Lolu's Mortgage Free odyssey

misslolu

Somehow I managed to take my eye off the ball and left insufficient funds in the account to pay off a CC bill, annoyingly this is my fault because I knew we were a bit low and forgot to add more. It's super annoying because I saw the money had come out and immediately funded the account at like 3am in the morning. The next day I saw the money back in the account so I was super confused about what happened, but I thought they would retake the money. It's only now, like 2 days later i've realised they wouldn't take the money out automatically, so I paid manually. I just really hope they don't charge me any late fees and it doesn't affect my credit score. Fingers crossed! A look at finances for the week:

CC1 (Mine) -       1,989 0

CC2 (Ours) -       11,355

CC3 (Mine) -   196 2045

CC4 (His) -     2,100

Total Non - Mortgage Debt -   15,640 11,500

S&S LISA -    18,600

Premium Bonds -  10,300

.Personal Savings -      8,700

Joint Savings -  200

Savings Total - 37,800

The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that we've cleared another credit card! This is partially due to a balance transfer, but we'd all but cleared CC3 (£196 left!) before the balance transfer so i'm taking that as a win. The consolidation means we have only 3 cards left to focus on paying down, which should help with the mental load a bit as the due dates were all over the place. My new CC companies make it so difficult to do the most basic things!

Surveys over the past 2 months or so have really boosted our debt payments; i'm on target to make well over £1k this year from it which will mean I need to do a self-assessment. I've not done one of those before, so I do hope it's straightforward.

And now onto our potential DFD:

Optimistic DFD is now

w/c 28th December! 2028

We've taken a good 2 weeks off of our original date which is great!

What's even more exciting is our pessimistic DFD has gone drastically back to w/c 26th of March which is amazing! Suspiciously so, actually; I hope i've not stuffed up the money somehow haha. But I've triple-checked, and it looks fine to me; something to do with which accounts the payments are coming from will affect the cash flow more than the cards themselves.

I'm really eager to see how much i'm getting in my salary this month, i'm not working every day this month so it won't be full salary but also i've not been paid much this year, so will need to pay less tax to balance it all out. I'm hoping to get 80-90% of my salary which will be amazing and really help us out with bills and fees for the month.

misslolu

So I was a bit worried because the statement from CC1 took a good 2 extra days to come through, and I assume it's at least partly because of the balance transfer paying everything off. Luckily, when it did come, there were no extra fees, maybe because I paid before the statement came out. Either way, I'm just waiting for one more statement to make sure, and then I'll close down the card. At this point I have so many CCs it's hard to keep track, and also I'm running out of new cards to get, so i'm closing down all of my unused and lower-credit CCs to open up options when CC2 & CC3 become interest-bearing again.

A look at finances for the week:

CC2 (Ours) -  11,355

CC3 (Mine) -    2045 1998

CC4 (His) -     2,100

Total Non - Mortgage Debt -   15,640 15,453

S&S LISA -    18,600 19,075

Premium Bonds -  10,300

.Personal Savings -      8,700

Joint Savings -  200

Savings Total - 37,800 38,275

Yet more survey payments are giving us a good boost towards debt as we wait for my first salary of the year. It's going to be less than usual, as I'm only working 80ish% of the month. But it's miles better than nothing, so it's going to be a godsend. Lots of money coming out this week; we're doing an open house at home for Babylolu's birthday, and we have some car expenses coming up as well as nursery. We actually don't have enough money to cover these from debt, so I'm going to personally lend the joint account some money to recoup on payday. It means the amount I send to the joint account will be less than normal, which is fine because for once it will be a net contribution instead of being a significant expense. As long as the bills get paid, anything I put in the joint is for savings and longer-term expenses.

misslolu

Payday has come & gone, and we've hit another milestone; we're under £15k for the first time in a long time!!! Ideally we should hit the £1k at least every 2 months, and with our current payment plan, it should, keeping us on track to pay off the debt by 2028. I also got paid my first salary of the year; in the end, I got 75% of my full salary, which was very well received by me. The joint account did struggle this month, so I ended up having to lend it some money for the month. I'm hoping to get it all square over the next few months and build up joint savings again to at least £2k by the end of the year.

