Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

Bluegreen143

Got a bit derailed there! Came on to say my mum, sister and I have decided to hold a monthly crafting bee - we had the first one on Friday. Mum brought her knitting, sister her embroidery and I mended some things before doing some embroidery too. 

Was inspired last night to clean out/oil/service my sewing machine and thankfully it now appears to be working again (the thread was all constantly bunching and snagging) so that’s saved me paying for a service and means I can get fabric for the kids’ Christmas PJs 🙂

Have baked two lots of cookies in the past two days 🤣 one for a play date and the crafting bee on Friday, one to take to a kids’ Halloween party today. It’s so nice to take something homemade to these things!

Skint_yet_Again

I look forward to seeing this years Christmas pjs the last ones you shared were fab 😊

Baileys_Babe

Happy New Year @Bluegreen143 I hope all is well for you and the family.

Bluegreen143

Happy new year @Baileys_Babe!

Err, so it’s been a while 🙈

Quick update on our finances:

- navigated Christmas with no debt, hooray!
- Bambi is now in preschool with no childcare costs (except school holiday costs for both - we are both likely to take some unpaid leave this summer which we need to factor in!).

Current mortgage balance: £109,500ish

Current savings balances:

Help to save accounts: £1,300
Premium Bonds: £1,000
Savings account linked to current account: £1,162

Will update a new budget later today.

As for 2022 goals… excitingly, we’ve decided to get a conservatory added to the house this summer. We’re currently getting quotes and will most likely be funding it by borrowing some extra on the mortgage. We had a good talk and both agree that barring some huge life change, we don’t see ourselves moving now til our children are done with school. We could have looked for somewhere a bit bigger but we are pretty happy with where we are and have a really decent sized garden (but small house!) so while it’ll put our mortgage OPing goals back, we are happy to do so. Of course we aim to then get really stuck into overpaying because we don’t have childcare costs reducing our monthly budget.

Red’s company has reformed into a subdivision of a bigger company and he's been TUPE’d over this month with a decent pay rise (gone from £31k to £35k) so that’s going to be helpful too. And my pay has gone up too this month to just over FTE £31k, so just under £22k as I’m part time). So financially it is looking good and I will share that budget a wee bit later once I’ve sorted it all out!

One thing I would like to address though is our grocery costs seen sky high. We can afford to spend a bit more on good quality food, so I’ve been shopping at the local zero waste (plastic free refill type) shop a lot, getting the glass bottle milk deliveries etc. I don’t mind that - now we can afford it, it is important to me to try to reduce our environmental impact plus I’m happy to spend more to get plenty of healthy food in - but then on the other hand we have been much more disorganised, wasting more (which is bad for the planet as well as my purse!) and getting way more takeaways and treats etc. So while we are fortunate that we no longer NEED to be very tight on our grocery budget I do WANT to start being more intentional. 

I am also using some of my pay rise to sign up to a very expensive gym (though my friend owns it and has given me 6 months at half price). I really, really need to address my health and weight gain. Before I had kids I was a member of this gym and I know the method works for me - I’ve never been so fit and strong in my life as I was that year. I know I SHOULD be able to work out for free at home, but in reality I’ve spent 6 years trying to, and I don’t do it. Plus lots of my best friends go to this gym so it’s ticking the socialising box too.

I think I’ve had different stages in my finances the last few years. I had the SAHM years where I really had to cut the costs and count every penny. Our top priority was saving money then. In the last year I’ve been more wasteful and it’s been part of getting used to having a higher income but being more time crunched. In 2022 my aim is to be INTENTIONAL with my spending to reflect my goals and values. I’m not trying to live on a breadline budget - I don’t need to - but neither do I want to be wasteful. 

We did a fun exercise around new year where Red and I outlined where we want to be in 20-25 years. Our ideal future looked a bit like:

- finances in good shape so that we are headed for early retirement or able to wind down to part time work or money making hobbies in our sixties.

- moving to a more rural location/small village or town where we have better access to the natural world, bigger garden etc

- close relationships with each other, our adult children and a good circle of friends 

- good health and fitness to enjoy the things we want to do

We then thought about what we need to do now to set the stage for this. Some of these things (eg our health) are outwith our control. But we can obviously reduce our risk of certain conditions by living healthier lifestyles now. Likewise, we can’t guarantee we’ll be close to our adult children but we can set the foundation by prioritising our connection with them now.

So I think I’m ok with spending a bit more on a gym membership or good quality food, but I’d rather overpay the mortgage or save for retirement than spend a fortune on clothes or takeaways! That’s my aim for this year anyway. Not necessarily spend less, but spend more wisely.

themadvix

Good news about the pay rises 😊

I love your plans and intention for the year (pun intended). It sounds really good and very well thought out.

