Pay off mortgage and start having even more fun 😁

newgirly

😆 It’s not that exciting! 

So the new mortgage starts 1st Oct. and I will update all those details then, so this is more of a spending challenge. It’s zero sum accounting again, so everything is allocated to various things. 

It’s the same as our usual budget which doesn’t seem much of a challenge 😆 however I will need to actually stick to it and also it’s the run up to Xmas and I would like to have the odd treat (ie.the heating on 😆) and perhaps the odd Xmas trip out.

The are exactly 13 weeks from 1st October to 31st December, usual budget for food/diesel/ misc. is £500 pcm and my personal spending allowance is £100 pcm. So 3x those divided by 13 weeks is £138.46 pw. A total of £1800 in the next three months. 

We still have two trips booked this year, Centerparcs with the kids and grandparents, paid for already but there’s a spending budget of £325 set aside (food taken with us and a couple of cheap activities for everybody) and a two night trip to krakow Xmas market, flights paid for already and £500 saved for hotel, private transfer, spending money, airport parking etc. That won’t be included. 

So the challenge is! 

• Live off £19.78 per day for five adults and diesel and misc. spending 
• Sell some items on fleabay to fund Xmas days out and meals out 😁
• Post everything spent everyday, painful and probably embarrassing but the only way! 
• Try to not use the heating as much as possible ☹️
• Try TO use the slow cooker for stuff other than orange looking meals 😆
• Use up more of the cupboard stores 
• Somehow try and save, find or steal an extra £300 to be overpaid on the mortgage! 

greent

Welcome back - amd good luck with the challenge! X

killerpeaty

I love a good NG challenge! Can you start challenging others as well because I need to stick to a budget too!

newgirly

Hi greent, thanks 😊

Hi KP, yes of course what would you like me to challenge you to do? 😂

killerpeaty

I should probably stop buying random stuff for myself, especially yarn/wool. At least until Christmas. 

LadyWithAPlan

newgirly said:

😆 It’s not that exciting! 

So the new mortgage starts 1st Oct. and I will update all those details then, so this is more of a spending challenge. It’s zero sum accounting again, so everything is allocated to various things. 

I
The are exactly 13 weeks from 1st October to 31st December, usual budget for food/diesel/ misc. is £500 pcm and my personal spending allowance is £100 pcm. So 3x those divided by 13 weeks is £138.46 pw. A total of £1800 in the next three months. 

So the challenge is! 

• Live off £19.78 per day for five adults and diesel and misc. spending 
• Sell some items on fleabay to fund Xmas days out and meals out 😁
• Post everything spent everyday, painful and probably embarrassing but the only way! 
• Try to not use the heating as much as possible ☹️
• Try TO use the slow cooker for stuff other than orange looking meals 😆
• Use up more of the cupboard stores 
• Somehow try and save, find or steal an extra £300 to be overpaid on the mortgage! 

Well done on your fix - I appreciate its higher  but given they are pulling mortgages etc at present sounds like you got in just in time. I am sure you will find a way to OP.

Orange looking meals?

Have you bought a heated blanket? I gather they are pretty fabulous re the heating costs.. I keep eyeing up the faux fur ones though as opposed to the cheaper ones!

I will join you in the posting what I spend.

newgirly

Kp I challenge you to stop buying wool until Xmas 😁

Hi Lady with a plan 🙂 yes the orange meals, I feel a lot of the slow cooker dinners just have a bit of an orange slopppy vibe 😆 I do cook jacket spuds in there too sometimes but need to find new things to cook there instead of the oven. I don’t have a heated blanket but did just buy us and ds1 a very thick new duvet, as ours were old and a bit thin, and I bought  myself a new hottie bottie 😬

Its chilly here already, not much to report really and I’ve not much to do today so might try and de clutter a few things and see if there’s anything I can list on fleabay at the weekend. 

newgirly

Well I didn’t de clutter anything yesterday, but went to my old workplace to visit the guys for a bit, it’s still strange not being there, I miss it. I will be doing more work for dh soon from home though, but it’s not the same as being able to chat to my work mates. 

I am debating whether to change one of our 2 trips next year, one is a 12 night northern lights cruise in November which is (£850 each) and one is a 12 night package with three nights in Niagra, a weeks New England cruise and a night in New York in September costing £4400 (not including spending money). It’s been booked a long time now, but the trips are two months apart and I’m a little nervous of a long flight combined with the feeling we should be prioritising the mortgage again due to circumstances getting more worrying. 

Probably I’m feeling like we have done a lot this year holiday wise, more than we ever have before and it’s been great but I feel like some of it has been a little stressful (the flying parts 😆). Work is a bit worry again for dh as they are not doing as well financially, so I’m thinking we should not do the dearer trip. 

I had a chat with dh last night who’s initial reaction was let’s not worry and just go, but after showing him the spreadsheet where potentially if we go for it again we may be able to clear it in under three years , he was a bit more keen. I think the fact we have actually done a lot this year has helped. I’ve contacted the travel agent and we had a paid a huge £900 deposit as it was a tailor made package, he said we should really only flip it to another tailor made trip (£££) so I said I wasn’t keen on flying and he said perhaps they can look at changing to a normal cruise with that line. There are Uk cruises we have wanted to do before so hopefully we might be able to change to that and just pay the extra, I can’t lose £900 deposit if we do cancel! 

I think the problem is I’ve set a very low budget and I’ve no idea really of how well we can stick to it through winter, yesterday there were three working from home , plus myself and ds2 home (back full time today after the broken arm hooray!) it was cold 🥶 ds1 came down to the living room as girlfriend was in meetings using his bedroom and he was wearing a wool hat, jumper and had a blanket wrapped around him, so I put the heating in for an hour. I wish we could get an instant update of bills when inputting meter readings, my company (so energy) only updates once a month, but in the past I’ve been able to do more readings and see the real cost. I don’t want everyone unhappy and freezing all winter, though. 

Moneyfordreams

Cheery Daff has bought a gadget that cost electricity use. I'm happy to use her results rather than do my own  

You are probably right to have concerns of the larger costing cruise. To me on a 3 seconds work out of costs I would estimate needing at least £10k for the 2 holidays. Holidays are like doing up a house  - they have loads of hidden costs

But imagine if you could do the Niagra one in 3 years after you have paid off the mortgage - Wouldn't that be great

We have had a couple of holidays back-to-back and I and now holidayed out (can you tell )  I'm hoping to give a bigger break a miss next summer and crack on with paying the mortgage off as this has been delayed due to house renovations.  

LadyWithAPlan

Changing the more expensive trip sounds very wise especially if it’s gets you to within 3 years MF. That’s a goal to dream about and you will both be less stressed - then @Moneyfordreams says Niagara can be the trip 

I guess you will still be having two trips next year to the tune of £4k -5k once you organised this slimmed down version. I’d have another chat with the travel agent on what you can spend it on and reread the deposit terms 
I am not saying you shouldn’t take a second trip but be nice if you could choose how to use the deposit rather than being herded. 

I bought an elec monitor like Cheerys - it had the reading screen on it. So no app, only about £13. 

I am having great fun seeing how much my 6 in 1 pressure cooker uses, microwave (both super cheap) and my kettle. About 1.5p per boil plus vat
Once I am back home I will be testing everything and posting. 

When the rates go up Saturday I will update the kWh price plus the VAT on top so it’s more accurate