Viking's Diary

Viking_mfw

So shortly after that post I was admitted to hospital where I ended up staying for three weeks before coming home with the Viking Baby. So I hope I can be excused the long gap. The MSE Badger gave me my one year badge yesterday and it gave me the push I needed to restart.

We moved in October to be closer to work (more expensive mortgage), and my OH gave up work to stay home with the VB when I went back from mat leave. Our circs are a little bit tighter than when we were DINKYs but life is good.

I have been doing a little OP here and there. I get some variable top ups on my salary some months for extra work so since I went back I have been splitting this 1/3 to OP and 2/3 to saving. It has not had a huge effect so far (I ought to work out how much!) but it's a start. I'm also saving for the end of my car contract in just under 2 years as the VB clearly requires a bigger, less expensive model!

The mortgage is an eyewatering 1100 a month and we're tightly budgeted for the rest. Hoping restarting the diary will give me the will power to stick to it or even come under budget when at the moment what I really want is to run fans 24-7 and spend hundreds of pounds on ice cream!

New targets:
OP every month no matter how little.
OP 10k before Jan 2022.

greent

Welcome back x

julicorn

Welcome back, and a very belated congratulations on the Viking Baby

Viking_mfw

He's definitely the best bit of the last year

Viking_mfw

Well have just started a week of extra work which will not only provide a boost to the OPs and savings, but also provides me with lunch all week. It will also hopefully prevent me from spending any money!

We're waiting for a quote to replace our garage door with a wall and a window. The door is no longer secure and there's direct access into the house. The garage itself was chopped in half about 20 years ago to make more internal room, so we're planning to finish the job.

I have also been thinking about the 1% challenge from DFW and although the overall.scale of the mortgage makes that unfeasible, I think the 10k OP target works with £100 being 1%. So now I just need a whizzy way of displaying it!

Viking_mfw

Ahem... some time later. I have been lurking, if not posting.

So the new car grew into a bigger priority as Viking Baby's legs grew rapidly. We finished the PCP early and switched to plain HP on a bigger, older, less fancy estate which we will own at the end of 4 years and which is going to be £30 a month less. Doing so ate up all the savings I had been carefully stacking away.

We are also about to embark on turning the former garage into a nice big kitchen which has been mostly paid for by generous grandma but which is still going to take a couple of thousand more than we have, so my current focus is on paying for that and building up a rainy day fund again.

Which is to say I haven't stuck to my OP every month target although I have made a couple of small payments. The total is not on track for £10k by 2022 though. And this afternoon, inspired by reading some more diaries, I worked out that to be MF by my 50th, which would be 18 years early, I'd need to be OPing about £10.5k pa or just under £900pm. Which seems like a stretch.

Still, if you don't try...

2019 OPs = 0
TBC / £10,000 by end 2021.

Viking_mfw

Well, three years on from starting this diary daily interest is down one pound to £14.50. 

Total op = £470.60/ £10k. 

Kitchen is beautiful but we have now got to work on combining old kitchen into dining room. 
Back on the wagon that I keep falling off...

Viking_mfw

Okay, so one of the reasons that I have not posted often is that everytime I look at the mortgage I get overwhelmed by how huge it is (as of this morning £277, 592.21) and the fact that we have very little left over each other month (think pence). And for reasons of security and worry about things going wrong, my priority is building up a large emergency fund. We have some good emergency funds because of dying relatives last year, but they are technically earmarked for renovation funds. 
But, I have rejoined the Frugal Living Challenge, and I am looking at the emergency funds (held in PBs) as being an investment in the mortgage anyway long term (if, for example, using some of that would help to remortgage when our fix comes to an end in 2 years). And I think posting regularly will help to keep the motivation up. 

So: 
Daily interest is £14.50 (!)
and it takes £626 OP to take a month off the mortgage term. 

But: inspired by the diaries on here, I figured I could at least get rid of that annoying 21p so I have made an OP of 21pence today to round the mortgage down. 
I have also shopped around for house insurance renewal and cut the cost substantially. I paid upfront out of savings, and have now started up a standing order for more than the monthly cost of the new insurance but less than the monthly cost of the old insurance - thus benefiting both savings and budget. But I have also worked out that the things I've managed to sell this month is now only £72.78 off the cost of the insurance so my target is now to find ways to pull that together over the next 22 days and get it paid back in to savings. Not sure how, as I have done the big 'we buy books' collection already... but, I shall try to find a way!

South_coast

Would it help to look at your net position of mortgage - savings? That way it might still feel like you are making progress despite focusing on the EF?

Viking_mfw

That is a good idea, SC, thanks. 

Lodger paid me back for some food I'd already accounted for in the budget, so that's another £5 to the insurance fund. Just waiting for We Buy Books to pay me and then I'll transfer that lot into savings. Just over £100 of the money is still in cash so I'll have to find an opportunity to pay that in. 

Some good news in that I've been offered some consultancy work which will pay out next year which will boost the coffers a little. Every little helps!