The Piano Diary

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,
The payment for the extra project work I have been doing has finally come through at just over £5,000. I am keeping back £1,000 to help fund a break at the end of August, and the remainder of £4,000 is going to the car loan which has reduced it to £10,600. Car should be fully paid off by the end of the year. I have written the cheque and am sending it off today. We have both been paid and OH’s pay rise has come through to. Based on this we have redone the spreadsheet, and it looks like we can be mortgage free by May 2022 which is 34 months away. Joined a local running club and went out with them last night. Such friendly people, and running so much less of a chore running with them. Planning a trip over to Holland on the Eurostar at the end of August and taking DS and his GF with us which will be nice.
Have a great day all!

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,
End of first week back after holiday, it has been hard to get back into the swing of things to be honest!
The payment of £4,000 has gone through on the car loan reducing it to around £10,000. I kept checking the amount on-line because to be honest I don’t believe anything has happened until I actually see the amount reduce. For some reason, I feel a bit flat about this reduction. I think its because even after this repayment the amount remaining is so high. I can’t wait to be debt free again. Part of me wonders if I got car fever and spent more than I needed to. On the other hand we only have one car and it needs to be able to be fit for several purposes. I went round in circles at the time because every time I tried to save money, the option was less than ideal. So far it has been really useful for a couple of trips. Overall I am happy with the decision I made at the time. For a start it has saved us £100 per month in petrol. In terms of paying it off, I could have used all the £5,000 but I have decided to fund a trip at the end of August with DS and his GF. This is all paid for now so that is good. I can see that if we use our available cash in the coming months around £1500 per month we can have the car fully paid off by February of next year. It would be nice and tidy to pay it off by the end of the year but that isn’t feasible. I remember this feeling the last time I approached debt freedom, just feeling impatient to get there. Its like the debt reduction doldrums. Need to remember this feeling once I get debt free again, and as Dave Ramsay says, never go into debt ever again for any reason!
DS is home this weekend. I am going to talk to him about preparing for and taking his driving theory test, and planning towards getting the practical test done.
Have a great weekend all!

savingholmes

Thanks for sharing. A very inspiring diary. We too lost our cat this year so I feel your pain. Great news about the project work and the extra payments. Enjoy your holiday - you need to live now as well as later.

glass_half_full

savingholmes wrote: »

Thanks for sharing. A very inspiring diary. We too lost our cat this year so I feel your pain. Great news about the project work and the extra payments. Enjoy your holiday - you need to live now as well as later.

Hi Savingholmes,
Thanks for your kind words of encouragement ! :beer:

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,
Yesterday I received a letter from the bank from whom I have the car loan, explaining the impact of the additional payment. The effect of the £4,000 overpayment has been to reduce interest paid by £476.36 and because the payment remains the same it has also reduced the term by 10 months. This has cheered me up no end, I had forgotten the impact on the interest so that is really good. Either way, if all goes to the budget plan, this will be gone by February of next year. This will keep me focused!
Have a great day all!

Skinnylatte

Well done on the over payment, isn't it wonderful how it all adds up!

savingholmes

Great letter - well done on the payment

glass_half_full

Thanks Skinnylatte and savingholmes for your comments, really helps to keep me going on this journey ! :beer:
Today is the start of the last break we will have for the summer before we get back to work in September. Because of the nature of our work, OH and I both tend to take a lot of our holiday over July/August. I am looking forward to next week as we are off on a city break on the Eurostar, never been on it before so interested to see what it is like. We are taking DS and his GF which will be a treat for them, I am grateful to be able to do this for them. Treated myself to a K**dle for the trip. I love reading and I can’t keep lugging books around with me. I like the way you can get a free sample of a book. So many books over the years I have bought and not finished. But I need to watch myself as buying a book has now become as easy as one click, so I need to manage my book addiction!
Budgetting etc seems to be broadly on track. Unfortunately, our microwave has broken this morning, not quite sure why, I think it could be my fault as I reheated a coffee and it boiled over!
Have a great day all!

savingholmes

Enjoy your holiday and your new K1ndl3. I loved mine but seem to have lost it a few months ago - it is quite old so am considering getting a new one as they seem to be on offer currently. I use my phone and laptop a lot for reading though so perhaps don't need it...

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,
We got back from our holiday yesterday. A long journey with an early start, and we were tired when we got back. We had a great time and enjoyed ourselves. Spent a bit more than planned but not by a crazy amount. Tomorrow we both go back to work and have to accept that the summer is coming to a close. I realise coming back that I was overcommitting a bit before I went away and that some hobbies could be becoming a bit of a tyranny to me. Have decided to back of just a little and make sure I have space in the agenda. On the work/money front, I have had some good news whilst away. I am going to be paid monthly for my side gig, rather than by project, so this will be an additional income stream. I have set up a savings account where I am going to put any extra money like this which I will use to pay down the car loan faster. Setting it aside like this will prevent me from being tempted to spend it! Then periodically send it to the loan bank as a cheque. This amount this month is £800. I should be able to pay off the car loan by February next year at this rate.
Today we are trying to keep the holiday feeling going, but also doing some chores we need to do.
Have a great day all!