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

Lauraebrad

Grogged said:

A very noddy way to do it is to use your mortgage rate.
OP £200 on 1 Jan at a mortgage rate of 1% would save you £202 in the first year.
Saving £200 on 1 Jan at 6% would be worth £212 in the first year.
In that first year your investment made £10 more than the interest saved.
You can plug in your own numbers.

Hurrah - that is just the sort of common sense I needed!  Thanks .... I'll give it a go

powerspowers

Lauraebrad said:

On the one hand I’m seeing the direct result of my mum being in the position of still having to pay rent on a pretty small income. Thanks for the pointer to benefits check by the way – I think she will be eligible just need to encourage her to cast aside preconceptions and actually apply!!. 

Glad it helped! Older people are the worst for not wanting to claim things they are entitled too and sometimes need a reminder that they’ve paid into the system and now it’s their time for a little help in return. Generally pension aged benefits are less of a pain than UC, and claiming one can open up savings in other ways. 

Good luck with your investments, I’ve not dipped my toe in that water yet for similar hesitations. 

Lauraebrad

Well, still mulling over next year's investing exploits .... but until the end of this year I'm just carrying on overpaying as I like to finish what I started!
Just pinged around all of November's money - giving my banking apps a headache no doubt.  Managed to make my normal £70 overpayment and an extra £30 from various bits and bobs.  
To make my 'stretch' target of £2,400 o-payments this year I have just £150 left to go.  Although not exactly the easiest time of year for it!  So I'm setting a target for myself to make £80 selling stuff between now and Xmas, which would do the trick when combined with December's regular overpayment.
Now all I need to do is make enough space on my phone to actually download some selling apps. 

Today's moneysaving is bought to you by the power of pumpkin.  This year's monster was only £2 from my local greengrocers and must have made at least 10 gallons of soup.  Or at least 10 portions I reckon.  Hopefully the small one will actually deign to eat it ....

Lauraebrad

Half way through November and I can see the end in sight for my little coloured house overpayment tracker.  Other than December's regular £70 OP I've only got another £20 to find to make my stretch target of £2,400 this year.
I took a bit of a punt last week when a flyer slipped out of the junk mail for T0mb*la bingo - £5 free with no need to load any money on.  Normally would have recycled straight away but decided to give it a go and won £232!!
So I've loaded some on to the mortgage and used the rest to treat myself to some new trail shoes for running so that I'm not sliding all over the place on the mud so much in this hilly city.  They were on my radar anyway but this was a pleasingly cash neutral way to acquire them.
I've also set up a new 'pot' in my stocks and shares ISA to put £100 into each month instead of my regular overpayment.   Made the decision to do that - with the intention of leaving it in there to mount up over at least 8 years.  The other £100 a month that I try to overpay, which is usually made up of all sorts of bits and bobs, I will still overpay directly to my mortgage account. 

Frugal wins and losses recently.  I've still not turned the heating on (well, once by accident but that was soon stopped) so that's good.  However, my cellar freezer is on the blink and only works when it's on fast freeze so I guess that's costing me a pretty penny.  Only problem is, as a small household we use the freezer a lot to avoid waste and make the most of batch cooking, so I do need it.  If I have to buy a replacement, as well as the expense, my main worry is actually how on earth it would be extracted from the cellar!  However, I can't think about that till we've eaten it down enough for me to give it a good defrost and hoover to see whether that kick starts it's freezing capabilities.

Anyway, off for leeks on toast for lunch and a coffee.

Lauraebrad

It's done.  My little house tracker is complete on both sides.  I've just paid the last £10 to the mortgage to take me to £2,400 OPs this year.  Target was £1,200 but I did hope that I'd make £2,400 - which is approx 6 months worth of normal payments.

Next year will look a bit different but I'll still be collecting the £'s and p's here and there to make my OPs.  For now I'm going to rest for the remainder of the year and hope for a frugal Christmas (or at least one within the budget I've got). 

Lauraebrad

So, I've joined in the MFW 2022 challenge - with the same target as I've managed to achieve this year.  Looking forward to actually having to add up my OPs every month - for sure they're thinner in the summer!

The more I look around my house the more cracks, leaks, damp bits and general scuffs I notice, so think if I get on OK with next year's overpayments I might also try to start adding more to my house renovation fund.  Otherwise I'm going to be the proud owner of a bit of a wreck!  

Mine's a typical 1890's terrace but due to my own ineptitude at DIY and no know-how I'm a bit worried that I'm not keeping well enough on top of maintenance.  But also suffer from being too scared to ask tradespeople their opinions in case it turns out expensive!    I only wish there was some sort of annual MOT for houses!!

Does anyone else keep a running fund for maintenance or just deal with issues as they crop up using their emergency fund?

savingholmes

Just caught up on your diary. An annual maintenance pot can only help. Can't be more help than that.

Well done on doubling your OP challenge in a year and dipping your toes into investing.

My condolences on the loss of your dad. I can understand how that would make you re-evaluate life

Lauraebrad

So the start of a shiny, fresh new year full of good intentions.  Overpaid the first £70 yesterday which was made up from bits and bobs that I'd collected during December - mainly Sh0ppi* and Pr0lific.  The direct debit for £100 to the investment account will go out on Tuesday due to the bank holiday weekend.  
I'd actually sent the first £100 to the investment account in December so it's already had some time to grow - worth a tentative £102 at the moment but obviously it's for the long term and no doubt it'll ride many waves of ups and downs over the next 8 or 9 years.

I hope everyone reading had a good Christmas and New Year, or at least as good as possible.  Despite the very noticeable absence of my Dad we still had a pretty good time, and had plenty of opportunities to toast him!  As a result I have enough frozen leftovers in the form of beef massaman curries, ham slices, ham quiche and pheasant ragu to keep us going for a while - so should hopefully have a fairly thrifty January as a result of a not-very-thrifty Christmas food budget!

Rather than New Years resolutions I tend to have lists of aspirations / to-do's.  January will be designated 'January Jobs' and involves re-sealing the bath and putting up my new curtain pole in the front bay window.  It came a couple of weeks ago, but I'd already put up the Christmas tree there so wasn't about to start messing around behind the tree with ladders and drills.  Looking forward to actually being able to have curtains that close again - bay windows are so tricky to deal with!

Looking forward to learning more hints and tips from others' diaries over the next year ..... 

savingholmes

Well done on your progress. Happy New Year

Lauraebrad

Feels like we're more than 11 days in to this new year!  I've managed to find some more spare money so made a further £30 OP which brings this months totals up to £100 OP'd and £100 invested which I'm really pleased with.

This month's target was to spend max £400 on my credit card, which I track pretty obsessively.  I do all my spending on the CC then pay it off in full every month, and rarely use cash or bank transfer (upto £100 per month usually) so this does represent nearly all my spendings.  Just looked though and I have only £57.08 of that £400 remaining until my next billing date (24th Jan) so going to have to have a super frugal nearly 2 weeks!  

In that time I'll need next weeks groceries, a birthday present and any spending needed for a day out with friends - hopefully just hot drinks..... 

It's not the end of the world if it goes over £400 as it's only a challenge to myself, but it would free up around £150 more next month for OP's/extra holiday savings etc so I'd like to get as close as poss.   So need to get creative on a postable, frugal, birthday gift for my 71 year old ex-mother in law ....... ideas on a post card!