Future Proofing my life: Deposit saving then MFW journey in under 13 years

Sistergold

Oh I started yesterday to catch up with you. Well done
 I see you are keeping up with the savings! Great that you are enjoying your classes and I see you are also trying to finish off your program! Great about the side hustle! It’s good to have so many streams of income! 

I am always impressed with your budgeting skills! 

Oh relationships! It starts well then oh you see the real person! I guess it’s all about kissing a lot of frogs before you meet the prince? 

LadyWithAPlan

Sistergold said:

Oh I started yesterday to catch up with you. Well done
 I see you are keeping up with the savings! Great that you are enjoying your classes and I see you are also trying to finish off your program! Great about the side hustle! It’s good to have so many streams of income! 

I am always impressed with your budgeting skills! 

Oh relationships! It starts well then oh you see the real person! I guess it’s all about kissing a lot of frogs before you meet the prince? 

Not sure what the name of a collective of frogs is … but just googled and it's an army, colony or a knot .. so in that case i have clearly been living in a colony !  Army suggests far more frogs than i have bothered with., 

my budgeting skills are from being self-employed and being the only person paying my bills so I always used to do a monthly paper budget for many years then switched to excel and also having virtual pots in various Monzo etcetera bank accounts so a little bank account per category e.g. the money for my groceries. However YNAB  now up has taken it to the next level due to the locking down of my money and really showing that when I spend it on one area I have to take it for somewhere else or it's debt or it's coming out of my savings aspect and the reporting really does skyrocket your saving and understanding of where your money is going. 

I do think it's incomparable and I've tried lots of other budget software and systems. It's my prince in a colony of frogs in the budgeting dating pool ! 

i do miss my diy classes but the current tech  courses are largely for work, up skill and inspiring me on new ideas and new ways to become more efficient.
The one software language course I bought python I have not really started at home but now I’m starting study in college and I think I might actually go back to the home version because I can get through it quicker.  Of course i then don’t have a teacher if I get confused, but I do feel that course is supposed to take 30 weeks up to next summer is  too long 
the other courses are far quicker - 8 or 12 weeks

Watty1

DM sent re course platform but then occurred to me others might be wondering so i use NewZenler. It has a free version and a paid for version.  According to my lovely tech PA most people only need the free version but that takes 10% of course sign ups and i decided to think big and go for a paid for plan as if I was a success it would work out cheaper!  Anyway DM sent

Viking_mfw

For transcription I highly recommend Academic Audio Transcription - they are a social enterprise as well as being very good. 

LadyWithAPlan

julicorn said:

Oh stop it! I've been absolutely terrible keeping up with diaries over the last few years, but it's really fun diving back in and seeing what everyone's up to behind just the numbers

I have suddenly got busy again, back studying various things and I find I suddenly have 20 pages at least to catch up with some of the diaries I like to follow.
My 'deposit' numbers have remained quite flat but thats due to invoices not being fully paid and bills keep marching out the door, however there is light at the end of the tunnel and having a new focus on doing a Tillytidy attempt at matching the £850pm minimum gap between my proposed mortgage 2k plus a month vs my current rent..

@ruby_eskimo I probably need you to be mean  
Having said that I can see  why people drag their feet, one LLL episode the FTB were properly stressed re the weight of a mortgage and they were a married couple, both working

I did watch a great episode where Kirsty started calculating cost of junk  as the couple had a lot of stuff eg a study room for junk in a 2 bed + study home so 1/5th of the flat (in her calc was thus  £35k 1/5th of home cost  for keeping junk ..)  
I rent a 2 bed and my study definitely has some junk but also is a hugely helpful workspace and room for a monster desk, 2 monitors etc so is v useful.. 

HOUSE HUNTING
Hmmm, went to SE London  for the first time flat hunting and saw 7 flats/houses there all on overground/trainlines to central London .. Saw some nice things but nothing that made me go - I need this... I can see I can get a bit more for my money as i can get 2 beds plus a small garden for 425-500  there whereas in quite far North London where i am thinking 2 beds often comes with a shared garden for 460k plus.. and  with private garden £500k+ but North London its 20 mins straight into Soho.. the SE london flats arent giving me so much more space for the inconvenience of the trainlines , I may go a bit further SE...into Stratham/Norwood etc to see
I also  much prefer being on a tube line though .. and north or west is easier to get back to see parents
I am planning to go look nearer Brixton way as well as West London past Acton etc ... I have been looking at lots of LLL episodes and googling their  areas now, so my search for where in London  continues - I do feel both Walthamstow the houses in my budget are too small and the whole SE london only works if the house is immeasurably bigger .. so I am crossing some areas off.
I may start looking further up both the Northern and Victoria lines...
I know I am buying for at least 10 years if not forever  so I need that second bedroom and outdoor space.

