The ups, downs, and occasional sideways bits of trying to be mortgage free

armchairexpert

Oh they're not new money, darling! It's very much the sort of place where everyone drives a Mercedes, but they're 30 year old classics that have been meticulously serviced. But yes, definitely more fun than a reality show.

Kids have been away for three days now and I miss them! We've got a lot done though. All the carpets and rugs are steam cleaned, which, uh, I should be doing that more often if the colour of the waste water is anything to go by. Little Girl's new loft bed is assembled and made up. We stripped the covers off the armchairs and soaked and washed them. It's all very fresh and clean, and my back is aching like I'm 70.

$27.47 left in the Christmas spending pot. Technically, any food left to buy comes out of Groceries, and I think we're all done for presents, so we might squeak by without adding to it, although there's always something that comes up.

Kids back tomorrow. MIL and SIL arrive Friday. From there, who knows!

Tahlullah

Congratulations on the savings within the Christmas spending pot. Great success to come in under budget.

Have a good Christmas with the family.

armchairexpert

Well, if I'm honest there's only that much left in there because I kept dropping more and more in over November/December. I think we were $300 over the original budget all up.

Doesn't matter! I'd rather have a worry-free Christmas and then attack the savings plans in January. All over now. My MIL and SIL came over for the week, and we (Mr E and I) went a bit overboard trying to give them an excellent Christmas so I think next year we'll scale it back a bit. I don't mean there was lots of Stuff, more that we planned fancy meals every night as well as all the Christmas cooking prep and just spent so much time in the kitchen instead of kicking back and chatting with guests. Not the best balance. Food was all a great success, I just think they'd probably have been as happy with something simpler. They're a very foodie family, though, so maybe not. Hard to know.

Christmas Day was lovely. I got a bunch of things I asked for: wireless headphones for running, a book and a lipstick (the latter in a much more expensive brand than I'd buy for myself) as well as a gorgeous 'cuddle mug' chosen by Little Girl with love hearts all over it, it'll make me smile every time I use it. Better still, Mr E's family all chipped in together to buy him a new kitchen mixer thing. It's his combination birthday and Christmas present, it cost a bomb, and now we both get to use it!

Still working through leftovers three days later. Turkey sandwiches, plates of ham and cheese and pickle, nobody's cooked since Christmas Day. Don't think I'll make it through until January without a top up shop, but we'll get close.

And a huge job came in which I don't have time to do but the money's too good to pass up, so I'd better get back to it. I have a lot of outstanding invoices from November because all the payroll people are on holidays, but I can cover my December salary out of my business savings/tax account and then hopefully it'll all roll in next week and I can pay it back.

Merry Christmas to the lot of you!

armchairexpert

It's an hour or so before midnight here, so before we head into 2018:

I started this diary in February. My initial mortgage figure was what I now call my 'total owed' figure: the balance owing on my mortgage plus the balance owing on my credit card minus the amount I have in savings - because I had an all-in-one-bucket LOC then. I refinanced in August to create a standard mortgage and separate transaction account.

Clear as mud? Okay.

Total owed:
9 February 2017 -$229,371. This figure had been steadily increasing for about a year at this point and I hadn't really noticed.
31 December 2017 - $202,337

Slightly less significant, but the figures I'll use going forward into 2018:
Mortgage at time of refinance, August 2017 - $220,000
Mortgage as at 31 December 2017 - $214,653
The bank calculator reckons I've knocked an extra two months off the end date, which isn't bad in 6 months I guess.

Almost every month has seemed to me that we're barely holding on, always slipping backwards, etc. I haven't managed to save up much in the past six months (post-refinance): the mortgage has gone down and I've put little extra bits in, but I have less than $2K in savings/buffer/emergency fund over the same period, which is tiny. We'll never go on holiday at this rate.

And yet we seem to have paid quite a lot? We did sell a car this year ($2800), and I had saved up a lot more in my business tax account than I ended up owing ($10Kish) but that's only half of what we've managed. And we were going backwards last year by almost $1K/month, although admittedly some of our expenses lessened this year (Little Girl going to school) and my income increased, so that might have righted itself naturally.

