Getting a Grip and Saving towards the mortgage

Busy_Mee1

Hi LadyGnome
Yes I will and I realised this stopped at the beginning of January and I didn't notice, so I will have a couple of months arrears to come :T
I am feeling in a much better frame of mind after my negative rant this morning. The boiler is fixed - H@meserve arrived within 2 hours of me ringing, which is excellent service and we have central heating again.
Also very proud of DD - whilst she was out for a lunch with her friend, a man collapsed and started to fit. While everyone else was running around like a headless chicken not knowing what to do, she administered first aid until the ambulance arrived and the ambulance crew commented on her quick action. It just shows the value of first aid training, I do think everyone should be trained in basic first aid.
Last day of work tomorrow and then I have four blissful days off - I can't wait:j

themadvix

Well done to your DD!

I think this time of year is quite hard going generally, aside from your extreme busyness at work, BusyMee. I know DH and I feel like we're on a treadmill at the moment. Easter still seems a long way off, so hopefully your long weekend will be just what you need to recharge and relax.

try_harder

Im so pleased to see you are feeling much cheerier again ,i wrote a long reply yesterday but my internet went down and i lost it ali but i was thinking of you .I am not surprised that you feel slightly down occasionally you do such a brilliant job looking after your family and home ,finances and a very full on full time job ,i know that i definitely could not do it and you always give one hundred percent to what ever you are doing too so its no wonder you sometimes feel a bit fed up with things the good thing is that it didnt last long ,just look at your things to be grateful for they are just wonderful they are the same things that i am grateful for too minus the great job im still working on that one

Busy_Mee1

Aww thank you LG, Madvix and Try Harder - I am always amazed by how lovely and supportive people are on here. It is so nice to be able share with like minded people, because folk out in the real world don't "get" our MF ambitions. I think the people at work would be quite shocked at some of the things I do in a bid to save money, and I am in turn quite shocked by some of things they do that just waste money. Still it would do for us all to be alike ( as my Mother would have said !) . A good example of this was I happened to mention to someone that we were having beans on toast for tea ( we probably do this once a week if we are late in from work and it is just me and Mr Mee). The shocked response (she said her husband wouldnt put up with not having a "proper meal ") made me feel that we are a bit out of kilter with the rest of the world. I darent tell her I also cut his hair to save £10 on going to the barbers :rotfl: So it is definitely good to be amongst like minded people.
It is a bit wild outside - storm Doris has arrived here. I am hoping to get out for a walk at lunchtime. I decided yesterday I need to try and get out more in the fresh air and daylight to try and help manage my mood. I hope I don't get blown away :eek:

try_harder

We do exactly the same thing Busy Mee1 ,if we have no children or grandchildren here we have beans on toast ,we actually really enjoy it almost like a naughty treat and my best friend always says exactly the same thing ,that her husband would not put up with that ,it makes me realise too what a wonderful husband i have so more things to be grateful for

Busy_Mee1

It is only 10 am but I am already really enjoying my day off.
I had a little bit of work to finish so I got up early with Mr Mee and got that done and then I went back to bed with a cup of tea The sun was streaming in through windows and it was bliss !

I have then drum roll ..........been out for a run....the first of the year. I actually really enjoyed it, the weather is beautiful this morning, bright sunshine although quite cold. It has really helped to lift my mood. I have decided today that I am only going to do things that make me feel good.
So I have my music on and will do some tidying this morning and then I am meeting DD for lunch. I might bake this afternoon as I have some bananas that are overripe, so I think I will make a banana cake.

