Pay off mortgage and start having even more fun 😁

newgirly

Thanks everyone, I’ve been so tired this week I keep falling asleep I think it’s burn out from the wedding 😆

Anyway I’ve not done a full plan yet, but have some ideas. With already booked trips this and next year which I don’t want to cancel unless we really have to as the travel adventure has barely started yet! that leaves very little for the mortgage and a car 🙄 it looks like both cars are worth around £2500k (for both 😱) to be traded in, perhaps more if sold privately. 

Car finance/a loan doesn’t appeal too much as we have not done that since the being in debt years at the start of my first diary, it’s scary I I don’t like adding to monthly expenses in a way that can’t be too easily removed if needed. I think the best route might be to write off this year op wise, the rest of the years travel budget is 1k pm with all but £900 allocated to trips booked this year, that leaves a surplus from august (Julys for dhs birthday) of £565 pm if no mortgage ops made so I’m thinking:

• August £565 
• Sept.    £565 
• Oct.     £565
• Nov.    £565
• Dec    £565 

Surplus holiday budget £900

Cars trade in? £2500

Empty offset pot £1500 😩

Potential car pot by end of year £7,725 

We will see if that’s achievable both on the saving front and the managing to buy something ok front 😂 we are going from two to one cars so that will be extra saved in tax and insurance and if I can persuade dh to considerably downsize maybe we can go pre 2017 with an under 99g/km car like a fiesta and be zero tax, that would be the dream although size wise it’s so much smaller! 

Back on the frugal bandwagon at least for day to day living, no more takeaways from the chip shop! I find winter makes it much easier to eat cheaply, although I did get both slow cookers out yesterday for spag Bol (we need both beef and turkey versions) in summer I always want more fresh expensive things. 

I think I prefer this way of doing things, then next year hopefully we can start with a clean slate with the car bought and just focus on the mortgage without having to factor in payments for a long time.

Best stop waffling in now 😬

 

themadvix

Sounds like a sensible plan NG, especially as you need the car replacing. And going from two to one will help, as you say.

It's not too late to buy some tomato plants from the garden centre (they may even have fruit on already!) and grow some lettuce leaves - if you were closer, you could have some of mine! I've just picked from 3 plants and have plenty to be going on with and there's another three that need picking! Just a pack of mixed salad leaves seeds, sown thinly into compost (in a hanging basket the slugs shouldn't be able to get to them ) and water regularly. Thin out to a couple or three plants when they're big enough (eat the thinnings of course) and then just pull the outside leaves off and it'll keep regrowing. Or regrow supermarket whole lettuces from the stump - stick it in water and it'll just regrow!

newgirly

Thanks Vix, sorry for the delay in replying 🙂 I doubt I’ll start now with the big to be honest as the garden is quite full this year as I planted lots of flowers everywhere and we have lots of pots of (white for the wedding 😆) so I’ve not much room or any pots left. 

I think this is the longest I’ve ever been awol from mse, 2 weeks! 😱 It’s been a nice but also very stressful time lately, things have calmed down a little now but i think I’ve realised I need to have some breathing space to reset! 

After dds wedding I went away for four nights with best friend to Montenegro, a lovely five star hotel via voyage prive (unsure of cost as best friend booked and wouldn’t say as she wanted to pay with some inheritance, managed to give her some towards it though 😆) it was very relaxing but very hot which I’m not great with I’m factor 50 under an umbrella while she’s on the bed next to  me sunbathing 😂 

In the spirit of my trying to push myself a bit more since lockdown we did a boat trip to the blue cave, we are both scared of getting in the sea and fish (I know, I know!) I hadn’t been in the sea since being a teenager, we arrived and spotting no fish jumped off he back of the boat which was amazing! Very pleased I did something a tiny bit brave! 

Back home on Thursday then dd’s birthday so a houseful Sunday, this Sunday it’s a garden party at the in-laws for fils birthday then it’s the boys’ birthdays, although they are at a festival on their birthday as they often are 😆

Car wise things are not perhaps as imminently bad as I thought, the car IS running on all cylinders it’s something else that was the problem making the light come on which has been switched off, I’m not sure I trust it that much still. I’ve asked mum as I’m insured in her puma and I can borrow that we go away, she’s only done 800 miles in a couple of years having it from new so I’m doing her a favour 😬  

So finally the purpose of this diary- to clear the mortgage 😂 

I’ve been so all over the place lately I’ve shown very little interest in anything related to this or saving money really, this came to my notice very much this week when I got mortgage deal renewal papers through this week for when our deal ends at the end of sept 😱 it doesn’t run in sinc with the new mortgage as we were still on the old deal. I had not even realised it was up soon and although I’ve seen the news I hadn’t really taken into account it will be going up! 

We are currently on an fixed 2.09% offset deal (18yrs 4 months) so I’m thinking of being a little more conservative than usual and going for a five year fix with a facility to op by 50% with no fees. This does however lend itself to the question of should we attempt to clear it five years instead of the unknown term of probably around 7ish years we were thinking? To do that we would have to trim the travel budget a little, not save for the car as planned generally more careful with all spending and food shopping - tricky now obviously… 

The rate is actually higher than loan rates which I previously looked at re car buying (2.8%) so I’m thinking it might be time to have a mortgage blast from this October onwards when we fix again, with the proviso that if the car does die we either buy an old banger or take a loan out, it’s taking a chance but we will be clearing the mortgage quicker. This will mean payments of about £1135 pm instead which is a lot more than planned. Normally I’ve always gone for trackers of short fixes, but with the way things are it seems a dearer but perhaps safer option.

newgirly

Out last night seeing Elvis at the cinema with the passes, which now I’m trying to use more often, we also saw top gun this week too, although now the school holidays are here it will be busy and full of kids films- boo!

This weekend’s plan was to sell the Beetle at the online place, but with a low offer already, probably lower when they see it has a clicky noise when putting the roof down, I thought it better to at least try and sell on eBay first 😩 there should be a rehoming site for beetles (and minis) to make sure they go to good owners 😬

Did a big shop at Lidl yesterday, had a shock when it was £160 and I was expecting much less, luckily the cashier noticed before I left and she had rung up 52 packs of peppers 😂 so I was refunded, phew I was thinking it will be even tougher to stick to budget this month! 

themadvix

I would hope you’d do much better with eBay or auto trader than wbac or similar NG. After all, you’re selling a classic and they are worth more intrinsically than something that gets you from a to b. Good luck with it! 

South_coast

52 packs of peppers 🤣

newgirly

We had some bad news yesterday, we had gone out and the vet rang to say someone had brought in the cat’s body which they had found at the side of the road ☹️ 

I’m gutted, we thought he only went over the back gardens behind us, clearly he had started to wander much further as he was up the road. Poor little cat. 

themadvix

Oh no, I’m so sorry to hear that NG, such a young life! 😢 Thinking of you xx

greent

😢😢 - sorry to hear that, ng xx

South_coast

Sorry for your loss x