A Journey of Many Pounds Starts With a Single Penny

LadyGnome

Hi Moominmama


Your post made me count up my e savings accounts I only have 5 but one is a bit of an omnibus account that has all my annual bill savings and holiday fund in it (all allocated on a spreadsheet of course). They make sense to me.


Low spending day. Just a birthday card for my DB and a few food bits under £5 in total. The only problem was that the woman in the card shop gave me a £2 coin in my change so obviously that needs to go into the change pot. I debated whether or not to deduct £2 from my £4 pd allowance but decided that was a bit hardcore.:p


I've prepared my food for tomorrow so it should be a NSD.

LadyGnome

Another NSD today. I will need to buy some stuff for work lunches over the weekend. I also need some more bird seed for the bird feeder in the garden. I feed the birds throughout the winter and they are so used to me now that when I go to the garage to get the bird seed in the morning they wait for me on the garage roof then follow me down to the bird feeder. I put monkey nuts out for the crows who start calling as soon as I set foot outside. Its like a Hitchcock film;). I am such a soft touch that I have hung a feeder low down with fat blocks in it for the squirrels to stop them climbing up the main feeder. The most unusual visitors are the feral ring necked parakeets that seem to have spread right across London now.


I've been reviewing the numbers and this month is a tight one because of Christmas so I am going to have to keep a close eye on the finances.

debtfreeoneday

We're the same with the birds.. but lovely to see them in the garden

Kiwisaver_2

I enjoyed reading your diary LadyGnome - thanks for sharing!

Life got a bit mental and I have been out of the MSE game for all of 2016 but finally had some time to draw breath and starting to take stock of my finances again.

With frugal ways, various savings challenges and support and advice from MSE forums over the years we live well within our means and I have become a regular saver and now have a fairly healthy bank balance for rainy days and emergency stuff BUT I have become very lax and taken my eye off the ball this past year.

Since the saving now just happens as a matter of course, with little to no input required from me it was no longer a stretch to meet the target and therefore I have noticed myself becoming more and more out of control and ultra spendy over this past year.

So inspired by your diary I have decided that it is time to change my strategy and get a little more active in the process; I have cancelled the automatic transfer to savings and am going to tackle the mortgage and throw everything I possibly can in that direction this year.

It feels good to have a new focus and now I can't wait til payday to make that first over payment of the year. I might even start a diary of my own as I know it will help to keep me accountable to myself.

LadyGnome

debtfreeoneday wrote: »

We're the same with the birds.. but lovely to see them in the garden

Yes they always cheer me up.


Hi Kiwi
Glad I can be of some inspiration very best of luck with your MFW journey. Don't look at your time spent saving as a waste, you need a safety net too. Its easier to chuck everything spare at the mortgage when you have your emergency funds in place.

LadyGnome

I won £10 on the Lottery (Thunderball) on Sat so I'll add that to the £10 change I've bagged up and the odds and ends bit on my spreadsheet (small overaccruals and interest that I save to overpay currently around £4) and pay £8 into each of the pots during the course of next week.

Just batch cooked a big pot of veg and bean stew for my lunches for the next week. Waiting for it to cool a bit more then I will portion it up.

I need to sit down with Mr Gnome and look at our financial plans for the next year. I do most of the financial stuff but I do need him to be involved a bit more. We need to put longer term plans in place to prepare for retirement or at least winding down a bit. I am 47 and Mr Gnome is 50 so we really need to have sketched out a 10 year plan to save for the future.

Key Dates
April 2021 - last set of school fees for elder Gnomeboy
April 2025 - last set of school fees for younger Gnomeboy
Aug 2029 - small DB pension from first job (starts at 60 I think - need to check)
Jan 2032 - Mr Gnome state pension
Aug 2034 - main company pension
Oct 2034 - scheduled end of mortgage
Aug 2036 - my state pension

From April 2021 we will be able to save and OP a bit more as our outgoings will reduced even if we are supporting the elder Gnomeboy in Uni it will be cheaper than school fees. However, waiting until then doesn't really give us enough time to build up savings and investment for our dotage so I think we need to start now even if it is relatively small. I have a good works pension and a reasonable foundation of savings. Mr Gnome has more savings but less pension provision. We do have the BTL which brings in a reasonable income as it is mortgage free and effectively is part of Mr Gnome's pension.
Clearly there is no way I am leaving the mortgage to run to my retirement date! My aim is around 11 years but better if I can.

I think the starting point for the savings will be S&S ISA for us both next tax year and Mr Gnome upping his pension contributions a bit. I need to check how much is in my Cash ISA as I may stop contributing to that and focus entirely on S&S.
Now I just need Mr Gnome to agree:D

AlexLK

I thought you were about the same age as me, LG.

Are you going to be staying in London to retire or will you sell? My thinking is if you want another house similar to your London one in another part of the country you'll probably have quite a bit of spare "change"?

LadyGnome

AlexLK wrote: »

I thought you were about the same age as me, LG.

Are you going to be staying in London to retire or will you sell? My thinking is if you want another house similar to your London one in another part of the country you'll probably have quite a bit of spare "change"?

Its because I am so young at heart Alex;)


The plan is to stay in London. Once you have dealt with the monsterously high house prices London is not an especially expensive place to live unless you choose to make it so (lunch at the latest fashionable restaurant, tickets for the ROH etc). Public transport is a lot cheaper than many parts of the country and free for over 60's and under 11's. Most of the major museums and galleries are free and necessary services like libraries, doctors, shops are within walking distance. I do spend a bit of time on rightmove looking forlornly at what we could buy with the equity in our home in other parts of the country:o. However, I also watch Escape to the Country and see people about to retire who want to live in the middle of nowhere and think they are mad. Why move away from amenities at the time of your life when you are increasingly going to need them.

AlexLK

This does show just how different we all are, though I think the world is a better place for it. I love living in the 'middle of nowhere'. London would be my idea of hell! :rotfl:

LadyGnome

I think London is many people's idea of hell after the Tube strike yesterday.;)

NSD yesterday and hopefully today will be the same.

I had a bit of a chat with Mr Gnome yesterday about planning for the future and I think we are heading in the same direction even if we are looking at slightly different routes to get to the same place. We both want a similar outcome its just I am more of a long term planner and Mr Gnome is more of a quick fix for now sort of person.

If we stick to the current plan the mortgage will be paid off in 2027 -7 years and 1 month early. I am already slightly ahead of plan so I am hoping I can shave another month off that in the next month or two. As the interest on the mortgage reduces it gets easier to stick to the plan as it assumes a reduction of £1300 pm for the first 5 years (this month the standard payment net of interest will be around £1053 + my regular OP of £230 means only another £17 is needed to meet the monthly target). As the monthly interest drops the top up needed will reduce so it becomes easier to meet and exceed the £1300 target. I have beaten the target in Jan and will do so in Feb and March thanks to no council tax for those months.