Mortgage freedom/FIRE diary

Poppycat1

£500/£5,000 - Invested - now worth - £500.37
£107,900/£108,460.35 - Mortgage reduced
£50/£12,000 - Saved

My car insurance is due at the end of the month, I was going to be lazy and just auto-renew, (£227.55). It's a day off today so I had time to ring my provider and they reduced the quote to £204.79, I nearly accepted it but decided to go through the MSE route. Previous insurer gave me the dates about accidents I had and they were over five years ago so didn't have to declare them. I managed to get the quote down to £164.74, total saving of £62.81 :j:j:j It also came with Dine which is a 241 restaurant offer.

I also received my cashback from my bank for bills which was £10.33.

I'm still up on my investments but lost most of the gain. I will stop checking daily soon.

I didn't get the part-time admin. job but they have said that they would like to consider me for a full-time position doing the same job. It should be available in the next 2-3 weeks.

Gave in and sent DS11 to the shops yesterday for biscuits, £2 spent.

Poppycat1

£6,000/£500 - Invested - now worth - £507.96
£108,460.35/£107,860 - Mortgage reduced
£12,000/£550 - Saved
£2,019/£278.28 - Make/save £2,019 in 2019

January Update

I'm a bit short on savings in January, this is because of booking a holiday, car and home insurance and my first investment. I am prioritising the savings over the next few months because I now have two accounts paying 5% interest. So I need to get savings up to £4,000 asap.

February Plans
Invest £250 - Direct debit so this will definitely happen
Save another £550/£650 - depends on extra work I decide to do.
No mortgage over payment.

I have a busy week at work (48 hours) next week but after that hours are reduced to anything from zero to 16 a week. Hours are always available where I work but I feel I need less hours for a while. One of the benefits of working on the bank. If I fancy working the next day I can normally get a shift.

I bought a little plug plant today from the garden centre. It's a dalia and it's going to get spoilt rotten. I get a bit down at this time of year and planning my garden/allotment helps me realise that it will soon be over. I have been offered medication but as it's mild I try and reduce the pressures on me. I know I will soon be better.

greent

Have you heard about the f/t job yet? - fingers crossed! x

Poppycat1

Thanks for asking greent. I had an email to ask me to contact the interviewer. She wanted to know if I was still interested in a full-time position, I said I was. She is going to ask recruitment if she needs to re-advertise it and then let me know. Have you still not heard about the job you applied for?

Worked 48 hours over Monday to Friday, I'm glad of a few days off now.

It's DS2 12th birthday tomorrow. He has been given lots of money, £95 so far. He has given me £45 to pay in to his bank account and kept the rest so I can take him to the city to do some shopping. He also received a late Christmas present this week of a £30 Amaz0n voucher which he is going to save towards his xbox subscription. He must take after me, lol. He even sold a £10 Christmas voucher to his Nan today for face value. Nan does a lot of shopping, we don't.

No money news really, saved £200 from Fridays pay. I think I'm going to be saving about 50% of my income over this year. That's if you include the £2,000 ish I plan to overpay the mortgage by.

greent

Ahh - still fingers crossed for you in that case, Poppycat!

Happy Birthday to your DS for today! - sounds a sensible lad re money already :T

I've finally heard something - I've been 'long listed' for the job :rotfl: I'm somewhat ambivalent about it all now, but it has sown the seed of finding a part time job (with regular hours, as opposed to the casual nature of invigilating) - if I did get one (and it would need to be the 'right' one - am not planning on paying for childcare/ a cleaner etc as a result) my plan is to basically use all the money (bar a small amount for clothes - I'll need clothes!) to holiday fund and pension at the mo and then OPs and pension after next year's planned big holiday I currently put all invigilating money to hol fund (previously OP-d it/ used for last big holiday etc)
x

Poppycat1

£6,000/£750 - Invested
£12,000/£2350 - Saved
£2,019/£298.39 - Make/save £2,019 in 2019
£108,460.35/£107,409.72 - Mortgage reduced

February Update
£250 added to the £500 invested in January. Now worth £762.35. Now only check 3 times a week instead of the initial every day check.

