Twenty-something's aim to be mortgage free

wh_em

Competsoph said:

@wh_em no date yet but hoping for one very soon. I’m feeling a bit anxious about spending lots of furniture although actually mr compet has a huge amount of stuff from his old house and my dad is having a midlife crisis and moving so he is going to give us his sofa and fridge. We actually don’t need to buy anything other than a washing machine.
Im trying to think about how to plan my finances once I’m paying everything for the house and my huge chunk of deposit has disappeared. Oh well, I’ll go back and try to get some tips from you guys.

Its nice to see you returning to some element of normality, it must have been tough over the past few months! Good luck with the interim employment!

We just got rid of a washing machine that came with our flat! It was an absolute state though so I wouldn't have given it to anyone It sat in our garden for 6 months until I finally decided I was never going to take it to the dump myself and paid somebody to come and collect it.
You'll get there, I feel like the first year of buying a place is just haemorrhaging money, getting used to what new bills come out and stuff so don't beat yourself up if you aren't saving as much as you used to. I've felt awful since we bought the flat because every month it seems like another whacking great bill pops up but I think we'll plateau eventually!!

Thanks mate, I appreciate that. Sooo glad to be back into the swing of things. How have you found the last few months?

Competsoph

We’re getting a lot of people offering us things which is helpful. We’ll only have to buy a washing machine but there’s so many other things that come with buying and moving isn’t there! It’s a daunting thought! Fingers crossed we’re going to get a date very soon.

Im frontline NHS so I’ve been working the whole time, redeployed from my usual area to the COVID wards. My waist line has grown and I’ve been generally not myself so i really empathise with you. Now new lockdown restrictions mean I can’t go home to see family after months of waiting! 😫😫 feeling generally deflated, hoping for some positive news soon! I love spending some down time on this forum though, and catching up with your diary, helps keen me sane! 😊

ruby_eskimo

Our office has also taken all appliances away from the kitchen so I won't be going back any time soon.  When I was commuting I did take my own cool bag which is one of those ones where you put the entire bag in the freezer the night before as its made from the actual cool pack gel stuff inside.  Managed to keep everything cold from the time I left the house to lunch time which was about 7 hours so could be an idea if you want to cut down on spending money on lunch everyday.  Think it was about £15-20 on amazon but definitely a worthwhile investment.

The joys of home ownership are just spending money on things you never realised you had to spend money on   Buying a washing machine was probably the highlight of moving into our house as we never had one in the flat we rented before so did all our laundry in the launderette opposite.  Hope you get a date soon @Competsoph I know what you mean about the waistline going up - when I redeployed for Covid we kept getting sent free meals and snacks to the department which was appreciated but at the same time my waistline is still trying to recover from it!

wh_em

Hi all!

Just a quick one as I have to get back to work! 
Mortgage paid yesterday £805 now instead of £795 to make up for the 3 missed months a bit sad now it's over the £800 mark, must get that down!

First full week's pay today! For some reason I didn't get taxed on it either so not sure what that's about, I'm sure it'll all work out in the end. So £330 to bills/mortgage pot, £50 to fuel, £350 to my investments & over payments category and £350~ to the emergency fund. Already looking forward to next week's payday

wh_em

Aims for Dec 2020/April 2021
1. Emergency fund - £961.41  £1393.92/£4000 Broken the £1000 mark again, now I'm back to work I should have this filled in no time at all.
2. Mortgage OPs - £141 £152.53/£1000 Made a small OP the other day, easing up just a little bit 
3. Family member loan - £200/£1000 no change 
4. Mrs wh_em loan - £251.49/£7500 no change
5. LISA contributions - £267.02 £417.02/£4000 I haven't added today's contributions (£350) yet as still deciding how I want to distribute them

wh_em

@ruby_eskimo I took a cool bag on my first day to work but realised I didn't have any ice blocks, so put the whole bag in the freezer all night instead...haha. It didn't even stay cool long enough to get into work!! But that does sound a good idea, I need to get my act together I think.

Oh I can imagine that getting your own washing machine was absolute bliss!! I'd hate to have to use a launderette. I've used them while travelling but I couldn't imagine using one full time. Having your own machine is so convenient. 

South_coast

The last time I went to a laundrette I was in my last year of Uni and there was just me and a very strange man in there who insisted on talking to me and wanted me to go into business with him - complete stranger! I couldn't wait to get out of there, but was trapped until the cycle finished 😮!

I reverted to washing everything by hand in the bath after that....!

wh_em

Hi all
A rather cr*ppy day today. I made a mistake at work which in the grand scheme of things wasn't massive, but I still felt like a colossal waste of space because of it! To make up for it I stayed much later than normal which only made me feel worse as it meant I would have to stay over at my work digs instead of driving home to Mrs wh_em and the cats. She was very upset with me but I doubt the cats have even noticed... Although Mrs wh_em says that when I'm away from home my little cat doesn't leave the spare room and sulks like a teenager! Then when I come home she is always very pleased to see me. People can be so hateful towards cats but I think mostly they are just misunderstood. People like the immediate affection and attention a dog gives but don't realise that a cat can give you both of those things if you earn its trust.

Once I saw this photo of a cat's gravestone online that said '"He was only a cat" but he was human enough to be a great comfort in hours of loneliness and pain' when I found it I showed it to my friend at work and we both welled up!! Isn't it true, how much we share with animals that we wouldn't with anybody else? I think I'll need a full month off work when one of ours go.

Anyway, back to the point of my post. I've done a little reshuffle of the finances. I was feeling pretty frustrated that despite the fact I got paid today there hadn't seem to be any real change!! So I have siphoned off some money from the mortgage payment cushion and have put it into my emergency fund. The emergency fund now stands at £2000, which was my first "baby step" that I gave myself. Baby step #2 is repay dad and Mrs wh_em what I owe them! I will top up the mortgage payment cushion again at some point and it will have no baring on the payment in September. I just had to give myself a little boost, just so I know all this hard work isn't in vain. 

Have a good one

wh_em

South_coast said:

The last time I went to a laundrette I was in my last year of Uni and there was just me and a very strange man in there who insisted on talking to me and wanted me to go into business with him - complete stranger! I couldn't wait to get out of there, but was trapped until the cycle finished 😮!

I reverted to washing everything by hand in the bath after that....!

oh no! that sounds awful 

ruby_eskimo

Don't worry, I made DH do all the washing because I didn't want to sit with the people in there

Sorry to hear about the rubbish day at work, I know how difficult it can be to take it on the chin and just move on, especially in a new job.  Here's hoping today is a little better.  I feel the same way about cats, when we had to have the last one put to sleep I felt so stupid for asking for a few days off work but my boss was really understanding as he had cats too so "got it".  I haven't managed to work up the courage to get another one yet as DH isn't too keen on them and our house backs onto a main road.  I like the idea of re-homing a FIV positive cat and cat proofing the garden so they can't get out and others can't get in, but again not sure I could deal with the heartache again when it's their time to go.

Well done on topping up the emergency fund, just seeing that nice round number is enough motivation in itself!