NST July - Bobs Bucket & Spade Boogie to the beach!

Synonymous

Bobarella wrote: »

Synonymous - Your target sounds fantastic. When did you decide on this course of action? Who inspired you most to begin? And what keeps you motivated each month?

Thanks TOG and Bob. Thanks mothernerd too for the honorary mention!

I've been overpaying my mortgage since I bought my house 5 years ago, so the plan is mortgage gone in ten years at 40, then retire at 45. I discovered FIRE at Christmas, so been on that path 6-7 months. Mr Money Moustache was what set me off (I've read the whole blog from the start) and made me realise I could do this, and the website Monevator and few books have got me going investing my savings. Things will probably go awry if I eventually settle down and have kids, but like all of our targets we're shooting for the moon but even if we fall short we'll land in the stars - I wont have failed, I'll just have to work a few years more

A few things keep me going (beyond the certainty that I do not love any job enough to do it until I'm 68). Working out my monthly savings percentage each month is good for FIRE. For my mortgage I know the exact balance and all the ins and outs and I calculate my daily interest rate - it's around £7 per day at the moment :eek: I'm giving my useless mortgage provider seven quid every day! :eek: This helps remind me what a debt emergency it is and I enjoy that figure going down by a few pence every month. I did print a chart so I could colour in blocks as the mortgage reduces - it's three pages long so could easily be demotivating, but the blocks will be filled in faster as the interest gradually goes down

Great news on your continued neighbourhood freedom Calling. So happy for you!

Spendy day yesterday doing the food shopping and taxis to a house party - 'used up' some rum my ex left with Aldi cola, and everyone demolished the Aldi-bought nibbles! Going to make elderflower cordial today and head to the allotment.

Hugs to everyone. x

The_Only_Girl

WelshKitty85 wrote: »

Hi everyone!

I am very sorry to say that I am on the naughty step already. I bought a bargain dress last month for my graduation - only £12. But I couldn't find any shoes to go with it. So, today I have been shopping. I still couldn't find any suitable shoes, so I bought a brand new dress...AND a new pair of shoes - £50 for both - so that's my graduation fund gone and nothing left for a meal out on the day! Naughty kitty!

Congratulations on your graduation! The dress and shoes are small price to pay for such hard work. It is not easy juggling home life, university, and debt repayment. Those are big mountains to climb on their own let alone together. You are a super mum! Go YOU!

Calling14 wrote: »

Well happy, happy, happy news. Just heard via one of my neighbours my ex has pulled out of buying the house behind me. So happy. Will celebrate tomorrow as it is my independence day, 6 yrs since I moved into my house and started enjoying single life.
Just had to share my news!!

I am so pleased to hear that the source of your anxiety is out of the picture. Whew. What a lucky escape. Enjoy your celebration

mothernerd wrote: »

Today I am grateful for The Only Girl ( grappling the weight and exercise demons), for quiet time in the gentle sunshine with breeze and for lovely ys food - piece of feta and spinach quiche for 18p).

