My New Frugal Life

Newfrugallife

Targets - ideally I would like to over pay our mortgage by 100 a month, however when my business is going slow this might not be feasible, but it's a target at least

Christmas/ birthday fund needs to be bumped up back to £500

House fund - there is a long list of things I want to buy for the house: new cushions, new garden furniture including this awesome hanging chair swing, bits for my front garden which I'm currently digging up.

Big things - the outside of the house needs repainting

Patio needs doing (don't know the technical name for it, basically the grouting needs redoing as has weeds growing through which I'm managing. Was badly done by previous owners)

Grouting needs fixing on floor tiles inside the house as well

Little bits of painting here and there

General maintenance

Newfrugallife

Just put my figures in mortgage overpayment calculator and if we don't make overpayments after the 5 year fix we would have £193,581
With £100 a month overpayments we would have £187,287

Taking £6,294 off our mortgage compared to £6,000 if we just stick 100 a month in savings for 5 years.... Not sure now if it's definitely worth it? I think our issue is that we have the mortgage over such long time so the benefits of overpayments take awhile to become effective as closer to the end you see the effects more.

Still we wouldn't get much interest from the banks if we were saving it.... thinking out loud here.

Will be back to check in and update my categories as I go

julicorn

True, but you'd be paying off your mortgage over 5 years earlier, while That money in a savings account would maybe just get spent on something else.

(Yes, you could likely make a lot more money investing, but there's something really nice about getting closer to mortgage freedom)

Newfrugallife

In a reminiscent mood today as it's coming up to the end of 2018....
I thought I'd write an update

So my last post was in August and we were planning to start mortgage overpayments. I did have a lot of clients and self employment was going well but an opportunity came up for me to go back to similar work I did before starting this diary.

I didn't 100% plan it as this new job is back in London, so again the £260 a month commute, less time for kids, house etc BUT this job is a lot less stressful than my old job and the company is genuinely very nice (one of my old colleagues recommended it for me as they were leaving). My youngest is completely comfortable walking to and from school so no childcare issues and I have a dog walker (oh the irony!) and my mum popping in so seemed like a good time to go back.

I have been working since October and so far made 200 overpayment to the mortgage (100 in November and 100 in December). I'm really happy and doing ok mentally, which was a worry as that's why I left my previous job.

We are currently building up our various pots but had to dip in our emergency pot due to our boiler breaking down early October (300 to fix with a new part ouch). Also I had to spend quite a bit to get myself ready for work - new clothes and new glasses (another ouch as I'm sure a lot of you know!)

But with me working I'm happy that we will successfully build up our savings and will continue to overpay the mortgage

This is how things stand at the moment:
Emergency fund: 400
Christmas/Birthday/Holiday fund: 300
Mortgage overpayment to date: 200

Mortgage outstanding: 216,811 (32 years 9 months term)

I will try to pick this diary up again to focus on repayments and I also have lots of other saving pots planned!

Newfrugallife

Ok so what's next now that I have a job and a regular income? We are still very much in budget mode and had a lovely but not spendy Christmas, I did increase our food budget to 400 a month, however still come under most weeks and will start building a buffer there. We are not going on Holiday this summer, as rather save as much as poss and start doing bits to the house. There's quite a few things needed buying and redecorating etc but we are not in a rush, so:

1. I have redone our budgets and am now contributing 50% of the total common bills and outgoings, which include a regular £100 overpayment to mortgage and £100 to Emergency fund and another £100 to Birthday/ Christmas/ Holiday fund (and our new food budget of 400 a month! Gosh I feel so rich!). We each contribute just over 1k each month, which leaves us enough for personal spends/ savings/ travel/ work lunches and I pay for dog walker.

2. Once the funds grow sufficiently, I will redirect more to mortgage overpayment. I have spreadsheets and all being well we should have good buffers in our savings by the end of summer.

3. We should start to be able buy bits for the house and think of doing some redecorating starting from February. I will do a proper list of everything that needs replacing, but things like tatty towels, new bedding and then there's big jobs like garden and rendering/ painting the outside etc etc... it's never ending and has been neglected while we paid off debt/ had a very frugal year on one salary.

4. We will continue with family entertainment once a month, this now coming from our own personal budgets

5. Holiday - but not in 2019....

Newfrugallife

I have been paid today hooray! Moved £1,065 into joint account which covers all bills, food, savings and mortgage overpayment (already reflected in my signature as I updated the pots from husbands half)

Paid £425 of my credit card, which is now clear! Next month the wage will be all mine, can't wait! I have accumulated this debt by spending nearly £300 on new glasses (my lenses alone cost £160 as I have to have them thinned) and quite a bit on new clothes. But that's done now and I have a plan regarding my wardrobe/ outfits so won't be spending silly amounts again!

I have £420 left in my account and this has to cover travel to London, I use contactless and it varies between £240/£260 a month. I could buy monthly oyster but ages ago did a contactless calculations and with holidays etc it actually evened out (unless you buy an annual card of course which is always best value).

