Taking it slowly, but doing it well. 13 July 2017 at 7:39PM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Mortgage-Free Wannabe 1.1K replies 106K views

Karmacat

£860 :j:j:j

wishingthemortgaheaway

1st September and silently lying in bed in our hotel room as Pickle is still sleeping (it was nearly 11 before he was in bed last night due to the wedding we went to)

Wedding was lovely. Such a massive catch up with good friends. Shame it was a short as it was really.

Budgets are reset for the month - although I did use September money yesterday, but, the rest of the month shouldn't (ha ha famous last words!) be that spendy on everyday stuff.

Mortgage interest hasn't been added yet so I can't work out my overpayment target for the month. I'm still £100 behind where I really want to be, so somehow, need to keep plugging away to improve that.

Last month of full childcare costs. I have dropped the amount form £375 to £350 this month, but it then goes down to £100 from October - I can't wait!

I think I've explained before this £100 is only for 12 months, then it goes up to £250 to cover before and after school care.
So, I've got £150 to temporarily redistribute (savings) and £100 to permanently redistribute - I don't know yet.....

So, today's plans - breakfast buffet with some friends
Travel home
Unpack & sort out.
Maybe build my new garden storage bench.

Karmacat

I'm glad the wedding was so good have a lovely breakfast buffet

wishingthemortgaheaway

Home for a few days now, next trip is a business trip.
2nd September and the figures are all in.

I'm also, inspired by Foxgloves, going to do a 30 day decluttering challenge - so far so good, 3 things ditched or repurposed.

Figures this month:
Mortgage interest added today was £51.15 which is exactly £1.65 a day. I think this means mortgage interest will be sub £50 every month from now on. That feels good! (I'll soon be able to budget for the interest rather than tillytidying it etc. Especially with the reduction in childcare bills)

A nsd today - used our passes at the aquarium & swimming lessons are prepaid.

There are still a few 'start of the month, easy wins, to go, so I may make it to the next £100 overpayment. I'm still £100 behind where I want to be. I have got a lot of overtime due this month, so I'm hoping to do it this month. I'm still a fair distance from our overpayment allowance for the year, I will still hit it, but not as early as I wanted to, so probably won't be able to build up a bit of a buffer to hit the account on the 1st January - we shall see.

Hoping for a cheap few weeks - we should be getting the decorating done this month & that won't be cheap.

So: here goes;

MSE September Goals

1) Mop pot
1) Added interest/nice round number/ £300 capital reduction: £80.41/£80.41 :j
2) £400 capital reduction £82.50/£100
2) £500 capital reduction 0/£100
3) £600 capital reduction 0/£100

2) decluttering challenge
2/30 days

3) NSDS
1/15 (today)

wishingthemortgaheaway

Quick check in as some more variable bills have been generated so I can Tilly tidy some oversaves. Still got some isa interest to go, but other than that it's now the day to day tiny Tilly tidies for the rest of my monthly target.

MSE September Goals

1) Mop pot
1) Added interest/nice round number/ £300 capital reduction: £80.41/£80.41 :j
2) £400 capital reduction £100/£100 :j
2) £500 capital reduction £2.98/£100
3) £600 capital reduction 0/£100

2) decluttering challenge
2/30 days

3) NSDS
1/15

Mummy_bear

My life seems like a permanent decluterring challenge :rotfl: Clutter breeds in my house. Did a huge tip run the other weekend and it's barely made a dent Need to be more ruthless and proactive with shifting things I think.

wishingthemortgaheaway

Apologies all, my diary is much neglected.

The end of another month.
So, where are we up to...

Work
It's been a crazy busy work month, fortunately, this has led to a super fat pay packet which has helped a lot of things. I will have a big expenses month, but it's unlikely to hit the October deadline, so it should all be in November's pay packet.
I also did a day's consultancy in September - hoping ill be paid this at the end of October.

Mortgage
The mortgage currently stands at £24,500. I overpaid by £380 this month - it gets me back on track (I was fed up of my line on the mfw 2019 challenge spreadsheet saying 'slightly behind')
I need to overpay by an average of £216 a month to hit my op target for the year. So, hopefully that is doable.
By the time the fixed rate ends in July next year I should be sub £20k - now that's an exciting thought. On track to completely clear the mortgage 6 years early.

