Mortgage free by 45

Allotrope

Brambleberry wrote: »

Hi Allotrope! Love your name, bet you are a diamond of a teacher - science perhaps?

I also teach full-time, so I expect you are already used to using excel or similar.
When I decided to really get on top of my spending, I created a spreadsheet with tabs for all the different envelopes and tracked all my spending on there. All my cash was just held in my current account, but allocated to spending pots at the start of each month. As the years have gone by, I have branched out with better savings rates and several accounts, but still track them the same way, it's easier to customise than an app to fit your needs.

Hope this is helpful, good luck on your journey to MF.

Bb
x

Spot on, Bb! A chemistry teacher. What do you teach?

It's a good idea to use excel. Thank you. I was hoping to find an app so I could do it on my mobile but they all look really complicated!

Brambleberry

Also a Chemist Allotrope

I have my spreadsheets saved on OneDrive, so I can actually access them via my mobile and ipad if I need to, although now I usually balance up all my accounts once a week and have a pretty good idea of what my spending plans for the week are going to be. An alternative might be sheets on google, accessible online wherever you are, but it is not as fully functioned as excel. I looked at a lot of apps but couldn't find one I liked - I am very picky though and I already have excel, so why pay again?

I still overspend in some categories in some months, but because I'm saving up for yearly bills in advance and trying to create a buffer for myself, then I borrow from me (so that pot shows a negative balance while I pay it off) instead of paying interest on debts/credit cards or overdrafts.

My favourite feature now is that I can see my total debt against total savings, each month that figure is getting closer to zero, and I can see how long until I am debt neutral, when I can pay the last bits off while maintaining a good emergency fund, building savings and so on... I am a spreadsheet evangelist now :T

Allotrope

A fellow chemist :beer: Wow do you really only have £8800 left on your mortgage? Impressive!

How long have you been teaching? I have only been teaching 6.5 years (came into it late) so no idea what my pension is like. I'm going to spend the first day of the holidays trying to sort it out. I've also got another pension but not sure what that's doing.

Your spreadsheet sounds awesome! I think I'll use excel for monitoring long term savings v debt etc. But for day to day envelopes, I'm trialling a free app called goodbudget. If you stick to ten monthly envelopes and ten annual envelopes it's free. Liking it so far

Allotrope

Things I've done today towards my goals:

It's been a good day for scrimping...

- scanned ten receipts into receipt hog
- got a free Waitrose latte on the dog walk instead of popping into costa
- got £7 off my grocery shop (using a voucher that has been sent to the person who lived in this house before me...cheeky!)
- tracked everything I spent on a budget app (goodbudget - the free version)
- completed 3 till receipt prize draw surveys...can but hope!

Feeling positive as I sit here watching the kids decorating the tree and listening to Christmas music... of course to burst my bubble, the one thing I haven't done is write 60 reports which are due tomorrow first thing...

genieuk

You have been busy today, well done.
I shop at Aldi and buy reduced when I can say not to the kids (and OH)
Also use checkoutsmart, shopmium topcashback

My head is frazzled by all this whether to pay off mortgage save, invest and pensions

MinnieCooper

Hi,

I did have a diary but it is lost somewhere on here as I didn't keep it up! I prefer to read what other people are getting up to with their money saving/mortgage free wannabe antics lol.

I have thought of switching to teaching a few times (I have applied 2 years on the trot and I was offered a place both times). I chickened out both times! I was worried about starting again and losing my current salary (especially when hubby earns less than me). I have read horror stories about teaching but I think I am well and truly stitched up in the NHS at the moment. We can work 75 hours a week sometimes and I am being made to work loads of weekends and nights. Also, we don't get much of the school holidays off so I feel, at the moment, like I don't see my children. I get my time off during the week when the children are at school and that is CRAZY! I wanted to do a PGCE after university, many years ago, but ended up swept into the NHS. That feeling has always been there. It would be science for me too!

Ah well, life goes on...

gallygirl

I second the suggestion to start a second pension - though that still limits you to retiring at 55 - and that may/will increase, so maybe consider splitting between a pension and an S&S ISA?

With regards to your Costas - how much do they cost each? What is the daily interest on your mortgage? Every coffee = x hours you have to work longer - is it really worth it, especially if you can get a 30p Waitrose alternative? If you can make online overpayments on your mortgage maybe pay that saved coffee money off your mortgage every day. That would make small inroads into your mortgage whilst the big payments go automatically elsewhere. Same with the £7 off your grocery, future 30p's off tea etc. Fun to do and keeps you engaged in what you are doing.

Personally I'm with you on the cleaner - that was my one luxury :T.

Allotrope

genieuk wrote: »

You have been busy today, well done.
I shop at Aldi and buy reduced when I can say not to the kids (and OH)
Also use checkoutsmart, shopmium topcashback

My head is frazzled by all this whether to pay off mortgage save, invest and pensions

I'm heading for pension contributions I think. It makes sense, I just need to get my head used to the idea!

AnotherJoe

gallygirl wrote: »

I second the suggestion to start a second pension - though that still limits you to retiring at 55 - and that may/will increase, so maybe consider splitting between a pension and a SIPP?

Did you mean a SIPP and an ISA?

Allotrope

MinnieCooper wrote: »

Hi,

I did have a diary but it is lost somewhere on here as I didn't keep it up! I prefer to read what other people are getting up to with their money saving/mortgage free wannabe antics lol.

I have thought of switching to teaching a few times (I have applied 2 years on the trot and I was offered a place both times). I chickened out both times! I was worried about starting again and losing my current salary (especially when hubby earns less than me). I have read horror stories about teaching but I think I am well and truly stitched up in the NHS at the moment. We can work 75 hours a week sometimes and I am being made to work loads of weekends and nights. Also, we don't get much of the school holidays off so I feel, at the moment, like I don't see my children. I get my time off during the week when the children are at school and that is CRAZY! I wanted to do a PGCE after university, many years ago, but ended up swept into the NHS. That feeling has always been there. It would be science for me too!

Ah well, life goes on...

I have never regretted my move into teaching, it's an amazing job and I laugh every day. However, the government make it so hard! If they didn't keep changing things, I could reuse lessons which would save heaps of time as well as making my teaching better - more time for marking and feedback to the students, and more time to refine my resources and improve their impact. But instead I'm worrying about grades changing to numbers, a new GCSE and a new ALevel and what that means to the students, and making lots of stuff like tests etc, from scratch to include the new content and nuances of the changes.

The day is intensive, I teach in a comp so it's usually 5-6 lessons a day, 30 kids a lesson, plus a tutor group. It's tiring as you are constantly performing, alert, watching, listening etc, I worked hard before teaching but this is definitely the hardest I've ever worked. And only ever take Friday evenings and sometimes Sat daytime off during term time. As a single mum, I get up at six, walk dog, feed and help kids, get to school between 8-8.30pm, work all day, run detentions or support clubs at lunch, go to meetings or run support clubs after school, come home (usually for 5.30pm)', start dinner, walk dog, eat dinner, clear away, spend 30-60 mins with kids, start work for a couple of hours, go to bed.

That said, I love it. I laugh every day, the students inspire me, my girls goto my school, it's a real community and I feel like I make a difference. I also love the people I work with. I wouldn't swap it for anything. And obviously we have the holidays. I work about half the shorter ones and a week of the summer ones, otherwise I'm free!

And I don't think the money's terrible. It starts off pretty bad but after six years teaching I'm on £42,000 with some room for moving up the pay scale still. I do have responsibility as a head of department though.

Anyway, not sure if this helped you or not, but good luck in whatever you decide :j