ATB'S Frugal Foray to Freedom

chelseablue

I cant wait to be in your position, I think I'm a similar age to you (I'm 34) and we still owe £219,000

atypicalblonde

It is sunny here today which matches my mood :D

Managed to list a few more bits on ebay yesterday, and one sold for £8 straightaway so that has been shuffled to the savings pot. I have washing blowing on the line, DH invoicing is all up to date and I have got quite a bit of cleaning done this morning :T

Just waiting in for Autoglass - bloomin' stone chip on the windscreen. Once they have been I am going to head off out for an hour or so, and buy myself some nice flowers

DH is away with work tonight, and the kiddies have requested a very easy tea so not much effort required later, hurrah! They both seem very tired and grumpy this week, so doing tea/bath/bedtime on my own can be very tiring.

Chelseablue - you WILL get there. Just over 3 years ago our mortgage was £72k higher than it is now - if I can do it, anyone can. Keep on keeping on lass x

chelseablue

Thank you, I will do! Was hoping to start overpaying this year but we're getting married next month and going on holiday to Australia in December.

Weddings and long haul holidays certainly are a drain on the finances :rotfl:

themadvix

Well done ATB! Fantastic news! Just wait, it seems to drop much quicker once you're in five figures (says she, who will be rapidly overtaken by you now!).

A_Frayed_Knot

Oh, just catching up, Well done - you deserve the flowers and more :A

CathT

You are on fire at the moment ATB!

atypicalblonde

Thank you for such lovely comments. Having people pop into my diary makes an absolutely huge difference to my motivation levels, so thank you to each and every one of you :A

I have just TTd £1.19 to the mortgage. No more ebay sales yet, but today will be a very low spend day as I plan on buying milk and nothing else. Once DH gets home I will invoice the job he has done today; he is also working on Sunday which is a shame as the forecast is lovely, however he charges double rate for a weekend so it can't be turned down :cool:(easy for me to say as I get to sit in the garden whilst he works :rotfl:)

I have just re-done our household budget spreadsheet. After all of our basic utility bills and the mortgage are paid, we have £1,238.71 leftover :T I have gone through our SOA with a fine toothed comb, and the only things that could be reduced are 1. our gas & elec (£101 pcm). High, but bearing in mind the baltic year we have had so far and the fact I work from home, not unexpected and 2. Sky (£42 pcm). We do utilise our Sky package to it's full potential though, and don't go out much, so not prepared to compromise on this.

However, we do have more cash left over than I thought, so we will be keeping a spending diary for the month of May to figure out where on earth it goes.

crunch_time

Congratulations on sub £100k!! I!!!8217;ve just moved house and my mortgage has just dipped under the £300k mark!

Would love to see your SOA and know more about how you budget!

Crunchy x

atypicalblonde

Morning all,

It is scorching here :cool::D perfect bank holiday weather!

It's been a no spend bank holiday weekend here :T and no spends planned today either. We are having a bbq later but all with meat from the freezer so no need to spend anything. I've sold two items on eBay so another £11 in the pot.

Not much else to report, enjoy the sun everyone xx

atypicalblonde

Gosh, almost 3 months without a post! I hope that everyone is well, and enjoying this glorious weather we have been having.

It has been a very tricky, upsetting, emotional few months for us (well actually the whole year has been really). Lots of things have been happening that have made us re-assess everything, the main thing being the sudden unexpected loss of a very close relative.

I have been steadily chipping away at the mortgage, notwithstanding all of the carp we have had to deal with, and we now stand just under £90k.

In due course, we will be receiving sum funds from the estate of my relative which will enable us to clear the mortgage in full and have a small cushion behind us.

In short I suppose this is my farewell post to this board - we will be MF this year, much sooner than expected, but for very sad reasons.

Thank you to each and every person who has read, posted, cheered me on, held my hand when things seemed tough - your support has been utterly invaluable and I wish everyone all the very best wishes. Thank you for being my virtual pals.

Signing off, a rather emotional, ATB xx