Plan B to being mortgage free

ruby_eskimo

I think it's difficult to strike that balance between wanting to save and pay off everything and actually having a lifestyle you enjoy at the same time so well done on taking that step.  My MIL and her partner bought their caravan 6 weeks ago for pretty much the same reason, plus they live in a 2 bed flat and don't have any outdoor space of their own.  This way they have a lovely bolthole to go to with decking that they can have a BBQ on and the place is surrounded by nature walks that they can take the dog on.  It's about an hour away from home so its close enough to go to on a whim but also far enough away that it feels like you're on holiday.    Well done on the weight loss too - I just keep yo-yoing 

BravingSaving

That's exactly it. Our eldest is ten so if we don't do the caravan in the next year or two it almost feels like its not worth doing at all - once she's a teenager I can't imagine she going to want to spend all her free time with us (she doesn't want to now!  )
I'm nervous about going back to work and maintaining the weight loss- I've got a routine at home so I'm just hoping I'll be busy at work and not constantly thinking about chocolate to get me through it 

BravingSaving

Another quiet week here - we're on a count down now for going back to school/work 4 weeks today!!  Me and the eldest cannot wait!!
I've lost 4.7kg now so I'm pleased with that - I've even had some cake and ice cream  
Shopping budget is ticking over nicely - we've got £200 left in the current account and that's all for food shopping so anything left can be put into savings.
Managed to get a few studies from prolific today so hopefully I'll be able to cash that in soon and topcashback has £120 pending I think it'll all go into the savings account with the whopping 1% interest rate. 
The spa refund will be with me in the next 6 weeks  at least they've confirmed it.
The caravan plan currently is book some visits to different sites once the kids are all back at school so we can look properly then look at buying one once we've picked the site that works best for us. 

ruby_eskimo

I really admire everyone with kids managing to survive the last few months, not sure how I would have coped!  Hope the transition back to school goes well and there's no Covid threats on the horizon.
Sounds like you're on top of things with the money.  I hate the pending stuff on topcashback - I've had quite a bit pending since November and they keep telling me that it will be confirmed and sent through shortly.  Good luck with the caravan search, any idea which part of the country you're going to look at?

BravingSaving

To be fair we've been quite fortunate - we had our garden sorted last year so the kids have been able to get outside and they all have their own bedrooms so we've been able to get away from each other to some extent but I'll be happy not to repeat this! 

The caravan search is "the North" (of England) either coast will do as long as there's enough to occupy us all. We're thinking walks will probably be more useful than the beach now (originally we'd wanted beach access direct from the site). We're pretty central so Morecambe/Blackpool and Scarbrough are just about the same distance away from us. We don't want to go too far as we want to be able to go Friday after school and come back Sunday afternoon. 

@ruby_eskimo I'm still waiting for my pending money at least its on its way. 

Off to see whether its worth doing a bank switch for the £100 that's currently on offer at the moment - it looks like there's loads of conditions so if we don't meet them already its weighing up whether its worth doing. 

BravingSaving

I reviewed the bank switch and decided it wasn't worth it at this time. Whilst the £100 would be lovely the criteria wasn't appealing. We already have a reward account that's working for us so I'll wait until there are more options about. 

I use a fil0fax as a diary/planner and wanted to find a month to a page insert - they can cost anywhere between £4-12 for the official ones, so I thought I'd look on other websites. They were cheaper but the pages were downloads, which meant I had to look for the correct hole punch (official ones are about £12). Anyway, the point of this tale is I found a video showing how to use a 2 hole punch to punch the 6 holes I require, which led onto another one which showed where to get diary refills for free! So I now never need to buy them again or buy a special hole punch!! 

Weight loss was good last week lost 1kg so I'm up to 5.7kg (approx. 12 1/2lbs) now feeling very pleased with myself.
The shopping budget should be under the whole budgeted amount for this month or there abouts, which is fine till I realised its a four week month so we should have had an extra weeks worth of money in that 

Just cashed in on pr0lific. t0pcashback and 0hmyd0sh so I'll be able to tuck that away when it arrives. 

Very much looking forward to pay day next week and seeing the mortgage reduce by a bit more

BravingSaving

Its pay day! 
I've begun shuffling money but we have to buy paint this month so its only a temporary move.
The breakdown cover is due to be renewed in the next couple of weeks so I've dealt with that this morning. *Touch wood* we've not had to use it for the last few years so I've gone for one that was £23 (via TCB) with an excess in the hope it won't bite me on the bum! We budget £50 a year for breakdown cover so it should be a win  

BravingSaving

The shopping budget is off to a poor start this month already at nearly £120 and we've only done one shop! The extra visits are starting to creep back in - hopefully going back to school/work next week will encourage less popping in just for the odd bit (which inevitably ends up being £20 worth of stuff).

Just opened a Wealthify investment plan - feel good for getting it done and a little excited to see what it does! 

I've recently started following more budgeters on insta and its changed how I'm recording my budget. I always have a plan for where money is meant to go but haven't always made sure its ended up there or somethings cropped up and I've not really accounted for it as long as money was available it was enough. So starting from now I'm recording all transactions in the hope it will encourage me to actually move money around rather than if its enough leaving it and then transferring a lump sum to pay off the credit card. I figure it can't do any harm  and I got a nice budget planner for £3.50 to highlight in two days in and all is going well 

BravingSaving

The mortgage balance updated today! It was down to £94,003.73 - so I did something I've never done before and paid off the £3.73 what a brilliant feeling! This is going to get addictive!  The interest amount reduced by £16.12 this month as well which is nice to know. 

I really need to stop all these extra supermarket visits - its getting back to being most days again   

Had £132 become payable on TCB so I've cashed that in and now the pooch needs to go the vet so I guess I won't be seeing that! But  hopefully it will be enough to cover it... 

ruby_eskimo

I've also recently started rounding off the mortgage each month and it really is addictive seeing the balance end with a nice 0!  Hope the dog is ok and the vets didn't cost too much!