And I have scheduled payments to my dog walker, which comes to £84 for January. I still can't get over the irony of using one when I used to be one haha! But she is great and my pup loves her and between kids coming home from school and my mum popping in it seems to work well (daughter is in college so has short days).

So I will have £76 remaining, will keep an eye and track this as do not want any credit card spending again!

In food account we have £325 and 4 weeks of shopping to buy, giving us a comfortable £81 per shop, will also update this each Friday.

January is also mine and daughters birthday month, so we will have a family meal out (have to use Christmas/Birthday pot). No other entertainment planned. This December I took youngest to the cinema and they been swimming today with hubby (hubby paid out of his own money).

Newfrugallife

Other plans for January:
1. Take packed lunches to work, I have been doing his since starting my job
2. Substitute 10am tea and 3pm coffee with herbal teas no sugar (take from home)
3. Cut out sugar, at least reduce as much as poss
4. I want to start eating less meat, starting next food shop

General plans:
1. Build Emergency fund to £1,000 and redirect £100 we currently save to mortgage overpayment
2. Build Christmas and birthday fund to £1,000 and redirect £100 we currently save to mortgage. Will need to replenish as we use this
3. Start a separate savings for house related expenses, I have a massive list of everything that needs doing.....
4. Build a decent buffer of personal savings and start paying into a pension
5. Encourage husband to save and put more into pension


Also in more personal news and in case anyone is wondering I have passed all 3 open university modules! This gives me a certificate of higher education and means I have completed my first year. However since starting this new job I sadly have been unable to carry it on. I have chosen my second year modules but they are currently deferred and I have until next October to decide whether I will continue. But with work, house, kids and dog I really don't have much spare time (I used to spend about 20 hours a week on my studies).

Newfrugallife

Friday round up! God this was a short week but felt sooo long.... being back at work is hard (even though I did work hard looking after and walking the dogs office jobs are just as tiring, if not more).

Just done a food shop £85.51, a bit more than usual but the freezer and cupboards were bare. £240 in the account which gives us roughly £80 for remaining 3 food shops in January.

Personal account not doing amazing, I did buy a monthly oyster in the end which came to £251.60 but from next month it will be £246.60 a month.
Also spend some cash on bits and bobs, some for daughters birthday. Paid dog walker £12. Current balance is £113.94, with £72 scheduled to pay dog walker, leaving £41.94 for personal spends. I now have plans for next weekend so have to be super frugal.

Work lunches- I have bought for next week came to £6.98, I save a fortune compared to hubby who buys lunch out! Also bought yoghurts for breakfasts.

Sugar - I have been good substituting 2 coffee/tea a day (normally 2 spoons each) with herbal tea cutting out 4 spoonfuls of sugar a day. But still have sweets etc as people keep buying them for the office. Trying to cut back though

Will update signature with mortgage amount as now stands at £216,134

Check in again next week

Newfrugallife

Bought dog food out of my account, he is on natures menu raw food due to his sensitive tummy and the price has gone up a lot! Especially the flavour he tolerated the best grrr... But as long as I can afford I will keep him on it as it's so worth it, he is long haired so any toilet trouble is a disaster (apologies if too much info). - 23.96 and I also have -5.98 pending (possibly travel before I bought the monthly oyster)

Money remaining £83.38 with £72 scheduled for dog walker... ouch only £11.38 left for personal spends.

I do sometimes buy dog food out of the food shop account and all cat food comes out of there, but with this month being a bit tight I'm playing it safe.

Once we get through January things will be much much better due to no credit card to pay! I just need to hang in there this month, it was my own doing overspending on getting myself back to work. Also once dear dog is a bit older I will cut back on his walker.

In other news it's my daughters 17th birthday next week! Can't believe she's so grown up, we have applied for provisional licence for her and decided to pay for her driving lessons. There was some money from her child benefit which paid for the application and will pay for a couple of lessons, after that we will allocate a sum in our budget.

Next week we will have a takeaway and cake (from birthdays fund) and week after we will go out for a joint birthday family meal (also from birthdays fund). No other spends planned for next week, apart from the usual food shop.

Newfrugallife

Did our food shop today as we have plans for daughters birthday tomorrow, shop total £73.82 very pleased with that as includes a bottle of wine
£166 And two food shops left - leaving approx £83 per shop.

Personal spending is going less well with only £7 left after dog walking costs for the month, hahaha.... there's nothing much I need but I am going out on the weekend so that will be interesting! Most likely I will end up either "borrowing" from food account, or going overdrawn but not by much (£30 max). Next month will be a lot better as it all my own doing due to paying off all my credit card balance with Decembers pay.

The birthday/ Christmas fund will be raided tomorrow and again next weekend as we celebrate mine and daughters birthdays. I will record and update the totals as it happens.