10 years to go .... maybe, with a fair wind

debtfreewannabe321

Rent is crazy high everywhere now ,even in the places like I live that have always been cheap. My friend rents her house and it is a comparable size to mine but smaller garden and no outbuildings, she pays £1450 a month (owwwwwch) and I pay £660 on my mortgage. Absolutely crazy. It makes me very grateful for what I have!

Well done on all the targets being met, you're doing fab!

Lauraebrad

Trying to tally up all the numbers for the year, although the interest total will change a little bit by 31st December, I guess. 

Investments are the simple part.  Monthly investments of £100 – total £1,200.  I’ve had a look at the value recently, and it looks as though there’s been a decent amount of growth.  A bit hard to see what the rate of return on this year’s payments has been though as there are older funds in there too so the total figure includes all of that.  Suffice to say it’s higher than my mortgage rate of 1.85% though so definitely worth being invested.

Overpayments fall into two parts.  Each month my mortgage payment is higher than my base payment due to being a static payment as my regular figure has gone down over time.  This has added up to £396.82.  I’d estimated this would add up to around £340 so that’s good.  The other part is bits and bobs of money gathered from a range of sources: interest, monthly ‘spare’/variable money, no water and Council tax bill months etc.  Total estimated at £1,210.  I’ve added it up in the bank and it actually adds up to £1,352.96.

So….. drumroll.  The total for 2024 is: £1,200+£396.82+£1,352.96 = £2949.78.  That equates to nearly 8.5 months of my basic monthly mortgage which is phenomenal. 

Who knows what next year will hold.  This year has been in turns wild, overwhelming, manic, sad, joyous and all other emotions in between.  I’ll carry on trying to balance living in the now, and enjoying the journey, with planning for as much freedom in the future as possible. 

I’ll check back in on the final year end balance during the Christmas holiday, but until then I’m off to eat some mince pies.   Merry Christmas all. 

debtfreewannabe321

Fantastic round up to the year Laurabrad! 8.5months OP is amazing! Enjoy the mince pies I think you deserve them 🥳👏🏼

savingholmes

Merry Christmas.  Sounds like great progress despite difficult times.

Lauraebrad

Limping towards the end of January - pay day next Thursday and I’ll be able to get everything in order again.  Actually had a slight underspend compared to budget on my credit card this month which will free up a few more pounds for saving in February. 

Having really fallen off the MSE wagon recently I’ve had a couple of pleasing wins this week.  I really needed a hair cut (I have very long thick hair that’s normally tied up out of the way!) but I resist going to the hairdressers as I really don’t like it.  Anyway, I was walking down my local high street and spotted a handwritten sign for free haircuts with a trainee, so I bit the bullet and popped in.  She was very gentle, and took a loooong time but did a genuinely good job and all for no pennies.  Probably saved me £40 🙂

Managed to get bargain bin 50% off free range chicken breasts in L1d1 yesterday too - I only ever buy free range, and then only when they’re discounted so that was a win.  The small one has wanted to make cornflake coated chicken pieces that he saw on Yootoob for ages so it made his day.  Added benefit that he made most of our tea last night!

February’s going to be a net loss for the holiday fund as there’s more to save as our payrise has properly kicked in, but I’m going away for a few days with my school friends.  We’ve not been away together for years - I think last time was probably to Rome in about 2007.  This time we’re getting the train to Liege in Belgium for slow mooching, catching up and waffles which I’m really looking forward to.  The small one is away with his dad which is what’s free’d up my time.

But it’s a good news month for the mortgage.  No Council Tax and no water bill means £150 solid OP.  So this year’s OPs are saving up nicely although they are always larger at the start of the year. 

It’s a glorious sunny day, although we’ve not been out yet as parkrun was cancelled due to ice.  Will probably spend an hour squinting in to the sun doing the Big Garden Birdwatch - of course all the birds will likely go elsewhere…… it’s the little things. 

Enjoy the rest of January all…

South_coast

Great effort, especially the haircut 👍! Mine are £52, so you might have saved more than you think!

debtfreewannabe321

I paid £46 -I think it was- for a haircut last month and nearly choked when she told me the price! I am also limping towards Feb at the moment....not long we have done the hardest part at least we can count down days now rather than weeks!

savingholmes

Well done on the free haircut and OP

ladysummerisle

The Liege break sounds like it’ll be lovely and relaxing. Definitely worth the investment!

Lauraebrad

Thanks all - pleased I hypothetically saved even more than I realised on the haircut !!