Lolu's Mortgage Free odyssey

misslolu

Payday this week! I managed to end the month with some money in my account which is lovely and sets me up nicely for what's about to be quite a pricey month. I have at least £210 to pay towards lessons and will be purchasing OH's Christmas present hopefully during black Friday sales. This is how we're looking:

Finances for the week:
 CC1 (Mine) - 1361 1348
CC2 (Ours) - 4007.62
CC3 (His) - 4295 
Medical Loan (Mine) - 1948
Student Loan - 8,099 
Mortgage - 186093

Total Non - Mortgage Debt - 19,710
Total Debt - 205,803

S&S LISA - 7485
Premium Bonds - 7450 7500
Joint Savings - 1496 2196

Assets - 16,431

Joint savings are coming back up which is nice, though there's not too much more goin in till the end of November. Next week is the day all the CC & DDs come out, so there should be a lot more debt-busting going on than you're seeing today. I was thinking how nice it would be to be under £200k in total debt by the end of the year. Based on outstanding payments, it would be highly unlikely but i'll aim for that regardless.

Something strange has happened where OH paid £300 off his CC this month but did it before the statement date, so it didn't count towards this month's payment. Unfortunately it means he still owes money for the month, which i'm probably going to have to borrow the the joint account and pay back when he puts in next week's payment. Slightly annoying, but doable.

Unfortunately we're still on the process as we had missed out some information so had to get that and send it back. We got a prompt response though, so we're really hoping we get some good feedback early next week.

We're also starting to make some Christmas plans, we have some family that will come over for a few days and we're also considering visiting some friends in the new year. I've not really been Christmassy over the past few years but OH wants to go the whole hog with a tree, decorations and even matching pyjamas! I'm happy to go along with it as seeing him so excited really warms my formerly grinchy heart. I also have to book my Christmas leave to make sure I don't waste any like I almost did last year. He wants a pretty expensive present (again) so i'm hoping to get it cheap in the Black Friday sales, luckily this should be the last expensive thing present-wise. His birthday & Valentine's presents for next year are already planned and are significantly cheaper.

All in all it's looking to be a pretty spendy month, i'm not anticipating having much left over and will probably have to go into savings. Ironically December will be much cheaper as i'd have bought all the presents, we're staying indoors most of the time & we're going to be using the joint account for the Christmas stuff. Funny thing that.

misslolu

For the first time ever I lost a huge post and i'm feeling pretty sad about it, it was a thing of beauty. Let's see how much of it I can remember.

DD's have come out and the account is definitely looking very empty, i'm already counting down the days haha. I'm going to need to be quite careful with spending in that case. I also have a feeling I might need to dip into the savings which isn't great, but what they're there for.

OH has agreed to pay towards his Christmas present, which I don't usually like doing, but I think it's fair because of the cost. I know he's saving towards mine already which I'm super excited for. We're waiting for Black Friday sales to get the majority of our Christmas stuff and should be doing our major Christmas shopping in the next few weeks, shopping from the freezer has been really good in that regard, I just need to keep it up.

Just two more lessons till my driving test and i've been binge watching driving tips videos and mock tests, I wish I had taken it a bit more seriously earlier on as I saw a lot of progress when I started watching the videos a few weeks ago. I wish i could have more time to practice the harder parts like manoevres and positioning as i've gotten the softer parts down now and i'm super confident about all but 1 roundabout on my route. Still hoping it all goes well.

I've paid OH's CC from the main account earlier in the week and have paid it back already. I'll also stagger the payments so there will be one before & after the payment dates and I won't face this again. I also won £25 on the PBs, I always set wins to reinvest and likely won't take any out unless the win is more than £1000.

