Motivation Needed

AnnaBeth

Hi Everyone,
I have been AWOL for a long time now, so long in fact I don't know how long it has been!  In fact I'd describe myself as an AWOL lurker if that's even possible.
We moved to a larger house a few years ago, certainly since my last post.  I have a 6 year old daughter and for the last 5 days a super cute puppy!!!!
I am wondering how people keep motivated - do you have any tips or tricks to make this journey seem manageable.  As I write this I imagine it is a long hard slog and for those I am well aware of a distinct lack of tips and tricks perhaps there is a different board where tips and tricks exist.  I am looking for a way to hack my own thinking and prioritize our future with clever financial moves.
I am grateful for still being employed despite this hell of a last few years, also my husband is employed and I guess with that a certain comfort has crept in which whilst I appreciate is a blessing I am wondering if that security is what makes me feel on a daily basis less drive to forge on along a MFW path.
We save a lot of our money and I haven't made a mortgage over payment in some time.  I do need to add I have also spent a lot of savings recently on house rennovations - definitely essential based on the property we purchased - oh and the puppy!
My husband doesn't see the MFW benefit but I am a convert although I don't think my lack of mortgage overpayments back this up.
I have updated our SOA and am wondering if anyone is kind enough to give me a reality check/rocket. I can probably see some areas that need work but I am in need of support to help me see it all from a different perspective. Car insurance used to be much lower but DH had a serious of unfortunate deer incidents!
Forever grateful AB x

Household Information[/b]

Number of adults in household........... 2

Number of children in household......... 1

Number of cars owned.................... 2[b]

Monthly Income Details[/b]

Monthly income after tax................ 2626

Partners monthly income after tax....... 2330

Benefits................................ 84.2

Other income............................ 0[b]

Total monthly income.................... 5040.2[/b][b]

Monthly Expense Details[/b]

Mortgage................................ 1186

Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0

Rent.................................... 0

Management charge (leasehold property).. 0

Council tax............................. 228

Electricity & Gas ............................. 67

Water rates............................. 45

Telephone (land line) ....................  0

Mobile phone............................ 25.83

TV Licence.............................. 13.2

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0

Internet Services....................... 20.9

Groceries etc. ......................... 450

Clothing................................ 30

Petrol/diesel........................... 200

Road tax................................ 180

Car Insurance........................... 100

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 200

Car parking............................. 0

Other travel............................ 0

Childcare/nursery....................... 0

Other child related expenses............ 450

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 15

Pet insurance/vet bills................. 17.58

Buildings insurance..................... 12.68

Contents insurance...................... 0

Life assurance ......................... 28

Other insurance......................... 0

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 200

Haircuts................................ 0

Entertainment........................... 50

Holiday................................. 200

Emergency fund.......................... 0

Savings (TSB)........................... 350

Savings DD.............................. 50

Family Health........................... 80

Savings Family 3........................ 100

Savings Family 2........................ 170

LISA.................................... 200

Green Bin............................... 6

Cleaner................................. 50

Savings Family 1 (Nutmeg)............... 60

Prof Subs............................... 55.93

Windows................................. 10

Lawn.................................... 25[b]

Total monthly expenses.................. 4876.12[/b]

[b]

Assets[/b]

Cash.................................... 4500

House value (Gross)..................... 500000

Shares and bonds........................ 150

Car(s).................................. 5000

Other assets............................ 0[b]

Total Assets............................ 509650[/b]

[b]

Secured & HP Debts[/b]

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

Mortgage...................... 330000...(1186).....0[b]

Total secured & HP debts...... 330000....-.........-   [/b]

[b]Unsecured Debts[/b]

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR[b]

Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-  [/b]

[b]

Monthly Budget Summary[/b]

Total monthly income.................... 5,040.2

Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 4,876.12

Available for debt repayments........... 164.08

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0[b]

Amount left after debt repayments....... 164.08[/b]

[b]Personal Balance Sheet Summary[/b]

Total assets (things you own)........... 509,650

Total HP & Secured debt................. -330,000

Total Unsecured debt.................... -0[b]

Net Assets.............................. 179,650[/b]

Coffeekup

Hi ... Welcome back, I think you've made the right start by posting, usually means you want to make a change or to get some clarity.
 
