Busy Mee's Last Leg

Busy_Mee

April 2020 Update
Repayment Mortgage.                £46,322.14
IO Mortgage.                             £165,000.00
Total Mortgage.                         £211,322.14
Reduction in mortgage.                 £1,944.47
Ring fenced savings.                 £211,400.00
Increase in RF Savings.                 £1,361.80

Savings offset mortgage to.             +£77.86.      

Odds and Sods account.                 £271.08
Principality Reg Saver.                     £750.00
Chipped off mortgage.                     £500.00
Total Odds and Sods.                      £1521.08     

Saved in April.                                  £149.23

I am obviously really pleased to be mortgage neutral and have the princely sum of  £77.86 towards our forever fund  .

I am also very pleased with the Odds and Sods totals. This is a combination of Tilly Tidys, rewards and TCB. It always surprises me how this always adds up. I am managing to keep pace with the £125 a month needed to fund the Principality BS Regular Saver and had enough last month to chip another £500 off the IO mortgage.

I am being a bit of a  saddo and rereading my diary at the moment to celebrate this moment and I may well be back later 

lippy1923

Congrats on becoming neutral. Really pleased for you. Shows all the hard work and effort you put in has finally paid off

Busy_Mee

Thanks very much Lippy and everyone. I know I keep saying it, but the help and support I have had from this community of lovely, like minded people has really helped us along this journey . 

I have been a bit of a saddo today and reread my diary and thought I would just try and summarise some of the things that have helped us get to this position, in the hope it might just help someone else:

1. Target setting
Setting realistic targets, and a clear plan of how you are going to get there. This gives you a clear focus, keeps you motivated and enables you track progress. Don't just kick the ball and hope !

2.Keep some tension on your finances
Decide how much you can save and move it into savings the day you get paid and only ever touch it in a real emergency . If you feel some tension on your finances you are less likely to waste money and will think twice about purchases.

3.Understand where your money is going
This was a real eye opener for me. I starting tracking all our expenditure and some of it was a bit of a shock. Knowing where you are currently spending your money, versus where you want to spend your money allows you to make conscious decisions about your spending.

4. Challenge the Sacred Cows
There are some outgoings that we think are sacred, and we can't do without. We don't actually need to spend on them...we are just choosing to spend the money. I would suggest trying to do without these things and see if you do actually miss them.
In this category we stopped spending on Sky, the gym, and a gardener. We haven't missed any of them. We watch Now TV and piggy back on to the kids's Netflix and Amazon Prime.  We are now enjoying doing the garden ourselves and I run, walk and do yoga for free.

And now is the ideal time to reflect on some of this stuff during lockdown.....what are you actually missing ?

5. Save up for things
Obvious I know. We were constantly putting large purchases and bills  on credit cards and lurching from one large bill to another. I now have savings pots for annual bills and holidays and have the funds available when these things need to be paid. 

6. Sweat the small stuff
All the small wins, bank rewards, vouchers, Tilly Tidies, TopCashback and interest all add up. I like to save these odds and sods separately and watch them add up. They also help to keep you interested and motivated, when you hit the boring financial  wastelands of mid-month 

I think these are the things that have really helped us, along with obviously keeping and updating a diary on here and of course following all the normal MSE advice.

Hope that helps x

savingholmes

Fab takeaway. I occasionally go back and re-read parts of my diary too - mine go back to 08 though so not had what it takes to reread them all

South_coast

Great summary, thank you 😀

On point 1, I always find myself disappointed to only have met my targets and be exactly where I thought I would end up when I set them! I guess that's the true MFW addiction 😂!

Suffolk_lass

Your number 2 is so eloquently put. I refer to this as my smug filter - it is when I feel more comfortable than I really am and make purchases without doing the research or really thinking first. Nightmare to realise I still had that in me after retiring. FB Marketplace and local auctions. What can I say!? the tension is essential

try_harder

Brilliant summary and so very helpful ,I have copied it all down into my new cash book and will refer back to it as needed ..Thank you

Busy_Mee

Thanks for popping in everyone.

SL I have slackened off some of the tension on our finances since Mr Mee retired, I wanted to see how our finances panned out once he started to receive his pension. I did commit to chipping £500 off the IO mortgage every month, and have actually managed £1000 for the last 3 months. Me being me, I am tempted to set myself a target of £1000 a month. I am trying to resist this at the moment because I don't think it would be fair to Mr Mee. We have been aiming for a comfortable retirement and he shouldn't feel skint now he is retired. However we all know that secretly I will try to aim to pay  £1000 a month off the mortgage and the trick will be to do it so he doesn't notice   Tbh Lockdown has really helped with this, as we cancelled a holiday and haven't been spending very much, apart from on food.  Our spending on food though has probably increased by 30 % !

We are going food shopping twice a week now. Mr Mee goes for the bulk of it on a Monday and then I tend to go on Saturday morning for extra bits for the weekend. It means we both get to drive and get a trip "Outside". I went to Lidl this morning and timed it when there was no queue 

 I offered to do DS shopping too, as he has had a long week at work. I found it quite hard shopping for two lists.....lots of doubling back on myself but managed to get everything we both needed. I dropped his shopping off to him and had a nice chat with him in the garden. As there was just the two of us, I was able to enquire properly about how he was feeling ...and he is doing fine. Work and his university course is keeping him busy, and he is getting plenty of social interaction at work and with his friends on zoom. So I left feeling quite reassured.

DD has been struggling a bit this week missing her friends and extensive social life. We shared a bottle of Prosecco last night and some chocolate to cheer her up. We have plans to recreate a N@nos tonight and MaccyDs sausage and egg McMuffins tomorrow morning 

The kids have both said that the roads are getting busier during the week when they are going to work and I have heard of a few employers who are starting up business again. Construction seems to have started again and I have heard of two car parts manufacturers who have opened again but with social distancing. I think we are likely to see a phased and controlled lifting of lockdown, starting with those employers who can operate with social distancing, and that will require safe public transport, and probably schools opening for some groups of children so that their parents can return to work. I imagine the furlough scheme will have to stay in place for some time whilst the economy fires up again. We will have to see what Bozza says on Thursday but I think this is going to be our new normal for some time to come.

I have been quite productive today and made another successful sourdough loaf. I feel quite confident with this now and am managing to produce a good quality loaf every time.

 I also planted some lovely pelargoniums in tubs ( bought in Lidl) and potted on my window ledge seedlings. These were the free seeds given out by M&S meant for kids. They have all germinated and I have 6 chilli seedlings, 4 peppers, 3 basil and 3 radish. I ran out out pots, so I reused a plastic tray that some big field mushrooms had come in. Very MSE and environmentally friendly 

I now have some more free seeds that arrived with my free copy of Ideal Homes magazine. Some delphiniums, clary and Mr Mee found a packet of stock seeds when he was clearing the kitchen drawer out. Best before 2016, so not sure how they will fare   I just need to find some containers to sow them in.

I think that is all our news. Have a good weekend x

Brindlebabe

Always keep mushroom trays for gardening! They’re so handy! And so environmentally unfriendly just to chuck them out! 

Enjoying your diary. Your summary of lessons was very helpful. I don’t know if I want to become hooked on the ‘putting tension on the finances’or not.

julicorn

Congratulations on being mortgage neutral, what a fantastic achievement! And thank you for summarising those pieces of advice, I think they are all such important points