Thank you mothernerd. I can't wait till I finish my debt so I could concentrate on my weighty issue. I could relate to your experience about having your home at bursting point. The Christmas before last, one of the new arrivals in our church (a family of 3 - mum, dad and 15-yr old daughter) were at the risk of being evicted from their poor/unsafe rented accommodation. They didn't have anywhere to go - it was winter (my OH Vvisited them once and he said their rented accommodation was all damp and mouldy and colder inside than outside because the heating didn't work) and just before Christmas! Our family felt impressed that we should help them. As we were in the middle of our DMP and we knew how it feels to have nowhere to turn to, we offered to them our box room which they were happy to take. We knew it wasn't going to be easy as we didn't have any overdrafts and credit cards and emergency fund and we were living from pay check to pay check. (Also, this was before we knew how to work on a written budget). Surprisingly, we got on really well even though we didn't know each other very well (they have just arrived to this country from somewhere in Europe). The mum and I became the best of friends and my OH and the dad also had the same personality. A month after they moved in, I was so scared to look at our bank accounts to find that we have done ourselves in financially (you know how January is the skintest month of the year!) When I couldn't avoid it any longer, I checked my bank account and I was so surprised to find more than a thousand pounds still left in the bank account!!!! I can't believe it! How is it possible that we have almost twice the same number of people in the house, consuming twice the number of food, water, electricity and gas, and we had more money in the bank when there were only 4 of us when we were happy to have £10 left in the bank before the next payday? I still couldn't explain it to this day. Perhaps the non-existence of any form of take aways and/or dining out was the reason. I couldn't really say. Again I will quote Dave Ramsey (sorry for banging on about this all the time, but I find this to be very true in our lives). "If you live like no one else, later you can live and give like no one else.. Our social lives suffered a little bit during this time. Some of our friends didn't understand and/or heavily criticised our decision (we only told very very close friends, many of our aquaintances and church members didn't know - which I think is better - they didn't need to know.). I lost one of my best friends - she couldn't stand sharing me with a new friend. This is another layer of discipline, my family and I have learned during that experience. What others would think of deprivation, living without certain things so that others in worse situation can have a better life, is not deprivation at all. They lived with us for 6 months. They are now happy in their own council flat. We've been round there once for a dinner party which my friend the mum prepared. Happy days!

Bob :j about this job and extra £300. Well done you! Here's to more :beer: I am sure more people will get to know about your cafe by word of mouth and your own hard work. Good luck.

Fmess the end to this marking is near in sight. Before you know it, it's summer holidays! Time to put your feet up and look after yourself.

Westie, thumbs up for the big credit card payment and the exercise. Yay!

I would like to declare my 4th NSD! My first time ever 4 in a row! I will need to go grocery shopping tomorrow, but I have written my list and I am hoping to spend not more than £40.

Just finished 3 night shifts! Hoorah! Can't wait for the end of July to see how much enhancement pay I will get for my unsocial hours work. As soon as I know that, I could plan our future budgets better. At the moment, because I am new to this job, I couldn't project future debt repayments and savings. The Emergency Fund currently stands at £250, I plan to build it up to £1000 before Christmas. We've just checked our mortgage and we have £90,262 and 18 years left to pay! Ouch. We tried the snowball calculator and we reckon if we overpaid by £450 (paying £1000 in total), we could reduced the payment period to 9 years! How exciting! Thanks again synonymous for the inspiration. We can't wait.

A few of my items on eBay are ending tonight. I do hope they sell well. More will be put on the auction this weekend.

I need to go to a children's crafting session as a helper and I bid you all a good afternoon. See you later turtles!

Synonymous

You're welcome ToG. General advice is to become debt-free and have a good emergency fund before you start overpaying the mortgage - most of the time you can't get that money back if you need it, so you need a cushion.

If you've never overpaid, check the rules your mortgage provider has - I've been stung a few times with mine as you will have read in the past! x

OnwardAndUpward81

WelshKitty, I imagine that if you're graduating you must have worked hard to get there so think of that as a treat, you recognised that it was a relapse but you're still moving forward. Keep going. Sounds like you've just a achieved a great milestone, congrats.

I didn't check in yesterday, naughty me. Another NSD for me yesterday and a really good one today because I have spent loads but with Tesco vouchers nectar points. Super happy!

Have a beautiful weekend guys x

apple_muncher

Am loving reading people's histories. We are an eclectic bunch of turtles indeed!

I have spent the day outside as it was my school summer fair and I have also garnered another NSD and made just over £100 selling my craft things. One very contented turtle here. Half the profits will be saved for when dd and I go away later in the month; and dh has told me to spend the other half on myself - something I find extremely hard to do! I'd much rather pay it off the mortgage...

Tomorrow dd has a cheerleading event and I have a 2+ hour gap between dropping her off and seeing the performance. I shall aim for another NSD, taking food, drink and a good book. I do not know the area at all but there is a big park nearby so I shall go there and avoid the shops... (not that I know where they are anyway!)

