Mortgage freedom/FIRE diary

[Deleted User]

Thanks greent!

Poppycat1

£112,206.15 left to pay
17 years and 8 months left to pay it off
£6.09 daily interest

To reach my 10% target for first year (ends 04/02/19) I need to pay off £4,500. I will achieve it but I also want enough money in my savings to pay off 0% credit card in that time. I wont pay it because I have it in an account earning more interest. I am short by £464.68. So I have about 3 months to find £464.68 so extra shifts at work and the usual surveys/supermarket points etc.

I have used Microsoft money for ages, the one I'm using now I downloaded for free. I love it. It alows me to predict my spending/earnings.

FIRE - I think I discovered this on these forums several years ago. Someone had mentioned Mr Money Mustache and Early Retirement Extreme. To me it made sense, spend as little as possible and then I wont have to work, if I don't want to. The other part of the concept is to invest, which is the part I'm trying to get my head around at the moment. I understand how to get money from banks paying interest but still trying to get my head around investing.

I worked 11 hours yesterday and in tomorrow for 12 so going to have a fairly lazy day. Although I would like to make a tea loaf and maybe some scones for pack up this week. I like the scones at work but they cost £1.20 which is a lot out of my £20 for groceries in November. I spent £1.86 of that in Ald! on Saturday so £18.14 left. Most of that was on soya milk so may need to start making oat milk at home again.

Thank you to everyone for commenting and welcoming me, I wasn't sure if anyone would read. :j

bexster1975

Hello

Numbers looking good.

I agree re:FIRE. I'm not really looking to retire early ( I'm 43) but I am enjoying working pretty much as much as I like - and certainly not full time. I like the idea of the freedom to choose, that's why I wanted the mortgage gone. You never know what's around the corner so you only have today to enjoy. I'm not suggesting people shouldn't invest in the future, but living in the present and mid-term has to come with a better guarantee than working until 68 ( maybe later now) and squirrelling all your money away to live a couple of healthy years.

I like that now I can work lots, or a little and still pay all the bills. I save a bit when I'm working lots, to support the times I'm working little.

Have a great week. I love baking scones too. £1.20 each at work us a scandal. Can make a dozen for less than that!

Bexster

Poppycat1

£111,706.15 left to pay
17 years and 6? months left to pay it off
£6.07 daily interest

Regular mortgage payment has cleared so paid off £500, leaving £4,000 to pay off before 04/02/18.

I haven't spent anything for a couple of days. My mini challenge of only spending £20 on groceries for the month is going well but I do have a lot in stores. To make it more fun, a don't get out much, I will try and earn that £20 on a survey site. £8.43 earned so far.

Booked a couple of short shifts at work so I now only need to find £349.83 to pay off 10% and to offset my 0% CC. :j

Poppycat1

£111,206.15 left to pay
17 years and 5 months left to pay it off
£6.03 daily interest

I made another £500 overpayment today. When I was making the overpayment it lets you input an amount that you want to overpay and it then tells you how much that amount will effect your mortgage. You can choose either to reduce the term or reduce payments. It looks like when I have made the 10% overpayment this year I will have 16 years and 6 months left to pay. It should be 19 years. Two and half years extra off! :j

Not at work so checking out other diaries for motivation. Earned some more on survey site, now £12.18 out of the £20 I would like for the grocery challenge I set myself. I have taken some bean chilli out of the freezer and I will put it in some wraps, make a sauce to go over it and serve with rice tonight. Freezer really needs defrosting so I hope that after this challenge it will be empty.

We eat quite a lot bread so to make sure I don't spend all of my budget on it I will have to make some of my own. I have plenty of what I need but will need to get some more yeast.

Date night with boyfriend tonight so going to see the film that we should of seen last week.

Poppycat1

Went to see the Queen film last night, postponed from last week, it was fantastic. Used a 2-4-1 voucher and the boyfriend paid. He paid £4.99 for both of us. We looked at the prices at Vu and they were over £13! We have decided that we should go to the cinema more now he can get 2-4-1. I will look into getting insurance that way next year and then will be able to take the kids occasionally. Bexster, did you see the film?

£15.73 earned on Prolific so very close to my £20 target. No money spent on groceries since Saturday.

Pay day tomorrow but think I will resist the urge to overpay until next Wednesday when more money arrives.

I started planning my budget for next year yesterday. I think 10% of my mortgage will be around £10,680. I will pay the odd off in February and then aim for £1,000 per month until December, including the pesky Summer months! It will be very close although the amount has reduced from this year, this year I had around £2,500 left over after the sale went through so overpaid it soon after receiving it. So about the same amount to find. Year after will be better. :j

Edit: Just booked another shift so only need to find £235.38 before 04/02/19.

[Deleted User]

Well done on the op's!! :j

greent

Poppycat1 wrote: »

We eat quite a lot bread so to make sure I don't spend all of my budget on it I will have to make some of my own. I have plenty of what I need but will need to get some more yeast.
.

I get my fresh yeast for free from the bakery counter at Tesc0

Poppycat1

£110,956.15 left to pay
17 years and 5 months left to pay it off
£6.03 daily interest

Another payment to the mortgage yesterday leaving £3,250. left to find between now and 4th Feb 2018. Having the amount left to pay beginning with £110 seems a big deal. Planning on another £250 this Friday and £500 next Wednesday and maybe £250 close to the end of the month.

Prolific stands at £17.05 so just £2.95 to earn to reach my target of £20. I have done a small shop at Ald! which came to £5.02. With the £1.86 already spent that is £6.88 for far. We are out of margarine so need to pop out later to get some.

Back to baking my own bread which the boys love. Thanks Greent re the fresh yeast I will ask next time I go to Tesco.

As well as shopping at the supermarket I also order from Suma, so I have huge bags of bread floor, beans, herbs and spices, sausage and burger mixes etc. Just wish I had my cooking mojo back.

Poppycat1

No more overpayments to report.

Spent £18.49 of my £20 budget already. I went out for margarine after work Tuesday and I was hungry. I ended up buying a packet of biscuits and a 6 pack of crisps. We still have 3 packets of crisps but the biscuits have all gone. Not sure we will make it until the end of the month. I'm working a lot of shifts the last week of November so may become even more lazy at home, if possible. Earned £20.17 with Prolific with £18.29 payable. I will claim payment once over £20 is payable.

Cleaned the fridge and defrosted the freezer so I have a better idea of what is left, vegan duck, vegan mince, vegan quorn pieces, frozen mixed veg, filo pastry and lots home grown blackcurrants. I also have five packets of vegan cheese in the fridge. Homemade pizza will make several meals. Most importantly I have lots of tea bags. I will go as far in to the month as I can. I may increase the budget by £5.

This challenge has helped us all realise how much we were wasting on snacks and food we don't really need.

More shift became available for one of the places I like to work so booked all of them. My budget is worked out on me working 24 hours. If I can get the places I like to work on I will do more hours. So now after paying the £3,250 left of the 10% and also having enough to pay the 0% credit card, I have £156.28. :j:j:j:j:j:j:j: So have a little wriggle room in case something unexpected comes up.

I was reading on somebodies diary, sorry I forget who. That they pay their expenses and put savings aside first and then live off what is left. Sure it was explained better than that. I have never done that before. I pay my bills, live off what I want and save what is left.

So I have reorganised my budget and bank accounts. Most of my money now goes in to a bill account where all my bills come out and the 10% mortgage overpayments. This should tick over without any input from me eventually. I also have an every day account for food and any extras. This has the maintenance money I get for the kids. I am a little short in the bills account by June time so will need to work a few extra shifts to make up for it.