Finances this week:

CC1 (Mine) - 1348 1262
CC2 (Ours) - 4007.62  3907
CC3 (His) - 4295 4163
Medical Loan (Mine) - 1948 1864
Student Loan - 8,099 7,872
Mortgage - 186093 185,862

Total Non - Mortgage Debt - 19,710 19,068
Total Debt - 205,803 205,037

S&S LISA - 7,485 7,509
Premium Bonds - 7,500 7,525
Joint Savings - 2,200 2,400

Assets - 16,431 17,434

It's been a good week for bringing down the debt, about £650 down with another £200 or so anticipated next week. I reckon we only have about £1.5k or so left in us this year, and i'm hoping to get us to sit down before the end of the year and have another look at our finances and agree some goals. Some off the top of my head would be to get OH's loan paid off, and get the joint savings way up for both the wedding & future kiddie expenses. We had a talk with our prents and they've agreed to fund a minimum of 50% for the wedding which takes a huge weight off and greatly reduces what we should need to spend.We're looking at "only" £10ish k now which we should easily be able to cover with our current rate of joint savings.

We're obviously still looking for OH to get a better job, tbf he's earning a decent amount but it's a physical job and we'd like for him to get one that at least is remote/office based which should come with a salary increase. Even £100 extra a month improves our debt paydown rate.

Not much else to report on this week but I suspect a whole lot will have changed by the end of the month.

misslolu

We ended up purchasing OH's Christmas present already as the item it's meant to replace completely stopped working, he uses it for work so felt we may as well get it early since we've already budgeted for it. Everything else is still being pushed to black Friday so i'm writing out a list.

Had one of my driving lessons this week & did a mock test. I failed with 2 serious faults and 13 minors. I was super frustrated because the majors were totally unavoidable and the first one came 5 minutes in. The number of minors was likely due to me being a bit rusty though and I have 1.5 lessons till my test so i'm quite confident that I can shake off the cobwebs to pass. I guess i'll be able to tell better next week.

I also paid OH's CC so it should have fulfilled this month's requirements and we won't have that same issue again going forwards. There should be about 11 payments left, factoring interest so we're really starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I'm already in savings this week, but it's not hard to imagine when i've spend almost £500 this month purely on driving lessons & OH's present. That's more than three quarters of my usual disposable income so I was always going to struggle. Next month should be perfect though.

Something strange and slightly eye-opening is that we ran out of money for the first time in the joint account this week. Usually we put in £500 over bills which covers any joint expenses, eating out and small things like that. I'm not 100% sure how we did it but we completely spent the buffer from last month last week, we usually have £200 or so floating around. The good news is that Oh's pay will be more than enough to build it back up, but we do have to be careful as we're anticipating a big bill in the next few weeks.

And finally, we got some good news about the visa process we're going through so that's all done now which is just amazing and a huge weight off my shoulders. Also, we're finishing off our plans for Christmas and have decided not to go visit anyone this time. I'll see if we can just plan a nice staycation instead, depending on costs and i'll also need to start building up the lists for our regular & christmas shopping deliveries.

Finances this week:

CC1 (Mine) - 1262 1256
CC2 (Ours) -  3907
CC3 (His) - 4163 4015
Medical Loan (Mine) - 1864
Student Loan - 7,872 
Mortgage - 185,862

Total Non - Mortgage Debt - 19,068 18,914 
Total Debt - 205,037 204,776

S&S LISA - 7,509
Premium Bonds - 7,525
Joint Savings - 2,400

Assets - 17,434

Debt went down by just under £200 which isn't bad but that's probably all for that till my pay at the end of the month while OH's pay goes to bills & savings. Considering that £12k of our debt is educational I think we're doing quite well, one of the goals for next year will probably to pay down all interest bearing debt (so excluding my medical loan & our joint CC) while cash flowing the wedding and hopefully keeping a bit of savings. I'll start to flesh that out in the coming weeks.

LadyWithAPlan

Great news on the agreed help on the wedding by parents and a PB win.
Been 3 months since I had a PB win and I am starting to slightly sulk I am also under the % suggested so I am hoping December draw will bring me luck
Seems the wedding costs are all in hand and good you have a workable affordable plan for an amazing celebration.

Fingers crossed on your driving test and also your OH getting a new job. 

I HATE ever paying any interest on anything so that cc debt would be a first target for me.. i havent done it in years ...I always think 'thats a pair of shoes I could buy instead of giving the bank money' so I just cant do it.. give the banks money unnecessarily  
Have you looked at what you paid in interest this year vs what you received in interest on your savings and PB wins? Can you move to a 0% card whilst you pay it down?

