Getting a Grip and Saving towards the mortgage

themadvix

Sounds good Busy! How have you worked out the interest due on your regular savers? Is there a calculator online?

Busy_Mee1

Hi Madvix- I just googled a compound interest calculator for monthly savings. I found one at savings calculator.com ( sorry not sure how to inset a link on my iPad).

It is a very grey morning here with rain forcast here, I am hoping for a slightly better day tomorrow as we plan a trip to the seaside. I fancy some fresh air and fish and chips.

I am off to the gym in a while and will call at the butchers to bulk buy meat for the month and then I will go grocery shopping this afternoon.

There are a few money shuffles to do, but they are all a bit sad now £3 interest from the TSB accounts and £3 from the Halifax rewards. Still I suppose every little helps.

try_harder

Wow look at those savings ,i look forward to your posts as i feel inspired when i see your numbers go up every month and your mortgage come down ,i definitely feel mortgage neutral is the way for me to go i feel much more secure knowing i have some savings to fall back on if needed but also love the security of knowing i have money saved for the first time in my life its a great feeling ,what a great feeling it will be for you to go into the 190s ,just amazing keep at it and roll on May and June you will have to do something nice to celebrate .

Busy_Mee1

Hi Try Harder - I definitely agree that I feel much more secure now we have savings and also because I know we can live on a much smaller income. In fact Mr Mee and I had a long conversation about early retirement yesterday, he only has 2 and a half years left until his retirement anyway unless an opportunity comes up for voluntary redundancy ( we think it might ). However we also agreed that if the opportunity for me to take early retirement came up then I could take it too ( this would be quite early retirement as I have another 8 years to work). This feels huge and I never thought that this would either be possible or that I would want to, however it feels great to have that choice. There are a lot of ifs and buts here but it has now focused both of our minds on saving as much as we can in the meantime. :T
I went to the butchers yesterday and bought enough meat for the month - this cost me £26. We then had a bit of a departure and went to L!dl for our shopping this week ( they had olive oil on offer - so 3 bottles bought). I spent £39.86 and so the total spend so far this month is £65.86/£250.
I had my usual weekend cookathon, and made a big pan of veg chilli and rice for lunches and portioned it up into recycled plastic takeaway containers. I reckon this cost under £3.00 to make and made 6 portions for lunches next week, so under 50p a portion. Taking lunch to work saves around £4.00 a day and there are 4 of us, so effectively saving £16.00 a day and £80 a week:eek: I am happy the "kids" are learning this lesson and it is saving them money too. I also made my famous Saturday night curry ( effectively uses up any veg lurking in the fridge) and another batch of hobnobs.
We are going to the seaside today and I am just keeping my fingers crossed that the weather stays dry ( it is actually a lovely morning this morning) however rain is forcast for this afternoon. We will just dress for all weathers and enjoy - I am looking forward to fish and chips. You can't beat fish and chips at the seaside

EatingTheElephant

The cookathon sounds very productive - if I have to spend time in the kitchen I prefer to do multiple meals at once (or at least prep some so they can just be bunged in the oven).

Enjoy your fish and chips at the seaside. I prefer the beach in the winter, especially if it is stormy as it is quite invigorating!

Kittenkirst

Enjoy the seaside today!

You're numbers are looking just fab Busymee and good to see you are striking a balance between OP'g and enjoying your earnings too!

themadvix

Thanks for the tip re compound interest calcs BM - it hadn't occurred to me that there might be such things!

Enjoy the seaside - I'm with EtE, I love it when it's blustery and wild!

Busy_Mee1

Morning all - I am up and at 'em early this morning as we are going away for a long weekend.
This week has gone incredibly quickly. We had a fab day at the seaside last Sunday, blue skies, sunshine and flat sea- it was a beautiful day and the weather was totally unexpected. It really recharged my batteries and the fish and chips were yummy too.
Work continues to be mad but I do feel like I have managed to repair myself and am feeling a bit more on top of it all, hopefully another long weekend away will help
I have quite a bit of financial news to report this week (this is after all the MF thread not the how to cope with your sh!tty job thread ).
So the 3rd and 4th T@sco accounts are now live and have been filled with £3k each. Excitingly the first interest on the 1st and 2nd accounts has arrived and is £5.59 on each account - it is ridiculous how pleased I get about these small amounts (I really do need to get out more).
I also joined the MSE credit club to check my credit rating, I have been feeling slightly nervous that opening all these bank accounts might have a negative impact on my credit rating, but no I still have a perfect credit score. I duely celebrated by opening our 12th account with N@tionwide to get 5% on £2500 and a 5% regular saver on £500 per month. Once this is open I will recommend Mr Mee and he will switch one of our other accounts. He should get £100 and so should I . Another £200 for the pot :T . I just need to decide which of our other accounts to sacrifice - it will either be the TSB one or H@lifax I think.
The big news is that I received an email from British Gas to close down our account and we are £609 in credit. I am not sure how that happened and slightly embarrassed that I took my eye off that ball, but really pleased with the unexpected windfall - just need to decide what to do with it now .
I need to pack and get ready for our weekend away. We are going with friends but DD and NB are also going to join us tonight and tomorrow. We intend to do lots of walking and probably a lot of eating and drinking. We are taking food for substantial breakfasts, flasks and home made cakes. We should only need to eat out for our evening meals, so it will be moderately spendy.
The food shopping has been done early and we spent £58.81. So a total of £124.05/£250
Anyway better get cracking - I am going to the gym first :A

try_harder

Morning Busy mee1 ,you definitely live up to your namesake ,you are amazing ,i wish i had just a small amount of your energy and motivation ,please tell me your secret .I cannot imagine you as retired What will you do ?Your money shifting is admirable i dont know how you do it ,its all so time consuming .Have a great weekend sounds wonderful and dont spend too much !

Busy_Mee1

Hi Try Harder - I don't feel like I have loads of energy most of the time, and I have quite a lot of help from Mr Mee. Because we do similar jobs we have always shared the housework etc and I am pretty organised. My kids hoot with laughter when I talk about retiring because they think I will be bored ........I won't ...I will just be doing the things I want to do.

We had a fabulous weekend away last weekend, some great company and lots of laughs. The weather was superb and we did lots of walking - it definitely feels more like spring now. We spent a bit more money than we would have liked, but I used cash rather than card and will just try and adjust spending for the rest of the month to make up for it.

In other financial news, two of our regular savers matured this week from M&S and TSB earning £96.82 and £80.21 in interest. We have another three to mature over the next couple of weeks from TSB and Santander. I am now setting up accounts for next year to maximise the PSA and also (deep joy ) a new spreadsheet :T
The plan for 2017/18 is as follows:
4 x T@sco accounts = 4 x £3k = £12k @ 3%= £360 interest
2x N@tionwide = 2x £2500= £5k @ 5% =£250 interest
2x N@tionwide regular savers = 2 x £500 per month @ 5 %= £325
Total interest for 2017/18 is £935. I am also going to use my Santander as my odds and sods account so will keep an eye on the interest earned there to make sure we don't exceed the £500 each PSA.
I am also going to start another regular saver with M&S starting in May so that the interest payment falls into the following tax year (2018/19).
This means that my TSB accounts are redundant - so I will probably shift some DDs to those so that they can be switched :rotfl: