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Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!
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Hello all!
Sorry about my absence. It’s had two causes really:
1. I’m still working hard on using the internet/my phone less and haven’t found a good balance/system so tend to swing between banning it and then overindulging…
The last few months I’ve had Safari turned off on my phone most of the time and do feel better for it, but I’ve missed being on here. I think I need to set a couple of times a week to update this diary and another online group I’m in.My mum gave me her old iPad, which was lovely of her, so I may make a rule that frivolous and fun internet use stays on the iPad at set times and I use my phone for calls, texts etc and only essential apps like paying for parking and booking taxis.
2. Honestly, I’ve been overspending and didn’t want to fess up 😳🙈 There, I’ve said it. I feel better now 🙈
We haven’t taken on any debt but in the last few months we’ve had Christmas, both kids’ birthdays, we did the expensive panto, booked & fully paid our hotel and flights for going to Paris, we’ve completely lost any control over the grocery budget too tbh.
So I think when I last posted we had around £3-3.5k in easy access savings plus our help to save accounts, and today we only have:
- around £400 in joint savings currently (nothing in the joint account but I get paid later today). Basically almost NO emergency fund 😳- we do have almost £4,000 in our Help to Save accounts at least but we’d lose the bonus if we took this out.
- and I’ve got around £300 of my own personal pocket money I’ve saved over the last few months, split between a savings account and a S&S ISA. The purpose of this is meant to be to build my own stash for things like going away with friends or whatever I’d like, though I would use it for family stuff if necessary.I know where we’ve gone wrong. I made a conscious decision that I didn’t want to fight about money, so I’ve not questioned any of Red’s decisions. And because I’ve not been questioning him, I’ve also had an “eff it we deserve it attitude” to my own wants too so it’s fair.I’m not unhappy that our standard of living has increased as our salaries have as we couldn’t have stayed that frugal forever… we used to keep a family of four on one £27k income just three years ago and now earn £75k+ between us and I do feel our reward for that is affording fresher, healthier food and holidays.And it’s not all bad news as our pensions are now rising slowly but steadily due to us both being in work.But we clearly need to live within our meals, need to get stricter on budgeting and build up that cash emergency fund again. We did it before and I know we can do it again 💪🏼
Will sit down and look at budgeting shortly. Red just got a small further pay rise (following the one he got a few months ago) which takes effect from this month. I think he’s now on £40k basic with potential for some bonuses (£2-3k a year but he loses some of off sick which tends to happen when you have small kids!). Will update when he gets paid and I know how much to expect in.Part time working mum | Married in 2014 | DS born 2015 & DD born 2018
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6542225/stopping-the-backsliding-a-family-of-four-no-longer-living-beyond-their-means/p1?new=1
Consumer debt free!
Mortgage: -£128,033
Savings: £6,050
- Emergency fund £1,515
- New kitchen £556
- December £420
- Holiday £3,427
- Bills £132
Total joint pension savings: £55,4252 -
Oh I meant to say that one positive is, we’ve been paying my mum £400 a month towards the money she lent us for our car. We currently owe her £2,220 so a few months should see the back of this 🙌🏼Part time working mum | Married in 2014 | DS born 2015 & DD born 2018
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6542225/stopping-the-backsliding-a-family-of-four-no-longer-living-beyond-their-means/p1?new=1
Consumer debt free!
Mortgage: -£128,033
Savings: £6,050
- Emergency fund £1,515
- New kitchen £556
- December £420
- Holiday £3,427
- Bills £132
Total joint pension savings: £55,4252 -
Happy New Year! It's lovely to have you back 😊 xx1
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I'm glad you're back and your absence wasn't for a more serious reason. Don't worry about falling off the wagon, no one can keep up with everything 100% of the time. Just a small setback which I am confident you are able to deal with and get back on track quickly. If anything, you've made me feel slightly better about my not very good budgeting skills!2025 decluttering: 3,550🌟🥉🌟💐🏅🏅🌟🥈🏅🌟🏅💐💎🌟🏅🏆🌟🏅
2025 use up challenge: 309🥉🥈🥇💎🏆
Big kitchen declutter challenge 92/150
2025 decluttering goals Use up Challenge: 🥉365 🥈750 🥇1,000 💎2,000 🏆 3,000 👑 8,000 I 🥉12 🥈26 🥇52 💎 100 🏆 250 👑 5001 -
So good to see you are back @Bluegreen143.
