Help to keep me honest

glass_half_full

Good morning diary and all,

Thanks Cumbria. Its very close now. Look forward to congratulating you too in due course I trust.
Woken up by the dawn chorus at about 4am and then couldn’t get back to sleep this morning. I joined the ‘cycle to work’ scheme at work recently and the voucher came through yesterday, so I’ve ordered a bike and various bits and pieces to go with it, collecting on Monday. You pay for it out of pre-tax income so it gives you a decent discount on normal prices. The idea will be to use it for the daily to/fro commute to the local train station which is about 2 miles. At the moment OH kindly gives me a lift most days as we can usually coordinate our journeys. On the days she can’t then I can get the bus but the bus stop is a 10-15 minute walk and then another 5 mins at the other end to the station. So this will hopefully make life a bit simpler and maybe save a bit on petrol since she is going out of her way so it is an extra 8 miles each day. It will also save her time and hassle which I’m sure she will appreciate. I haven’t cycled regularly for many years so it will be interesting. I’m pretty sure there is a safe route I can follow avoiding busy traffic but we will see.
Staying on course with the budget. So much of debt busting is about patience it seems to me. I have things I want to buy and I have put them in the future in YNAB when I can afford it. Its hard to resist the temptation to buy now, especially now when its just the click of a mouse!

Have a great day all!

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,

OHs phone contract ended last week so we cancelled and bought another family SIM so finally all phones are now sim only costing £27 per month in total. This is such a saving from the worst place we were where we were at one point paying £100 + for our three phones. At some point the phones will need replacing but Im sure buying them outright will mean getting better value and understanding the true cost.
Im collecting the new bike after work and since OH is going to her couch to 5k session I am going to ride it home from the station. I think Ive worked out a safe route mainly on cycle paths and quiet roads.

Have a great day all !

glass_half_full

Good morning diary and all,

Picked up shiny new bike yesterday from the shop. Spent a bit more (£45) on a D-lock. There is a Cycle Hub at my local station, which is quite good with card access but chatting with the guy in the shop you still need to make sure it is well locked up because bikes have been stolen even from these locations. I have applied for the card for the Hub so hope this arrives soon and I can start doing this on a regular basis. Cycled home from the station, was pretty ok generally although it is many years since I have ridden a bike on the roads so I need to get back up to speed ! The route was fine apart from one bit on the road where getting around parked cars was a bit tricky. Im sure my confidence will grow as I get into it. It will also help with fitness. Probably good starting in June in the dry and light rather than January in the dark and wet. Anyway, lets see if I persevere with it.
On the money front, according to the budget we should shuffle over the debt free line a week today. Definitely shuffling rather than striding confidently over. I could probably do with another month, but I have promised myself this for so long that I am determined to scrape it all together and make the final payment. Typically, right now there seem to be many little things to pay for, and the car is making a worrying clanking sound now. Anyway, I am determined to pay it off and then get ourselves into a decent position with savings going forward.

Have a great day all!

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,

Embarassing confession time.

When we closed OHs mobile contract last week, I checked the account to see the situation. I spotted a second mobile number there in addition to her normal number. Then I remembered that when she bought her previous phone in July 2014 we also fell for the sales patter and bought a tablet for DS. What we didnt fully understand at the time was that we had also committed to another SIM to go with it at £15 per month for 24 months. Anyway, I remember the tablet only lasted about a month before it broke. I remember thinking, we must remember to cancel that SIM when the time comes. What shocked me last week was that the contract had been allowed to run on after July 2016 to now at £15 per month and we had not noticed! How can I have not noticed when I pore over the budget every day? OH was paying £25 for her contract so the bill was coming in at £40 which I thought was a bit high but because I never see the detail of the bill seemed plausible. OH called the company and did really well getting a refund of 12 months (£180). They said that they didnt need to give us a refund since it was our responsibility to cancel the contract and that this was a goodwill gesture! Even though no data had been used for the last 4 years? I wonder how many people have been ripped off in the same way.

Used the bike yesterday to and from work. The cycle hub is really nifty and will be great when it is raining to shelter whilst changing shoes etc. The route to the station only takes me 15 minutes, as the station is actually lower than where we are as we live on a hill. A bit more tiring on the way back! I think I will persevere though.

Off to work now, have a great day all!

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,

I am debt free!! :j

OH has been paid earlier than usual, not sure why, but it means that I have been able to make the final payment.
I have thought about this day and being able to write this post so many times over the last many months and finally I am here.
Thinking about money has taken up far too much time over the last 2-3 years. Unfortunately, getting out of debt does mean sweating the small stuff. Each and every day for the last 31 months I have spent time in front of the computer recording each and every spend, categorising it and shuffling my budget around on YNAB. Then I spend time browsing diaries and this site has been key to helping me to stay focused over that time with the inspirational people writing, challenging each other, giving advice and supporting and commiserating when it gets tough which inevitably it does at some point for all of us.
For me this journey is not really about money but about freedom and the ability to do what I want to do. So from here I will move on to the next phase of the journey which is clearing the mortgage and getting to the point where I can step back from the day to day.

Now back to the football ! :beer:

System

What a great post to read , well done to you and your wife for getting there in the end. :j:j:beer::D

Maybe a little treat this weekend. Hope to follow the rest of your journey . Don't forget to post on the debt free board.

Enjoy the football :footie:

glass_half_full

Good morning diary and all,

Thanks Cumbria for your message. OH has been absolutely fantastic over the last couple of years. Her going full time is really the reason we have been able to make such good progress. Plus she has been so patient and not complained (much!) over the times we have not been able to do stuff or had to wait for things.

I’m ridiculously proud of my Debt-free and Proud badge I got through yesterday after posting on the Debt Free Roll of Honour! Seems like such a small thing and yet I felt so happy to receive it. Makes me even more determined for it to stay that way. Had a great day yesterday, went mountain biking with DS at a forest about an hour’s drive from here. We biked a trail that took us 2 ½ hours, quite hard work, but the weather was perfect and the scenery was lovely. I hope we can do this regularly over the summer.

I want to keep writing a diary on here somewhere. I could go to Mortgage Free Wannabe, but that doesn’t really describe where I want to go for the next phase of this journey. I think Early Retirement Wannabe is a better description! I will have a little look around and see if there is a thread for such ruminations.

Still some challenges ahead. DS discovered yesterday that he may have to do a resit for one of the class tests he failed. The date of the resit is right in the middle of our short trip planned for North Devon. I checked yesterday and the cancellation policy doesn’t include that situation! Oh well, he is going to check the situation tomorrow. If he has to do the resit then I will call the holiday park and see if there is anything we can do. May try to persuade them to let us move it back by a few weeks.

The car is making a rattling sound and several warning lights have come on. Its booked into the garage for Tuesday. My goal is to save for a replacement car over the next year so just need to nurse this one for another 12 months. Just hope the garage can fix it. Trying to resist the tempting car ads and the work scheme which make cars look so affordable until you read the small print.

Have a great day all!

glass_half_full

Good morning diary and all,

I am starting a new diary on the Mortgage Free Wannabe Board. I feel like its time for a new start with a slightly different focus.

My mortgage free diary

Good luck to everyone with your debtbusting, stay strong!

lindez

Congratulations glass half full i have read your diary from start to finish will follow you on the mortgage free journey.