I've recently started overpaying as I reached my savings goals, I'm also aware paying off a mortgage is not a sprint but a marathon. Things that help me are spreadsheets, selling stuff on FB or eBay for a bit of extra cash, and to stop buying stuff I that's unnecessary to keep me on budget. I also set myself the goal of overpaying something off the mortgage each and every month, but as unexpected things crop up, like roof work In January I couldn't pay as much as I planned for (yes it miffed me and probably still does if I'm honest), but I still made a small overpayment to round the balance down to the nearest £100. 

Your income look good, if I was going to pick fault with your groceries look sizable for 2 and a half people. I'd also pick on on the cleaner and gardener too, although a 500k house I'd imagine is quite sizeable so maybe it's needed. Also birthday's and Christmas looks heavy to me, but I suppose that depends on how big your family is and who you buy for, and how much your willing to spend on them... To compare I budget less than half of what you do a month for the above. The rest of you SOA to me looks good.

Look at your mortgage, see when its up for renewal and set yourself a target.... I.e. get into the next LTV bracket for the renewal date. Or get the monthly interest below a certain point, or get the daily interest down to a certain point by the end of the year. Little challenges along the way. Then set yourself new goals for the following year.

My goal this year is to get my interest to £5 a day or below. Good luck.

caeler

Welcome back! 

Best thing I’ve learned here is it’s a marathon not a sprint. I think my motivation came from having a goal and knowing what I wanted to achieve. The overpayment calculator helped me look at options and it was a pretty powerful persuader making me want to throw as much as possible at it! But seriously even a small overpayment had a big impact. I’m with Nationwide and for every overpayment I’ve made I got a letter confirming the reduced term, it’s been a pleasure to get those! 

AnnaBeth

Coffeekup said:

Hi ... Welcome back, I think you've made the right start by posting, usually means you want to make a change or to get some clarity.
 
I've recently started overpaying as I reached my savings goals, I'm also aware paying off a mortgage is not a sprint but a marathon. Things that help me are spreadsheets, selling stuff on FB or eBay for a bit of extra cash, and to stop buying stuff I that's unnecessary to keep me on budget. I also set myself the goal of overpaying something off the mortgage each and every month, but as unexpected things crop up, like roof work In January I couldn't pay as much as I planned for (yes it miffed me and probably still does if I'm honest), but I still made a small overpayment to round the balance down to the nearest £100. 

Your income look good, if I was going to pick fault with your groceries look sizable for 2 and a half people. I'd also pick on on the cleaner and gardener too, although a 500k house I'd imagine is quite sizeable so maybe it's needed. Also birthday's and Christmas looks heavy to me, but I suppose that depends on how big your family is and who you buy for, and how much your willing to spend on them... To compare I budget less than half of what you do a month for the above. The rest of you SOA to me looks good.

Look at your mortgage, see when its up for renewal and set yourself a target.... I.e. get into the next LTV bracket for the renewal date. Or get the monthly interest below a certain point, or get the daily interest down to a certain point by the end of the year. Little challenges along the way. Then set yourself new goals for the following year.

My goal this year is to get my interest to £5 a day or below. Good luck.

