A Year in the Life of...

girlatplay

Out with the old and in with the new. I'm starting this new diary to document my financial 2020, including some blethering to connect the dots along the way. This is a follow-on from my previous diary.

I plan to document aims and goals for the year, with the overall year goals being:
- to have reduced my loan balance to below £4k by this time next year
- to have a larger amount in the Christmas fund than I did in 2019
- to be a bit fitter (I have health issues and need to actively try harder with nutrition and fitness)

My debt position at 31st December 2020 is:
- I/O mortgage outstanding balance £87,540
- Personal loan outstanding balance £5,669.02

Q1 Plan
DAILY
Get outside every day
Clear/bin/tidy one thing in the flat
Plank 30 seconds
Drink plenty of water
Do something financial = survey/Tilly tidy/etc*
Eat 3 meals + snacks

WEEKLY
Meal plan
Grocery shop

MONTHLY
Financially = "find" £50 per month*

*these two are related

I was at a really good seminar in November and one of the speakers talked of a guy who decided one day that he wanted a 6 pack of abs. He was overweight, nowhere near 6 pack level and didn't want to go to the gym. In his mind he formed the plan that if he just did one sit up every day he would get a 6 pack eventually. Each day he did his one sit up and if he forgot and was in bed before he remembered, he was still able to do the one sit up in bed. As time went on he would lift the odd can of food as a weight just to mix it up a bit but still he continued to get down on the floor each day and do one sit up. One day he thought "I could do two sit ups while I'm down here." More time progressed and his one sit up turned into many. He now, apparently, has the 6 pack and is very fit.

I don't tell the story as well as the speaker but it stuck with me and I think this could work for me in certain areas of my life. I'm not looking for a 6 pack but I'm thinking that if I remove/tidy/bin one thing from my flat each day then eventually I'll remove two, three, four things just because I'm doing it anyway. I want to plank for 30 seconds every day to strengthen my core. Maybe I'll manage more further into the year if I'm down there anyway.

girlatplay

Concern has been expressed in the past about my interest only mortgage. I do have a repayment vehicle in place. I pay monthly towards this but I tend not to talk about it because it's money that I'm not prepared to touch apart from to pay off the mortgage when the time comes. I let it tick along but I do review it every now and then. I don't want to talk about it further.

I bought my flat in February 2008, shared equity with a HA. Property prices plummeted right after that and I managed to buy out the HA's share for a slightly reduced amount a few years later so the total I paid for my home was £134k. Since then I have also paid a bit off the original mortgage and now, as I mentioned before, my outstanding mortgage is £87,540. That means I have paid £46,460 cash into the property in almost 12 years, over and above the monthly interest. Currently I am paying the interest plus a little extra on top to reduce the balance by at least £10 per month. I am not in a position to pay more than that right now but I'm not worried about that in any way. 12 years ago I wasn't in a position to pay more than the interest but now I'm £46k down the line. My mortgage has 27 years still to run which will take me beyond retirement age so, obviously, I'd like to clear it before that. That's a journey for another year though.

beanielou

Happy happy shiny new diary. Xx

girlatplay

beanielou wrote: »

Happy happy shiny new diary. Xx

Thank you for coming with me


Payday today so I'm spending time updating the spreadsheet and making sure money is in all the right places.

LMG is thinking about not going back to college after the holidays. She has until 7th January to make the decision either way. If she decides she's not going back I will need to contact the council to have the single person discount removed. I have paid all of my council tax for this year already but if the discount is removed then there will be a balance to to pay.

So, because there is a very good chance that this will happen, my first challenge of the year is to find, by my calculations, about £90. I've got £40 in the slush fund, £30 from my salary, £15 that was hanging around in an account waiting for a job, £2 from my reward account, I'll ask my sis to release the cashback from the Asda card (4% on a top up, I have about £12 so far), I can also release £10 from another account. Total: £109!

I still want to find the £50 for my monthly challenge so if my calculations are right then I'll be able to cover the council tax and still be on my way to the £50.

astrocytic_kitten

Subscribed! Your health goals look pretty similar to mine, right down to going outside every day.

beanielou

Has LMG any thought on what to do if she doesent go back to college?

dawnybabes

Is it college she dowsnt like or the course ? Could she swop ?

girlatplay

astrocytic_kitten wrote: »

Subscribed! Your health goals look pretty similar to mine, right down to going outside every day.

Welcome along! I really have to get a grip on this health thing. I forget to eat (really) so I need to meal plan to make sure that I'm getting enough nutrition. The going outside every day thing came from a woman who was in hospital at the same time as me back in September. She mentioned it and it stayed with me. I need to do it as I need the outside-ness.

beanielou wrote: »

Has LMG any thought on what to do if she doesent go back to college?

dawnybabes wrote: »

Is it college she dowsnt like or the course ? Could she swop ?

