Get a grip woman!

StripeyTightsSpottySocks

Hi Suffolk Lass

Thank you for your kind and helpful posts on the grocery challenge thread

i've just subscribed to your thread - hope all is well with you and i hope to be all caught up soon

Suffolk_lass

Ooh welcome StripeyTightsSpottySocks! Kind words. I fear my diary is a bit more about my meandering through my newly non-working life, avoiding the big things we want to avoid.

This week DH has been digging the foundations trench for our new greenhouse - they need to be about 20cm (8') deep so that we can put in a mix of grit sand and cement with a breeze block on top and then the metal frame base of the greenhouse on top of that. Just the weather (and a need for frequent drinks, snacks and electronic devices!) slowing progress.

I meanwhile, ordered my nuts in bulk - 1k each of pecans and cashew nut pieces and 500g each of macadamia (my favourites) and pine nut kernels. The delivery was yesterday and involved significant reshuffling of dry goods in the larder. I also bought a 1k pack of pumpkin seeds from the local Health Food Shop, together with organic jumbo oats and their unsorbated prunes. Hours of happy tetris, decanting and sorting all the jars in my larder and cupboard.

I ended up making a very unconventional tea-bread (pound cake, Kim's cake, Bara Brith) with bits that did not fit - left over raisins, topped up with mixed fruit to 1lb, and then a handful of my breakfast nuts and seeds mix, about 30 chopped up walnut halves, just one heaped tablespoon of soft brown sugar, a mug of black tea and another each of bread-making wholemeal flour and plain flour and two eggs (I hate leaving one egg in the box) made two loaves topped with a line of pecan halves. Good job it is a forgiving cake recipe - it is lovely (well, I had to try it!)

We came to within one sachet of running out of cat food so I drove DH into the nearest town to the pets store. There is an Aldo's next door so I nipped in and did our week's shopping (except milk) - £26.21. However, added to the health food shop that was £19.92 for stores and the nuts £49.21 - these are part of my once-a-year Christmas Grocery budget I had a very spendy week. I am following The Frugal Cottage, (a web page run by slowlyfading, who runs the "save 12k in 2019" thread on here) and there is a No-Spend Challenge on Facebook (other than planned essentials). I need to be careful.

A round trip of about 110 miles to a friend's house last night for a girl's night - no more dancing round handbags - it has got to the point where we were comparing washing notes (do the pegs have to match, and at what point do you match socks) and whether or not we cut the bottom off the toothpaste tube to get the last bit out :rotfl: we know how to live!! (of course they get counted in to the washing machine and matched when I peg them out - with matching pegs!, and yes, of course I snip). I resisted the cheap coke and bleach toilet cleaning tips, a case of judging the interest level for my pals. Good fun though with good friends and some decadent food provided by this month's hostess. Other than fuel costs it was free for me.

Suffolk_lass

Well I visited the Energy from Waste Facility this week. I said I would feed back so here it is.

It was fascinating and really interesting and not too smelly. A huge amount of effort goes into recovering re-usable commodities from the waste with the ash graded by size and used for road construction and to make breeze blocks, and all the metals extracted and resold. Of the 266k p.a. tons of waste, just 2-3% ends up being sent to landfill as dust.

The proportions of output from the furnace are 75% energy, 23% re-usable (as above) and 2-3% to landfill.

This is for 100% of our general waste in Suffolk, plus 40% of Norfolk's (233k tonnes of municipal waste) and a small amount of commercial waste (33k tonnes) to make sure the facility is used to the maximum.

There are 6 phases to ensure the chemicals are mitigated and the emissions are minimised, using filters, lime and urea to mitigate any high toxicity levels.

It left us feeling really positive and salved my conscience a bit about the plastic film and food trays we dispose of in our bins. The resources we use to produce them still feels deeply uncomfortable but at least we are doing what we can in my county to mitigate the impact of their disposal.

If anyone wants to read more, here is the link to the facility web site

Karmacat

Wow! Thank you SL! I liked the whole pound cake post ... but your Energy from Waste post just here is remarkable - I had no idea that what's dismissed as "incineration" is so useful. Thank you.

Suffolk_lass

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

Having been reading a number of people's debt-free wannabe diaries for some time now, I have finally decided I will start my own.

We are less than three years from wanting to stop work, and less than ten years from state retirement age. I manage our household finances and DH lets me get on with it. His attitude is more "live for today" so we are a good balance, I think. We have two holidays each year and sometimes more - and he has some boys toys - 2 Harley Davidson motorcycles in the garage, that seem to always need money spending on them. That said, there is more to be said in favour of a happy and contented DH than against them so I don't resent them in any way.

So to debts - It seems a good time because I have recently finished the finance on my car, and as of yesterday, paid off the finance for DS's car (I borrowed from him 18 months ago and paid back by buying his car on finance and paying his insurance). I was paying 4.7% on that debt so it was my highest priority. I paid it off 10 months early using most of my HSBC Regular Saver that matured this week.

