mumof3.12kindebt - mortgage free by 40!

mumof3.12kindebt

Hello my beautiful diary friends.
I hope you are all well. And life is being good to you.

Yesterday we went to messy play at one of our many local churches. It was free and they even fed all of us lunch. The kids loved it. The rest of the sessions for this year are in the calander.

I put a post up on my social media last night for glass jars. And picked some up today for free. The lady is going to keep them in future for me too. And I have a few others that are going to collect them and keep them for me. Thankyou social media ! :beer:

I'm going to do my diploma work today as I've been very lazy and kept putting it off. I aim to finish the rest by the end of the week so its out the way and done..and I can have a week to breathe.

In the middle of organising and rearranging the kitchen. It's looking better already.

My do to this week was
Sort the whole house (with a swear word in the middle.) At the time I felt like I was drowning but taking a step back and taking another look it's really not that bad.

Two of the three kids have been being sick during the night this week. So loads of laundry again ! As I'm washing the sheets and the clothes are taking a back burner.

Right off to do this diploma work

Have a good day everyone

Love hugs and positivity to you all.

mumof3.12kindebt

Hello my beautiful diary friends,

Today will be a small no spend day as we need dishwasher tablets.

Went to Tesco yesterday for a few bits , got all the kids and myself winter hats, eldest gloves and myself a scarf and warm jumper (I did not have a winter jumper) also got a present for my cousin as she had a baby earlier in the week.

On the financial front. We have hit £5100 total in savings. We will need some spending money for the holiday and I'm hoping to get the blinds done in the lounge , bedroom and eldests room. The lounge and the bedroom are quite big windows. And eldests is a skylight window. I think the title cost is between £550 and £600 for the three blinds.
That will leave the guest bedroom. Daughters room ds2 room and dining room to get done at a later date. Ds2 has a blind in his room for now but it is fraying so will need replacing at some point.

I'm just waiting for my DBS to come through for the agency. And then I'll be able to book shifts with them.
I'm going to contact work and see what shifts they also have available for me to cover in November. I reduced my hours so it's more flexible around the family. It means I only have to commit to one day a week and the rest I can work round my family. As previously I had run out of annual leave for appointments etc.

I hope to end October with over £4000 in our savings after the blinds and holiday have been done.

Have a great day everyone.

savingholmes

It sound like you have pulled yourself up by the boot straps and got back on track - inspiring. Well done on the savings targets and over-payments. You can do this. You are doing this. I wish I'd realised earlier that I could be over-paying the mortgage with £ I would otherwise have spent on eating out etc... It does make a big difference in the long term.

mumof3.12kindebt

Thankyou savingholmes, I think everyone has a in hindsight view with something. If I hadn't of wasted so much money when i was 16-25 I could of got on the property ladder earlier and had money for things that were more important to me like having holidays etc.
My dad paid off his first mortgage he had with my mum early they had there mortgage on our family home from 1993-2005 so I guess ive always known it was possible. And I always said to myself if I ever got on the property ladder I didn't want to pay a mortgage until retirement or my death. I always said to my partner once we have the mortgage and some Savings I want to start overpaying it. I just need to remind myself not to be too hard on us and that it will take time.

I'm hoping to convince partner that camping with the kids will be okay next year. (after we all fell poorly last year). If we went camping instead we could have more breaks away Vs paying for a caravan for the week.

One thing I need to focus on is meal planning and taking a list when food shopping.

My word for the month is organisation..

I think this will help alot with our frugal living adventure.

Nothing new to report regarding money.

Still plodding along.

Have a great day everyone.

mumof3.12kindebt

Good afternoon my beautiful diary friends,
I hope everyone is well.

We have a leak in the front bedroom .. was sat watching a film this morning and heard a huge bang. Went upstairs to find part of the ceiling on the floor and water dripping into the room. :eek:

Contacted home insurance, I need a builder to take a look and see what's wrong to know if our home insurance will cover it or not. So we have been trying to track down a builder this morning.

It's times like this I'm greatful we have some savings.

Will update with costs as soon as I know.

Other than that things are going ok. I have more left in our spends account that I did this time last month.
I've also spent the morning going through the calander to see what days I'm free to work.

Hoping to give the savings a good boost before the end of the year.

Have a great day everyone

mumof3.12kindebt

Hello my beautiful diary friends , hope you are all well.
I had a day off yesterday and started blitzing and sorting the house. We have moved one of the cubed units into the hall for school bags and uniform. The idea being that we get everything ready the night before including ds2 lunch which is put in the fridge.

