New Diary, New Start-mortgage be gone

tattycath

peaceandfreedom wrote: »

Is that what you really want though - to have the same thing each week? Much as I find meal-deciding a bore, I wouldn't want the same thing repeated each week and neither would anyone else in the house. I like a bit of variety.


no, I kind of missed my own point...I'd hate that too. We like variety. So although I need to meal plan I want the opposite of what I had growing up. My mum only cooked traditional English food anyway-i never even had pasta or anything remotely similar when I was growing up. Lol
Having said that, I am the opposite extreme and generally have no idea what we are having for dinner every evening. If it were just me, it'd be no problem - I sort out my breakfast and lunch every day and they are delicious, healthy and very economical. But the evening meal is the bane of my life, partly because it is hard to please everyone.

I'm hoping that if I meal plan I will save money on the grocery shopping-that's the plan.

So all purchase receipts / invoices go in one file, in chronological order. Then tot them all up - might be tricky if you only have a tablet, a spreadsheet is the best way but you can hand-write it. Include absolutely anything that may have been a work-related cost. You can include a portion of household costs if you work from home but I don't know the details as I always use an accountant. Include any professional fees, subs, postage etc.

Likewise, all sales invoices in another file / list.

Sales less purchases is your gross profit - obviously you want this to be as low as possible to keep the tax bill as low as possible. My accountant fills in my tax return for me but actually there isn't that much to fill in, you don't need to submit your actual accounts, just the overall figures.

I guess since you are filling it in this early, you want HMRC to calculate your tax liability for you?

I have a laptop, I just rarely use it. It's so slow. I would like a new one really.
I'm hoping that by submitting my return early, I will have more notice of my tax liability. That's the plan anyway.

Thanks p&f, you are so helpful. :j I'll get on it tomorrow. And see if I can sort it out.

tattycath

I was going for a no spend day today. I failed.
On a positive note, I only spend £10.89 and managed to get 2 packs of stewing steak for £1 a pack.
Tomorrow we are having slow cooked stew for our evening meal.

tattycath

Not sure if I will manage a no spend day today or not...
Emergency savings are slowly growing. Hopefully I will be able to reach target in next couple of months.
Right, going to put slow cooker on. Looking forward to beef stew tonight.

tattycath

Been crunching some numbers today...
Original amount borrowed £96,000 -October 2007, december 2012 amount owed £74,800
Lightbulb moment was a bit slow for me-and even slower for Mr tc.
At one point payments were behind So I took control of the mortgage and the Council Tax in 2009 and I told Mr tc how it was going to be (that makes me sound really bossy and I'm really not-just didn't want us all to end up homeless).
Original mortgage free date was October 2028-this was normal term of mortgage-however, been overpaying quite regularly - we can overpay limitlessly (is that even a word? lol) so When I ring the lenders in march (for the MFI3-3) I'll ask them for a projection (I think that's what it's called). Hopefully I'll be able to report back some exciting news. this post was from February 2013.
At the beginning of this diary we owed approximately 57k.
I'm optimistic the next statement will show some good results.

jwil

You are doing brilliantly tattycath :T To think you've not far from halved your mortgage since 2007 :T

tattycath

jwil wrote: »

You are doing brilliantly tattycath :T To think you've not far from halved your mortgage since 2007 :T

Thanks jwil.
I'm seriously going to try and smash the mortgage down by 2017-that'll mean I've had it for 10 years-10 years too long. Not sure how far we will get. Going to browse the up your income boards as well as continuing eb@ying-that should continue to help bring it down.

jwil

tattycath wrote: »

Thanks jwil.
I'm seriously going to try and smash the mortgage down by 2017-that'll mean I've had it for 10 years-10 years too long. Not sure how far we will get. Going to browse the up your income boards as well as continuing eb@ying-that should continue to help bring it down.

I'm sure you'll do it

tattycath

Had a bit of a spendy morning this morning.
Will add up totals shortly.
Managed to add to savings though. hoping to have over 1k before end of month. nearly half way there.

tattycath

Unexpected guests have blown my grocery budget this month. :mad: more with myself than anything. As I hadn't got round to sorting a menu, I had to do a kind of menu in my head as I wandered round the supermarket.
I will have to try and do damage limitation for the rest of the month.
I will have a thing about that tomorrow... I might see if I can eek out the meals I have planned so that they go further.
So far I have thought about stretching the minced beef out into 2 meals and use porridge oats and lots of veg to stretch it out. So maybe a shepherds pie with half and spag Bol with the other half-it is a large pack.
2 lots of stewing steak. Stew and dumplings with lots of veg
Beef curry
Pork loin-casserole
Sweet and sour pork with rice
Lambs liver and bacon casserole
Meat pie and mash with veg for another meal
Tuna pasta bake
Chicken casserole
Either sausage casserole or toad in the hole
Carbonara
right, going to bed to sleep on it. I will try and come up with other ideas tomorrow. Open to suggestions as always.

tattycath

Despite blowing the grocery budget I have still managed to put more to savings and now have £1,000/£2,000 in the emergency fund! :T:j