Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

Bluegreen143

So some to-dos for Admin/Money Monday:

- find out how to join the opticians 
- book kids a dentist appointment
- make sure tablet is set up for Monkey’s homework app as his new homework came out today & it doesn’t work well on the phone
- book Tesco delivery 
- update YNAB
- set up premium bonds for the children 
- order brother in law a birthday gift (sister’s husband)

It looks dry so hoping to take the kids to the playpark after school and make sure we get started on the homework but otherwise no major plans - I already made tomato & lentil soup for tonight’s dinner. Will try to make tomorrow’s pasta sauce tonight so I stay ahead of myself.

Baileys_Babe

Porridge for your evening meal is very acceptable to me especially if a large/rich meal was eaten earlier. Good for the budget but even better for health.

Well done and good luck with staying ahead with the meals, it does make life so much easier particularly when flying solo.

Tuesday is my money and banking day, but I don't have an admin day, I think it would help. Off to think when would work best for me and what I would include.

themadvix

Porridge/cereal definitely acceptable here too if nothing much is required!

QueenJess

My kids are weird and won’t eat porridge at all. It’s the only thing DD won’t eat. Not sure they’re mine as I love porridge!

Bluegreen143

Been looking back at where we were savings-wise at the start of this diary (Feb 2021) and it was a few hundred pounds in emergency savings and help to save. So extrapolating back to January a year ago, we certainly had under £500 savings all in.

Sometimes I’m convinced we aren’t making much progress, but our current savings are nearly £4K (£1k E fund, £1,300 H2S, £1,500 conservatory fund), I’ve got £800 or so in my LISA, and we’ve overplayed the mortgage by nearly £700. Plus I’ve now got a year’s extra pension contributions in the bank. We also had our first family holiday and quite a few big expenses eg roofer to fix the guttering, plumber for a leak etc. So actually while we could have lived more frugally in the last year, we haven’t done too badly! 

I’ve planned out a little roadmap of what we want to achieve financially once the conservatory is in and paid for (we’ll have to borrow most of it but are saving to pay for decorating & furnishing it).

1. Make sure annual pots continue to be filled eg holidays, annual bills, Christmas/gifts, as well as both contributing to workplace pension to get employer match  ✔️ (this is ongoing and is my base minimum that NEEDS to happen each month to avoid debt and never being able to retire!) 

2. Build emergency fund back to £2k (at £1k at the moment)

3. Consider building a current account buffer so wages always get allocated to pay the next month’s bills 

4. Build up cash savings to at least £5k, maybe more depending on goals - to fund bigger emergencies, car replacement, bigger home projects and other goals (eg if either of us decide to retrain)

5. Overpay the mortgage and increase pension contributions to allow for a secure retirement by age 60

6. When happy with the above ticking along, and if possible, start investing in a stocks & shares ISA to allow for earlier retirement or part time work post 50.

So basically it’s just a list I made to prioritise goals eg there’s no point investing for early retirement if we haven’t got an emergency fund, also seems backwards to start trying to fund early retirement if normal retirement isn’t yet secure. So basically once the conservatory is in, I’ll be firstly working on the emergency fund and other cash savings (buffer/goals savings pot).

Over the next year I’ll need to decide what I’ll do longer term work-wise too. I think as the kids get a bit bigger and Covid eases there will start to be pressure on me to travel more and I don’t want to do that. The problem with me working til 3pm is I have no childcare from 3.30-5.50 each day so if I traveled down south Red would need to take a half day each time which doesn’t exactly seem feasible.

Baileys_Babe

QueenJess said:

My kids are weird and won’t eat porridge at all. It’s the only thing DD won’t eat. Not sure they’re mine as I love porridge!

Both myself and dd enjoy porridge, but we like it quite different I like a long slow cook and dd likes to bring it up to the boil, stir and serve. So we make 2 lots and we are both happy.

Baileys_Babe

I like your list, ensuring you have strong financial foundations.

