This is it! 2027 is the goal...

Mrs_Binxtoria

The outdoor play at the weekend was very good, apart from the tickets that I had bought some time ago I spent £8 on some drinks and 2 pots of stew which I think was a bargain.

We were supposed to have had the builder turn up yesterday to do the flat roof but again no sign.  It was raining mind you so not sure how much he could have done.  We also have the water engineer coming on Friday to fix the leak so another £1500 down the drain.... literally 

Speaking of pouring money down the drain, yesterday turned out to be quite spendy as I put a deposit down for holiday to Tunisia next summer.  I know that we can afford it with careful saving, but spending ..... *whispering & cringing* £4000 on a holiday makes me a bit nervous as it is a big purchase.  I have spent quite some time working out what to do for the most cost effective option e.g France in a static caravan but that adds up with the ferry, car, insurances, fuel, food and spending money, likewise with self catering.  So we decided to bite the bullet and opt for this all inclusive, the kids have a strict criteria when it comes to holidays, pool, beach and ice cream so this one ticks the boxes.

It won't derail us from saving towards to the mortgage as we have a savings mechanism in place for that, we will just have to be a bit careful with other spends.

I think for us as a family this could be our last holiday whilst the kids are at school and before the fix ends on our energy bills, because if they remain as they are at the moment or go higher then the family holiday will be sacrificed to pay for that.  Look at me trying to justify myself for booking a holiday!!!

savingholmes

Your goals are your own. If you want holidays like that and can afford them you build them into your plan. It's your MFW plan....

Mrs_Binxtoria

Thanks SH everyone’s journeys are different.

I have just had a wobble with my passport and probably wasted £75. I am going to Greece in October and got myself confused with the rules. I read it as the passport must be less than 10 years old, mine is 10 years 1 month. So quickly went online to renew my passport and hope it comes in time. But re-reading the FCO advice it says it needs to be issued within the last 10 years on date of entry which it was 26.05.16 so no need for a new passport after all. I am still a bit confused by this so if anyone can confirm my understanding that would be great.

I decided that even though I have paid I don’t want to risk not having a passport so will keep hold of it for now. The passport office won’t put a block on it will they?

South_coast

Setting aside anything on the FCO website, your passport needs to be less than 10 years old, as they expire after 10 years? If your passport is already more than 10 years old, it won't have been issued within the last 10 years on your date of entry in October - unless I've completely misunderstood what you're saying 🤔?

Mrs_Binxtoria

Sorry me posting in a state of panic last night.  My current passport was issued 23.05.16 and expires 23.06.26 making the 10 years and 1 month.

I have done plenty of reading this morning and i believe that it falls within the rules, so I am going to try and phone the office this morning to try and withdraw my application and keep my existing passport.  I know I have wasted the £75 but i don't want to risk continuing with the application and the passport not arriving in time.

Not very MSE I know 

Mrs_Binxtoria

Yay panic over!!!  I spoke to a really nice lady at the passport office who advised me that rather than cancelling my application I keep it open as I have 80 days in which to complete the application.  This means that I can keep my current passport which is valid and then complete the application when I get back from holiday which will be on day 68, day 69 at the post office to send my passport back.  This means that I don't lose my application fee I will just be renewing my passport 3 years earlier than I should have done.

She also reassured me that just because I have put a renewal application in it won't cancel my existing passport that only happens when it gets sent back to them.

Thank fully I can go on holiday and more importantly I can get some sleep tonight as I am shattered from overthinking.

savingholmes

~Bless. Well done for phoning them. At least you can now rest.

Mrs_Binxtoria

Our water leak has been fixed so waiting on the invoice for that to come through.  The builder arrived today and did half a day's work and will be returning on Wednesday so at least that has been started.

I have done my end of month shuffles and have £95 left out of my £370 grocery budget which will be put towards Xmas.  It would have been a bit more but we decided to do an impromptu BBQ on Saturday and invite some friends round so ended up spending an extra £35, I don't begrudge this as it will probably be the last time this summer that we do this.

I have had a salary increase this month so will put some this towards the holiday that we have booked towards next year and the mortgage pot.  For next month I will see about increasing my AVCs, although DH isn't keen on this, he would rather put this towards to mortgage.

Speaking about the mortgage, I have been studying my spreadsheets today and it appears that I read the wrong line for the outstanding balance at the end of the fix, I looked at November 25 and not November 26.....doh!  The good news is that we will have a balance of approx. £48,000 which is closer to the £45,000 than I was working towards.  So with current savings we would have already achieved that.  So a new target needs to be set......I am going to be aiming to look to get down to £35,000 which we should be able to achieve with our current savings projection.

I am just waiting for DH to be paid and all the direct debits to go out the 1st before I can do my shuffles and work out how much we have saved towards to mortgage OPs.

savingholmes

Sounds like you are doing great!

Mrs_Binxtoria

I did a very MSE thing today and changed my easy access savings account for a higher paying one, was on 1.42% now 1.84%.  Not a massive difference but it all helps.

I spoke to our pensions person in work today about salary sacrifice for my pension and then using the increase in my take home pay to increase my AVCs.  As it turns out I'm already on salary exchange (as they call it) for my pension and have been for years apparently.  Yet I don't think that I have, as all the guidance I have read about this mentions reference salary/adjusted salary and as far as I can tell my salary is just a normal salary.  So it looks as if I will just have to increase my AVCs with my recent pay increase.  I was intending to do this anyway so think I can up it from 2% to 4%.  DH still isn't keen on me doing this as he would prefer for the mortgage to go first, however my pension is way better than his so want to contribute as much as we feasibly can whilst still meeting our other goals. Namely paying off the mortgage.

After my realisation of the other day where we will be closer to our goal than originally thought, I am itching to make a overpayment now rather than saving it up, I like to see the figure come down.  So I am thinking that I will OP each month by the amount of money that I manage to accumulate through Tilly Tidies and Prolific, this won't be masses although I am currently standing at £52.50 so not too shabby for a month and then continue with our current savings mechanisms which is £175 in a linked bank account and £100 to S&S ISA.

Looking forward to tomorrow when I can do all my money shuffles and calculate where I am at with mortgage OP savings.