Looking at some data:
We always go over on

• Medical, Home Improvements, and Family Entertainment - basically, the discretionary spending stuff that is easy to justify. Medical should be better next year, we had a run of bad luck - the rest not so much.
• I only have 5 months data on this, so I'm going back and forth on whether to just accept that those expenses are higher than I like them being, or to see how the other half a year plays out. I guess I feel like if I just budget for reality, it'll give us permission to spend more and I should keep moving money from savings monthly to feel the pain of the choice. But it's not ME spending the money!
• Fixed costs have gone up because it's taken me this long to capture everything. Annual costs were forgotten before.
• I'm pretty good at groceries now! Average is around $1000/month, and it was easily $1200-1400 before. Thanks, Old Style!

Anyway! I was hoping to be under the $200K mark, but Mr E is just not on this page with me and that's fair enough. Goals for 2018 in next post.

armchairexpert

First Quarter:

• Get the interest payment under 50% of the total payment (easy, tbh. Fortnightly payment is $647, last interest payment was $674).
• Shave another 5% off the groceries. I have a whole plan. It's dull to anyone but me. I'd like it consistently under $1000 even on a 5 week month.
• Build the business buffer back up: this last two months I have borrowed back from the business buffer/tax account to cover my contribution. This is mostly due to outstanding invoices, which is why I'm not worried about it, but I'll feel better when it's got savings in. I want a $3K slush fund there in case I've badly miscalculated my tax obligations - they'll be higher this year, and I think student loan payments kick in.

Year:

• This is the biggie, obviously: Mortgage under $200K. That means paying off $1200/month from principal, which means chucking $1900/month at it. Numbers say I can manage this in theory. Will I in practice? Will Mr E suddenly decide he doesn't need to spend $100s on plants a month? Stay tuned. Or don't, because obviously he won't decide that.
• Business: This has to wait until the end of financial year so I can check about tax but by July next year I want to be consistently earning enough to safely increase contribution by another $1K. Then I think I'm happy to stop increasing, because I value my time with the kids too.
• Life balance: this isn't strictly a financial goal but I'm currently letting my finance anxiety get in the way of it (i.e., telling myself I can't afford things that are good for me). So I've re-juggled the accounts to give myself a fitness/gym allowance, and I need to do some time management stuff to make sure I get leisure time in.

VelvetFreak

Happy New Year, Ace! All great goals. Can totally relate with the "telling yourself that you can't afford things that are good for you" part. I am making some changes with that as well. Hope 2018 is an awesome year for you

Tahlullah

Happy New Year ACE. You are always so focused! Its only the 1st of 2018 and you already know what will happen and when going forward. I'm still at 'eating mince pies' stage.

Looking forward to watching you achieve.

Tx

JingsMyBucket

Armchair, I'm subscribing to your thread because you're so funny and your writing is lovely to read. Mind if I take up some space?

armchairexpert

Oh goodness, you're very welcome! How lovely of you to say so.

armchairexpert

How is it the third already? It's summer holidays here, and I'm kind of sneaking in bits of work in between child entertainment duties. Right now they're playing/shrieking at one another on the trampoline, so I think I'm temporarily safe.

Yesterday I decided I was going to join Costco under my own steam instead of relying on my Mum to share a trip with me on her card. Drove the girls all the way down there - 35 minutes - after their swimming lesson, parked, and realised that I'd left my entire handbag at home when I dropped the wet swimming gear into the house. Drove home, cursed self.

Went back today, successfully, but I can't concentrate on Costco with two chattering children so goodness only knows what I bought. And the nearby butcher, which has excellent yellow sticker bargains, did not. So not as exciting as I'd hoped.

(My kids: "why is going to a huge supermarket exciting, Mum?". Hard to explain)

Nothing else to report, honestly. Went through my wardrobe: do not need clothes and did not have much to get rid of, which I suppose is good but wasn't very satisfying. Trying to exercise a bit more, but it's going to be 39-41C here over the next few days (for anyone who prefers fahrenheit, I have done the conversion, it is 175,938,305 degrees F) so hahaha nope. Am going to go check out a nearby gym next week when Mr E is in charge of the children.

Plodding on!