And so it begins: The Pig Vs The Mortgage

pinkypig

chumpy45 wrote: »

A bit late in the day but many congrats to your son. Fab news. Another one here who needs to take up batch cooking. It was on my list for the summer hols but didn't seem to happen :rotfl:

Thanks Chumoy . Good luck with your batch cooking xx

wishingthemortgaheaway wrote: »

Pinky,

What do you 'do' for overnight oats? And what do you do 'overnight' and what gets added just before eating? I'm trying to vary mine which are currently oats soaked in milk overnight with fresh fruit and ypughurt added at breakfast time.
(I can't have any form of nuts and some seeds are dodgy too, so I tend to avoid them as well)

Thanks
Wish.

Hi Wish :wave: My overnight oat base is always basic oats, basic natural yogurt, a peeled, grated apple ,milk and chia seeds (which may not agree with you ). My favourite additions are frozen red berries from Aldi or cinnamon and a handful of sultanas. I chuck everything in overnight and don't add anything in the morning.

CathT wrote: »

Oooh what's your recipe for the Thai spinach and chickpea curry please PP? Sounds like a good one and being done in the slow cooker is a winner for me!

Hi Cath :wave:

I literally chuck chopped onion, rinsed chickpeas a spoonful of thai curry paste (yellow or green), a tsp of chopped ginger, chopped garlic, coriander (ground), a veg stock cube and turmeric. Stir through a tbl spoon of flour and add a can of reduced fat coconut milk and then a can full of skimmed milk. Put it it the slow cooked on low for 6-7 hours of high for about 3. When it's done put frozen spinach in and stir through with a bit of natural yogurt. Don't out the spinach in at the beginning or you get green sludge !! Xx

pinkypig

Wizzi wrote: »

I’ve just made and inventory if our two freezers and it is so satisfying! Some stuff just got buried for too long and was past it’s best which is so annoying and wasteful :eek:, hoping I can keep up to date now and also makes shopping lists so much quicker. Love reading your diary!

Hi Wizzi :wave: Thanks for popping in

Inventories and organised freezers help enormously but emptying them is a horrid job so well done . Are your going to start a diary? Xx

pinkypig

Morning :wave:

I've got a morning at the hospital followed by three days paid work which is very welcome at the moment. It's a long time since I've done this type of work so I'm terrified but if it works out it could help my early retirement dream enormously. Fingers crossed:p

It's pay day:j. Very welcome after August which is normally a good financial month for me but the bills this year :eek::eek:. So onwards and upwards - September WILL be better

I'm going to do my full first anniversary review on the 1st September when my mortgage totals are in but my August spends are ;

Grocery £132.48/£128. This is over but I'm really pleased as it includes my batch cooking ingredients with has given us 80 portions of dinner/lunch for the coming months:)

Personal £43.99/£44 :rotfl::rotfl: Had a meal out with friends (Happy hour :money:), treat myself to a nice travel razor for my hols, 2 lots of foundation (£8.85 or 2 for £10:p), nail polish and remover, sun glasses (sorry Gally ), hair colour and some great Cs finds for hols and beyond. 2 t-shirts, 2 long sleeved tshirts , 2 jumpers, 2 dresses, nightshirt and dressing gown, sandals, 2 sleeveless tops and a handbag :money:

Fuel £181.83/£140:eek:. The budget is the amount I allow when I'm travelling to work so normally I can OP about £100 in August but hospital visits put paid to that! Looking on the brightside I did find free parking which has saved me over £200 over the month :eek::

Annual expenses included;

House insurance £126

Landlord's insurance £150

Rental repairs and maintenance £302

Budgets for September will be ;

Grocery £128

Personal £44

Fuel £140

As I will have a gap in rent in September I'd like to use some of this to boost my OP which is going to be tricky this month. I'll have to eBay if I'm to hit my target as I've increased my avc payment by £80 net from September.

Targets will be ;

Avc £960 net /£1200 gross

MOP £430 - unlikely with no rent but I'm going to have a go

Happy Thursday to you

PP xx

CathT

Thanks for the recipe PP, may make it this weekend.