Done better with the savings this month. Total saving this month is £1050. Taking total for year to £1,600. With the investments that takes it to £2,350.

Just the regular mortgage payment this month, no over payment.

Just £20.11 made/saved this month, taking year total to £298.39.

March plans

Save another £800 and invest £250 of it in Stocks and Shares ISA. Only regular mortgage payment. Make £50.

I received my Civil service pension forecast which gives me about £4,000 a year from age 60. The plan is to research pensions even more. I really would like to retire at 60 so need to make plans to have enough money to pay off the mortgage and have enough to live off before the state pension starts to pay at 67/68.

Still waiting on news from the job. Greent, well done. Any more news? I'll try and get over to your diary today.

Poppycat1

Excuse me whilst I dust off the cobwebs and get settled back in.  Can't believe it's been 18 months since I posted last.

In the Summer of last year I was told my car wouldn't pass it's MOT.  I scraped out all my accounts and managed to buy it with cash but it set me back.  I am now back to investing, paying off the mortgage and now have a reasonable emergency fund.

Mortgage now stands at £98,500.  The aim is to get this to £95,000 by the end of the year.  I have an emergency fund of 6 months expenditure.  Would like to invest £2,000 by the end of the year and have another £2,000 towards some work on my home.

I am lucky in that I work for the NHS and have managed to work lots more than my normal hours with lots of weekend enhanced paid work.

Looking forward to catching up with diaries and posting more.

Poppycat1

£2,000/£14.08 - Invested, £43.62 held as cash = £57.70
£2,000/£390 - Saved for work on the house next year
£95,000/£98,500 - Mortgage reduction
£6,000/£6,000 - Emergency fund - achieved

The above are my targets to take me to the end of the year.  I have read The Escape Artist latest post and although I'm never going to be a millionaire these targets and future ones are going to make life much easier for me. 

I have prioritised the emergency fund and I am happy with £6,000.  It should pay the expenses for 6 months if I reduce the mortgage to the standard payment. 

The mortgage is going to reduce gradually over the next four months to £95,000 which is exactly 50% of the property's value. The savings should be at £1,000 by the end of September.  The investment will be added to £100 each month until the end of the year.  I will also add £1,600 to hold in the investment account as cash until I feel ready to invest it.
So in total by the end of the year I should have £10,000 saved or invested and the mortgage reduced by £3,500.

Frugal living - My DS18 starts uni in a few weeks and he has his own challenge.  He thought he could live off £15 a week for food.  So for about a month I have been giving him £15 each week and he has done his own shopping and cooking.  He has done really well.  It has helped that he went full-time and McDonalds and receives a free meal each day he works though.
My DS13 thought that he would like to try it so we are doing the same.  We are finding it really easy to do.  These few things help: I have an apple tree, sometimes people bring in home grown veg to work, family have given me home grown tomatoes and courgettes and also some extra food they didn't want.  If we want food that was in the cupboards before the challenge started we have to buy it.  So far so good.  Going to teach him how to make red lentil soup with a carrot his Nan gave him later. 

FtbDreaming

Hi @Poppycat1 just thought I’d follow your diary as we are in similar jobs. I’m an nhs bank nurse currently do about 23 hours a week in order to keep tax credits. 

Youve done brilliantly with the op and saving! I’m only just starting out (had my mortgage 9 days) but I’d love to be in your swing soon! 

Do you pay into the Nhs pension for your FIRE target? I pay 9.3% and employer tops up 14% I’ve been in it 3 years upto now and on this years TRS I think I will be eligible for £4000 lump sum and then a yearly amount that I don’t understand lol. I still have 35 years is to pay in  probably more like 22 ish working so hopefully get a decent lump sum at 68. I’m also hoping to pay the mortgage off by the time I’m 40 so will look at investing after that. 

KP74

Just been reading this diary.  Keep going Poppycat1