Bluegreen143 said:

4. Build up cash savings to at least £5k, maybe more depending on goals - to fund bigger emergencies, car replacement, bigger home projects and other goals (eg if either of us decide to retrain)

What bigger emergencies are you thinking of? Should these savings be separate from the replacement car fund?

Bluegreen143

@Baileys_Babe - was thinking we will need to build up the 3 months income E fund in case of job loss - so £10k more accurate - but I was thinking once I get to £5k I’ll split between building that and overpaying/pension stuff. 

Decided I’m going to do “Money Money” and “Tuesday Tasks” (rather than doing all admin, banking etc on Mondays). Then thinking Wed for cleaning downstairs, Thursday for upstairs and Friday (which is my day off work) to catch up on anything else and bake.

So YNAB is done now. Other miscellaneous tasks achieved over the last 2 days:

- kids added to dentist waiting list(!) for check ups
- Monkey’s homework printed and messaged teacher re new code for the app he submits it on
- Tesco delivery booked & mealplan done
- set up DD to pay for nursery consumables fund
- had mortgage advice call re extra borrowing for the conservatory

Another successful day of flying solo. Must say that (while I’m missing Red!) my house is MUCH tidier since he’s been away 🤣 took the kids to a playpark to meet friends after school. It drizzled the whole time but that’s character building, right? 😆 not that Monkey cared at all, Bambi did get grumpy by the end though. Still that’s another hour outdoors logged! 

Made tuna tomato pasta for dinner because Red won’t eat that. Used random leftovers from the fridge and it was rather tasty! This evening I’ve also cut up some grapes and salad veg, made hummus and baked chocolate chip cookies ☺️

Tomorrow I’ve got friends coming for a catch up once the kids are in bed. I can see a lot of time in parks and at-home drinks with friends in our future and tbh that thought makes me very happy ❤️

Re porridge - luckily the kids love it! Monkey likes his with brown sugar, a ground seed mix I buy from Tesco (though I’m out of this just now) and cinnamon. Bambi likes hers plain with a bit of sugar but I tend to put cinnamon in now too - I’ve been adding a bit more each time. Just to acclimatise her to more flavours as she’s a very plain eater.

Baileys_Babe

Porridge flavours dd usually adds raisins either when cooking or stirred through afterwards.
Currently, I am liking crunchy peanut butter and blackstrap molasses 😋 I also enjoy finely chopped dried pear, dried apple and crystallised ginger.

I would happily have porridge with cinnamon for pudding.

Bluegreen143

Today’s been a funny day work wise as almost all meetings but very short ones (recording a bunch of people for a communications campaign).

In between I’ve managed to clean out the litter tray, small downstairs toilet and dust downstairs/wipe door handles & light switches. Trying to make Wednesday my “cleaning downstairs” day. I’ll hoover later post-work and hopefully mop after the kids are in bed (but before my friends arrive around 8). No biggie if I don’t get to it as it’s nice and tidy already but would be good to tick it off. Mopping is by far my most procrastinated chore!

Also did a (negative) lateral flow test as my friends and I are doing them each day we meet.

Still on today’s list:

- update YNAB to reflect Tesco delivery just arrived (will update on here too)
- visit zero waste shop after school pick up for flour, sugar, olive oil and basmati rice
- it’s gorgeous weather so will take kids to playpark too as part of 1000 hours outdoors (might do that before zero waste shop so as not to waste the daylight) 
- make sure Monkey does one homework task before dinner as this can fall by the wayside if we go to the park 
- do kitchen post-dinner (with kids’ help) and mop as discussed. Actually may do this before kids’ bedtime as they will enjoy helping (Monkey will actually help, Bambi will just slosh water about 🤣)
- at some point do Duolingo lesson (5-10 mins) to revise my Gaelic 

Meals today:

B - cereal for kids, Greek yog/honey/banana/choc chips for me

L - kids at school, I had leftover tuna pasta from last night.

D - chicken risotto. Bambi likes this but bracing myself for huge complaints from Monkey. Will allow a choc chip cookie for pudding if some dinner is eaten 😆