There will definitely be no work done today :T

Busy_Mee1

It is Monday and I am still off work :j
It has been a hectic weekend with visits to the gym on Saturday morning and the in- laws on Saturday afternoon. Yesterday was the usual shopping and cooking day, although I also managed a couple of hours at the local shopping centre with DD. It was quite fortunate that we noticed just before we left that her new boots that she bought on her London trip less than a month ago had split and we were able to return them and get a full refund. It was a NSD for me, if fact DD gave me £30 that she owed me so I ended the trip with more money than I started
The grocery shop was done for £57.75 bringing the total for the month to £243.45 and an average weekly spend of £60.86. I am really pleased with this, the cupboards and freezer are still full and we have been eating really well. The challenge has really made us think about what we buy and broken some of the shopping habits of buying the same things every week just because we do.
Next month I am going to set the budget at £250 for the month and see if we can maintain the new regime I am going to go to our local butcher and buy meat for the month in bulk and see if this helps ( our local butcher is great and I would rather support him by shopping there rather than at the supermarket ) I have also stopped buying sweet treats at the supermarket and have been baking. This weekend I made a chocolate and banana cake to use up some overripe bananas and made homemade hobnobs again as these were very popular last week. I was thinking about buying staples in bulk, but I am not actually sure it would save that much money and you do then up having a lot of money tied up in stores. I was looking at pasta to see if by buying larger quantities you could save money but tbh I haven't been able to find it cheaper than Ald! in the regular size bags. I picked up a couple of tins of tomatoes in Home B@argins to try at 25p a tin, and if these are OK I may stock up.
In other cooking news I made a roast dinner yesterday as everyone was at home and the leftovers have made another meal for DS at work tonight and used up the Christmas pudding left from Christmas. I also made up a large batch of pasta for lunches - this is costing less than £3 for a batch and is making enough for 7 lunches = 42p per lunch.
I having been thinking about whether we need to be more radical in our approach to saving for our mortgage. We have cut back on our spending quite considerably over the last couple of years, so that all our non discretionary bills are as cheap as they can be and we have cut out things that we don't miss (daily newspaper, bought lunches etc). The only other place we can now cut spending are on the things we would really miss - holidays, the second car, and Sky. I feel quite ashamed writing this, and how fortunate are we to be in this position to have the choice to make. The trouble is I feel we are in a bit of a vicious circle with the holidays and car- I have a busy high pressured job and so I desperately look forward to our holidays and I need the car for work. The holidays are the obvious place to cut back, and we have done so a bit this year - with a couple of breaks in the UK and bargain flights to the US. The trouble is we do love to travel ( we missed out when we were younger) and I don't want to leave it too late as all of our parents suffered significant health crises in their late 50/60s and then couldn't travel long haul. I keep pondering all of this and coming back to the need for balance and as long as I keep our spending down as much as I can in the areas we don't care about then I guess it allows us to continue to do the things that do matter to us. It is all about having choice I think and we are fortunate enough to have the choice.
Sorry this turned into a bit of a ramble...have a good week everyone.

try_harder

Well done on the shopping you are doing so well and then to find time to do so much cooking too is amazing ,you are so organised.I am now going to try buying meat in bulk ,i have a money off coupon for Waitrosx this week and noticed that the duchy mince and burgers are all on a great offer at 2 for £5 ,i am going to buy several and then bulk buy beef and lamb from an online butcher at a great discount of around £200 and should last us around 9 months and cost about £6 a week ,we can then eat meat in meals a couple of times a week and slice whats left for sandwiches to save buying ham and chicken .
In regards to finding more money to overpay the mortgage i feel that the money i spend on our second car enables me to go nice places every day that i wouldnt otherwise be able to get to ,it also helps me to find bargains and keep the food budget down ,it gives me enjoyment and although we could save by me having no car i would not be getting the immense pleasure it gives me daily ,its the same with holidays and the huge amount of money i spend on birthdays and christmas for all the children and grandchildren ,i could save all this money but i get such a lot of pleasure and happiness from it .I think at the end of the day it does boil down to balance and which things give you the most pleasure and as you say we are so lucky to have the choice

themadvix

Hi BM, don't beat yourself up about the holidays and car. Life is about balance and it's important that you don't look back with regrets. If holidays are important to you, then go on them. If it's possible, as you say, to cut back without reducing your enjoyment of them, then that's fine, but you work hard and obviously need the break - both as a time to decompress and as something to look forward to. We are the same (albeit on a smaller scale, simply because I suspect we don't earn as much, being at a different point in our careers).

Likewise, if you didn't have the car, you wouldn't be able to work or do all the other things which contribute to OP the mortgage. If you think two is bad, we have three! We all have things we won't compromise on and if we're not in 'bad' debt (i.e. loans etc.) and are living within our means then choosing to OP is just that - a choice, like the many others that are available to us. We choose to OP, but, like you, also to have nice holidays, and we make the cut backs in other areas. After all, life is for living too! (Sorry, reading this back it comes across as very serious, but I don't mean to be a bully!)

It sounds like you're doing really well with the food budget and shopping in Ald!.

Busy_Mee1

Hooray it is March:j and only 30 days until the clocks change and we get the lighter evenings back.

Thanks TH and MadVix for listening to my musings and pondering - I seem to be doing a lot of self reflection at the moment. I think because work is getting to me and I think I need to make some sort of change. I am just not sure what yet.

In the meantime I am very focused on saving towards the mortgage and operation 50k. The figures for February are follows:

Saved in Feb £1,243.95
Total Savings £44,359.39
Mortgage. £250,353.77
Savings:Mortgage 17.71 %

I am pleased with this especially as my salary was underpaid and I have got some arrears to come back at the end of March. The mortgage figure is reducing and will be in the 240s next month and by my calculations my savings will offset the mortgage to under £200k in May. Everything is on target to have £50k in savings in June:T

Our monthly savers all mature in March and we should receive £386.93 in interest from these and the annual interest from our fixed rate ISA will be paid at the end of April and should pay £441.00.