Long Term Mortgage Free Wannabe

katsoocam

Thank god for Pfizer and the market bounce...ISA up 14 k 😂

katsoocam

I’ve tidied up my signature to reflect my targets more eg I had mat leave savings at £34000 as a target but that does include £18000k approx of mat pay, so charged goal to £16000 which we have hit this month. And we have thus taken the first bites of both our slush fund elephant and our additional emergency fund elephant...Rome wasn’t built in a day! 

katsoocam

Topped up both the emergency and slush funds before Xmas with £470 each, not too shabby for December. However unless hub does some overtime likely to be the only contributions to it this side of Jan 2022 😱

katsoocam

I had one of those late night realisations. 

Mat leave fund was £16000 and this included £6000 which we needed to make our monthly expenses while on mat leave but also £10k of ‘fun’ money - appreciate this likely seems frivolous but we wanted to take a big family holiday or two, because the last few years have been more mat leave, professional exams for hub, and the same situation everyone has had this year (except we are mega lucky to have not had employment/money issues). Plus we both do shifts so only having one rota to sort makes things easier. 

However hub needed to pass an exam in Dec and he hasn’t, so will need to use annual leave to study for resits. Plus the Corona situation will I think take longer to resolve than I hoped. 

So the fun money has been redeployed to cover the deficit in our emergency fund and towards our slush fund target. I’ve got a few bits to sell so will get on that hopefully in the couple of weeks before the new baby comes and nibble a bit more of that slush fund target away.
Targets for 2021: 
1) Fully fund slush fund 
2) Save up a bit of money for SIL (she is moving into her first home and her parents can’t give her anything, so would just like to give her a bit towards furnishings and decorating etc if we can) 
I think this is enough allowing for much reduced pay for mat leave and no doubt some baby expenses though of course we have most stuff from no. 1!
Challenges for 2021:
1) Fully save up the 1p Savings Challenge (never quite make it, but £60 in the jar already so a good start) 
2) No spend challenge - until the slush fund is fully funded, exception food, essential toiletries, petrol. Good incentive to get some stuff sold! 

Once slush fund fully funded I will do what I usually do and say can spend half, save half of anything I sell. 

Nursery is shut this week but have usual grandparent childcare (in childcare bubble) on Thursday so will use this to sort through last bits that need doing in bedroom and also spare room - hopefully this will generate some stuff to sell! Also need to start taking the decs down though...

katsoocam

In despair at interest rates we put all easy access savings in premium bonds at the end of Nov. Our first month eligible to win a prize we have won four £25 ones! £100 more for the slush fund it is. 

caeler

Great news on your win! @katsoocam

katsoocam

caeler said:

Great news on your win! @katsoocam

Thank you, fingers crossed for a few more this year than I will have justified my decision not to get a crappy interest rate easy access account! 

caeler

I've just got crappy interest rates, I've not seriously considered PBs but maybe I should! @katsoocam

katsoocam

caeler said:

I've just got crappy interest rates, I've not seriously considered PBs but maybe I should! @katsoocam

Given how poor the interest rate is it’s worth looking at for any money you need easy access. 

katsoocam

Made £63 selling some clutter online...all in the slush fund