We ended up having a party at home for Babylolu. I know house parties are supposed to be cheaper, but, my gosh, it was expensive to cater for. Coming from an ethnic culture, there's an expectation that if you're inviting people to celebrate, you're providing them with a hot meal and at least a few good snacks, especially if they're coming from far away, which a lot of my family were. Aside from that, it was a very lovely day; I got to see some family I hadn't seen in a while, and I apparently inspired some family to throw some birthday parties themselves, which is great. All in all, it was well worth the ding to our finances:

CC2 (Ours) -  11,355 11,128

CC3 (Mine) -    1,998 1,682

CC4 (His) -     2,100 2,000

Total Non - Mortgage Debt -    15,453 14,810

S&S LISA -    19,075 19,500

Premium Bonds -  10,300

.Personal Savings -      8,700 8,600

Joint Savings -  200

Savings Total -  38,275 38,600

Babylolu starts nursery this week, i've funded the tax account and have seen the money has gone out, so that's all sorted. I'm thinking of creating a small buffer as it seems we'll only be using £400 of the government top up per month. It probably makes sense to get the full £500 for now, since it only requires an extra £100 a month. I'll look at the leeway in our budget and see if it's feasible.

It now looks like all the major costs have been paid for the year. The only upcoming things are my birthday (OH usually pays), car insurance renewal and then Christmas and we really don't envisage spending so much on those, maybe £700 in total. However, OH has a milestone birthday next year and we're considering a long haul trip to visit one or two countries he's wanted to go to for ages. I'm doing some research about costs & potential visas at the moment so I can gauge if it's feasible or not. I think we can swing it if it's £2-3k, but £4k or more, we'd have to downsize the holiday or change the destination. This is still very much in the research stage, so is very liable to change. But if we manage to hit £10k or less by then, we'd be very motivated to go.

Finances do still look a bit hinky and like I said earlier, the joint account owes me a bit of money due to cash flow issues, but i'm assuming by next month we should be back to usual programming. I also think I need to review my budget a bit better. I'm working 4 days a week now, with the 5th day seeing Bablylolu in nursery until I can get that changed. I'm planning to use that day for a bit of rest & relaxation, but also as an opprtunity to get some chores & deeper celaning done I can't do with her around. This will be the first week so i'm not expecting anything too serious, but i'd love to get some serious decluttering done by the end of the year. Let's see how that goes.

misslolu

I've just realised this is the month CC3 starts to become interest bearing again, since I did a simple balance transfer for the lower interest. At the moment it's 5.9% per year, which, coupled with the small balance, means that interest won't be too crazy. The total interest we pay on the balance will be £40 maximum at my last calculation and that excludes any overpayments we're planning to make. Obviously the earlier we pay, the less interest, but we're going as fast as we reasonably can at this point.

CC2 (Ours) -   11,128

CC3 (Mine) -     1,682 1,651

CC4 (His) -      2,000

Total Non - Mortgage Debt -     14,810 14,779

S&S LISA -     19,500

Premium Bonds -  10,300

.Personal Savings -     8,600

Joint Savings -  200

Savings Total -   38,600

No major payments this week, so we're relying on overpayments from surveys to make a difference this week. While the going is good i'm aiming for £50 a week, which should add up to an extra payment each month. Basically doubling the payment to CC3 every month until it's paid off, and bringing the closure of CC3 to this year instead of next. Seeing it laid out like that is definitely motivating, it's kind of gotten to the point where surveys are a bit of a slog and i'm struggling to stay awake for the ones that pop up later at night. I also think I need to add more variety to the surveys I'm doing, as they're all concentrated in one area at the moment.

