7 Year MF Plan

pinkypig

Happy New Year C, I hope you have an amazing one :beer:

Great start with your healthy eating SFB. Slow cookers are fab - come in to one yummy dinner and have several more for the freezer :money:xx

Cicatriz_2

sofarbehind wrote: »

Hello!
Great to read your diary and SOA as we are in a very similar position, though my mortgage is a lot bigger. I'm replying to you here instead of on pinkpig's diary so I don't clutter up her thread. Thanks for taking the time to reply. You are right about batch cooking I know and your food spend is low. I have a half empty freezer waiting to be filled. I can make a decent chilli so will get off my bum and do that. I am thinking about buying a slow cooker and using it to batch cook. I'm a big fan of spicy food and the thought of walking in to yummy food is a good one. I have been and bought a lot of stir fry ingredients, that is quick, very easy and healthy. I have just bought ready made sauces but will look for some homemade Thai sauces. If I batch cook the sauce that will be a good start..

Your overpayments are amazing as a percentage of your income.

Slow cookers are great. I don't use mine quite as much as I should for some reason and tend to use the hob most of the time. I think it's because I can't get used to setting it off first thing in the morning. They're great at casseroles, which I keep meaning to make more of. Best of luck with the cooking though; Thai is great.

The overpayment is as much as I dare while leaving myself a good cushion for entertainment. I thought about going full mustachian but I'm not sure I'm cut out for that. I'll see how it goes, probably well until the warmer months get here and invitations to weekends away start and a desire to spend money on my bike hits me.

Wish I'd have got my act together in my twenties, the amount of wasted money...Still better late than never.

pinkypig wrote: »

Happy New Year C, I hope you have an amazing one :beer:

Happy new Year pinkypig!!:beer: That was some stream of conscious you posted! Good going though!

sofarbehind

Cicatriz wrote: »

The overpayment is as much as I dare while leaving myself a good cushion for entertainment. I thought about going full mustachian but I'm not sure I'm cut out for that. I'll see how it goes, probably well until the warmer months get here and invitations to weekends away start and a desire to spend money on my bike hits me.

Wish I'd have got my act together in my twenties, the amount of wasted money...Still better late than never.

Hell yes, I second that! How I wish I had got it together a decade earlier. Still, better to wise up at 30 than a decade later. We're not in such a bad place and we're aiming for a better one.

Full on mustachian is a step too far for me these days after the ultra frugal deposit saving years. I do want to enjoy my life and my tastes aren't as simple as his. I agree with him about cycling though and wish my job didn't demand a car. Hey ho.

I'm going to get off here and look at slow cookers.

debtfreeforlife

Looks impressive! Also £10 travel a month?? Where on earth do you live/work that you've managed to do that? It's when I see SOAs like yours that I think about getting rid of my car - but I'd easily end up spending hundreds a month on bus fares instead if I didn't own one.

Have subscribed and will be watching your journey with interest and hoping to be inspired by it - we're in similarish positions (I think I have about £15k more on my mortgage than you do) but you're far more dedicated than me...

Cicatriz_2

sofarbehind wrote: »

Hell yes, I second that! How I wish I had got it together a decade earlier. Still, better to wise up at 30 than a decade later. We're not in such a bad place and we're aiming for a better one.

Full on mustachian is a step too far for me these days after the ultra frugal deposit saving years. I do want to enjoy my life and my tastes aren't as simple as his. I agree with him about cycling though and wish my job didn't demand a car. Hey ho.

I'm going to get off here and look at slow cookers.

Unless they're a complete disaster, you're allowed a few mistakes in your twenties.

I think MMM's philosophy and principles are all great, it's just a matter of how far you want to run with them. I also think, alhough maybe wrong, that there is more scope for that lifestyle in the states than here. The principles still apply though.

debtfreeforlife wrote: »

Looks impressive! Also £10 travel a month?? Where on earth do you live/work that you've managed to do that? It's when I see SOAs like yours that I think about getting rid of my car - but I'd easily end up spending hundreds a month on bus fares instead if I didn't own one.

Have subscribed and will be watching your journey with interest and hoping to be inspired by it - we're in similarish positions (I think I have about £15k more on my mortgage than you do) but you're far more dedicated than me...

Edit: Lancashire btw.

Walk to work daily. I was involved in a car share but my buddy got another job. The 2/2.5 hours of commuting each way plus the petrol (even shared) was what caused me to buy the house I did. I decided that living near work and cycling daily would be a whole lot better.

So, I bought a house practically next to a canal and cycled to work 5 miles, half of which on the canal tow patch, each way. A couple of years later our office moved to the same town, just the opposite side to me. I now have a 2 mile walk. In the summer months I sometimes get in a nice circuitous 40K ride to the office and make use of the shower there - should use that shower all year round and save my water really
No car costs and I lost about 2 stone of weight.

The £10 other transport is just jumping on the train once a month or two to visit family. I count other train use as entertainment as it's what it ends up being used for.

Best of luck to you, too. And you only need to be dedicated to what your goals are.

Cicatriz_2

Check in for the week.

Don't know for certain yet if whether I'm off to the states next week with work. If I do, it will kill me for expenses till next month.

Winter cycling gear bought with Wiggle vouchers. Mudguards attached to bike. Now I just need this ice to clear so I can get out on it. ❄

Sri Lankan Chicken curry made + some extra fajita filling in the freezer.

Cicatriz_2

Belated checkin.

Increased my default overpayment to £319 to make it a round £800 for mortgage payments.

Back from a week in the states in freezing cold Minnesota working in a innovation lab. Pretty cool stuff, and not just weather outside. Unfortunatley I'm now waiting for my expenses to get paid which includes all travel costs, leaving me ~£1400 short

Used some of the left over game from Christmas (it was frozen!) to make a game stu in the slow cooker. Very, very tasty