The 'scenic route' to mortgage freedom...

PiggyBankShaker

South_coast said:

August could be a challenging month to start slashing the grocery spending with the kids at home? 

You are probably right. They are spending 6 days away at a full-board residential camp, so that will hopefully offset the extra grocery spend and we come out of the other side being no worse off. 

So we've a spendy-ish couple of days and I'm trying not to feel bad. £25 on takeaway pizza; £22 on a ferris wheel ride; £14 on ice cream and £250 on a specialist air filter to try and ease DH's hayfever.

The only thing I regret a bit is the pizza because we had something cheaper and more filling planned but for various reasons, ending up being late and had to get pizza instead so the fam had something to eat. Its the one thing that we could have avoided by being more organised. The rest - the ice creams and ferris wheel - were treats that we chose buy/do and whilst they weren't MSE I don't want to cut everything right to the bone because making memories and having fun with the kids while they still want to hang with us is important to me.

The air filter is a quasi-essential spend too because DH's hayfever was so bad he had to have time off work on Friday. This way hopefully we can create one allergen-free room at home where he can get some relief.

I'm going to try and make today a no-spend day. Nowhere to go and nothing to buy. Let's do this!

PiggyBankShaker

Switched energy providers today although the switch itself isn't taking place until the 17th August. Price is staying roughly the same instead of increasing with the end of our fix. Its a small win, but a good one nonetheless. 

DH got a load of soot and twigs and an old piece of carpet(!) out of the chimney in our bedroom. I'd noticed a fusty smell in there in the heat so I hope this will sort it out.  Hopefully it will also improve passive ventilation as well and help keep our room a tiny bit cooler. We really ought to do DS's chimney as well but it is a messy job and he has a sort of 'door' fitted to his so it will be trickier to get in there.

There really isn't a lot to report. Trying to keep spending down with mixed success. So far this month we've spent £207 on groceries,  which seems high given we are only half way through the month and a few years ago we used to spend that and it would last a whole month. We've also spent about £120 on diesel, which again feels high given neither of us commute.

Will do a full breakdown at the end of the month.

greent

Hi PBS - I've found that over the past 18 months my grocery spends have massively increased - mainly due to things increasing by 20p here, 50p there, 10p there type thing - not much I can do about a lot of it (either already own brand/ from lidl or aldi or brands where we won't compromise (eg PG T1ps) - I buy the branded items in bulk when they are on special offer, but have had to accept that I'm not going to spend what I used to - plus we have minimum welfare/ animal standards when it comes to meat, eggs etc, which invariably means they cost more! And school hols are a money pit in terms of extra snacks, treats, days out etc (even if you're going somewhere that's free you tend to need fuel, will pack a picnic that might have something a bit more special than lunch at home and then there's the possibility of an icecream to eat whilst out.... ) Petrol and diesel costs are also rising, so you're being hit with that as well

Anyway, just popping by to say I've subscribed and will follow your journey x

jimjames

PiggyBankShaker said:

So far this month we've spent £207 on groceries,  which seems high given we are only half way through the month and a few years ago we used to spend that and it would last a whole month. We've also spent about £120 on diesel, which again feels high given neither of us commute.

Will do a full breakdown at the end of the month.

Unfortunately that's the impact of inflation, prices do go up and some more than others. Fuel particularly has gone up around 30% over the last 12 months so that would be quite noticeable. On the plus side it means you're not doing anything wrong or necessarily using the car more than you did

PiggyBankShaker

Household Information
Number of adults in household.............2
Number of children in household..........2
Number of cars owned..........................1

Income, Expense, Debt & Asset Details Income Amount(£)
Monthly income after tax.......................4,423
Partners monthly income......................1,298
Benefits.................................................140
Other income.........................................0
Total monthly income.............................5,861


Monthly Budget Summary Amount(£)
Total monthly income............................5,861
Monthly expenses.................................2,882
Available for debt repayments..............2,979
UNsecured debt repayments................0
Amount left after debt repayments.......2,979

Personal Balance Sheet Summary Amount(£)
Total Assets (things you own)...............249,414
Total Secured & HP Debt......................-136,342
Total Unsecured Debt...........................-0
Net Assets............................................113,072