I love that you are able to sneak in under budgets by a penny!

pinkypig

CathT wrote: »

Thanks for the recipe PP, may make it this weekend.

I love that you are able to sneak in under budgets by a penny!

You're welcome Cath - hope you enjoy it

The penny under budget thing is quite a skill:rotfl:

pinkypig

Evening:wave:

I'm home after a few days of work which was a bit scary but once I found my feet I really enjoyed it:D. It also meant that apart from fuel I've had a ns four days.
In other money news my mortgage totals will be available tomorrow:j. I've also managed to get a refund on an overcharge by talktalk and have banked £30.53 of eBay sales for last week. Less positive is an email saying the potential tenants have a dodgy reference so it's back to the drawing board and United utilities have said my water consumption has gone up but not said by how much so I'll need to check that tomorrow.

DD has returned :j:j with a ton of laundry:eek::eek: She's currently catching up on sleep and ds is out with his friends so I'm going to get and early night as I'm knackered!

Small steps to success have included;

Got out for a run the three nights I was away

4 loads of laundry done and on the line. I've run out of pegs so the last load will have to go on the airer. It's forecast a dry night tonight so I hope it's right!

Overnight oats made

Got some bargain Aldi thin cut steaks before I went away and Did them with pasta with black olives and pesto and a salad so takeaway/expensive convenience food avoided

Enough water drank

Ate sensibly and healthily while away and only had one alcoholic drink:)

Happy Friday to you . I'm so looking forward to a lie in followed by a large coffee in bed whilst reading my book. Saturday morning heaven :)

PP xx

pinkypig

Morning :wave:

Pinch punch and all that which means I have totals

August has been a bit of a shocker:eek: I had some annual costs that I was expecting and one lot of rental repairs that I wasn't. Dad being in the hospital meant that rather than the usual £100 saving on fuel the summer holiday brings I actually had a £40 odd over spend plus there was about £60 in parking before I found a free parking solution. Although budgeted for I also had an overseas holiday. Anyhoo, with all those caveats:o. here goes!

AVC £880 net/£880 net which means a £1,100 boost to the pension pot:j

OS payment £694.93/£430:j

OS benefit reduction to the mortgage £100.81:j

Capital Reduction £1589.74/£1250:j

Mortgage Neutral Balance £80,157.47

I'd set myself a stretch target of sub £80k and didn't quite make it:( initially I was gutted!! I then had a word with myself as I've actually exceeded the monthly goals I set myself for 2018 despite a month with bumps in the road (still feel a bit gutted though ).

I started my MOP a year ago when I got my very own mortgage:eek:

My goals when I started my diary were looking towards financial independence and they still are. Consequently, my approach has been to increase my pension contributions through an AVC and to save as much as I can in my Offset mortgage savings account. To retire at 55 i need to be mortgage neutral which means reducing my mortgage term from 10 years to 7 years whilst boosting my pension pot by £1000 month :eek:

My annual review was today...

Contributions to AVC (gross) £13,200/£12,000:j

Mortgage balance £100,690.39/£112,000:j


Mortgage Neutral Balance £80,157.47/£105,667.49


Capital Reduction in Year 1 £25,510.02 of which £15,982 were MOP :j:j:j:j

Felt less gutted after I'd worked through this :rotfl: Ever thankful to have discovered MSe and in particular MFW:A:A

Feel much more secure, happy,fulfilled and in control than that uncertain, daunted piggy of a year ago:):) Its truly amazing what can be achieved if you really want something. The prospect of early retirement is beginning to feel real



Happy Saturday to you

PP xx

muddywhitechicken

That's an impressive annual review - well done PP :T

CathT

It's amazing what can be achieved in a year even if a huge part of it is mindset. Hopefully a steady September will bring you a bit closer to your goals.

wishingthemortgaheaway

Wow. That's totally brilliant Piggy.

You are going to smash this mortgage into the ground.