ZC's Aim for a little independence

zcrat41

Morning all. Just doing a little adding up and my emergency house fund is now at £4280.19. I originally thought it was going to take me to this time next year to save up 5k. Finding Dave Ramsey and Gazelle intensity has really really helped though. Its made me see that I don't need a few hundred stashed in my holiday fund - i need to get rid of this mortgage sooner! I'm hoping to hit 5k by Xmas.

Two more viewings on the house this week but still not much movement. If I do manage to sell I'll be able to invest a lot and hopefully use 1k of my savings to bump up some of my sinking funds and buy a few clothes. If I don't sell I'll carry on aiming to save up another 5k to hit 10k savings and roll from there.

In money news my FD regular saver came to an end and they were dropping the interest to like 2.5%! So I've swapped it to a Nat West Reg saver. Much lower rate at 1.5% but I think it can do balances of up to 10k and its all in one place then.

Have a good day all

zcrat41

Hello all. Thought I'd do an end of year update.
It's all pretty positive chez ZC. I've accepted an offer on my house. £167500 which is a lot less than I started asking for but i thought a more realistic version was £170 so it turns out I wasn't too far out. I've given the tenant notice and he moves out on Feb 4th. Hoping to exchange in March and complete in April. Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly

I've managed to save £5100 in my emergency fund!! I'm so proud of myself for this. I originally thought it would take me till next autumn so I've smashed it. The plan is to leave it sitting there until the house sale goes through just in case there's a hiccup. I have plans for if it all goes through though. I'm going to top up the holiday and car sinking Funds and treat myself to some new clothes.

I managed to lose 10lbs before Xmas too. Really chuffed with that as it meant I could eat what I wanted al Xmas! Back on the bandwagon tomorrow though.

So 2020 goals:
1) do the Bible in a Year app
2) cash flow two months mortgage payment with no tenants
3) save £2177 into a Lisa.
4) follow ynab
5) follow TOMM.

Have a cracking new year all. :beer:

jwil

Congratulations on the house sale, savings and weight loss :T :T

Happy New Year

becky170

That's great news that you've accepted an offer on your flat. Hope the sale all goes through smoothly! Congratulations on the weight loss too.

South_coast

Excellent progress here ZC. I always used to do a "pre-Christmas diet" and then put it all back on during the festivities - the best I manage now is thinking about starting a diet all year round!

zcrat41

Hello all. 

So as seems to be my custom I thought I'd pop back to do a June update. I sold my house by the skin of my teeth. I'd exchanged at the end of feb. Then was due to complete two days into lockdown!! Luckily as we'd exchanged it went through but it was a bit nail biting. 

So I'm officially mortgage free! I've invested most of the cash into my family business. I wanted to clear £100k and have managed to clear £105. Not bad for a 20k investment 10 years ago.  I kept 3k for my emergency fund and also treated myself to some new clothes, Fitbit etc. 

2020 goals are going well. 

I did cash flow 2 months mortgage payments 

I've done the Bible in a Year every single day. 

On course to put £2177 into a LISA

I TOMM most days

Not sure where to go from here. It feels a bit wrong to carry on this diary but over the years I found it really helpful to pop on here and focus for a few months. 

jwil

Congratulations on the sale and being mortgage free!

zcrat41

Well hello there. 

I don't know what it is about June/July but it seems to be the time of the year when I focus on money!! 

Things are going well. I YNAB away to my hearts content each month. I managed to save £2177 out of my salary. Work has been good (I'm self employed) so I took out extra drawings and added 4K to my LISA. The £2177 that was earmarked for the LISA I'm now just keeping to one side. I used a little of it for a last minute trip to visit my poorly grandparent last week and boy was it good to see them!  

I will say though that my food spending has soared. Dont know if that's the kids growing up or if I'm getting a bit lax. After lockdown I also think I need to do an audit of monthly spends. We seem to have accrued a lot of Disney plus, Netflix etc! 

zcrat41

Hello! I'm a year early for my update! Things are going ok. I managed to save my £2177 (that's 15% of my individual income). Like previous years the business is doing well so ive been able to add 4K to a LISA so I'm keeping the £2177 to one side for the odd trip or emergency etc. 

Still YNAB'iing away. Bit disconcerted how much my next renewal will be. Although I love it the best part of £100 a year is a lot of money. 

Really noticing the food bills going up at the moment. Am thinking of posting a bit more on here just to keep myself accountable. I always used to keep the food under £80 a week (2 adults and 2 older primary kids) but it's creeping up to £100 now. And when we go out to eat dear lord!!! 

We are getting a new addition to the family though - a little cocker spaniel at the beginning of July. We met him yesterday and the kids are so excited! I can see that being a bit of a money pit. 

We were hoping to put an extension on the house this year but with prices going up so much we're holding off at the moment. Because although prices are going up the supermarkets aren't paying us any more for our produce yet. If we don't get a price rise soon some in the industry are going to really struggle. So we're battening down the hatches so to speak. 

Hoping to get away in our caravan in July. I think we are officially grown up now as our idea of a fun bank holiday weekend is heading to the local caravan dealers to spy on new vans and maybe pick up a new dish drainer and awning floor I've got my eye on 😂

I still come on here regularly and read loads of posts. Often on the old style board. Thank you to all who share regularly. It's such a great community.