My New Frugal Life

Newfrugallife

More targets and a clearer plan

5 year plan:
Continue Overpaying by minimum £100 a month, by the end of the 5 year fix we should have £183,645 mortgage remaining.
15 year plan:
I then want to reduce our mortgage term to 15 years, interest rates depending, to be mortgage free by 55. I have a private pension from my old job which I will start drawing then.

We are definitely not moving now so will also start doing work to the house. We are pulling our finances together- Woohoo! By doing this we freeing up £350 a month towards house improvements (some of the work would have to be financed but this money will cover the repayment etc...)

I'm allocating £400 per month for personal spends, out of which I aim to save £200 and allow £50 a week for fun money.

Food budget is the same £400

Family Savings are £200 a month

Further mortgage overpayments would happen as previously planned once our saving pots are looking healthy and when there is a surplus in food account.

Newfrugallife

Went out last night so personal fund taken a beating -21.96 for mediocre thin horrible undercooked pizza from frankie and bennies, chips and a drink. I hate socialising now and see it as a massive rip off. I mean sometimes we go for a nice meal as a family but more often than not the food is so overpriced and not very nice, frankly! And -7.68 another drink..
Had my usual little bits of treats (things like pastry for breakfast etc just a couple of quid here and there) and a wasabi sushi night -8.20. Also got a birthday card for my mum (will get flowers tomorrow).
All in all personal account is at £360

I know I can stop misc spends if I need to, but sometimes a £2 coffee or a £1.60 breakfast muffin works wonders for ones happiness levels..... As long as it genuinely nice and not a bloody rip off that frankie and bennies meal was... still fuming about it as didn't let on in real life.... much prefer a takeaway.

Didn't go food shopping today as knackered, will do tomorrow

Had a man over to do a quote for the front and back patio/ drive/garden etc... if we do everything it would cost 7,000. This firm very highly recommended.

Also have another man coming round on the weekend to quote rendering.

How do other people balance house improvements, life and mortgage overpayments? It's never ending cycle, we just cleared debt but will need to do things to the house otherwise it will get further in disrepair. Then once that paid off we might need a car as ours will be getting old, then other bits of decorating will need doing. It's literally never ending.....

Mentally I'm still good, maybe the massive down I experienced was just an adjustment to being in full time work again, who knows. But all is well at the moment

Newfrugallife

Went shopping last night -68.27, food account balance £236.87, looks like one more shop to go and any £100 surplus will be transferred to the mortgage (rest kept as buffer to build up to a 100 again).

Bought my mum flowers -9.75, personal account balance £347

We are still deliberating what to do about home improvements, do we take out a loan or what. I really don't want to go back in debt but even with a new 350 a month house improvements budget it would take 20 months to get 7k we need for the garden/ drive refurb never mind everything else on the list .....

Newfrugallife

Me and hubby are both coming round to thinking that we need to build our savings first before taking on any credit/serious work to the house. I mean the outside bit shouldn't really make a difference if we wait a year or two to do as it all needs ripping out anyway.

Next month will be a very good savings month - the usual £100 to emergency fund, £100 to Birthday/ Christmas fund, then £150 as it's a council tax free month and now £350 for house fund! That's a massive £700... I will also be reaching my first target of £1,000 for my emergency fund although wondering if it should be set higher.

I will be lumping the house fund and birthday/ Christmas fund together (as only have 2 joint savings accounts). They will now just be "family savings".

Then the usual £100 mortgage overpayment plus another £100 looking likely from the exess in the food shop fund.

Personal spends I have £331 remaining, food account has £233 remaining (I forgot my card one day and had to buy breakfast from food account).

Newfrugallife

Out of my personal spends I have transferred £100 to personal savings (now have £200) and £100 to ns&i premium bonds. I am so very excited to start building up premium bonds again. I had them in the past and yes I never won more than £25 here and there but still, it's better than the lottery because you don't lose money and a chance of winning! (Disclaimer I believe Martin Lewis doesn't recommend them)...

Now have £124 personal spends remaining and a week before pay day, which is good.

Went food shopping and only spent £46.84. Have £186.68 remaining and think next week shopping will be coming out of next months budget, but this does mean that next month is 5 week month.
Will transfer £100 to mortgage overpayment and keep £86.68 building up to £100 again.

Also I have made a mess out of our budgets as I didn't realise something about my work contract! I believed that after 3 month probation I would be on 30k a year, whereas in reality the way it's written in my contract is "fully conversant"... Which means no exact date and basically up to them to decide when to increase my wage.... very annoyed about this as I have worked this type of job for over 13 years so if I'm not fully conversant by now I will never be haha! It is a way for them to drag their feet...

The way this came about was my work colleague, who started a month before me, asked about his increase (fully expecting that there was a mistake and he was on a higher wage now after 3 months) only to be told this, as he also thought the same as me...

This means that the savings budget will be reducing by £150ish ..... Still very very good month ahead and good thing that we did not commit ourselves to a loan thinking I would be on a higher wage!!

Newfrugallife

Some random thoughts......

