Mortgage free by 2021?!

hiddenshadow

I need to wander around the house and KM/de-clutter again. I have a feeling we still have a LOT of things that could go (besides the things that we've already ear-marked but done nothing with yet...:o).

I have been really good about using KM on things (...yarn...) I'd like to buy. If my first instinct is "ooh, pretty, I'd like that" then I wait a while and come back to see if that's still my reaction. Then I evaluate price and see if I'm still happy about it. This has resulted in me not buying anything since Feb 8, even though I've thought about quite a few things.

(Of course, part disclaimer there is that I plan to buy a fair bit in the US where it's cheaper and I can use my US bank account which I don't track in the budget. So that does help with resisting the urge to buy things here pre-holiday....)

Small victories, anyway.

hiddenshadow

Been too quiet on here - not much financial action going on. Did manage a £40 OP from budget shuffling, but then remembered that we've budgeted for the dog sitting during our upcoming holiday, but not the cat sitting, so no more OPs after that. Only £112 so not too bad, will likely steal from the home improvements pot.

We leave on Friday for holiday. Should be a fun, relaxed trip - planning a drive down to the Los Angeles area to watch part of a 3* horse event, lots of eating Mexican food, and not much else. Won't be going to my dad's wedding due to my health issues, but will meet up with him after they get back.

Ireland move has been pushed back a month due to a work project that's starting next week and going through early July. Bit disappointing, but may as well take advantage of the fact that we're not set to any specific timetable (other than wanting to move before school starts up again, so that finding a place to live ourselves and renting out our house are both easier). Tentative plan is still to go over sometime in May/June to investigate specific properties/areas - hopefully we can manage this on a weekend so I don't have to request holiday during the final weeks of this project. On the plus side this gives us another month to pack/sort out the house.

I've been learning spinning, and been fairly MSE if I do say so myself. Bought a drop spindle for £15 locally, and then went to the local spinner's guild meeting and found someone wanting to sell their wheel. They've lent it to me indefinitely for me to learn on, and obviously I have the option to buy it if I like it. I've only tried it for a day, but I like it so far. Guild membership is £20/year so even if that turns into just 2-3 months of free use of this wheel, that seems like a decent deal.

March Goals

Personal

1. Move to Ireland Boxes packed 5/5 - DH did really well and packed more books/DVDs, plus all our board games, so we can de-clutter the shelf they've been sitting on
2. Move to Ireland Items de-cluttered 5/5 - found 5 things to de-clutter (aforementioned shelf, sofa, clothes, yarn), haven't actually done it yet
3. House Start hardwood flooring on stairs Started - figured out our method, still need to actually cut everything down and install it (won't happen until April)

Financial

1. Mortgage OP £1,500 £1,540/£1,500

Career

1. Learn Tech book chapters read 1/3 - work's been mental so I've had no spare time or mental energy, but hoping to look into this on holiday as well

Not too bad, progress-wise.

cazmanian_minx

I'm very envious of your wheel! There was someone up here selling an Ashford Elizabeth for £150, but despite messaging the seller as soon as I saw it, she already had someone coming to see it and of course they bought it. Enjoy

lippy1923

Nice progress. Enjoy your hols :-)

hiddenshadow

cazmanian_minx wrote: »

I'm very envious of your wheel! There was someone up here selling an Ashford Elizabeth for £150, but despite messaging the seller as soon as I saw it, she already had someone coming to see it and of course they bought it. Enjoy

Oh, bummer! I keep seeing wheels pop up on Ravelry, roughly in the £150 range, so hopefully something else pops up in your area soon. (There was a post today from someone with half a dozen wheels for sale, incl an Elizabeth, but for £250 and in Milton Keynes, so less useful.)

I'll definitely need more practice with the wheel - my spinning today was entirely fits and starts as once the wheel was going I could draft OK, but then something would get tangled or confused (or both) and I'd have to stop and fix it, so I only managed in about 4-6" bits. Called it a day after about an hour as my hands and feet were tired, but it was enjoyable, and my yarn looks much better than on the drop spindle.

hiddenshadow

March OPs: £1,540.00
March Offset: £0.00

Current (offset) balance: £111,283.08
Month we’d be in to get to our current balance without OPs: October 2026 (+3 months)

2017 Overpayments: £5,838.39
2017 Offset Savings: -£749.07
2017 Interest Saved: £3,542.77

Total Overpayments/Offsets: £65,601.69
Total Interest Saved: £57,010.53

Daily Interest: £7.86 (down £0.20) <-- below £8.00! :j
Monthly Interest: £218.38 (down £29.89)
March 2016 Interest: £309.63 (down £91.25)
March 2016 Daily Interest: £9.99 (down £2.13)

House Bricks: +2

Mortgage reduction: £8,385/£20,000 (41%) (Average: £2,795.26/mo)

Managed a few extra OPs.

Net worth increase: £28,394.26/£80,000 (35%)

Stock market again.

MFIT-4: £48,216.92/£90,000 (53%)

Still 12% ahead of schedule.

Goals

Personal

1. Move to Ireland Boxes packed 5/5
2. Move to Ireland Items de-cluttered 5/5
3. House Start hardwood flooring on stairs Started

Financial

1. Mortgage OP £1,500 £1,540/£1,500

Career

1. Learn Tech book chapters read 1/3 - haven’t done this on holiday at all, though I have done other tech-y things on holiday

EatingTheElephant

Great figures holidays are for switching off from work, I can never read tech books while on holiday!

BookWorm

Great figures Hidden.

Hope the break wasn't all work and that you found plenty of time for fun too.

In case you wanted, here is the recipe I mentioned

BW

BookWorm

Just popped in to say hello. Hope all ok with you Hidden

hiddenshadow

Thanks BW. Work's been a bit crazy, with health/DIY stuff filling up the weekends. Still making good progress, though.

The highlights I remember -
- convincing DH to phone up car insurance to ask for a price reduction for renewal. Got the price down from £640+ to £537!
- DH got paid for unused holiday last year so that boosted his pay quite a bit for April
- spent under £185 on groceries in April, helped in part by being on holiday for the first week

Had a lovely holiday, though now it feels like forever ago. Work is getting more busy than usual due to a major project due in July.

Not much else to report, really. Finances are primarily on auto-pilot now that nothing's earning interest so there's limited money shuffling going around. This actually bit us in the butt this month as I forgot to transfer money into an account to pay the CC direct debit. I know before they've texted me to remind me, but they didn't this time (perhaps thanks to the bank holiday), so had to pay £5 fee for that. Will probably try to phone up and get that waived but not a crisis if not.