Our Five Year Plan to Mortgage and Debt Free Freedom

Julie67

Good morning,
Welcome to my shiny new diary. I have been on these threads a long time and used to have a diary which sadly fell by the wayside. But i think this would be a good time to start another one.

Firstly a little bit about our family. Very happily married to a wonderful man for the last 33 years.
We have four kids but they are all grown up and mostly left home. The youngest lives in Leeds with his GF and they are about to embark on a year in Australia.

So its just us, still living in the family house, which is a big four bedroom one. We have a big mortgage but hopefully a fair bit of equity in our property, with about 15 yrs left to run on the mortgage. The plan is to sell the house in the next five years , settle the mortgage and with the equity by a piece of land that we can put a wooden house on. Would love about half an acre.
I run my on line business from home so need a couple of outbuildings to store stock (currently two of the spare bedrooms):eek: OH is also self employed.
We also have a DMP which was with Stepchange until very recently. I've decided to self manage this and am waiting for a response to the letters I sent out to our creditors.
I thought this was a good time to start a new diary as I want to use this to record our journey on the self managed route and maybe others embarking on this may be interested.
We are hoping to have a lump sum very soon to throw at the DMP and offer full and final settlements so I'm hoping by going Self Managed I can very much have control of this.
So far on the dmp
- I have informed SC that we are going down this route and confirmed it in writing
-Written to each of the creditors explaining this and informing them we will be paying token payments for the next few months (whilst we pay for emergency car repairs)
-Written to one of the creditors, by far the largest one Cabot to ask for a CCA's
Hopefully my ramblings will be of interest and if not that's ok.
This weekend should be a no spend one. Hoping to get out in the garden later. Usually Saturday morning clean through and I'm going to do some batch cooking later and fill the freezer.
I'm also going to have a bash at making some cereal bars. They are so expensive and OH like to take them in his packed lunch.
Have a great Saturday all x

Julie67

So far today,
House cleaned and washing done, had to go in the dryer I'm afraid.
The weather is just not playing ball, although DH has ventured out there, I'm definitely a fair weather gardener.
I've made the meals and portioned off 2 for the freezer to feed us next week.
I've also added two £2 coins to our collection. £54 in total so far.
Will definitely be a nsd:j
Dh is moving a border in the garden and we are re using the wood. In the past we would definitely have gone out to buy more.
Hope everyone is having a productive day

Orange_Ena

Wishing you luck on the next part of your journey

Hiddenidenity

Good luck! X

Subscribes so I can follow

Julie67

Good morning all,

thanks for your replies Orange Ena and Hidden Identity.

It's not raining this morning so we are going to get out in the garden after breakfast and try and finish the painting.
Hoping to have another no spend day.

I'm feeling a bit anxious waiting for the responses of our creditors after 2.5 years of using stepchange and everything ticking along without any problems it's a bit nerve racking. But I am determined to get this debt paid off and I know if I'm more in control it will happen that much more quickly.

May is an expensive month for us. My daughter gets married on 21st of May and that is a weekend away. Although all paid for, we will need petrol and drinks whilst we are there. I'm so looking forward to it. Our outfits are all sorted, on a tiny budget but they are lovely.
Also my eldest son is 30 at the end of the month. He lives in Australia so it's usually money as presents are more difficult to send.

June is horrendous for birthdays. I've written a list and I'm going to start this week trying to pick up some bargains. I'm looking forward to July and August as we have nothing planned and I'm really hoping to save and make some inroads into the debt.

Later today I'm going to do an inventory of the food we have in the cupboards and freezer and write a food list. We had slipped back into buying several bits from Tesco instead of planning and doing a proper shop from Aldi which is so much more economical. So back on it this week. We've eaten well out of the freezer this weekend.

Our kids know nothing about our debt and I want to keep it that way. I don't want them worrying about us, there is no need. Being self employed most of our lives things have always been up and down financially but we both really want to get rid of the debt and save and prepare for our retirement, hence the five year plan!

Have a good Sunday all x

Julie67

Good Morning all,

It's a wet rainy day here. Hope it picks up later , we have some french beans to plant.
A work day for me today and OH works with me on a Monday.
Lots of buying and a trip to the auctions as well. I've already issued a refund on ebay this morning. Unfortunately part and parcel of having a business on ebay. Free returns, arghh well. It's been a quiet weekend but still 7 parcels going out this morning.
My money saving plans today include,
-not going out for lunch, its always a temptation when we work together!
-Shopping list all done for Aldi and meals planned Monday to Friday.
-Yesterday I did all the letters for CCA requests for our creditors, so they will be posted this morning.
-the garden building painting work is done, thank goodness. We need some cheap plants from somewhere and also would like some flags to make a small area for the garden furniture to sit on. Will get looking on gumtree, freecycle.
I'm hoping this week we get responses from our creditors re the Self managed DMP.:( nervous but will be glad when I've heard from them all.
That's about all today, will pop back later. Have a good Monday x

Julie67

Very busy day for us. Unfortunately fell off the no spend band wagon and had chippy for tea:eek: very unusual for us, but we were starving as we had missed dinner.
Got some good items to list, will probably take the rest of the week.
We have been drawing up plans for the kitchen. Desperately needs replacing. It's the one we inherited when we moved in and after painting the doors twice it's definitely seen better days.
It will be done on the smallest budget we can get away with, but it does need doing.
Hope everyone has had a good money saving day

Julie67

Good morning,

It's another very wet day.

Yesterday afternoon we went to look at a possible place to live in the future. This was a log cabin set in some beautiful countryside but basically on a park home site. Absolutely lovely but it's solidified for us that we need our own piece of land. The wooden lodges are very affordable. It's just finding land that is affordable and not in wilds of Scotland. Don't get me wrong , I love Scotland but we need to be in the North West or within half an hour for children, grandchildren and parents:eek:

OH has gone off to work and I really need to do the food shopping I didn't get to yesterday. We literally have no bread milk, or fruit in the house.
Still nothing back from the creditors, but it was only Thursday last week when I sent the letters.
Today I'm going to set up a standing order to our savings account so we can begin getting that emergency fund built up.
This morning I've already checked the bank, the giant direct debit that is the Council Tax came out yesterday. but otherwise all good
I need to cook lasagne for tea , Post off a couple of ebay parcels
and get on with some listings.
Have a good Tuesday all x

Julie67

So I thought I would make a list of the extra expenses we have coming up in May and June

May - Daughters wedding (all paid for other than drinks whilst we are
at the hotel)
Son's 30th Birthday (already sent him a birthday gift. he lives
in Australia
June- Youngest son is 21
Grandsons birthday
Daughters Birthday
DH Birthday
Fathers Day
BF Birthday
MIL 80th Birthday
Younger grandsons Birthday
Our Anniversary (Probably make each other a card
DIL Birthday

Phew :eek: very expensive month. I'm going to do some research tonight, see if I can find any bargains.
I did manage to pick up a couple of Xmas Gifts from the Charity shop today which have gone in my present stash
Thank goodness July and August are much quieter.

Hiddenidenity

Looking good! Yes that does look expensive! Least you can get it all planned though.

At least it's a bit drier here in the NW today

Happy Wednesday x