Keeping our options open

becky170

savingholmes said:

How much mortgage do you have left Becky?

We've got £135k left to go so we're not in a bad place. It's fixed at 1.74% for the next couple of years so it's a good time to have a breather from overpayments and concentrate of other priorities as our normal repayment is manageable. 

becky170

I've switched my mobile phone plan which will save me £1.54 per month  every little helps! I have also cancelled my regular mortgage overpayment this morning and increased the amount we automatically put in the savings account. Bit sad about that but can't be helped.

Still deciding on what car to buy. Prices are really high for second hand cars at the moment so think we'll have to pay more than we were hoping. The current front runners are a Toyota aygo or Yaris or a seat Ibiza. All have pros and cons...the aygo is cheaper but has less space for kids/shopping but then I will mainly just be using it for getting to work/ferrying the kids around so not sure that matters. 

savingholmes

I would make sure there is enough space for kids / shopping unless you have a second car that is much bigger... I went for a 4 seat car once and regretted it very quickly as it made it more difficult for the kids to have friends over. 

becky170

savingholmes said:

I would make sure there is enough space for kids / shopping unless you have a second car that is much bigger... I went for a 4 seat car once and regretted it very quickly as it made it more difficult for the kids to have friends over. 

Good point I hadn't thought about giving lifts to kid's friends

fionaandphil

becky170 said:

I've switched my mobile phone plan which will save me £1.54 per month  every little helps! I have also cancelled my regular mortgage overpayment this morning and increased the amount we automatically put in the savings account. Bit sad about that but can't be helped.

Still deciding on what car to buy. Prices are really high for second hand cars at the moment so think we'll have to pay more than we were hoping. The current front runners are a Toyota aygo or Yaris or a seat Ibiza. All have pros and cons...the aygo is cheaper but has less space for kids/shopping but then I will mainly just be using it for getting to work/ferrying the kids around so not sure that matters. 

I would avoid the aygo if you can, very tinny and tiny, we had one as a courtesy car once and I wasn't impressed. We've had an older yaris and my mum has a newer one, both good reliability with low running costs, and a bit more room as your kids grow. We have had a few Toyotas over the last 20+ years and would highly recommend them just for reliability. We have hybrid which reduce running costs but do cost more to buy initially. Honda jazz may also be worth a look,  my mum liked hers and it has good flexible space inside

becky170

Well I tried out a fiesta and really loved it so I've gone ahead and brought one our savings have now taken a big dent so our aim is now to save £6000 before the end of 2022. Not sure how realistic that is going to be but let's see   

I've made £7 selling items on Faceb00k. I've got another couple of bits of kids clothing out ready to take photos of and list later today. I was going to overpay the £7 on the mortgage but have decided to treat the kids to a fairground ride at the fireworks next week instead. I'm just hoping £7 covers it 

savingholmes

Glad you found a car you liked - fab you had savings to pay for it from. Love the use of your £7 - too easy to be all consumed by saving and investing and forget to live.

becky170

I have added up all my grocery shopping for October and it comes to £604.46 so just over a £100 over budget! I have started getting some bits for Christmas with each shop but that probably only accounts for £30 of that spend and another £20 is pet related which I don't usually count under grocery spending. The aim for November is to actually stick to our £500 grocery budget. It's a long time since I've brought the grocery shopping in on budget so will be a challenge but if I'm going to get a new bathroom I need to 

debtfreeoneday

It’s hard isn’t it trying to stick to a good budget. We recently upped ours to £400 as we just felt we were sacrificing some healthy choices 

savingholmes

Good luck with the grocery spend challenge - it's one of my biggest areas of weakness too.