South_coast

Or use a 0% card for wedding spending, rather than savings?

misslolu

LadyWithAPlan said:

Great news on the agreed help on the wedding by parents and a PB win.
Been 3 months since I had a PB win and I am starting to slightly sulk I am also under the % suggested so I am hoping December draw will bring me luck
Seems the wedding costs are all in hand and good you have a workable affordable plan for an amazing celebration.

Fingers crossed on your driving test and also your OH getting a new job. 

I HATE ever paying any interest on anything so that cc debt would be a first target for me.. i havent done it in years ...I always think 'thats a pair of shoes I could buy instead of giving the bank money' so I just cant do it.. give the banks money unnecessarily  
Have you looked at what you paid in interest this year vs what you received in interest on your savings and PB wins? Can you move to a 0% card whilst you pay it down?

Thanks! Funny enough this win is my first in 4 months so I was starting to sulk too haha. Definitely with you on the interest, feels like wasted money tbh i've probably had to pay around £100 this year which doesn't feel good at all but is less than the £175 or so i've won in PB's. My cards are on a low interest rate (<6%) so i'm not paying a huge amount, but the annoyance is still there.

I do have a 0% card but annoyingly most of the debt I have I accrued just after the eligibility window for transfers closed so there's no avenue there. We're paying them down as quickly as possible though, I definitely see us paying all debts by the end of next year except my medical loan and joint CC which are both 0% and then potentially my student loan just because it's quite large.

South_coast said:

Or use a 0% card for wedding spending, rather than savings?

This was the plan until I found out some wedding vendors only accept cash and not credit. We've only got the venue booked so far, but others are also starting to make similar noises, so i'm kinda stressing about that. We may have to free up cash by using credit for other things, but the good thing is we have time to plan before doing that. I don't really want to get into more debt unnecessarily, i'd definitely rather saveup.

misslolu

Apart from surveys I really wish I had a skill that I could trade for money, a steady side hustle that brings home £100 or so a month would feel much more productive than £50ish of survey money each month. Some of the payments are hilariously small as well like 15p for 5 mins work, feels like i'm worth slightly more than that if you know what I mean. I'll be on the lookout but in the meantime if anyone has suggestions, that would be helpful.

This is my last week before I go on leave so i'm desperately trying to wrap a few things up. Then it's getting some nice R&R in and practicing for my driving test. I'm super scared because doing my mock made me realise that i'm 95% ready, but i'm prone to one or two mistakes when my concentration lapses. I've always had those lapses while driving (i've actually been driving since 2014 in another country) so i'm just going to have to stay super focused during the test. I've got one more lesson now and then it's off to my test wish me luck!!!

Finances for the week

CC1 (Mine) - 1256 1268 interest added
CC2 (Ours) -  3907
CC3 (His) - 4015
Medical Loan (Mine) - 1864
Student Loan - 7,872 7,914 interest added
Mortgage - 185,862

Total Non - Mortgage Debt - 18,908 18,968
Total Debt - 204,770 204830

S&S LISA - 7,509
Premium Bonds - 7,525
Joint Savings - 2,400

Assets - 17,434

This week is a bit slow, it's usually the week interest gets added to the loans and credit cards, so the debt goes up slightly. The in-between weeks when nothing is really happening money-wise always feel so boring to me, but I hate to feel like I'm wishing my life away. Something I didn't realise is that my main bank can do a sort of Tilly tidy with each transaction where it saves the excess pennies in a savings account. To help with debt busting I might put these bits of change towards my CC just to help it go that much faster. The current DFD for my CC is December 24 which is a bit painful, so this should get me more towards June/July.

misslolu

Unfortunately I failed my driving test, it was super gutting because I was doing fine until one moment I was speeding a little more than my instructor wanted and she decided to take action. *Big sigh* it's come off the back of a few lows so i'm feeling very upset with myself. Not least because of the money i'm going to have to spend, £150 on the test & instructor time & £70 per lesson leading up to it. I was almost super upset as my instructor told me i'd have to wait a month before I could do the test but it looks like it's still 10 working days. I'm aiming to get a test as soon as the days are up but there's a huge backlog for tests at the moment and this morning would have been the perfect time to look as they release new tests. And on top of that I have to make sure my instructor is free on the day. Just extra time & expense I could have done without.

misslolu

Trying to distract myself from my current !!!!!! of a life i've been thinking about some goals for next year. The main focus is definitely going to be the wedding and keeping it as cheap as possible while still making lots of memories. Unfortunately, that will mean savings & debt payoff will be slower until costs have been finalised & paid off. I've not run these by OH but i'm thinking the following.