Babylolu had her first full day at nursery last week and I felt so awful. She usually goes off to her keyworker with minimal fuss even if she's a bit reluctant, but today she cried like I've never seen her. I know she eventually perked up, but she didn't eat much and was super emotional and clingy when she got home. I'm taking her in later in the week before I go to work so I really hope she's in a better mood or i'll be thinking about her all day.

misslolu

It's been a hectic few weeks, Babylolu has inched towards being less upset for nursery which is great. This week she only cried for a few seconds and stopped as soon as she didn't see me anymore. She also went to her keyworker herself even though she was upset and has started eating a lot more. Though I do suspect the food thing is more her being unfamiliar with the food than upset. Either way, I feel a lot less guilty about leaving her now she's getting more used to it and I hope she continues in that vein. A happy consequence of nursery does seem to be that she's sleeping a lot more, granted it could also be as a result of the awful viral infection she's been fighting this week, but her sleep is now more in the 11/12 hour range rather than 9/10 which is great. I've always been slightly worried aobut how little sleep she gets, so if this continues i'll be a happy camper. I'm also working on nightweaning and leaving her alone more at night so she can sleep without me, that might take a bit longer. Something else i've been doing is potty exposure, we've been reliably catching at least some morning wee just after she wakes up. It's been working so well that i'm considering doing it after her naps too, but I need to check and see if it won't be too disruptive not doing it on the nursery days.

Financially, i've been paid my full salary for the first time this year and i'm ecstatic, i'm not sure if the amount is higher than expected because i've not paid any tax this financial year or if this is what I have to look forward to for the future. Either way, I'm savouring it while it lasts. The joint account also owes me a decent amount of money so I don't need to send any money to it this month (though I do pay some bills directly from my account, so they will be paid). A look at finances:

CC2 (Ours) -   11,128

CC3 (Mine) -      1,651 1,591

CC4 (His) -      2,000 1,900

Total Non - Mortgage Debt -       14,719 14,619

S&S LISA -     19,500 19,756

Premium Bonds -   10.400 11,000

.Personal Savings -     8,600

Joint Savings -  200 366

Savings Total -   38,600 39,722

I've slacked a bit on surveys this month. Going back to work full time has meant i'm not available for the major hitters which tend to come early morning and late at night. But also i've seen some come in and have just not had the energy to get to them. It does mean I only managed to hit half of my full overpayment target last month and likely means we won't pay this CC off by the end of the year which is sad. There's still some time but I do think unless we get very lucky on surveys, it's more of a dream than realistic goal. Ah well, we may get lucky yet.

misslolu

Unfortunately, the little one didn't go to nursery this week because she managed to catch chickenpox!! I'm a bit annoyed because we were just about to cross over to her being less upset and now we're going a few steps back. Luckily she's been mostly fine all through except for a fever one day and a runny nose/cough throughout. She didn't have a huge amount of spots either and had no itchiness which was good. It looks like they've all crusted over so fingers crossed, she's able to go back to nursery this week and would have only really missed a week.

CC2 (Ours) -   11,128 10,905

CC3 (Mine) -       1,591 1,347

CC4 (His) -       1,900

Total Non - Mortgage Debt - 14,619 14,152

S&S LISA -      19,756 19,908

Premium Bonds -    11,000

.Personal Savings -     8,600

Joint Savings -   366

Savings Total -    39,722 39,874

Payday has been and gone, but unfortunately, debt payments haven't yet started in earnest. I was a bit optimistic when I was thinking we could start making extra payments. so early after returning from mat leave Especially as we had already gone partly into September's pay to fund all the extracurriculars for August. Being realistic, we first need to get our emergency fund to £1k, then we can start looking at extra payments again. So, looking ahead at forecasted expenses, it looks like the rest of this year we should primarily focus on building our emergency fund back up, getting potentially a month ahead on nursery fees and putting cash aside in our sinking funds for the inevitable car expenses that come up in December.

Also, taking into consideration, Christmas is on the horizon, plus OH's birthday trip is in the process of being planned. I think it's reasonable to keep going with survey payments but not expect to make decent inroads into debt until at least February, when the trip will be fully planned & mostly paid for. December should also be the first month where the joint account is no longer owing me any money, so I can put money in for the first time since last year, December! I'm hoping that the extra payments will boost us as we aim towards our goals.

beanielou

On the bright side non mortgage debt nearly into the £13,000’s.