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Update Paid off! - Six years and counting!!

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  • Kat78MFW
    Kat78MFW Posts: 287 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 100 Posts Name Dropper
    Hettyhound Wow that’s amazing! Congrats on the extra pennies, it’s a nice feeling isn’t it. Good luck smashing that credit card
    Thanks and thanks for reading my diary. The credit card is a Cashback card that we use for all our spends and will be paid IN FULL :money: (thanks Martin). We are trying our best to keep the bill lower for the next month but as we've already put next year's Easter holiday deposit on it and I have car insurance renewal due this month, we are probably fighting a losing battle.
    MFW since March 2019Mortgage-free 30th June 2023
    My Budget and Savings Diary https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6543308/making-a-budget-and-sticking-to-it#latest
  • Kat78MFW
    Kat78MFW Posts: 287 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 100 Posts Name Dropper
    Have just checked the reg saver for Xmas / car tax. Not quite as good as I thought. I have increased the standing order to £100 from May onwards.

    So the correct savings balances are
    EF £500 (£250 added in April)
    Summer holiday fund £1600 (£50 added in April)
    Xmas / car tax fund £220 (£60 added in April)
    MFW since March 2019Mortgage-free 30th June 2023
    My Budget and Savings Diary https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6543308/making-a-budget-and-sticking-to-it#latest
  • Kat78MFW
    Kat78MFW Posts: 287 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 100 Posts Name Dropper
    Have paid another £150 off the parental interest free car loan. This is now nearly cleared with just £175 still to pay.

    Have paid our usual £798 to the mortgage this month giving us an outstanding mortgage balance of
    £53 603.

    The first Direct 5% Regular Saver matures at beginning of May. This money is earmarked to pay for our summer holiday. My plan is still to open a new RS and deposit the maximum £300 in every month (holiday savings £140, mortgage OP savings £160). Hopefully, this will be more than possible due to extra take home pay and end of student loan / car loan.
    MFW since March 2019Mortgage-free 30th June 2023
    My Budget and Savings Diary https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6543308/making-a-budget-and-sticking-to-it#latest
  • Kat78MFW
    Kat78MFW Posts: 287 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 100 Posts Name Dropper
    Have plugged those numbers into my mortgage spreadsheet. If we continue with our current payments and then transfer £2000 every May when the RS matures, we can be mortgage free by May 2024.
    MFW since March 2019Mortgage-free 30th June 2023
    My Budget and Savings Diary https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6543308/making-a-budget-and-sticking-to-it#latest
  • greent
    greent Posts: 10,711 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Kat78MFW wrote: »
    Have plugged those numbers into my mortgage spreadsheet. If we continue with our current payments and then transfer £2000 every May when the RS matures, we can be mortgage free by May 2024.

    So 60/61 months? - fantastic! :T
    I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul
    Repaid mtge early (orig 11/25) 01/09 £124616 01/11 £89873 01/13 £52546 01/15 £12133 07/15 £NIL
    Net sales 2024: £20
  • Kat78MFW
    Kat78MFW Posts: 287 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 100 Posts Name Dropper
    So 60/61 months? - fantastic!

    Thanks GreenT - sounds a really short time when you put it like that!

    Grrr to Erudio student loans - somehow DH still owed another £66 but I had already cancelled the DDs after last month's letter. So he got a missed payment letter today. I have run the numbers through a couple of spreadsheets and it looks as though they are correct, although I am still confused by how one loan finished a month before the others. For some reason, he has two customer numbers with one loan under one number and the other two loans under the other number. He has asked them to send him statements showing the payments made this year but we have also paid the money as I think they are right. I knew it couldn't be simple.
    MFW since March 2019Mortgage-free 30th June 2023
    My Budget and Savings Diary https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6543308/making-a-budget-and-sticking-to-it#latest
  • Kat78MFW
    Kat78MFW Posts: 287 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 100 Posts Name Dropper
    Dedicate yoga Day 26 (drop) done. No cardio today as I had a migraine earlier.