No doubt you and Red can get yourselves back on track with the finances in no time. Don't beat yourself up or do too tight a budget that you end up blowing it in a few months.Fashion on a ration 2025 0/66 coupons spent
79.5 coupons rolled over 4/75.5 coupons spent - using for secondhand purchases
One income, home educating family2 -
It is v rare at Xmas that anyone stays within budget ... (lets not discuss my accidental last quarter spend session!)
but at least you are aware of the spending and wont let yourself go in the red..DON'T BUY STUFF (from Frugalwoods)
No seriously, just don’t buy things. 99% of our success with our savings rate is attributed to the fact that we don’t buy things... You can and should take advantage of discounts.... But at the end of the day, the only way to truly save money is to not buy stuff. Money doesn’t walk out of your wallet on its own accord.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6289577/future-proofing-my-life-deposit-saving-then-mfw-journey-in-under-13-years#latest3 -
Great to see you back posting and happy belated new year to you all. Best wishes.1
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Thanks all.
I can’t go back and analyse our spends over the year, because I changed bank for our joint account twice this year (switched away from Monzo for a switch bonus and missed how easy it is to use so switched back!).But I can analyse joint/family spends for the past month as we opened the account on the 14th Dec so I thought that was worthwhile to see where our spending black holes are.
Not including bills below as these aren’t changed from before. And not worked out personal spending from my own account yet. But here goes…
Groceries £1,172
This includes the Christmas turkey and booze, and will include some gifts and I know I got the kids socks and gloves at one point as well but I can’t split out out as I don’t have receipts anymore. Extremely horrified that Tesco et al received so much of our income in the past 30 days! Needless to say I expect to be much more vigilant on this throughout the next month!
Outings & takeaway £192
Food & parking at the panto, a lunch out, Red took Bambi bowling when Monkey was at a party, we got one cheap takeaway, Red bought drinks when out with his SIL and nephew (they were out in memory of his late brother, a sort of celebration of his life).
Amazon/gifts £400
Don’t know if this was all gifts (we’ve bought chicken feed etc off Amazon too) but it was mainly gifts. Mostly Christmas but the kids have been to a couple of birthday parties too.
Kids £123
Karate and bike club subscriptions, Cubs uniform, pocket money
New tyre £95
Red drove over a pothole and totally bust it on Christmas Eve evening! Stressful at the time!
Petrol £144Next £98
Mainly gifts but also boots for Monkey, who inconveniently outgrew his.Boiler service £84
Pharmacy £13Unknown £242
Money transferred to our personal accounts to cover purchases, mainly Red’s, so hard to trace what he bought now time has passed. Likely mainly gifts.So clearly supermarkets and Amazon are HUGE black holes for us. These will be carefully tracked from now on. It’s stupid as I don’t actually WANT to support these kinds of businesses or at least not to this degree.Part time working mum | Married in 2014 | DS born 2015 & DD born 2018
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6542225/stopping-the-backsliding-a-family-of-four-no-longer-living-beyond-their-means/p1?new=1
Consumer debt free!
Mortgage: -£128,033
Savings: £6,050
- Emergency fund £1,515
- New kitchen £556
- December £420
- Holiday £3,427
- Bills £132
Total joint pension savings: £55,4255 -
Would taking some of your grocery spend out as cash make you more aware of spending it? Perhaps you could find local farmers’ markets to use cash at - might be cheaper for veg at least?It’s a difficult balance between time and spend though, especially with two littles.
KK
PS - it is lovely to have you back posting 😊🤩As at 15.07.25:
- When bought house £315,995 mortgage debt and end date at start = October 2039 - now £233,521
- OPs to mortgage = £11,338 Interest saved £5225 to date
Fixed rate 3.85% ends January 2030
Read 37 books of target 52 in 2025, as @ 23rd July
Produce tracker: £223 of £300 in 2025
Watch your thoughts, they become your words.
Watch your words, they become your actions.Watch your actions, they become your reality.2 -
I know it’s small fry, but worth having a pot for boiler service? Or including it in a household maintenance budget? It’s something I save for annually - it’s not much, but predictable and nice not to have to find it at the time.Mortgage free 16/06/2023! £132,500 cleared in 11 years, 3 months and 7 days
'Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.' Ernest Hemingway3
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