NAV 
I note my total NAV including SIPPs etc (but not inc current accts, nor sinking funds or unpaid invoices)  has now surpassed £181,072.79  this is the highest ever ..;) 
Sipps today  60,421.63  so i have smashed through my £60k target - £70k in sipps by March 24 is next goal

WelshmansDaughter

A friend of mine is selling up due to pending divorce and it has me thinking a lot about why people buy what they do. She has a 4 bed on 12 acres but a 2 hour round trip commute 3x a week. And she wants to get something similar but closer to town with less land. But she has never actually sat down and calculated how much time she actually has between all her activities. Or how much time she spends at home.
If I was buying again, I would honestly think about how much time I want to spend cleaning, putting things away, getting rid of the inevitable clutter buildup that comes with too much space. I would think more about flexibility in the space and not having dedicated areas if I don’t need them.
Keep your mind open- a smaller and cheaper space can be made better with a good architect. And no interest paid to architects 

Sistergold

Oh welldone @LadyWithAPlan for smashing your savings goals. You are almost getting to £200k wow! If you should decide to retire to a small cheaper town you will have a paid off house! lol but I know that you are a London girl so you have to continue saving! 🫶🏽 

@WelshmansDaughter you are right we just buy house sometimes without thinking of what is best. We end up investing in square footage just to house our clutter. X

LadyWithAPlan

WelshmansDaughter said:

A friend of mine is selling up due to pending divorce and it has me thinking a lot about why people buy what they do. She has a 4 bed on 12 acres but a 2 hour round trip commute 3x a week. And she wants to get something similar but closer to town with less land. But she has never actually sat down and calculated how much time she actually has between all her activities. Or how much time she spends at home.
If I was buying again, I would honestly think about how much time I want to spend cleaning, putting things away, getting rid of the inevitable clutter buildup that comes with too much space. I would think more about flexibility in the space and not having dedicated areas if I don’t need them.
Keep your mind open- a smaller and cheaper space can be made better with a good architect. And no interest paid to architects 

I have actually said to EA I would look at one beds as long as room to add a study/garden room.. or even a studio if large enough to have separate 'areas'  However not seen anything suitable and they just show me a one bed, - not sure why I am seeing /shown things that dont  fit my brief. I do want.need.insist on a second bed as an office /design space / fall back 

I was shown a nice 2 bed with a balcony with trees outside but service charge £1350 plus GR £340 - so too much though the EA tried to make it sound small. I am not doing such service  charges especially not in SE London.

@Sistergold the £181k includes my sipp of £60k so ... but a £200k deposit may yet be the next goal within 1 year/18 months ...

MORE LLL watching .. I have added a few more places to check out on my list..

WelshmansDaughter

Yes EAs can be rather unimaginative. A property search company would probably be better in your case if such a thing exists for all budgets. 

Your own personal LLL 😂😂😂
The YT channel I watch featured a London property recently, it was in Bermondsey. I don’t know that bit but it seems like it is near Deptford which I have visited and liked. 

LadyWithAPlan

Gluten free focaccia 
I made the most amazing focaccia GF DF - I used the below as a basis - it didn’t really rise pre cooking despite an hour near my boiler .. but did rise a bit in baking and was so good 
I added sundried tomatoes, artichokes in oil, red onion and fresh thyme, coriander and rosemary plus lots virgin olive oil all before  cooking 
I had never tried making a GF focaccia before but will be repeating it - light airy tasty and a bit crunchy especially with the sea salt over it 
NB when I reheated a segment next day in oven I added some Parmesan sliced thinly that also elevated it (so then not DF) 
https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/gluten-free-focaccia-recipe-onion-thyme

Beans - loving the freezing pre soaked but not cooked beans .. so need to buy dried pinto etc in bulk - may try some local ethnic shops 
-pinto I have £1.95 in Waitrose 500g dried so using that as my guide if I can find them elsewhere 

Toiletries 
Readers may remember I got all my toiletries out and collated them in open bins, so all hair stuff in one section, Body in another and then also facial creams, serums in another.
The current ones I’m actually using are in my bathroom cabinet and then I also separated my make up, but having all of these all out in Open bins in the bathroom has meant that I’ve literally spent hardly anything since all because I could see I still had excess.
Normally I will replace as my favourite creams or shampoo are running out. I would replace them so I have the next lot ready to go, but I had made a choice that I was going to get through everything that I’ve got in the house first therefore I haven’t bought anything. 

I do have some gift serums still in boxes, goody bag creams etc. 
I am almost excited I have finally  nearly finished one serum!  

It’s good to see space slowly emerging by using what I have got first. Plus when I buy it’s less stuff to move and I can see my toiletry budget is lower.

If in a year things are still left unused then I know I can throw them what with expiration dates etc 
I may have to buy a new mascara soon but I am using 2 old ones plus 2 sample ones - all Mac that I love - when they all died then I will get another - not before