Hi both I'll answer these two together. She has been at college for the last two years, since she left school. She is now employable in the industry as she has the qualifications from those two years. This was supposed to be a further qualification in the same industry but she's now not sure that it's what she wants to do going forward. She's thinking about taking 6 months to a year out to have a think about what she wants to do next. I'm not sure if it's the course, college or a bit of both that she's fed up with. She has looked at other courses but there's nothing taking her fancy right now. She has a job so she would do that for now, at least she wouldn't be lying in bed all day, and I'll support her in whatever she decides as long as she's doing something..

girlatplay

Today I have done everything on my daily list. The plank was way harder than I remember but LMG did it with me so I couldn't give up. I did drink water, probably not enough, but I've been out at my folks' and at boyfriend's all day with family and food and a lot going on. Tomorrow I'm going to be in all day (apart from a "get outside" walk around the block at least) so water will be a main focus, as will taking the tree down.

Financially:

- the interest hit my mortgage account today. I allow £20 to cover it so I transferred £13.63 to there to bring it down by £10 and transferred the remaining £6.37 to the holding account.

- I have transferred £40.72 from the slush fund to the holding account.

- I have transferred £30.77 left over from my salary.

- My sis has cashed out the cashback for me. When I signed up for it she got a £10 referral bonus and she is insisting on halving this with me. I have tried to insist that it's her bonus, not mine, but she won't hear of it and so I'll be getting £17.50 within the next 5 working days.

- Uplift of £15 from a random account has arrived in my account now so that's been transferred.

- I had £8 left over from December's grocery budget so I've transferred that.

- £2 account reward should hit my account in the next day or so.

- I need to wait 7-10 working days for an uplift of £10 that I've done from another account.

Once that's all collected it will total £130.36.

If the council tax balance works out around £90 (as estimated by me) then I'll have around £40 left towards my £50 target for January.

It feels a bit cheaty because I knew about most of these funds before 1st January but more cheating to come in February and March in the form of two free council tax months so I'll more than hit my £50 targets each month in the first quarter of the year.

Mortgage balance at 1st January: £87,530.

I need to check the updated loan balance as it's on my spreadsheet and I'm too tired to put the laptop on tonight now. I'll do it tomorrow.

EDIT: Loan balance at 1st January: £5,547.67.

savingholmes

Comes along and waves. I have an interest only mortgage too. You having paid off £46K sounds fab. I over pay mine a little each month - but only have 11 years 8 months left on mine. It will become a bigger focus for me once I am CC free.

girlatplay

savingholmes wrote: »

Comes along and waves. I have an interest only mortgage too. You having paid off £46K sounds fab. I over pay mine a little each month - but only have 11 years 8 months left on mine. It will become a bigger focus for me once I am CC free.

Hello SH, nice to "see" you. Once the loan is gone the mortgage will be the focus again. I feel lucky that the bank is willing to let me keep the IO each time I get a new deal. It totally works in my favour for my finances and they're still making money out of me.

Positives:
Today I removed two unnecessary items from the flat, put out a bag of rubbish, did 2 laundry loads and did a dish load. I struggled to force myself to go outside but I managed about 3.15pm to go to the supermarket to pick up some bits. Lucky I go to work and will have that reason to go outside as of next week. Going to the supermarket for a reason to get outside would get expensive! I often forget that I don't have the same abilities as normal people and when I got back from Morries I was exhausted. I am resting right now and drinking gallons (well, one glass so far) of water. I have managed two meals so far, breakfast and lunch, and when LMG gets back from work we'll have tea together. I wanted to take the Christmas tree down today but I just can't right now. I'll ask LMG if she wants to either take the decs down or make the tea. I can't do both but I could do one so I'll get her to do the other.

Negatives:
I managed to break a glass (boiling from dishwasher and I poured cold water in it, twit).
I think I got ripped off for 75p in the shop as I picked up a small bottle of red wine which was on offer for £1.50 and I've been charged the full £2.25. I didn't notice until I got home. I buy the little ones for cooking with as if I buy a big one it quite often gets wasted. I like red wine but I don't drink very often as it affects my health so it might be false economy but at least there's no waste.

Financially:
- 7-10 day £10 hit my PayPal account today! Turned out I also had an odd 1p in the PayPal so I have transferred £10.01 over to the holding account.
- All dd's off the account now (except one on 7th) so I've updated the spreadsheet.