Wedding
Venue has been booked & deposit paid, the next major costs will be the caterers. My mum is taking charge of that and hopes to finalise costs & pay deposit by the end of Jan. We're aiming for a total spend of £10k, without touching any of my emergency fund (PBs) and retirement bridging funds (ISA).

Housing & Mortgage
The mortgage especially has been on the back burner because of debt and other pressing needs. Next year after the most pressing loans have been paid off, I intend to put a bit more towards the mortgage and will aim to be under £180,000 by the end of the year.

Very soon after the wedding, we'll be TTC, which means we have to start considering moving to a larger place. Currently, the two-bedroom that we live in is an okay size for us and a baby but will definitely start feeling cramped very quickly. What this means is would likely be looking to move very shortly after giving birth or at least sometime around this period. This also means that we need to put some money in towards the house for maintenance and to fix any cosmetic damage. It means we should sign up with some estate agents, take some pretty pictures and start pushing the house on the market.

Debt
The debt suddenly crept up because of some silly spending as well as me lending my parents some money for various reasons. I have a timeline to get that back early next year which should alleviate some of it. I'd also expect to pay off a significant chunk of my student loan (OH is on track to pay his off entirely before October) while 0% interest debt will be kept ticking along till it's no longer interest free sometime in 2025. So all in all the only interest, bearing that remaining should be my student loan, which I'm hoping to get under £4000. If I can manage that I can probably pay it off completely the year after.

Car
This is obviously shelved until I do manage to pass my test, it's unfortunate because the extra money I'm spending on this takes away from debt payments. Though I do have the option of using the interest-free card to pay for lessons so at least I don't need to interest on it. We'll see. Either way we're still looking for a decent car to buy, it's looking more and more like will buy a cheap run around and spend a bit bigger next year if necessary.

General Finance
OH & I are on the same page when it comes to finance, we are quite frugal people so sensible with money, he's also very happy to allow me to manage the finances as I see fit. We both have similar amounts of spending money so I guess as long as he's happy with his personal cash, he won't complain about anything else I spend money on or how I move money around.

*sigh* still feeling annoyed with myself. Maybe I should just sleep and see how I feel in the morning.

misslolu

After some conversations with friends, i'm feeling a lot less annoyed after the test. I've booked my next one in a few weeks and some lessons for it too. Not much has gone on money-wise except that OH has topped up the joint savings, and for the first time in a while, i've not been able to pay off any debt with survey money (though now thinking about it I may have some money in my pennies pot). It's been a bit of a slow debt month in November; hopefully next month we'll have a bit more to add. I can't believe it's less than 36 days until the end of the year!

Also, i've done something a bit impulsive and paid for some laser surgery with the joint card. It's interest-free, and i'll be paying £25 a month from my personal budget towards it until it's paid off well before the end of the period. It will increase the debt by a significant amount, though.

Finances for the week

CC1 (Mine) - 1268 1256
CC2 (Ours) -  3907 4157
CC3 (His) - 4015
Medical Loan (Mine) - 1864
Student Loan - 7,914
Mortgage - 185,862

Total Non - Mortgage Debt - 19,206
Total Debt - 204830 205,068

S&S LISA - 7,509
Premium Bonds - 7,525
Joint Savings - 2,400 2,700

Assets - 17,434 17,734

It's pay week, so the numbers will go down again at the end of the week. I've just come off the back fo a whole week of leave and somehow feel a lot more stressed than when I left. Luckily, I still have a few more days at the end of this week or i'd be pretty upset.