    Spent £97 at the supermarket :eek: Need to sort out payment of DD2s childminder and after school club fees for the summer term. Can't quite believe that after all these years (and thousands of pounds) we only have four more terms of childcare costs left.
    MFW since March 2019Mortgage-free 30th June 2023
    My Budget and Savings Diary https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6543308/making-a-budget-and-sticking-to-it#latest
  • Morning Kat, I've just been reading your diary as your timescales are similar to ours - it looks like we can pay the mortgage off around the end of 2024/sometime in 2025 (but we always hope for sooner)
    Re: your credit card bills and the worry you won't, at some point manage to pay in full (have I read that right?) I use YNAB (you need a budget), for credit cards, they advocate getting off the 'credit card float' where you are paying for last month's spending with next month's money. And only spending on the credit card what you have budgeted to spend.
    It sounds like you have a good level of income, which we did when we started with YNAB, but it was a revelation in terms of how we were spending & saving.
    I now put aside money each month for annual bills so I'm not taking the full hit in a single month. I still put the car insurance (for example) on the credit card, to benefit from the rewards, but the money has been saved over the previous 12 months. Any extra in each pot - e.g saving £1300 for a £1000 insurance premium - then gets over payed to the mortgage or saving goals.

    Non of this may work for you, it's just a suggestion. I've subscribed to wave the 'keep going banner' Wish.
    Outstanding mortgage: £23,181 (December 19)
    MFW 2020 Challenge Member #10 0/£2318
  • Kat78MFW
    Kat78MFW Posts: 287 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 100 Posts Name Dropper
    Thanks for reading and subscribing Wish. You are right about the credit card(s). I would love to get back to the point where we have enough in savings to cover the credit card bill instead of needing the next pay day to clear it.

    I have read a lot about YNAB but I know you have to pay for it so I am trying to manage without. I am tracking our credit card spending on an app called My Budget Book and I am saving a bit each month now to pay for our holiday next Easter and next year's car tax. It's not enough to cover all the annual bills though - must do better!

    Everyone's back to school and work tomorrow after a very frugal Easter holidays. We've had no meals out, no day trips with entry costs, no cinema or theatre visits. But we've had free fun in the garden and actually played with some of the toys and games that fill the house!
    MFW since March 2019Mortgage-free 30th June 2023
    My Budget and Savings Diary https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6543308/making-a-budget-and-sticking-to-it#latest
  • Kat78MFW
    Kat78MFW Posts: 287 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 100 Posts Name Dropper
    Day 27 (power) dedicate yoga done - it was a 30 minute session so no time for extra cardio. Cycled to work today so saved on fuel and burned calories. Didn't manage to fit in any cardio yesterday apart from a walk around the outfield a couple of times while DD1 had her county cricket trials. But I did do a 20 minute bedtime yoga session yesterday so I've managed a whole week of daily yoga.

    Paid the milk bill today £51 - it's nearly twice the price of organic milk in the supermarket but I love our glass bottle milk delivery. We stopped it about 18 months ago to try to save money but we ended up not saving as much as we expected because we would pop into the supermarket for milk and end up buying extra bits and bobs too.

    Also paid £40 into the girls' school dinner money accounts and £80 for DD1s brass lessons for the summer term. DD2s instrument lessons have to be paid upfront for the whole year (and they are more than 2x the cost as she has individual lessons) by October so I should put aside some money each month for those.

    I paid the childminder bill and after-school club bill from our childcare voucher account. We are now paid up until September and still have enough in vouchers to cover us until about November. So I have reduced the monthly salary sacrifice for now and I'll redirect that money to go towards the big music lesson bill.
    MFW since March 2019Mortgage-free 30th June 2023
    My Budget and Savings Diary https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6543308/making-a-budget-and-sticking-to-it#latest
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