Expenses Amount(£)
Mortgage..............................................700
Council tax...........................................162
Electricity & Gas...................................106
Water Rates..........................................54
Mobile phone........................................83
TV Licence...........................................13
Satellite/Cable TV.................................17
Groceries etc........................................364
Clothing................................................66
Petrol/diesel.........................................157
Road tax...................................................0 (£155 - Paid annually)
Car Insurance...........................................0 (Paid annually)
Car maintenance (including MOT)........... 0 (Paid annually)
Other child related expenses..................371 (Normally 216)
Medical (prescriptions, dentists, opticians etc.) 120
Pet Insurance/Vet bills............................200
Buildings Insurance...................................0 (Paid annually)
Contents Insurance...................................0 (Paid annually)
Life Assurance.........................................54
Presents (birthday, christmas etc.)...........20 (Only birthdays; kids presents and Christmas not included)
Entertainment.........................................125
Holiday...................................................200
Charity donations.....................................57
Bank fees..............................................13
Total monthly expenses..........................2,882

greent

Are you not generally 'supposed'  to divide annual bills by 12 and add theat figure to your monthly budget? - so car maintenance and tax, all insurances and kids birthday and Xmas presents  - to give an idea of the equivalent monthly spend? Other than that I don't see much to comment on   - most of your monthly outgoings are less than ours 🤦‍♀️

PiggyBankShaker

greent said:

Are you not generally 'supposed'  to divide annual bills by 12 and add theat figure to your monthly budget? - so car maintenance and tax, all insurances and kids birthday and Xmas presents  - to give an idea of the equivalent monthly spend? Other than that I don't see much to comment on   - most of your monthly outgoings are less than ours 🤦‍♀️

Re. the annual payments - I know I should add them in but honestly they seem to change every year and we literally never put money aside for them in advance, so it feels 'wrong' to include them in a monthly  breakdown like this. In our spending tracking spreadsheet, we have an annuals sheet where we track these spends and also house improvements and holidays.

PiggyBankShaker

Sometimes the amount of money we have to save seems insurmountable. I want to clear the mortgage off before I turn 50 and I also want to build the extension using as little credit as possible. The problem is we have no idea how much the extension will cost and our architect has been the most laid back, indifferent person we have ever worked with. It has been almost a full twelve months since we embarked on this journey and every point of progress has been incredibly slow. Hopefully next week we will finally get the technical drawings and be able to go out to tender for the work and get a price.

I know these are all 'nice' problems to have, I know we are fortunate to be in a position to do this and it is all self-imposed stress but I also feel that given we live here 24/7 (we both work from home) it is important that our home feels 'right' and functions for us on a fundamental level. We spent 11 years in our last house and 9 of those living in various stages of renovations or 'making the best' of things that we simply couldn't afford to change for long time. I want to get this right asap so that we can enjoy it for as long as possible.

So anyway, that's enough whinging. The reality is that the next three months are going to be very tight with no capacity to save and I just have to make peace with that. There's £6300 to pay for the new windows; £1500 for our holiday; £2600 architect fees and £1700 structural engineers fees. And we only have £5400 in savings. If by November we've paid all that and have anything left in savings at all we'll be doing okay. 

PiggyBankShaker

Email from the Structural Engineer today, they haven't finished the drawings and they won't be ready for a fortnight either, so that's more delay before we can get an indicative price.

In other news, OH has found a new house insurance policy for us (renewal is at the end of the month) which is £20 cheaper and has £45 cashback.

I have submitted my expenses, which came to £96.

Nothing else to report. I've been resisting the temptation to buy some new books, which is actually harder than it sounds Really need to have a dig around in the attic and see if we have any stuff to sell.

PiggyBankShaker

Had a big finances chat with OH yesterday. I'm very conscious that at the end of the month when it is our mortgage anniversary we 'lose' the ability to over pay £7,500 forever. With our fix coming to an end in three years I want to be in a really strong position to remortgage, but with saving for the building work as well everything feels tight. In theory - on paper - we can save £3,000 a month which over the three years would be enough to pay for the extension AND the mortgage overpayments, but would leave us really tight with no wriggle room. I need to mull on it s bit more.