A few big spends this month

£20 deposit for ds1 school trip
£94 for family gym and swim membership this includes 2 X £10 registeration fee. And will be £74 a month. Swimming is good for my cerebral palsy and a good way for me to work on my cardio and burning fat / gaining muscle without agrivating my hernia. But I do plan to also use the gym and possibly have some PT sessions so I can truly know what is safe for me to do.

£50 total for 2x swim aids for ds2 and DD and dive sticks for eldest (he's been asking for ages for them)

£20 swim bag each for the kids (will help us stay organized)

£170 on adult toys (not going to lie about it) and say it's was for something else because it wasn't :rotfl: (we used a money off code so saved £30) the total before was £200

£20 door bell

£150 school lunches for ds1 (enough to cover until the end of the Christmas break)

And then the normal fuel etc

I need to get some food today as we need lunch stuff for ds2 (dairy free so its a bit harder to just use what we already have in for us)

I also want to create an album on my phone to take and store pictures of non essential spends. So I'm more conscious of where our money is being spent.

We have had a few expensive months but some of it wasn't essential like the things above. We continue to try and do this no spend challenge but we have been more lapse over the last few months.

I need to refocus especially with me reducing my hours. Ill be being more careful between now and November. And from the 1st of November a true no spend will start again.

So what will we do to help achieve no spend
1. Be more organized.
take food with us when we go out. Know what we have and what we need regarding all subjects (food ahopping, clothing etc)
2. Buy second hand before purchasing new.
But also wait a week (a month if we can) before getting anything so we are not so impulsive (add a screenshot or to a list and after a few weeks if we don't want it remove it from the list)
3. Focus.
- stay focused on what our goals are. Especially regarding the mortgage I need to remind myself that going without for a short time could save us £150,000 in the long run
4. Use our swim / gym membership
enough so it's worth paying for
5. Find free activities
Keeping ourselves and the kids busy doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg
6. Keep working on building the emergency fund
7. Do a meal plan and take a list when food shopping
8. Make time to do my diploma - and don't get behind
9. Use national trust pass as much as possible
10. Be more resourceful - use it up , wear it out, make do or go without - this also goes back to buying secondhand and free activities. Using the resources our community has to offer like Freecycle the library and free activities held locally. This will mean taking the time to research and when wanting something being patient. I need to not be afraid to do wanted posts and wait to see if someone has the item I want for free or at a cost (but because its second hand it will be much cheaper than retail price and not forgetting charity shops)

All of these things will help us to be better at not spending. And if we're not spending it it can go to savings or towards the mortgage

Like I said it's all about reset , refocus , restart when you slip up.

Regards the gym / swim membership I've been wanting it for months so I have waited to see if I still wanted to go ahead before I commited to such a large monthly expense.

Have a great day everyone. I'll update later today with any spends from today

mumof3.12kindebt

Quick update with work

I have 37.5 hours of work a week for November. (When my contracted hours reduce) 25 hours of it is booked with the agency

This will pay me an extra £13 per 12 hour shift (deducting a one hour break) (compared to my current job.
Also for the shifts I have booked currently I'll get at least £4 mileage (£8 if they pay both directions)

So I'm achieving what I wanted. Work less earn more

Over the year doing 2 long days with the agency instead of my current workplace will earn me £1300 extra a year. That's a whole months wages for the same hours of work.

mumof3.12kindebt

Hello my beautiful diary friends,
We all went swimming this morning kids really enjoyed it.

Spends today
£54 fuel
£52 food shop (£6 was swim nappies for ds2 & DD)
£20 tobacco
£20 cash withdrawal (ds1 & DP are going to a local talent show tonight so this is for tickets and snacks)

No other spends today.

At work all day tomorrow. Shouldn't need another food shop before going away. But may need to top up on milk

Have a good weekend everyone

mumof3.12kindebt

Good morning my beautiful diary friends,

I hope you are all well.

Yesterday was a no spend day !

I was at work all day which makes it easier

I'm at work again today so will be another no spend day .

Have a great day everyone hugs love and happiness to you all

longway2go

Hi,

Looks like you are doing really well at finding the balance of enjoying your family, ops and saving.

I really like your idea of reset, restart, refocus and agree we shouldn't be so hard on ourselves when we slip up.

Not sure if you have thought about cloth nappies for swimming... It might save you quite a bit of you and your family are going to be swimming alit. You can often pick them up in fb sites. We do weekly lessons with our boys and tbh I didn't realise you could get them until we had our second.

Keep going, your doing fabulous. I wish I started a bit younger.