Lolu's Mortgage Free odyssey

misslolu

Thanks @savingholmes the money has calmed down a lot and i've only had to pay for 1 set of flights since then though there are some costs incoming. Luckily for one for the weddings a friend was able to lend me an outfit and for two of my dresses i'll have them done in my home country where it'll be a lot cheaper. One of the weddings is a bit in a tizzy because the person organising hadn't some communicated dates in time, and now people have already made plans on those days. It's annoying but i'm feeling a bit smug because they've done this before and I asked for a bit more notice in future and they didn't respond and no one backed me up. Now it's affecting more people, i'm being messaged and asked to speak to the organiser to change the dates 🤷🏾‍♀️.

Money wise, I think i've been a bit naughty. A friend offered to get me an early present for my 30th later in the year (🙈) but then said they couldn't fund it at the moment and would reimburse me later. I wouldn't have bought it so early since i'm a bit cash poor if i'd known, so i'm going to have to dig into savings to pay off my CC bill. I also had to pay my service charge on my CC so i have a whopping bill looking at me at the beginning of next month. Luckily I got a decent amount of tax back so i'm hoping it all washes out in the end. By the end of Sep/beginning of October I should be back to normal programming.

Again my CC is starting to worry me. As of now, I do have the money to clear it, but that would leave me with very little savings and it's interest free at the moment so no need. But it was £5800 at it's highest when I was buying furniture and now it's £5700, I feel like i'm standing still a bit. I'll be paying off the service charge & birthday present next month, so it'll be back down to £4kish but now i'm using the card again because i'm not sure if my Salary will cover that + bills for the month. Money is flying around everywhere and i'm not doing a very good job of keeping track. Salary + bills are coming in/going out in about 2 weeks so i'll be able to take stock.

I'm still saving money towards the summer spending, i've saved 14% of the £7000 (£1000) I targeted so it's going quite well. So far i've fully paid off my birthday flights. Next up will be things for the weddings like presents, transport and other bits. Finally i'll save for invisalign and will hopefully be able to pay at least 25% up front to reduce my paying time. Ideally i'd like to be completely debt free by the end of next year.

Also, i've started dating again, it's not going well at all. The men are in their 30s but don't act like it, they're so weird. One accused me of deliberately ignoring him because I didn't respond to his hello in 3 hours. Another came to a date and said actually he's not hungry because he ate a heavy meal just before coming. Two others invited me on dates and one cancelled but didn't tell me until a few hours before, the other forgot the date. 🥲

Aimingforthegoodlife

Miss Lolu, you have so much going on, no wonder it is hard to keep on top of things! The weddings sound both stressful but hopefully fun in the end! I don't understand expecting people to spend so much, I paid for me and the bridesmaids to have our makeup done, we went out for drinks and food in a local city for the hen and I found the bridesmaid dresses on sale in debenhams! Dating sounds tough, hopefully the right person isn't too far away!

killerpeaty

Sounds like you have a lot on. Your wedding friend is ridiculous. If you want people to come, you need to let them know in advance! Waaaay in advance.

The credit card is a worry, but how long is the interest free period?

Dating is awful, I went on a few last year and then gave up. So I'm with you there. Tbf I hated dating in my twenties too...

misslolu

Aimingforthegoodlife said:

Miss Lolu, you have so much going on, no wonder it is hard to keep on top of things! The weddings sound both stressful but hopefully fun in the end! I don't understand expecting people to spend so much, I paid for me and the bridesmaids to have our makeup done, we went out for drinks and food in a local city for the hen and I found the bridesmaid dresses on sale in debenhams! Dating sounds tough, hopefully the right person isn't too far away!

I'd rather spend money on a nice experience than hundreds on hair, makeup and dresses for just 1 day. I agree, it IS ridiculous. I wish more brides were like you tbh!

Yeah, dating hasn't been fun for me. I'm tempted to give up and become a foster mum instead. I doubt i'd want to be a single mum, but I definitely would love to give children a happy home. I'll evaluate later on in the year, but I have already spoken to some agencies.

misslolu

killerpeaty said:

Sounds like you have a lot on. Your wedding friend is ridiculous. If you want people to come, you need to let them know in advance! Waaaay in advance.

The credit card is a worry, but how long is the interest free period?

Dating is awful, I went on a few last year and then gave up. So I'm with you there. Tbf I hated dating in my twenties too...

Exactly, one of the events is in less than 3 weeks. That's slap bang in the middle of summer!

CC is interest free until Feb next year, i'm diverting funds towards summer payments, but may also increase my CC payments so I have more options when the time comes. I'm actually considering just paying it off. Yes, i'll have small savings, but i'll also be starting from a clean slate. 

savingholmes

Hope that you manage to find your way through. Sounds like you are juggling a lot. 

misslolu

Gosh, it certainly has been a while! I won't bore you with all my escapades, but happy to say all the weddings and parties went super well. Obviously they were stressful, as these things tend to be, but there were no major issues and all 3 couples are happy and thriving.

I turned 30 and my lovely siblings threw me a surprise party, after which I went on a birthday holiday with some friends. It was my first all-inclusive experience. It was super luxurious (for me) but then it was only the second time i'd been in a 5 star hotel. I'm definitely going back in future.

For my summer savings, i made good progress:

Service Charge: £49/1000
Summer events (wedding + parties): £1000/1000
Invisalign: £518/3500
Birthday holiday: £1477/1500

£3044 /7030 = 43.49% I've decided that since the invisalign is quite pricey, i'll take that out of the summer spending and have that ticking over every month. 2526/3530 =71.56% It should only take till January to save for the outstanding service charge, it's due in December but if I pay by CC i'll be able to pay everything off by Jan. Alsooooo, I'm dating again, but this time it's looking super promising. He's a mutual friend that was introduced to me years ago. He lived away so it didn't look likely that anything would happen. But now he's in the UK and we've decided to give it a go. Our friendship is sound, but exploring the romance side of it has been interesting so far. We both have similar views on a lot of things so I could see this moving fats, wish me luck!

powerspowers

Nice to hear from you Miss Lolu and sounds like you’ve had a great summer. Well done on the saving as well x

savingholmes

Glad things are going well.

misslolu

powerspowers said:

Nice to hear from you Miss Lolu and sounds like you’ve had a great summer. Well done on the saving as well x

Thanks hun!