Thirty something dreaming of not paying mortgage

kaycastle

Thanks @Sunday88 @LadyWithAPlan

I'm glad I did lots of overpaying in the past year. Its weird to not be overpaying right now but I'm glad to be putting it all in savings. Still not expecting to have to dip into the savings too much next year and hoping it can mostly all go towards loft conversion which we would definitely need before a second child.

Moved another £1k into savings to bring it to £25k. Well on track to have at least £30k before my maternity full pay ends. Which means when I do go back to work it will just be saving about another £15k for loft. And that's literally the biggest spend target I think we will have ever then can get back to overpaying

Our LTV is going to be great by the time our fixed rate ends, especially it we do manage to squeeze in doing the loft conversion before that.

We just finished our pumpkin. Managed to have it for dinner Sunday, pancakes Monday, roast pumpkin wraps for lunch, soup for lunch 2 days in a row and a whole pumpkin pie. All from a £5 pumpkin

powerspowers

That pumpkin sounds immense!

LadyWithAPlan

wow that pumpkin usage is very extreme MSE I like the idea of roast pumpkin wrap and you cant go wrong with pumpkin soup.

kaycastle

Hehe thanks it was some accidental MSEing.

I haven't been very MSE in the last few months at all. There has been a lot of baby spending and meals out and treats. 

I think my goal for November should be to get back to some normal spending habits and practice my budget for next year. 

I'm going to try to stick to a strict budget and keep track of spending on here:
£240 on groceries
£60 on Christmas presents. Going to try keep ahead of getting Christmas presents. I have a £15 limit per person.
£50 on baby bits. Just need to get a few more items. I will avoid impulse buying cute things and stick to fb marketplace where possible.
£50 on treats and outings with my OH. If we do make any fb earnings we shall be able to spend more here.

I've also decided to try to put aside a separate emergency fund to my loft savings. I'm going to aim for £2500 by May next year. This money will come from low spend months like these and possibly bonus from work which I think should be early next year. Ive started off by transferring £400 in.

Just 2 more months of paying off the furniture. Interest free of course but still bleh.

I must admit I am getting nervous about only living off my maternity pay next year. 

kaycastle

So first spend is on groceries for the week which will arrive tomorrow. 

£46.52/£240

Just need to get a bit of chicken at the butchers on top of that.
I meal plan and stick to making things from scratch as it's easiest way to get tasty food.

Going to make plum squares next Saturday as the treat for the week

kaycastle

The final total for the groceries shop was a couple of quid more and we also got some sweet treats before going round a friends house yesterday. And had some treat hot chocolates while out. I would ordinarily bake something to take to friends but I was just not up for it yesterday.

So groceries total is up to: 
£54.38/£240

And treats up to:
£6/£50

I have moved a further £439 into the emergency fund. This has come from my OH payment for share or bills which this will be the last month he does this so thought it made sense to immediately move this to savings which I probably should have been practicing the last few months too hehe.

So emergency fund is up to £839/£2500

I also did what I refer to as a low electricity day yesterday, would have been lower but OH did some computer and TV hours. I just read most of the day and went to bed early to read. Finished 2 magazines on the pile and the first volume of 'The book of dust'. 

powerspowers

Well done on the EF and good luck with the new budget! What did you think of the Book of Dust? 

kaycastle

@powerspowers

I enjoyed the characters. It wasn't what I expected at all, and on the whole it's quite a slow paced book, not a lot really happens in it so I'm wondering what will be in the second one. I did think it was going to be entirely unrelated to the original trilogy. 

Liked malcolm a lot and I love the world in which it's set. So not sure how much of me liked it for nostalgia and how much I'd like it if it had been totally new to me. And I love farder coram, wish we got to follow him more.

I've got the second volume to read as well but I've started a murder mystery first. 

Have you read them?

powerspowers

kaycastle said:

@powerspowers

I enjoyed the characters. It wasn't what I expected at all, and on the whole it's quite a slow paced book, not a lot really happens in it so I'm wondering what will be in the second one. I did think it was going to be entirely unrelated to the original trilogy. 

Liked malcolm a lot and I love the world in which it's set. So not sure how much of me liked it for nostalgia and how much I'd like it if it had been totally new to me. And I love farder coram, wish we got to follow him more.

I've got the second volume to read as well but I've started a murder mystery first. 

Have you read them?

Yeah I found it slow and like you say, not a lot happens! I much preferred the second one - it includes Malcolm and some old favourites 😉 it left me wanting the third, whereas the first one left me feeling tired! 

kaycastle

powerspowers said:

kaycastle said:

@powerspowers

I enjoyed the characters. It wasn't what I expected at all, and on the whole it's quite a slow paced book, not a lot really happens in it so I'm wondering what will be in the second one. I did think it was going to be entirely unrelated to the original trilogy. 

Liked malcolm a lot and I love the world in which it's set. So not sure how much of me liked it for nostalgia and how much I'd like it if it had been totally new to me. And I love farder coram, wish we got to follow him more.

I've got the second volume to read as well but I've started a murder mystery first. 

Have you read them?

Yeah I found it slow and like you say, not a lot happens! I much preferred the second one - it includes Malcolm and some old favourites 😉 it left me wanting the third, whereas the first one left me feeling tired! 

Ooh I'm looking forward to reading the second one then