Thank you for the reply. Getting down to the next LTV sounds super exciting I hadn’t considered goal since like that before with the mortgage but make sure so much sense!
cleaner and gardener - I guessed they’d be spotted even wondered if I should leave them out 😜
they both help keep me sane one more than the other but I am always considering ditching. Since health issues from my DDs birth the cleaner has saved my sanity. Grass cutting was my husbands job but the inconsistency used to drive me mad so again sanity but may need to find that elsewhere!
gifts is interesting and tbh I’m not sure how well tracked so I think probably needs close tracking along with food shopping. I go through phases of tracking everything sporadically but then find it hard to keep up with. I with start with gift and food tracking and see how that goes.
selling stuff I have things to sell so will get on that this weekend!
thanks again for the reply it really helps x

AnnaBeth

caeler said:

Welcome back! 

Best thing I’ve learned here is it’s a marathon not a sprint. I think my motivation came from having a goal and knowing what I wanted to achieve. The overpayment calculator helped me look at options and it was a pretty powerful persuader making me want to throw as much as possible at it! But seriously even a small overpayment had a big impact. I’m with Nationwide and for every overpayment I’ve made I got a letter confirming the reduced term, it’s been a pleasure to get those! 

Thank you for replying it really helps as it feels like I have an accountability partner! The overpayment calculator is a fav of mine and one I need to go back to, maybe on a regular basis to watch the impact. Letters sound dreamy I have an old post it note with what I overpaid before I can add on my signature 😀

AnnaBeth

So it begins!
ive always been good at budgeting but sticking to it is a whole new ball game, I don’t like to admit how bad I am but I’m coming to terms with it ripping the plaster off and tackling it head on.
I have written out my monthly budget and it will go on the fridge with weekly accountability meetings with my husband is the plan.
hoping this new structure will tie in my usual lack of following a budget with actually having a proper go at it like an adult!
im going to see if I can reduce my phone bill this weekend and cancel one of my monthly entertainment subs.  Entertainment subs have come into their own in lockdown but I’ve gone from having a rule of not many to seemingly many more than I intended originally. It’s becoming apparent how easy it is for things to get away from you when you are less mindful I guess true for many life aspects!
Loving the weather today hope it’s sunny where your reading this from!

AnnaBeth

So I’ve updated my signature only 5 years out of date 🤦🏻‍♀️
Ive kept a spending record the last 8 days - wow!
£186.52 on food inc pet
£45 on clothes DH
£0 on fuel 💃🏼
£180 on puppy - she’s new 😬
£70 on window and conservatory clean - I think I can just cancel it and see how we do!
£4.50 on a lip gloss I don’t even love lip gloss/make up but purchased from a friend who’s struggling for cash 😬
£2.59 car park needed for medical appt
£20 random things inc leaving gift for a colleague

ah ha so not quite the budget I had set however I didn’t in my budget seem to allow for any spending other than bills, food and saving 😬
move tracked it and will sit down with DH tomorrow to discuss and help me with accountability.
Seeing that large mortgage amount is good as it’s a great reminder in fact I’ll pop it on the fridge!
I’ll cancel window cleaning by email now as it’s mad, I have put away £10 a month to fund but hasn’t set up that fund until this month so I’ll pause and can always go back if need to.
Have a great week everyone!!!!!

Porridgecat

I've found it a great help to have funds for everything that needs paying and I include a 'things I forgot to budget for' category, when I started doing this, I went through large amounts in this category but then if things cropped up in it a few times I gave them their own category (YNAB user) so I have a separate category for the bin cleaner, computer replacement fund, MrPorridge's camera habit fund etc I now know where everything is going but it is sometimes a shock to realise that you haven't got as much spare income as you thought.
I also employ a cleaner, its what keeps me sane with two of us working full time in demanding jobs, I don't think its an issue if you're not paying off non mortgage debt and you can afford it in your budget.
Finally, I love how descriptive 'unfortunate deer incidents is" 

SpendingPennies

Congratulations on the new puppy, how exciting ❤️

Maybe you could work towards mini targets to help motivate you and make the journey more manageable. You can’t eat a whole elephant in one chunk. Perhaps put a plan in place to pay off the next £1000, or £10,000 or a lower category LTV. Once you achieve that goal you can reassess. You may find the reduction in term or monthly commitment from  that overpayment feels so good you want to move on to the next target?
Good luck !

