Chapter 3: the large London mortgage

lessavyfav

Payday today, hooray! And it was a great month money-wise with next month also looking strong.

Money updates:
- Our only debt (besides the mortgage) is what we owe mum and dad, and we've managed to pay off just under £3k this pay. That means we're well over halfway to paying them back.
- Upped our pension amount this month. Boring but we're behind so this is important.
- Almost saved up the amount for my new bike, although it turns out I can put it on Cycle to Work scheme through my company which is great and should save me a bit of money. Win-win!
- I found a new food loyalty app which has loads of delicious places and good deals for new users..the other day I got a free meal from one of my favourite places (normally £8 for a salad! London City prices...) so I'll continue to get some cheap meals for those days I don't bring lunch in.

Non-money things:
- Meal plan. I'm thinking homemade margarita pizza tomorrow evening, some kind of roast squash and potato bake, and again there's more cabbage in the veg box. Erm, I am a bit over cabbage at the minute! i'm sure there will also be a pasta or stir fry dish this week too.
- Going to get out int he garden this weekend as weeding is desperately needed, plus sow a few seeds for the propagator. Here's hoping this summer yields some good
- I didn't manage to put anything on ebay a few weeks back, maybe another task for this weekend.

lessavyfav

Another weekend nearly over – booooo! Pretty low key, at least.

Money updates:
- Based on what we have in our joint bank account, we should be able to cover all bills, groceries, etc without dipping into money we put aside at the beginning of the month. I think it will require me to buckle down on the rest of the month's grocery spend though. I've allowed £300 for the rest of the month (19 days) including alcohol but I'm determined to keep this under. £300 is loads of money but the food bill creeps up by a lot with visits to the local M&S food hall, artisan bakery visits, and being disorganised. So that is what I'll be tracking in the coming weeks.
- Less than £6,000 till we pay off the interest free loan from mum and dad. I estimate it'll take 3-4 more months to pay back if we continue to have good earning months like we did last month.
- Once we've paid off mum and dad, time to up our pension payment to 15%
- Leftover savings will go to top up our emergency fund to £15,000 (currently at £3,000)
- Once we've got the EF topped up, I hope to put anywhere between £400-600 p/m into investments, just need to discuss this with OH.
- THEN, any leftover after that goes into overpaying the mortgage. My thoughts have changed about this compared to when I first started my diary where I thought overpaying would be our priority. But after a fair bit of reading I've realised how important it is to get our pension pot sorted, and the sooner we invest, the better the returns will be in the long run (which in turn, will maybe help us along with our pension pot). The big unknown is babies/maternity which we'll need to save for as we're business owners, and will only get a small amount of SMP. Not really sure how much our earnings will go down when I stop or reduce as it's so variable now!
- Not bringing in lunch to work tomorrow but I have points on my new app that should give me free lunch.

Non-money things:
- Sowed my seeds, already seeing a few things growing – fingers crossed they last! I have a tendency to do well at the beginning then they all die on me.
- Need to meal plan, am feeling uninspired lately even though spring should probably excite me a bit more for produce.

Phew. Time to wind down with some telly before the week begins again!!

RS89

You’ve made great progress! Another London mortgage here, not as big as yours but we started at £395k 3.5 years ago and now down to £342k... keep going!

lessavyfav

Thanks RS89 – I read your diary and admire your ambitious goals. Go you!!

Cutting it fine with the joint bank account balance, I'm not sure we'll have enough to see us through to payday so I may have to throw a couple of hundred pound from our 'leftovers' pot. However my personal spends are looking good!

Another good month for us work-wise, close to what we were paid last month I think. May looks to be a little quieter (but still quite good), I think June will not be such a great month – we'll be at the end of a couple of projects and on holiday for a full week. My contract officially ends in June but I think it'll roll over another 6 months as I've been put on a new project which is in early stages and they will probably want me to see it through. I said I wouldn't continue even if I was offered to stay on, but the money and flexibility is too good, luring me back in. Something to ponder.

Two more weeks and we can start to look at remortgage offers. We're stuck with our current provider since OH and I started our own company only recently. I am confident we'll be able to get the 1.79% fixed deal though.

Oh, and I set up a new S&S ISA with lower fees that tracks index funds. This is to replace my Moneybox app..I am starting to learn more about investing now, if only it wasn't such a longterm thing – I want to see it grow!!

lessavyfav

Amazing what the sunny weather can do to your mood. Despite the fact I've been flitting in an out of work, I feel so relaxed and happy being able to sit out in the sun!

Right, we're nearing towards payday, some ways to keep me frugal:
- I was hoping to ride to the office this week, as I got my shiny new set of wheels! However it looks like it might rain on Wednesday and Thursday. Don't fancy spending 45 mins each way in the rain, but we'll see if the forecast is set to change. That'd save me around £10-12 in train fees.
- Bring lunch to work tomorrow, going to prep this tonight.
- Made muffins with some overripe fruit which should last as snacks for the week.
- Meal plan (done).
- Put puppy's crate up for sale. Our spare room is accumulating more and more stuff we don't need in the future.

