Single gal balancing my way to mortgage freedom!

South_coast

Whoop whoop! Congratulations!

Squirrelz92

That's awesome! Congrats on the promotion!!!

frankersBri

£7.96 from Prolific this week; every little helps!
£20.68 from tidying up my current account balance too

I'm going to Cornwall for a long weekend next week and a friend has offered to drive so that saves me the cost of a hire car and petrol by myself, yay! Still haven't got round to putting anything on eBay yet.. May be a Monday evening job now, as am away for the weekend celebrating a family birthday.

frankersBri

Just paid £4.77 to bring the balance down to a nice round £167,700  Who doesn't like round numbers??

New job is quite intense so less time for Prolific and other ways of making extra OP's. But my OP's for the month are over my £300 monthly target so I'm pleased. I have a big weekend plan of sorting the house out, and that WILL include putting some more bits on eBay.

Sistergold

Hello @frankersBri
hope you had a great time in Cornwall? Welldone with the regular OP and the small OPs too! I see you started in your new role 👯‍♂️ If it’s intense it means is a nice challenge? 

Round figures are always nice, welldone! 🥳🥳🥳🎉

frankersBri

Sistergold said:

Hello @frankersBri
hope you had a great time in Cornwall? Welldone with the regular OP and the small OPs too! I see you started in your new role 👯‍♂️ If it’s intense it means is a nice challenge? 

Round figures are always nice, welldone! 🥳🥳🥳🎉

Oh I did, thank you! It was only 3.5 days but felt like a week. So good to get away with a couple of friends, laughing, eating lots, hiking the coast, enjoying the beaches and generally just having a good break. And much better weather for camping than when I was in the Lake District last month!

New role is definitely a nice challenge. It's more higher level work but i enjoy the challenge and feel like I am nailing it at the moment. It is nice to feel successful and happy in going to work; I don't think I've felt this way for a while  

I've done some more thinking about my house and I think I'm going to commit to trying to do the downstairs remodel next spring! It gives me something to focus my savings goals on, given my emergency fund is fine and I will be having more money coming in from my salary. A friend is getting something similar done next month and I've asked her to recommend her builder if she likes him! So the decision now is whether I am comfortable sketching my own remodel or whether I pay someone to come and give me a professional opinion. I guess the builder will give me their view too? It's confusing where to start!

frankersBri

Another £6.62 from Prolific sent to the mortgage this morning 
I also realised the other day that I had undercounted my OP's this month as had thought I only OP £100 via my direct debit but it's actually £150! 

frankersBri

Balance down into £166k's *JUST* with this month's regular £150 OP. Definitely on track to end the year in the £165k's which I am super happy about! 

I've decided to slow down my OP's a bit (she says) as I want to focus the next 6 months of building up a fund for the downstairs renovation. This is in the hope I can start work in the spring! 
So in YNAB I have set a new category for saving money towards that goal. I've moved around all of my categories in YNAB and have got the House Renovation category opening with £3,150 balance. I think I can save £1,000 per month into that, so hopefully come March I will be at around £10k. Vague plan (which needs more building out) is to pay for building works cash, put the kitchen and appliances on credit and pay off £1k a month for the rest of 2021..

I also opened a stocks and shares ISA. Dipping my toe in with a whopping £100. I picked a stable fund, and have seen it go up 1.69% in 2 days. I know it can go up and down, but this may be addictive.. I've set up a monthly Direct Debit for £100 to slowly build up a fund.

Sistergold

🖐🏾 Your figures are looking good and it looks like you are reaching your £165k goal very soon! Welldone on a good start to the renovation fund! How much do you plan to save? X

frankersBri

It's been a busy month with the new job and starting a training course at the same time. I'm exhausted a lot of the time!
October OP's totaled £196.71. Less than the past few months, but that was the plan after all! And it was a relatively expensive month as there were lots of birthdays, including mine, and I went out for lots of fancy meals. The dining out category in my YNAB budget was very over spent!

On track for ending the year in the £165k's though, yay! 

@Sistergold I'm hoping to save ~£10k for the structural work, and I can then hopefully put the kitchen and appliances on interest free credit and pay off over the next year or two. But I'm really struggling to get builders around to quote! They either just don't turn up or don't even reply to my calls/emails inviting them to quote. It is so unbelievably frustrating!