Halving our income and still aiming for mortgage free!

smetf · 2 April 2023 at 5:00PM

Life is certainly busy at the moment.
The usual OP of £383.81 will go in tomorrow. The first two chunks of holiday accommodation are paid for and the next bits going out in August.
One of the saving accounts should have interest paid at the end of the month and then I can see about moving money around. Anything over the EF and Holiday Fund can be paid off the mortgage. My tax has finally been sorted so had a very healthy pay check this month, and will notice the difference in an increase in my monthly salary. From June we won't be paying out to support our eldest at uni (although food bills will go up at home) so am planning to add that amount on to the OPs till the end of this mortgage term.

smetf · 10 April 2023 at 2:52PM

Had a ticket refund so have split it between savings and OP. Another £120 OP made.
Had a very chilled Easter weekend, used a voucher from market research to buy treats and a few needed bits from Waitrose (not a lot to show for it but essentially free so won't complain)! A few drinks out yesterday and then drinking tea, doing jigsaws and a few surveys today ready for a very, very busy 4 weeks ahead.

Hope everyone has had a nice Easter weekend.

S x

smetf · 21 April 2023 at 8:17AM

Morning all,
Just made a £100 OP, submitted my MFiT form and updated sig accordingly.
I've boosted the EF slightly rather than moved much money around as there's a potentially large car bill to come so will reassess after that!
Hope everyone has a good weekend,
S

smetf · 10 May 2023 at 7:01AM

Morning all,

Car bill came in a few pence short of £500, full service, MOT with new tyres and a few other small bits. Happy with that as it's got over 150000 miles on the clock and still going strong!

Usual OP of 383.81 gone in. From June we will increase this as the eldest has finished uni!

smetf · 19 May 2023 at 4:24PM

Finally had chance to sit and work out money in a little pause from jobs.

Fixed rate saver has closed so have paid £2300 off the mortgage today 🎉

Have also reassessed money from June onwards and upped the standard OP to 616.53 from 1st June as our outgoings will change with eldest finishing uni.

Am hoping to throw more at it this year before we remortgage at the end of the year, and we're in such money saving ways we should be able to. Next aim is having it start with a 6...

S x

smetf · 28 May 2023 at 7:45PM

A bit of shopping yesterday, two new tops for me and two t-shirts for him, new jigsaw, 5 new plants for the garden and a book - all from local charity shop, plants stall and garage sale so only cost £22 for the lot!
Not very moneysaving overall though lost the price of train tickets and a race as wasn't well enough to travel and run...
Feeling significantly better for a chilled out weekend catching up on odd bits.

Have a new job and haven't yet worked out how I'm going to adapt my current hours to fit it in. In the short term I can probably continue doing both but I don't think that's sustainable longer term. Not going to complain about a few months with increased income though and then my new boss will start in two months and then I can discuss with them what my options are.
S

smetf · 30 August 2023 at 1:24PM

Hello,
Been a while since I posted (and I did type a long update last month and then lost it)! Signature up to date though.
So chuffed to have a mortgage starting with a 6 🎉

Been doing all the jobs and working all the hours which has been great for the OPs and savings but not for my sanity!
However, I am reducing my hours in my main role to 15 a week from the end of September, and holidays in France are approaching before then so it definitely feels like the there's light at the end of the tunnel.
Holiday accommodation payments of just over 1k go out today and then there's just fuel and food whilst we're away to pay for.
Our new mortgage starts in January and the rate is not brilliant - feel like we're pretty lucky that we can manage it but the OPs will go down slightly. We're in discussion about saving and the making bigger OPs less often but need to do some number crunching on that!

Also up for debate is adding solar panels/ heat pump etc. I think it's worth it in the long term and from an environmental standpoint but we'll do some more number crunching...