The debts I have currently are:

£110,621 - Mortgage - interest rate of 0.74% (0.5 above the BoEBR)
£3,476 - DH's car - 0% credit card until Sept 17 - a £4000 cash advance with a £76 fee
£8,755.54 - Barclays Finance for double glazing 0% over 2 years 2/24 paid

Total £122,852.54

It isn't that I can't afford to keep up payments, it is more that I want us to start our non-work phase without them hanging over us, if you know what I mean.

I think that will do for a scene setter.

SL

I thought I would review what my original targets were when I started this diary. Gosh things have changed a lot since then.

Our only debt now is our mortgage, and that is currently £17,500, following my November over-payments. Superficially impressive but the overpayments we have made mean that if we just let the mortgage run at £17,500 until its end, in August 2022, the interest will be £578.56. This is annoying, I hate paying interest.

Our interest is currently £18.08 a month and I pay £100 each month on our interest only mortgage with our interest now 1.24%. I have three regular savers that will pay out in February and I might have to push at least one of these towards the mortgage. On one hand, why pay any interest just to save £75?

I need to be generating more than the interest on our savings to offset this and I am not sure that this is the case when I look at stock market fluctuations and the interest I can get on cash savings. I had planned to take it down to about a thousand and then just let that sit there to avoid the £75 early redemption fee(!) but I will call them and see if they will waive this at any point. In the meantime, do I want to raid a cash pot to pay down early or wait until DH raids his DC pot in the new tax year, or later until our 3.5% bond finishes next October to make the big-lump payment?

I welcome suggestions or experiences.

It feels slightly pathetic, agonising over this when I consider the circumstances of others. Sorry.

Busy_Mee1

Morning SL. You have done really well over the course of your diary to get into the position you have. It is amazing how having a bit of focus and the accountability a diary brings.

With regard to your dilemma, You could earn a "bit" more in interest than you pay on your mortgage, there are plenty of cash options paying between 1.4% - 2%. The sums to be gained are not huge so if it makes you feel better then I would pay it off.

The only caveat to that is that you would probably not be able to borrow a sum of £17 k at such a good interest rate, particularly now you are not working. So keeping it running does give you access to funds at quite a cheap rate, if you need to buy a new car, camper or do any household repairs.

As you know we are keeping our mortgage running, even though we could pay it off because all of our investments are paying more than the interest in the mortgage and it give us access to the funds should we want to move house or help DD with a deposit.

Great position to be in though x

enthusiasticsaver

I think so long as you have 17500 in savings earning 1.5% (Marcus?) I would let the mortgage run its course if the interest rate is 1.24%. Not a vast difference I agree but as you say the stock market is volatile at the moment (not that this is a reason not to invest) but if you need to access investments to pay off the mortgage you would not want to do this at a low point. It sounds like you have options though but for what it is worth I would not rush to pay it off when you have a favourable rate. Of course if psychologically you just want shot of it now at least you won't be missing much interest as the rates are so poor now.

You have come a long way since then and set yourself up for a sound financial retirement so well done. I know what you mean when you talk about agonising over something like this when so many are in dire circumstances but it is still a dilemma for you. I think that every day to be honest and count my lucky stars especially as we are no longer dependent on employment. Different worries now like health and the happiness of family/friends

Karmacat

You're absolutely not being pathetic, SL!



And bear in mind, if you make early repayments, you're not just not-paying interest, you're also paying back capital that you'd have to pay back soon in any case.


I know you can work out the logical position as well as anyone - and how that position might change if they *do* waive the early repayment fee - so it comes down to your wish to not pay interest - yes, you can get a higher rate of interest if you don't use your savings. So logically, it doesn't make sense. You'd be doing it for psychological reasons, emotional reasons, and thats perfectly fine as long as you know that thats *why* you're doing it. Your money, your feelings, your choice, your rights are absolute.

Suffolk_lass

Thank you all for your great comments. We talked about it on and off for much of yesterday. My concern is one of cash flow I think.

I know we have enough overall but there are some big (for us) things that we want to do earlier rather than later. I feel a new worksheet in my spreadsheet coming on!

enthusiasticsaver

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

Thank you all for your great comments. We talked about it on and off for much of yesterday. My concern is one of cash flow I think.

I know we have enough overall but there are some big (for us) things that we want to do earlier rather than later. I feel a new worksheet in my spreadsheet coming on!

I totally get that. Our early years of retirement have been more expensive than we thought but we kept a lot back in cash from our lump sums, already had other cash savings and had paid off our mortgage about 5 years prior to retirement. Big house renovation projects, a car to replace DHs company car, e bikes and next year 2 long haul holidays are making a big dent in our cash. A cash flow forecast is a good idea. I use spending envelopes and we tend to focus on one thing at a time so initially a new car for DH and then a new kitchen last year and bathroom this year. Long haul holidays have waited until now.