Work on the house
This is still ongoing. We are into decorating on the inside. Dining room has been painted, shelving has been put in the inglenook for wine rack (which has been filled).
Had a quote for the roof work we need spin and booked that in, more expensive than I'd hoped, but, it's the roof, it has to be done.
The shower is still not fixed, will get onto the plumber in the morning.

So far this year we have paid out nearly £7k in house related stuff. We are loving the log burner and obviously the woodworm has to be sorted. This has all been cashflowed from wages.

Once we have finished the current program of works I want to start saving for the kitchen. It's good to know that, unless something goes wrong in the house (always likely!) we could be having a new kitchen this time next year. (Based on what we've saved & paid out for 2019)

The 'be mortgage neutral by July 2020 challenge
Obviously this has been completely blown out of the water. I'm still finding the 'small' steps of my complicated '13 step plan' useful for helping me save in small steps (even if it is 3 steps forward and 2 back at the moment) but, moving is off the cards currently. We can't find a house that meets our needs/wants in an area we want to live in, for a price we can afford to pay. So, we're staying put. Due to the work we've had done on the house, we've solved all bar 1 of the 'issues' I have with this house. We haven't added a 3rd bedroom - once all the current work is completed, I will focus on getting real quotes for a cellar conversion and see what could possibly be done. I would extend the mortgage to have this done.

Hubby's work
Hubby has been busy busy, but he's found out this week his big Lake District annual contract has not been renewed. We have mixed feelings about this but, c'est la vie.
I do save £60 a month to cover the additional expenses of this event (as Pickle and I go too) so that money can be repurposed. On Tuesday, when YNAB flips to October there would be £240 in that pot, however...

Looking after me and a special wedding
My close friend got engaged in August, she has asked me to be maid of honour - this was the motivation I needed to start to lose weight. Which is going ok - been a little off track this week, but determined to get back on track.
I also want to do a 'style day' with a fashion consultant. I have 3 pairs of jeans, 6 tops and 3 jumpers - a capsule wardrobe at its funniest. I have similar for work - but it's all navy and I struggle to find 'nice' clothes for events. So, I've saved my birthday money, and I'm going to repurpose the money I now don't need to save for hubby's summer contract and pay for that - I'll also have some money left over for a wardrobe make over. (I'll add any Christmas money I get to this) going forward, I'll repurpose the £60 a month to a pot to pay for wedding stuff for my friend's wedding. I think that means I'll be putting £90 a
Month into that pot for 10 months - it better not cost me £900 for her wedding, but at least I won't have to worry.

Tax
My tax codes are a bit messed up - at the moment I'm owed about £250 from the tax man - that will be nice in April once I've done my tax return. Woohoo.


Sorry, that turned out longer than expected. But, you are up to date now.

Thanks all

Wish.

Karmacat

Super Fat Pay Packets are really good news and you sound like you've been doing some hard thinking about money and houses and the general state of play. Great review As far as clothes are concerned, do you ever go to the Next sale? My sister does it all the time, buys loads more than she intends to keep, and takes 80% of it back over the next few days. Everyone who goes uses it that way, I believe.

wishingthemortgaheaway

Thanks Karma, I used to shop in next all the time, but they must have changed the length of their trousers at some point and they are now much too long
(In standard) and the petite feel a bit too short. So, M&S is now my go to for jeans.

wishingthemortgaheaway

Evening all,

I'm struggling today - another difficult work day, but fortunately, I was in the hq office today and my colleagues and boss have seen the effect the work is having on me at the moment. All very supportive, but no real solutions.

Anyway... money things.

Mortgage interest added today. £48.49 - under £50 for the first time ever and down to £1.61 a day. I don't think it will go above £50 again though, but we'll have to see.
I've done an over payment of £77.75 which covers the interest and a bit to make a nice round number. Just a target of a £200 overpayment to go. I'll sort the targets below shortly.

Some bills gone out today, more to go out tomorrow, so hopefully a few more Tilly tidies to go. Woohooo.

Hoping for a nsd today, but will need to fill the car up before going home on Thursday.

Goodnight all.

Wish.