Prosperous soul in the making

MovingForwards

Your weekend away sounds wonderful! Please make sure you describe everything when you come back and tell us about it, it's the closest we will get to your holiday photos

lucielle

I thought your DD was over 16, why does she need someone to look after her? Just curious

L

savingholmes

Thanks MF and Lucielle. Will do on the written holiday description. Really looking forward to being near the sea for two weekends on the run. With regards to DD it turns out not all 16 year olds are created equal - Who knew? Had a quiet weekend. DS went to work yesterday and he thinks he has landed some enveloped stuffing later in the week - they will be in touch. DD had a friend over yesterday and today. DH, pooch and I went to an NT property yesterday and walked closed to 3 miles so that was very satisfying. DH bought me a rum and raisin ice cream cone with cash he still had.

Today, I've obsessed on looking for a bolthole again which wasn't ultra helpful. Been listening to an ozzie investor this week - to help keep me on track with clearing debts and long term goals. He calls long term savings your smile account which made me chuckle. He slates budgets as too hard to do and then puts people on one which also made me laugh. He calls the gazelle intensity idea a fire extinguisher. You can see how many ideas are borrowed from other books when you listen to a lot in a short period - but who knows who the real idea generator was...

I've barely bought anything new (other than food/household supplies and stuff for college) for a couple of months now... Trying to go down the experience route rather than more clutter... Still struggling with the whole contentment idea. Still battling with what do we really want out of life? How will we know when we succeed? What is enough? It would be lovely to have some kind of paid sabbatical. Perhaps when we get to the EF 3-6 months stage - we can carve out a mini-sabbatical for ourselves and go and do something completely different - even if it is only for 3-4 weeks at a time (can't imagine being allowed longer than that off work - especially DH).

Need to motivate myself to do some work next. Things should calm down soon.. you know like Easter :rotfl:

This next week - 1 CC is due to come out before payday - approx £184 - think it will be Tuesday. I want to ring a company we have decreasing term life insurance with - why we ever bought decreasing term on an interest only mortgage I will never know. Nor do I know why we didn't amend it when we took out a mortgage for twice the value 13 years ago. All I do know is it only has 4 years left to go and is costing us £44.71 a month. If I pay that off my mortgage instead - over the current 12 year period - that would repay roughly £6.4K. I think that's our best option as we both get around 3 x our income in life insurance through our jobs - and we have a different policy that covers £130K+ of our £145K mortgage and that is on an increasing term life insurance. Again with what I know now - I would have been better off buying level term for the policies - it would probably have been a lot cheaper. I could / should investigate some level term options but we both have health issues now so not sure how expensive that would be. We have a couple of £4 ish a month policies on top that would give the kids a small lump sum if we were to die by 2023 so that would help cover uni costs if still needed.

We did a will this year which feels like a big achievement. Next step according to Ozzie investor is to pull together a file of all the info our Executor would need if we were to croak. That too is on my list but not putting a date to that yet... He recommends putting it in a fire proof safety deposit box. We really need to photocopy our wills at a minimum and give him a copy. The original is stored by the solicitor.

My pension info from an old company still hasn't arrived. If it isn't here by the weekend I will chase. DH's came through though - again I understand it more for the first time. It hasn't grown anywhere near at the rate it should have done due to a) OH's risk aversion and lack of advice a the outset and b) the fees are double what they should / need to be. DH has asked me to write down some of my questions / thoughts for when he meets with the pension adviser. I also need to arrange to meet mine to see if extra occupational pension is better versus buying AVCs or doing a SIPP.

jwil

You've paid off a massive amount this year, well done :T

Weekend away sounds lovely

EssexHebridean

Your progress is fantastic - and in itself that is an incentive to keep going, isn't it!

Great news on DS's lease, too.

StripeyTightsSpottySocks

Hi savings - you are achieving loads :T

& a weekend by the sea sounds perfect

savingholmes

Thanks for the encouragement EH, Stripey and Jwil. Slight mess up today - I though a payment for £74 had already gone through but it hadn't so potentially slightly short for payday... will muddle through. At most I could be in o/d one day (if I don't borrow from savings). It's showing in my pending... it might stay there long enough... who knows. Just taken pooch for a walk.

savingholmes

Just over £179 went out to CC2. They are in the order that the 0% runs out - so this pay day finish at:
CC5 530 - aim to pay off this month
CC4 5303 - target end of Jan 20
CC3 8885 - target end of June 20
- here or earlier stop paying DS the equivalent of £400 pcm which makes a big difference - DS may also repay the £1K plus he owes us -
CC2 7010 - target end of Sept 20
CC1 6823 - target Nov 20

I have to pay £934 for DS uni accommodation this Friday (payday) - then potentially pay again in December and again in March. This month any debt repayment will be much smaller - but October should be better as not paying him any more 'student maintenance' until November.

This week I am feeling more positive again. I think it is because DD is settling into college and seems to be enjoying it. She went there and back on her e-bike yesterday and has just set off (late) today. She had her first ever free period yesterday at the end of the day so was able to come home early which helped. DD definitely wants to give up her trial subject - she says its too hard for her. I'm seeing someone from the school later - so will look into her options. DD much prefers her fourth choice. I think she has ended up with more balanced options so am happier too. The school also seem to be listening to her needs and helping her which is a weight off my mind.

savingholmes

Car insurance, quarterly clothes £ and possible DH's motorbike service are all due in the next month or so - however I have pots for that so not too concerned. Need to finish getting ready and go into work. I don't mind it when I get there - and even enjoy it quite often - just struggle to get up and out. I spoke to someone from work yesterday that I had been worried might have fallen out with me sometime ago - but it was all in my imagination so that was also a positive.

Taking Sunday leftovers today for lunch - that also helps. DS made a spag bol last night but over-herb and spiced it so didn't like it at all. Still nice to be cooked for though. I might ask him to do the brined chicken dish he cooked for us when he first came home as that was stunning.

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Those are such clear targets, so you could be sub £7K this time next year which is amazing. That extra £400pm that you'll have next year will make a massive difference
Uni costs worry me, my eldest is in Year 11 so not too far away, I've already discussed with her that we won't be able to help much as we'll still have big childcare costs for the younger two. She'll only be entitled to the lowest amount of loan due to our income, so there'll be a potential shortfall