Bluegreen143

So I’ve been paid and the YNAB account balances are as follows (Red gets paid at the end of the month so it’s not a full month’s planned expenditure though some of the categories obviously roll over etc):

JOINT BUDGET

This Month

⚡️ Monthly bills: £156.50 (they’ve mainly been paid this month already)
🥘 Groceries: £209.43 
⛽️ Petrol: £0 (but the tank was filled up just today)
🎡 Fun: £9 (having just had a cafe lunch 😅)
🐈 Pets: £20
🧸 Kids: £25 (I just put the child benefit straight into this category so it doesn’t come from wages)
❓ Misc: £0

This year:

💸 Annual bills: £100
🎄 Christmas: £75
🎁 Birthdays & gifts: £75
✈️ Holiday: £500
🌱 Home & garden: £75

Goals:

🚨 Emergencies: £1,000 (currently in Premium Bonds, why not 😅)
🏡 Conservatory: £1,468.97
💰 Help to Save: £1,400
👶🏼 Kids’ savings: £300 (money they got for Christmas that is earmarked to set up savings accounts for them, when it will then go off budget) 

PERSONAL BUDGET 

In my own budget, after taking off my LISA contribution and monthly bills, I’ve got £256.17. 

I will have some personal training costs to come out of this as part of joining the gym plus I need some clothes, but I’ll try to go into next month with at least £50 of this left as I do want to build my own savings up.

Bluegreen143

Not sure if I posted this year’s Christmas PJs I made for the kids ☺️

Baileys_Babe

Great to hear from you @Bluegreen143 I like the pyjamas you have made Monkey & Bambi. Did you use the same pattern as last year or did you try a different one?

Joining the gym sounds like a good use of some of your payrise especially as it will help with your health and socialising which should also help with your mental health. Perhaps after 6 or 12 months review your gym usage to see if you are getting your money worth and is there anything you can tweak to mean it costs less or getting more benefit for the same cost.

Yay to no term time childcare costs, that will feel like a third pay rise for your house.

I like your aim for the year.

Bluegreen143

Thanks @Baileys_Babe - I used the same pattern as last time. They can both still just squeeze into last year’s still so they’ve had good wear out of them.

Wanting to get my frugal mojo back so here’s my plans/tasks for this weekend:

TASKS
▪️ mend Bambi’s PJs which have a small hole at the seam
▪️ clean upstairs (bathroom, dusting, hoovering etc)
▪️ catch up on the washing as the basket is overflowing
▪️ bake muffins for Monkey’s school snacks and look for a good oaty/cereal bar recipe to try 
▪️ start a new batch of sourdough starter as killed mine through neglect over Christmas 
▪️ prep tubs of chopped fruit, salad etc for the fridge
▪️ batch cook some meals for next week as Red is away on training - soup, a pasta sauce and something else 

Tomorrow I’m going to my mum’s for the night - my mum, sister and I have started having a monthly “crafting bee”. I’ll take some embroidery which I must confess to not touching since the last one six weeks ago 😅 I’m taking the children up too so free meal for us but Red is taking the chance to have a steak.

My dad is talking about coming to visit on Sunday - fine if he does, I know he wants to see the kids, but I’d slightly rather have the chance to get out with the kids and Red 😅 my dad is currently obsessed with the idea he needs to come down and visit the kids every month because he missed so much in the lockdowns. This sounds very sweet, but he voluntarily went many much longer periods without seeing me as a child so I’m finding it a bit jarring and it’s bringing up all sorts of things for me… normally I think I’m over my dad being useless and absent when I was growing up but perhaps I’m not really. Oh well, it’s nice he’s discovered his paternal side now he has grandchildren I suppose 🙈

Bluegreen143

Nothing exciting to report on my diary - spend Sat evening/night at my mum’s, having a very jolly crafting evening with my mum and sister, and yesterday my dad came to visit so took us out for a very nice lunch and we spent an hour at a local “wildlife reserve” type park (ie a bit wild rather than gardens or a playground) which we really enjoyed. 

Haven’t spend any money yet since I last updated (except direct debits). 

Red is away for training for a few nights, and it’s amazing how much more manageable it is once your children are no longer babies 😅 I only made them porridge for dinner last night (because we had such a big lunch out, I realise that sounds rather Oliver Twist 😆) but achieved bedtime solo and then this morning the school/nursery run… though I normally do that on my own anyway. We don’t leave to leave quite so early now that Bambi has changed nursery which is very welcome!

Had to go to the office to swap my work laptop today so am enjoying a morning of setting up the new one. I’m trying to implement Admin/Money Mondays so at some point when I get a moment I’ll check my running to-do list, I know I want to sign us up to an optician this week (our old one closed and I’m overdue an eye test) and get the kids’ dentist appointments booked in. And tonight I’ll update YNAB though I think it’s almost up to date anyway. 

Monkey has his first slightly wobbly tooth which is exciting! I asked him how much the tooth fairy brought his friend recently and was relieved when the answer was £1 😂

Oh now I’ve remembered I did have spending at the weekend, but it was cash so I didn’t see it on my account! £73 in Tesco on a chocolate bar and workout clothes. I have nothing so got trainers, 2x leggings, 2x tops and 2x sports bras. Feels a lot of money but I know some people would have spend upward of the £70 on just one pair of sports leggings so I suppose £70 for the lot isn't too bad. And I gave the kids their pocket money, £4 for Monkey and £1 for Bambi, but took that from the child benefit.