Single gal balancing my way to mortgage freedom!

MovingForwards

I've two spreadsheets as I'm a sad ******* . They run Jan to Dec.

Income / outgoings:
I work my finances out each year in January, then tweak it throughout the year if bills increase. Have lines for CC, Ppal /3bay in case I use them.

I've even work out my savings each year and how much I can put away each month.

Savings:
I list all my accounts and what each one is for. I can see how much I've saved each month.

I even have a list saying how much I will be saving into what account each payday, then how much I will be putting away at the start of the month; some have minimum / maximum monthly amounts.

You do what works for you, but you are not alone in keeping a 'paper' record 😁

frankersBri

I knew there would be more people that relish that start of the month planning, haha! 
I don't think you're sad @MovingForwards! I do the same with my regular pay in my YNAB budgeting software. I really enjoy the analytics I can so, particularly as I see my net worth increase! Never got quite so deep into my mortgage payoff planning though, so this is a new challenge I can enjoy!

I ended up yesterday rounding down my current account by £45.99, so total OP's for June £345.99. Hopefully with some small Prolific payouts and rounding down my current account on Mondays I will find the ~£87 to round my OPs to £10k for this year.

I have a reminder in my diary to search for a new gas/electricity supplier in a couple of weeks, when I will face no exit charges from my current supplier. Fingers crossed I can save a little bit each month from there too. 

frankersBri

This week's update is that I have sent £5.37 from Prolific and £39.78 from rounding down my current account balance. 
So total OPs at £9,957.39, so close to £10k!

Work started furloughing people today I'm ok, but does make me think about how secure my job is. Glad I've got a whack of savings though, I feel it could be a fair few tough months for the rest of the year. 

frankersBri

Forgot I also got my payment from Ziffit for selling some old DVDs and books. They didn't accept all of them and aren't clear why.. But still, another £16.68 towards the mortgage. Baby steps. 

Sistergold

You are smashing this mortgage girl! You need to teach me how! Welldone! 

Fingers crossed work will bounce back for everyone at your work place! 

MovingForwards

You are doing well with your O/Ps, savings, making a bit extra money. It all makes a difference.

A few companies will be doing last minute furlough as the final date is tomorrow, then they can be furlough / working up until October I think it is. If they are not furlough by tomorrow, then they can't be. The Covid section is quite useful if you haven't popped into it yet.

You've got savings to fall back on, if needed, all you can do is wait and see what happens. If it happens, get planning all those tasks you've been putting off around the home!

frankersBri

Thanks for the support people I'm enjoying this forum as a way to stay accountable and motivated, hopefully it continues through the months/years I work on the mortgage.

A small OP today of £8.94 from Prolific and a bit of 123 account cashback. Baby steps, but nice to watch the balance come down slightly in my tracking spreadsheet. Going to have a look and see if I have any stuff I could try and sell on eBay or whatever for more to top up

frankersBri

Rounded down my curent account, another £31.94 to the mortgage. Which breaks the £10k overpayment barrier, woo! £10,014.95 OPs to date, or 5.51% of the mortgage!

Applied to swtich my energy provider today too. Hopefully will save me a bit of money every month, although not forecast to be loads as I switch regularly. 

frankersBri

A general update from me, and it's been a bit of a tough week so far.

My brother rang me yesterday to say my Dad had gone to hospital. Turns out he's broken his wrist in 3 places after falling off a little wall when resting after cycling to a friend's house. In itself, an accident. But it's concerning as he has some underlying health conditions, and had some type of seizure/stroke-that-wasn't-a-stroke in January that hasn't been diagnosed, and I'm wondering if it was linked to cause dizziness or whatever to fall off the wall. His specialist appointments were postponed due to covid, so I need to speak to him and encourage him to press to get them back in. 

I was organising a friend's hen party for mid-July. Obviously been expecting to have to cancel it for ages We'd paid ~£2k deposit (split between all attendees) on a fancy mansion for a weekend. Cancellation terms were you'd lose your deposit, unless the company decided due to covid related extenuating circumstances we could cancel for credit or cash. When I went to do it last night the default was credit, which was far from ideal! I was nervous about submitting "evidence" that we were not allowed to go due to government regulations, given the ones from our Government don't have an end date! But woke up this morning to find they accepted my request so the refund is processing. Now to work out something nice to do remotely for the bride on that weekend. She's in Wales so currently we can't even plan a socially distanced something in the park as nobody can travel to her!

And to top it off work has been not great. After 20% of staff got fuloughed last week general mood has been affected. But we've also had new senior management come in. Whilst I believe they think I'm a great asset to the company, I am not sure I buy into their vision of where they see the company go. I struggle to enjoy my work if I don't believe in it, so frustrating. And a worrying time given the recession, should I be looking for other jobs right now? I did have a look yesterday though and I've found one to apply for. Best case I apply and get it, then have to decide what to do.

All of this worry then contributed to a bad night's sleep! I think I'm going to have to head out on the bike at lunch to get the stress out and the endorphins flowing!

In better news, managed a PB on a 5km run yesterday morning and have painted 25% of my room. It's looking great, I like the pale grey I have chosen, but love and am excited to get the fancy inky blue on the feature wall! Will be nice to get it done, so I can move out of the tiny box spare room!

Sandyra

@frankersBri, I hope your dad is okay 😔. Ahh Hen dos, I hope you get it sorted, a few years back I went to 5 hen dos and 6 weddings in one year. Nevertheless to say that wasn't a very MS year. Fingers crossed on 🤞🏽 job front.

I think I'm going to have to head out on the bike at lunch to get the stress out and the endorphins flowing!
In better news, managed a PB on a 5km run yesterday morning and have painted 25% of my room.

Cycling and Running is a great de-stress. On my 3rd week for running 5k every morning and potentially discovered I maybe able to cycle to work be it, a 20 km one way cycle 😅. My aim next week is to revamp my balcony and make use of the Amex Shop Small to help local businesses too.

PS well done on hitting £10k on OP, a brilliant start!!