Non-money things to keep me busy:
- Try to do 30 mins of business work before heading to the office to catch up on an important project.
- Bank reconciliation for business (have been actively avoiding)
- Move pot outside to make way for some kind of larger outdoor plant
- Sow more salad leaves outside
- Plan sanding, filling and coating the staircase. Wont' happen this weekend, maybe one for the first May bank holiday..

Right, time to get ready for tea and GoT. So happy to only go into the office 3 days this week!

lessavyfav

It's the Bank Holiday weekend but we are busy working away..gotta think of the money though!

As expected, this month was a good one for earnings. We upped our pension, and have put quite a bit of money aside that we hope to not touch on the usual daily expenses. I am hoping we have better weather so I can ride throughout the month and make some savings on public transport.

We are hopefully just two payments off clearing the debt to my parents, which is sitting in a peer-to-peer ISA. My parents have always said there's no deadline to pay them back and they'll just use it when they come over for a holiday (nothing booked so far), but it'll be so good to get this out the way so we can funnel this money into other things!

Our mortgage is about 3 months away from ending and our broker is looking into what deals she can get us. As expected, we will need to stick to our current provider due to not having enough years' of accounts available – however we should definitely get a better deal anyway. Plan is to go on the better deal but pay at least what we're paying now.

I spent a bomb on some clothing for the season but this was all budget for. Sadly, the expensive jacket I bought is too big and there are no smaller sizes left but I suppose this means some money saved! Annoyingly, the returns shipping is not covered. Had I known, I would have probably dropped by the shop to try it on, rookie error.

Good news is I've got plenty of money aside to cover me for a monthly payment of £100 to vanguard, my new S&S ISA. I've also meal planned for this week after a healthy and much needed food shop today. Dinner is bubbling away right now and smelling irresistible.

Feeling very positive at the moment, and hoping to feel the same towards the end of the month. We are pretty exhausted with all the work but nothing set in stone after June so we can't guarantee this continued good run. Will keep focussing on what we can do until then though

lessavyfav

Another Bank Holiday weekend and this one looks a lot less work-heavy, though I have a lot of life admin to catch up on. OH is going away and I have no social plans, so I'm hoping it'll be a cheap one where I won't be tempted to buy more plants or go to IKEA or something.

Money stuff:
- I have been pretty useless with bringing in my lunch this month, so no savings going on there but I have been riding to work, and sometimes working from home which reduces travel costs at least.
- Somehow we have over £400 leftover before payday in a week with not much other than a small food shop and some drinks tonight..I don't really understand how that's the case since we've had a vet visit, I've been lured by expensive gourmet food (uh, hello Neal's Yard Dairy!), and just generally careless with money, but hey ho I won't complain. Next month will have to be much tighter though as we are going on holiday and therefore earning less.
- We've secured our 2-year remortgage fix for 1.94%. Wish it was more competitive but not much we can do when we haven't got enough accounts to change providers. Still, we'll be on a better rate than what we're on now.
- Looks like we're still on track for just two more payments to the parental loan..I AM SO EXCITED. After that we'll be putting bigger payments towards the renovations pot – garden and bathroom up next. We are meeting up with the architects tonight to see their first concepts. It's a challenging space to work with (tiny toilet and shower room that will be knocked through), so I'm really looking forward to seeing what they come up with. Without discussing budget they already said we should just add more to our mortgage! I don't think so people!!

Non-money things:
- My plan is to tackle the garden a bit more this weekend as it needs a good weeding. We are getting a couple of plants delivered tomorrow so that should spruce things up a little too – everyone else's gardens are blooming with bees and butterflies and ours is a sad old thing which I'm determined to change!
- Going to tackle the kitchen too. I want to be a bit more minimal. I use the same utensils and cookware over and over so I think it's time I got rid of the things I don't use, like the spare slotted turner and pasta maker that I've used twice in 5 years.
- Very much over this contract at the moment. I'm working on boring jobs, and it's coming up 18 months already, longer than I lasted at my last two perm jobs hahah. Scary to make the leap on going full time with the business though!

lessavyfav

Don't know why I bothered updating my last post acting all virtuous – spent a fortune on a jacket right after posting yesterday and am planning to go to IKEA this afternoon to pick up a few bits to help with my life admin tasks this weekend. Argh, terrible!

lessavyfav

June already!

Money update:
- Edging so close to having paid my mum and dad – just under £1,000 to go which we can do as of next pay day then we are free to put this money into the renovation fund. The fun bit.
- We are also fortunate to have accumulated a 'leftovers' pot which has over £10k in it now – essentially a second emergency fund. I don't expect we'll be able to contribute anything to it in the coming couple of months as we go on holiday this month and have friends staying over in July which I'll take some time off work for. So long as we don't dip into it, I'll be pleased!
- I've been cycling to work lately, so that's been a noticeable saving, though still not so good bringing in my lunches to work. Tomorrow I have a meeting with a friend but plan to be good for the rest of the week..must plan, even if it's just sandwiches.

RS89

Keep going! I’m inspired following your updates. I feel like I need to do “more” and there’s plenty of ideas here... getting rid of the loans is a great achievement and hope you celebrated with a glass of something cold ��