Fmess

Just had a quick skim of today's posts and going to read them properly in the garden in a minute, but whilst I'm indoors on my laptop, I thought I'd post (and try and avoid weird predictive typing errors).


well done apple, you must be chuffed


Thanks the only girl, I finished by first contracted set on marking by 10.30 this morning :j Although if I want to, there will be some up for grabs during the week, although I still have my other contract to complete.


So today has been a spendy day and my budgets look bad already however, I now have a 2 month's supply of dog food for a little over the cost of 1 month's supply and I don't think I will have time to food shop next weekend (I'm at a wedding all weekend) so there should just be one more food shop before the next payday!


I have also spent £24 of my £25 luxury budget. I decided against the takeaway (I have my fingers crossed that my parents may buy one when I go round for tea this week!) and instead bought 2 pairs of summer PJs and 2 pairs of cheap flat pumps form Arseda to see me through the summer. I was starting to get a bit concerned that if there was an emergency in the night, I would either have to attend to it in my birthday suit or would be delayed by getting dressed. When the ex was here I just assumed he would deal with emergencies! As it happens, last night the thunder spooked the dogs , there was an almightly crash (inside the house) as they broke free of the kitchen and then arrived in bed with me. Luckily, as it was only them, I didn't scare anyone in my birthday suit.


Off to enjoy half an hour of sunshine before I decide whether to clean the house or do more marking

apple_muncher

Another quote from me - a bit of a longer one! I've put in bold the bits that stand out for me (in truth, I wanted to do it all in bold :rotfl:)

Be okay with the decisions you've made. You can't change the past, but you can learn from it. Make the right decisions for your future today. Need less, want less, have less; Help more, create more, give more. Embrace the decisions you’ve made in your life that got you here. You’ve made no mistakes. That’s right, no mistakes. Everything you’ve done has served to make you into the strong person you have become. Appreciate your trials. Leverage your tribulations. Turn the bitter into better. You now have the rest of your life to harness the power of your strengths into actions, experiences, and relationships that will make the rest of your life the BEST of your life. So let’s do it.

No more regrets. No more wishing things were different. If you want change, make it happen. If you want more social support, go out and find it. If you need accountability, ask for it. If you want better results, start planning and preparing better. If you want to finally succeed, set a deadline and give yourself an incentive. Those are the 5 pillars of transformation and success. Those 5 pillars will give you the rock-solidest foundation for success. Your achievements will be almost automatic with these in place.

Do the foundational work today. Accept where you are and put the right habits into place, right now, for your right life. The path to success has been laid before us all. Others have taken it, leaving it well worn for you and I to follow. We have no excuses. It’s time to do the work, to embrace the new sacrifices, to accept the challenges, to overcome the obstacles, and to show the world what we are made of. I’m ready if you are. Let’s go! This is your time for Independence from your struggles and the achievement of your BIG goals and dreams.

nannygladys

Applemuncher I have read your post and how it resonates with me, so thinking cap on, the past is past and the future awaits me.

I had a lovely afternoon at the naming ceremony, the girls were well behaved and dgd3 was very well behaved (she's only 2), Sat in the garden enjoying a coffee before I get things and food ready for work tomorrow(only 3 days left to work), then watch tv and early night as in for 6am.

Oh and another sfd 3/15 now
Nannyg

apple_muncher

Wow! nannygladys, that has come round quickly! Hope the final few days fly by x

Calling14

Just trying to catch up on lots of posts on here.

Busy day, usual dog walks, early am kids cinema watched Home, think grandson was bit bored kept asking what time in finished? Got dragged into Pizza hut will count in treat budget. 10/25. Daughter paid £1.50 for cinema.

Excited my brother is coming to stay next week, rang me today. Haven't seen him for over a yr and that was at a funeral. Told me not to get food in as will take me out few nights for meals. So had another go at re sealing the shower. Hope it works this time brother and sis in law like showers. Did some painting, gardening caught up with a friend.

Still haven't been paid for a dress sold on ebay, how long do you wait before chasing?

Will catch up reading yr news now x