Single gal balancing my way to mortgage freedom!

frankersBri

June update time!

Regular £300 OP gone into savings, plus an extra £150 from interest from my regular saving maturing, and other interest on savings. 
Total OP for the year £2,049.05, total in the offset savings account £4,413.71. Current mortgage balance including offsets is £154,169. 

May was a good month, but a little spendy in places!
Regular saver matured and I opened a new one as soon as possible. At 7% interest rate it is a no brainer, albeit only £300 per month. 

I also had a lot of spends on my credit card - new sailing boots and insurance for the trip cost over £1k so that used some of the sailing sabbatical savings! Worthwhile though - was on my final week of race training over the last week and those boots were very helpful and kept me dry when bailing out bilges full of water! The training was so good. It's great to know which team I'm on, spend a week working with my skipper, first mate and 14 of the team that will be going around the world. We practiced drills such as boat to boat transfers of people and towing another boat. As a team we gelled really well and I truly loved it. I also learned how to fix a sail which is labourious but rewarding. We did it in the marina, I can't imagine doing it at sea!

I did my 10km race that I've been training hard for, and smashed my amended goal! I got a time of 1:03:16 which I was ecstatic with! I have slowed the running in the last couple of weeks since then, but will soon pick up a training plan again as I've signed up for a half-marathon in October!

Read a few books - I really enjoyed Runner by Lizzy Hawker, who tells of her experience running insane long distances including from Everest Base Camp to Kathmandu! Obviously I ma no endurance runner, but it was so interesting and motivating. Also A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson - accessible science about our universe, planet and life on it written in his endearingly amusing style. 

Thanks for reading, I hope everyone is well!

2023 goals update:
Finance:

• Pay off my student loan - Done! 
• Save £6k towards sailing sabbatical (£3k/£6k) 
• Pay £13.5k off mortgage (inc savings offset) (~£6k/£13.5k)

House: 

• Finish dining room (aka, clear out the "DIY corner")
• Repaint bathroom ceiling & walls - Done! 
• Paint upstairs landing

Wellbeing:

• Cook 1 new recipe from my cookbooks per month (2/12)
• Read 24 books (12/24)

Health:

• Attain a 120kg deadlift - Done! 
• Run 1 mile per day on average (237/365 - ahead of schedule!)
• Run 5k PB
• Run 10k PB - Done! 
• Additional 10k goal - Run sub 1:05 - Done!

frankersBri

July update time!

I've not done another OP this month (yet), as I need my disposible income for something else, more on that later!
Total OP for the year £2,049.05, total in the offset savings account £4,413.71. Current mortgage balance including offsets is £153,493, so tracking down nicely. 

So I signed up for more of the sailing race that I'm doing next year. Another 3.5 months worth to be precise! This will take me roughly from Australia, to China, across the North Pacific to USA, down to Panama, through the Panama canal and back up to the USA(ish) before crossing the North Atlantic back to the UK. A pretty big adventure just got a lot bigger! I am so excited, but also fairly nervous as it's a big additional financial commitment. So OP's paused at the moment whilst I look at re-doing my budget plannign to accommodate the additional expense, and starting my sabbatical from work earlier.

Old lodger moved out, and the lodger that was perviously here moved back in. Which is great for me, she's a friend now so it feels much nicer to have her around the place! 

In the midst of a fundraising challenge for UNICEF alongside my sailing team. We're collectively trying to cover 1800 miles of activities this week. So we each need to do a minimum of 24 miles, but I'm hoping to double that as well as hit my fundraising target.

Phone contract is up in 10 days, so have just used MSE guide to order a much cheaper one. Will save me ~£20 per month, and is a rolling contract so I can decide whether to keep it whilst I'm away next year, partly because it's cheap and also to keep my number!

Parents gave me their old garden chairs which was much appreciated - they were only a year or two old so in fantastic condition. Saved me some money there! They also gave me a brand new gazebo that they didn't need, so I just sold that on FB Marketplace for £50 to go into savings. 

Big focus on getting fitter at the moment. So alongside the UNICEF challenge I'm still hitting crossfit regularly and am tracking my eating to try and be sensible. Am down a couple of kilos since the start of June and I can feel my jeans are more comfortable so that is nice. 

Thanks for reading, I hope everyone is well!

2023 goals update:
Finance:

• Pay off my student loan - Done! 
• Save £6k towards sailing sabbatical (£5k/£6k) 
• Pay £13.5k off mortgage (inc savings offset) (~£7k/£13.5k)

House: 

• Finish dining room (aka, clear out the "DIY corner")
• Repaint bathroom ceiling & walls - Done! 
• Paint upstairs landing

Wellbeing:

• Cook 1 new recipe from my cookbooks per month (2/12)
• Read 24 books (12/24)

Health:

• Attain a 120kg deadlift - Done! 
• Run 1 mile per day on average (271/365 - ahead of schedule!)
• Run 5k PB
• Run 10k PB - Done! 
• Additional 10k goal - Run sub 1:05 - Done!

Sistergold

Oh @frankersBri, well done you are doing really well. You are showing a lot of discipline and what you wrote on there is really inspiring for me! Sailing, racing all very healthy and rewarding endeavours! Reading goals well done. 

MovingForwards

Oh my goodness, that's so exciting adding extra on to the sailing trip. I'm sure you'll meet financial requirements to support it and have so much to share when you're back.

The recipe sounded good and your four areas of goals are varied, yet achievable.

Merlin's_Beard

That sounds like the adventure of a lifetime! Will await updates on that with excitement. Looks like you're managing to hit a lot of your other goals too.

savingholmes

Just caught up. Well done on the SL pay off.

Exciting about the extra sailing trip. Good luck with your goals.

frankersBri

Over a year since I've updated this thread.. Life has been busy! A whistlestop summary then...

• I completed my sailing adventure sabbatical. It was wonderful! The happiest period of my life.. Challenging, exciting, fun - I learned a lot, saw a lot of the world and have made some very good friends from it. Well worth all of the money and I have zero regrets about making that decision
• Upon coming back from my sabbatical, sadly my company made me redundant. So I am currently on gardening leave, being paid to do nothing! Well, being paid to look for new employment.. which has been soul destroying but I feel like I'm getting progress now. I have a final interview/presentation for a role later today so fingers crossed that goes well
• Mortgage wise, very few overpayments this year, as I earned nothing for the first 7 months of the year. I think I overpaid maybe £400...
• But, now I'm not paying for the sailing adventure, and providing I get a job with a similary salary to before I should be able to chuck an even bigger proportion into savings accounts so I can make a large dent in the balance when I remortgage in ~2 years time
• Small loan from sailing currently being paid off, and as my most expensive debt that'll be where my small redundancy payment will most likely go at the end of the year when I get it.. Unless I spend some of it on a holiday..!

Sistergold

Oh @frankersBri welcome back! It’s wonderful that you enjoyed your time round the world! Good luck with finding a new role!