evenings activities and settled on watching wild whilst ironing and then sewing and I had an overwhelming urge to go to the shops later and buy myself a few beers to complete the picture using small amount son's swimming lesson money which is yet to come out of my account which I have over budgeted for anyway.

I immediately switched my thoughts to 'that would be better spent rounding the loan down £5 so leapt onto my laptop to do so.

My waist line and my bank balance both benefit and I will have one of our special cordials with some fresh mint instead - yummy.

Signature updated. First £5 towards my target.

Sun is coming out so going to have some lunch then go to the park.

Crunch x

crunch_time

So it's all gone to pot.

I double checked with a friend that had plans with one evening in a few weeks time that it was still on. We were meeting up with some old work friends who were in town. Apparently one of them had 2 spare tickets to something (that requires tickets) and I'm therefore out (there are four of us). Feeling pretty rubbish about myself. This is the second time in a year that plans have changed with friends and I have been forgotten about.

Perhaps in just seemed as being no fun anymore. My friend who was involved in the first 'forgotten' incident last year was round recently and spent some time whinging about another friend who her and a mutual friend have a nickname for that refers to her being no fun because she brought her own healthy food to an event for her infant daughter rather than feeding her rubbis that the rest of the party had ordered.. I felt really awful for the friend. I would hate to be called 'no fun xxxxx.' Id be devastated if my close friends had a nickname for me like that.

Part of me fees awful and the other feels well 'fxxxx you.' In reality I am halfway through a bottle of white I bought on my credit card and watching rubbish telly. Bang goes the plans for tonight and hello more debt.

'Sad face'
Crunchy xx

Moneywhizz

Sounds like these are the kind of friends you can do without! You are doing great with your budgeting and paying off your debt. Just think of the fun you will be able to have when its all gone and you have all that spare money to actually spend on whatever you choose.