AnnaBeth

So sat down with DH to confess we don’t have much room for any spending and looked into a few more ambiguous amounts ok not ambiguous at all we just hadn’t done the maths!
this increased amount we actually spend on window cleaning and grass cutting but decreased the amount we spend on xmas/gifts good lord £200 was a funny five mins we put aside £65 a month instead, also water was out again confused moment but only £5 out so not that confused.
DH happy to keep windows being cleaned I think he can imagine me overpaying the mortgage while we struggle to look through the windows 😀
We also set aside £500 monthly for mortgage over payment and realised that’s too much which accounts for us having to dip into it so we’re over saving also totally forgot and can’t bear to renter (surely I’m missing a saving function here) £100 a month for random expenditure - we had 0 before and that’s unrealistic seemingly when I bought a lip gloss anyway 😆
I’m going to look into the LTV and other ways to chunk it down so to speak!
this weekend feels like pushed through working it all out being knackered from it all but then going back to it again so it is reflective rather than Disney like 🥰
here is the new version:

[font=courier new][b]Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet[/b][b]

Household Information[/b]

Number of adults in household........... 2

Number of children in household......... 1

Number of cars owned.................... 2[b]

Monthly Income Details[/b]

Monthly income after tax................ 2626

Partners monthly income after tax....... 2330

Benefits................................ 84.2

Other income............................ 0[b]

Total monthly income.................... 5040.2[/b][b]

Monthly Expense Details[/b]

Mortgage................................ 1186

Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0

Rent.................................... 0

Management charge (leasehold property).. 0

Council tax............................. 228

Electricity............................. 67

Gas..................................... 0

Oil..................................... 0

Water rates............................. 40

Telephone (land line)................... 0

Mobile phone............................ 25.83

TV Licence.............................. 13.2

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0

Internet Services....................... 20.9

Groceries etc. ......................... 450

Clothing................................ 30

Petrol/diesel........................... 200

Road tax................................ 160

Car Insurance........................... 100

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 200

Car parking............................. 0

Other travel............................ 0

Childcare/nursery....................... 0

Other child related expenses............ 450

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 15

Pet insurance/vet bills................. 17.58

Buildings insurance..................... 0

Contents insurance...................... 0

Life assurance ......................... 28

Other insurance......................... 0

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 65

Haircuts................................ 0

Entertainment........................... 50

Holiday................................. 200

Emergency fund.......................... 0

Grass Cutting........................... 30

Windows................................. 23

Prof Subs............................... 55.93

Savings N............................... 60

Cleaner................................. 50

Green Bin............................... 6

Lisa.................................... 200

Savings Family L........................ 170

Savings Family P........................ 100

Family Health........................... 80

Savings E............................... 50

Savings TSB............................. 350[b]

Total monthly expenses.................. 4721.44[/b]

[b]

Assets[/b]

Cash.................................... 4500

House value (Gross)..................... 500000

Shares and bonds........................ 150

Car(s).................................. 2

Other assets............................ 0[b]

Total Assets............................ 504652[/b]

[b]

Secured & HP Debts[/b]

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

Mortgage...................... 330000...(1186).....0[b]

Total secured & HP debts...... 330000....-.........-   [/b]

[b]Unsecured Debts[/b]

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR[b]

Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-  [/b]

[b]

Monthly Budget Summary[/b]

Total monthly income.................... 5,040.2

Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 4,721.44

Available for debt repayments........... 318.76

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0[b]

Amount left after debt repayments....... 318.76[/b]

[b]Personal Balance Sheet Summary[/b]

Total assets (things you own)........... 504,652

Total HP & Secured debt................. -330,000

Total Unsecured debt.................... -0[b]

Net Assets.............................. 174,652[/b]

[i]Created using the SOA calculator at www.stoozing.com. 

Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.[/i][/font]