I do not love our house, I know I am so lucky to have it and it's a nice enough house but I just don't love it and I think this is partly why I don't want to spends loads of money on it (oh and the fact I don't have money yet haha). We sort of had to buy it at the time, and my husband loves it a lot more than me but there was another house that we lost out on, which was the one. This other house was on a worse road (traffic wise) and also needed work doing, but I feel that I would have loved to do it up.

So self indulgent I know, I'm sorry. It is almost like being in a relationship, you just can't help who you love... I think for this reason I sort of still want to move, but it wouldn't make any financial sense and there are loads of people who can't even get on the property ladder. Or we can lose the house if we both lost our jobs or were ill, or the interest rates sky rocket etc etc...

Another self indulgent thought.... I'm starting to think about my wardrobe, I know I bought clothes when I first started my job (a random selection of clothes if I'm honest), but soon I will need lighter things... I was thinking of almost having a uniform, I don't really like shopping or thinking sbout what I can wear each day. I need a capsule wardrobe and easy to wear practical clothes which I can wear week in week out. I don't know if that makes sense? Feel it's easier for men as they can have a few suits and lots of shirts, so I will do the same. But not shirts as I hate ironing.

I'm imagining 7 similar types of tops, perhaps in a range of muted colours, which I can wear in turn. I have a pair of black trousers and 3 skirts, although I'm not sure if 2 of them are too fussy for this look I'm going for.... And I have 3 suit jackets which I rotate. I have boots and mini boots, but will need to buy new pumps. Maybe accessories, but I'm looking to majorly simplify my wardrobe. Also I doubt that people actually really care about what I wear...
Same for casual wear, sports wear for weekends dog/house/garden stuff. And jeans to go with the above tops and suit jackets for the rare night out.

It looks like it will be a great weekend in terms of weather so I need to start on the garden as well as sorting the house. And I might have a go at sorting my wardrobe as I don't wear 90% of what's in there...

gallygirl

Newfrugallife wrote: »

Another self indulgent thought.... I'm starting to think about my wardrobe, I know I bought clothes when I first started my job (a random selection of clothes if I'm honest), but soon I will need lighter things... I was thinking of almost having a uniform, I don't really like shopping or thinking sbout what I can wear each day. I need a capsule wardrobe and easy to wear practical clothes which I can wear week in week out. I don't know if that makes sense? Feel it's easier for men as they can have a few suits and lots of shirts, so I will do the same. But not shirts as I hate ironing.

I'm imagining 7 similar types of tops, perhaps in a range of muted colours, which I can wear in turn. I have a pair of black trousers and 3 skirts, although I'm not sure if 2 of them are too fussy for this look I'm going for.... And I have 3 suit jackets which I rotate. I have boots and mini boots, but will need to buy new pumps. Maybe accessories, but I'm looking to majorly simplify my wardrobe. Also I doubt that people actually really care about what I wear...
Same for casual wear, sports wear for weekends dog/house/garden stuff. And jeans to go with the above tops and suit jackets for the rare night out.

It looks like it will be a great weekend in terms of weather so I need to start on the garden as well as sorting the house. And I might have a go at sorting my wardrobe as I don't wear 90% of what's in there...

Have you read Kon Mari? Sounds like that would be useful for you. But if you want to get started this weekend..........

Spend a bit of time online, maybe on Pinterest, looking up 'capsule wardrobes'. Try to get an idea of what you want (and it's ok to have different capsule wardrobes for work/play etc). Get ALL your clothes out and put on the bed. All drawers, cupboards, summer clothes etc.Pick up every item and ask if it sparks joy (or at least, does it fit into the vision of your wardrobe). If not, put it in a discard pile (you can go through this again later and decide what to sell, donate, rag bag etc, don't let that decision distract you). When you've finished your clothes do the same with shoes/boots etc. then jewellery.

Now, what are you left with? What is missing and also what does what is left tell you? For example, have you discarded all the t-shirts with slogans? Have you kept sales and charity shop bargains or have they been false economies?

Now, what is missing? Make a list of what is needed to complete your wardrobe(s). You don't have to go shopping at once (assuming you've kept enough clothes to wear :rotfl:) but put the list on your phone so you can refer to it when you are out.

Oh, and report back, I love hearing how people have got on with things like this :T.

Newfrugallife

Thank you gallygirl! That's so helpful xx

greent

I think the idea of a capsule work wardrobe is a great one - simple skirts/ trousers with different tops and a few jackets sounds perfect to me. If you have 1 or 2 'fussy' skirts (not sure what you mean by that? - patterned? flouncy?) they can still work with plain unfussy tops

Tbh, most of us probably wear the same couple of handfuls of things to work anyway - it's just a bit scary at first reducing the number of items in your wardrobe. In reality you probably won't have less clothes that you actually *do* wear AND like than you currently do - what you will have less of is all the things you weren't really fussed on anyway....

x

Newfrugallife

Thank you greent! Yes exactly what I'm thinking.
Dog walked, house done, did a bit in the garden and filled the green bin (so cannot do anymore well that's my excuse haha).

I am starting on that wardrobe! I will put everything I don't wear in sacks but will hold on to it for now (put in the garage) just in case I really miss some things. I already wrote a list of what items I would ideally have. And yes the "fussy" skirts are patterned, one check and one small stripes