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Giving every £ a job
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We've been slightly taken aback with the increasing prices over the past little while on holiday related activities too. With taking on the mortgage we've already decided that we're going to have to slightly change the way we do things next year - there will be less full lunches eaten out and more taking of sandwiches and then just buying tea and cake I suspect.
Hope you're having a wonderful time anyway!🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her4 -
Thank you Lucielle and EH. Safely home now after a very good journey including getting through passport control at Gatwick in 2 minutes! No queues and the automated passport reader actually worked. The cat was very happy to see us although he has been very well cared for by a young lad in our road who is doing various odd jobs for neighbours so he can save up for his school trip next year. Unbelievably the trip is going to cost £3000 - really unfair on kids and parents. He has over a year to raise as much as possible and has earned £400 from his efforts up and down the street so far.
We have unpacked and done our first load of washing - I'll do the finances tomorrow. I was tempted to go to the supermarket but we have been able to make a very nice pasta dish for dinner tonight and will use a chili from the freezer tomorrow. We've got bread and lots of fruit in the freezer so I just popped to our local shop and bought milk, so only a small spend and even better no need to traipse around Lidl.
going to treat myself to a cup of tea and some catching up on diaries. I really missed my cups of tea whilst away. Had to make do with sangria!
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Why do schools think it acceptable to dangle such expensive trips in front of youngsters especially when peoples finances are under such pressure?2
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Welcome home 🫖 That’s just not on having to put up with sangria 🤣I get knocked down but I get up again (Chumbawamba, Tubthumping)2
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Glad you took one for the team in the sangria front.LTotal Debt Dec 07 £59875.83 Overdrafts £2900,New Debt Figure ZERO !!!!!!:j 08/06/2013
Lucielle's Daring Debt Free Journey
DFD Before we Die!!!! Long Haul Supporter #1242 -
Glad you had a great time and a smooth return.
Eek to the school trip prices. I don't think it should be allowed.Achieve FIRE/Mortgage Neutrality in 2030
1) MFW Nov 21 £202K now £171.8K Equity 36.37%
2) £2.6K Net savings after CCs 10/10/25
3) Mortgage neutral by 06/30 (AVC £27.9K + Lump Sums DB £4.6K + (25% of SIPP 1.25K) = 34/£127.5K target 26.6% 10/10/25
(If took bigger lump sum = 60.35K or 47.6%)
4) FI Age 60 income target £17.1/30K 57% (if mortgage and debts repaid - need more otherwise) (If bigger lump sum £15.8/30K 52.67%)
5) SIPP £5K updated 10/10/251 -
It makes me really cross the pressure parents are put under to pay for ridiculously expensive school trips, but also from the perspective that it gives the kids unrealistic expectations of what they can expect holiday-wise in the future. Well done to the lad local to you for working his backside off to pay for it - I bet he's in the minority though and there will be an awful lot of parents of kids at that school taking on costly debt to ensure that their little darlings can go on a holiday that they as a family couldn't even dream of.
That was a super-speedy whizz through passport control when you returned - glad you had a great time too but what a blow about the sangria eh? Darn it!
🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her4 -
Thank you all for popping by and for the empathy on the sangria issue. The school trip costs are utterly unfair. My hairdresser said that her daughter's school offered a week's ski trip for £4000! She was hugely relieved that her eldest 2 children didn't want to go and is keeping her fingers crossed that her younger 2 don't get a hankering for skiing. It would have cost her £16,000 over a 9 year period plus of course all the clothing and equipment.
Holiday spending is all totted up and after a deep breath I can report that our spending was 30% higher than a trip to the same place last September. We didn't do very much differently this time although we enjoyed a couple of evenings in the local beach bar. Prices in restaurants were noticeably higher. So time for some tweaks to other budgets, keeping an eye out for surveys and a focus on making some money by doing some selling of unwanted stuff. There's an additional benefit of clearing some clutter. I can afford the additional costs but I'm motivated to bridging the gap by putting in some effort.3 -
Good luck with turning clutter into treasure.
Scary price increases...Achieve FIRE/Mortgage Neutrality in 2030
1) MFW Nov 21 £202K now £171.8K Equity 36.37%
2) £2.6K Net savings after CCs 10/10/25
3) Mortgage neutral by 06/30 (AVC £27.9K + Lump Sums DB £4.6K + (25% of SIPP 1.25K) = 34/£127.5K target 26.6% 10/10/25
(If took bigger lump sum = 60.35K or 47.6%)
4) FI Age 60 income target £17.1/30K 57% (if mortgage and debts repaid - need more otherwise) (If bigger lump sum £15.8/30K 52.67%)
5) SIPP £5K updated 10/10/251 -
I'm sadly not surprised on the price increases at all - I reckon we saw something very similar this year when we were away. You can't blame people for needing to cover their costs, but it's tough on those whose income hasn't gone up to match the increasing costs!🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her3
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