The Piano Diary

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Busy_Mee1 wrote: »

Just catching up with your diary. Glad to see you well and still heading for mortgage freedom. Mortgage free in 43 months sounds like a great target and who knows if you keep chipping away at your outgoings it could be sooner.

Thanks Busy Mee ! :beer:

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Dear diary and all,
One week to payday. The budget is ok. There have been a few wobbles including the boiler playing up and needing a new fan fitting this week, emergency fund was required (used £200). We have paid for a weekend in Ireland in July visiting friends, this was budgeted for. I found out this week that I have got an extra paid project at work which could be worth around £5K. I’m going to ignore this until the money is in my account. I’ve found that to be the best strategy in the past, treat it as a bonus if it happens. Made the first payment on the car loan, aiming to save up and overpay every few months. We are switching our current account again. We first did this a couple of years ago at the beginning of our debt free journey. I have decided to do it again to get the £250 bonus. OH and I have been talking about our longer term plans. We are aligned on the money front. This is probably the most important thing in the scheme of things.
Have a great day all!

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Dear diary and all,
What lovely weather! We are going for a walk this afternoon to get some fresh air. Some chores to get through this morning.
Money wise we have made the mortgage payment. Since we remortgaged to the higher amount we can see it go down every month which is motivating. We have saved £1000 into the emergency fund. I will let this build up a bit more and then pay off a chunk of the car loan. The new current account is open and we will be switching sometime in March.
In piano related news, I am enjoying making progress and trying to do at least 30 mins per day practicing. We’re having the piano tuned next week, its going to cost £70 but well worth it.
Have a great day all!

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Dear diary and all,
The piano has been tuned and is sounding so much better. I need to get some practice in over the weekend. Last week was busy at work with having to work a couple of evenings. I missed my piano lesson as well. Our cat has been coughing again so the vet has referred him for another scan. OH is taking him for this on Monday. This will cost £300 to £400. Unfortunately this will not be covered by the insurance. This has reduced our ability to overpay on the loan this month, that should start next month. Luckily we have the emergency fund to cover this. The current account opening is quite slow and there have been several stages, but we should be able to switch by mid March and so we should get the switching bonus.
Have a great day all!

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Dear diary and all,
Went to see DS at the weekend and took him out for a meal. The eating out budget has now gone for the month. I have taken a ½ day holiday today as I need to take the cat for a scan. The current account switch is going ahead next week. The account opening process involved a number of steps and seemed to take a bit longer than it needed to. You need to switch within 30 days of opening the account in order to qualify for the bonus. I think we have just about made it inside that window, I hope so as that was the point of switching! I have also opened a regular saver account with 5% interest. All seems steady on the budget front.
Have a great day all!

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Dear diary and all,
Not great news at the vets yesterday. The scan showed that the cyst had grown and the vet drained twice as much fluid as in November from his chest. There is an option to do an operation to remove the cyst. This would be quite high risk with no guarantee of success although the vet says he is reasonably optimistic since they have done similar operations before. He said that as he is 8 years old he would do it whereas if he was say 12-13 he would probably not recommend it. Without the operation, sadly the vet says that his outlook is very poor :sad:. The cost of the operation is £2800. Unfortunately not covered by the insurance This is such a lot of money and I know in the past it would have been unthinkable.. But we have had him since a kitten, he is very much part of the family. He has always been an indoor cat, apart from the odd visit to the garden. I have been poring over the budget this morning and we could use the emergency fund (£1600) plus the savings for April (£1000) to pay for it. Its hard to know what to do. I think at the moment I am leaning towards having the operation. If it gave him a few more years of quality life it would be worth it. OH Is picking him up later on today, he has had an overnight stay. I will talk it through with her later.
Have a great day all!

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Dear diary and all,
The procedure at the vet’s seems to have worked as he has stopped coughing. It was rather expensive at £750 plus. I am seeing our local vet this week to discuss options. As a result of this cost, the emergency fund is still below £2000. I have decided that once it goes above £2000 I will apply additional savings to paying off the car loan early, after the £250 goes to the savings account. The current account switch seems to have gone smoothly, so that’s good. Its good seeing the mortgage go down, I think it will be £10K lower in June which will be the first year anniversary of my MFW stage of this journey. The extra paid project I have at work has started well. I am treating this income as a bonus, not counting it in the budget. If it comes through it will speed up the debt repayment and maybe fund a mini-break.
Working at home today, will go for a jog later to clear my head!
Have a great day all!

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Dear diary and all,
After talking to our local vet we have decided not to go for the operation. She has put him on some tablets so we will see how we get on. Easter feels really late this year, I am looking forward to having a break as I have the week off after Easter. On the money front, things are progressing slowly but surely. DS will be finishing at Uni at the end of May early June. I am trying to motivate him to get a job by offering to match fund a trip he wants to go on. We are going to be firmer with him this summer about earning some money. Nothing wrong with him having a break but not 3 ½ months lounging around the house whilst we both go out to work!
Have a great day all!

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Good afternoon diary and all,
It has been a while since I updated. I have been really busy with work. Had to take the car in for a service so sitting in a nearby caf! and thought I could post a quick update.
On the financial front, things have been progressing. I started this MFW blog almost exactly 1 year ago and the mortgage has reduced from £79,600 to £69,600. Previously, I used to get the annual mortgage statement, covered in numbers but the balance never seemed to shift from year to year. It’s really satisfying seeing it reduce significantly like this. I have been working on an additional project at work, it’s been really hard work. I’ve been working weekends for as long as I can remember, I had to work through the two May Bank holidays. The project is worth £9K gross to me, it will probably work out around £6K net. I’m planning to use most of this to pay towards the car loan (£4K) and then the remainder will be split between a holiday of some sort (£1K) and I’m going to give my son £1K to put in a lifetime ISA to help him one day towards a house purchase.
Elsewhere OH has had a promotion (hurray!) which gives her a decent pay rise. She has really worked hard for this and deserves it, I am really proud of her.
We are both on the same page with the finances, we are working towards paying off the car by the end of the year (ish). Then we will build our emergency fund up to 3 months expenses (as per Dave Ramsay). Then we will increase our pension contributions back up to 15% of our gross income. We are then putting everything else towards overpaying the mortgage. This means the mortgage will be paid off by August 2022.
Sadly, our cat got more and more ill and unfortunately we lost him back in April. It was very sad, but our local vet advised us against the operation because she felt it would not have been advisable. Me and OH are still getting over it, he was a big personality and part of our family.
In piano related news, I am still keeping on with the weekly lessons and plan to take Grade 3 around Christmas time.
Have a great day all!

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Dear diary and all,
Just back from a few days on holiday in Devon. It was great, we stayed on a caravan site in a mobile home, DS and his GF came with us which was nice. Weather was fine apart from the last day, driving back in heavy rain. I’m expecting a big payment for the project I have been working on at the end of the month. This should allow me to make an overpayment of £5,000 on the car loan, will be nice to see it go below £10,000. I want to do this so I don’t get tempted to spend it on anything else! Aiming to pay off the car by early next year, or even by the end of this year.
DS has been struggling to get paid work over the summer. He has applied for many jobs, got two interviews but so far no success. I am trying to help him get his driving licence. We have put him on the insurance for our car so he can practice. Went out with him yesterday for the first time with the L plates on, he was fine so hoping we can help him at least achieve this milestone over the summer.
I have a few more days off this week and I’m attending to some other financial matters. I was reviewing my pension investments and I decided to switch them where possible to ethical funds. I reviewed some of my current funds and found that some of them are investing in companies/organisations that don’t really sit well with me so I have switched them over.
Slow steady progress.
Have a great day all!