Mortgage free in Forever Home :-)

KajiKita

Hi All,

 This is partly for the benefit of @Cheery_Daff who has nudged me into posting. 😊

I’m in a bit of a pickle and I need to get on top of it before it becomes any more serious.

I am inherently a spendthrift, it’s always has been my way. In my 20’s I ended up in a lot of debt relative to my income which I eventually paid off via the DWD approach I learned on the Motley Fool.

I then got to a stage where we were comfortably off and I kind of lost focus on my finances – I got away with it at the time because the mortgage and other living costs were affordable. Just over 2 years ago we moved to our ‘forever home’ which was a significant increase in terms of mortgage value / repayments. I have also been made redundant twice since Covid started after being on 60% pay for a furlough period that lasted 4 months  ☹ and with rapidly increasing food and energy costs and my spendy ways I am now in credit card debt, with tiny savings and its feeling tight on our budget …

So … it’s time for a fresh start!

I have a new job that I will be starting shortly that has a good pay-rise along with it. Over Christmas I spent a lot of time on a full budget review and have managed to make it balance on my current salary with some money going towards savings for expected things like car MOT & servicing etc. I suspect that there will be some ‘missing’ costs / spends that will need to be factored in, so will review my budget structure monthly (logged this action in my diary).

The credit card debt I have moved to 0% interest until April 2023, so obviously that will need to be paid off before then. The first focus needs to be working my way up to £5K of savings (equivalent to 3 months’ worth of minimal living costs) and then knocking down the credit card.

I am committed to tracking every spend as it happens so I can see as the month goes on whether I am overspending in one area and will have to cut back on another. Hubby is on-board with economising so will reduce / remove his alcohol spend on the weekly shop and is watching with me what we spend on the groceries shop.

My other intention is to post and lurk (and learn more) here as people don’t talk about money in ‘the real world’ and its that lack of reinforcement with all the opposite, sparkly attractors to spend (like adverts etc.) that mean I am not conscious of where I am spending or the effect it is having on my finances or my future.

I like tracking / recording things, so I am also going to track:

-        Number days per month of no-spend

-        £Values on loyalty points (BP, Nectar & Clubcard spends atm)

-        Overall mortgage value (not that I can OP atm but it will remind me what the end game is here …)

-        Savings achieved to date

So today’s spends are:

£25.32 on fuel – not a full top up as I have only been into work 3 days this week and some of that was driving locally over Christmas.

£129.80 for a Tesco’s delivery coming this evening. We are trying them to see if we can drive down our costs somewhat. Previously we were spending an average of £160 per week (ridiculous I know!).

I’m not expecting to go anywhere or spend anything this coming weekend but am planning some batch cooking of things already in stock or in the Tesco’s delivery  😊

Feeling quite excited – both about the new job (more income) but also that I have got my head around this and have a plan! 😊

KK

PS - I dithered for a while about a title for this post / thread, but ultimately mortgage in my forever home is where I want to end up! 

KajiKita

Coo! Just reinstalled the Nectar App on my latest phone after not having looked at it for months and I have £98.92 in points!

Now to work out how to turn those into online spend .... 

KK   

Cheery_Daff

Welcome to your first diary!! Sounds like you've got into some spendy habits but have a good plan to get back out of them! Hopefully hanging around here will keep you in the thrifty mood - I always pick up lots of yips, and focusing on MSE ways makes me far less likely to spend.

You'll be mortgage free in your forever home before you know it! 😊😊

Do keep updating!

KajiKita

Cheery_Daff said:

Welcome to your first diary!! Sounds like you've got into some spendy habits but have a good plan to get back out of them! Hopefully hanging around here will keep you in the thrifty mood - I always pick up lots of yips, and focusing on MSE ways makes me far less likely to spend.

You'll be mortgage free in your forever home before you know it! 😊😊

Do keep updating!

Thanks Cheery 
It will be a loooong time before we are mortgage free but that marathon will need support and I get the vibe that this is place to find it 
KK

fannyadams

Hi KK.
Welcome (I lurk on Cheery's diary so went hunting for yours and here I am).
One thing that I found useful with regards to fuel for vechiles is to look at the Petrol Prices app/website to see if there's a cheaper fuel station you could go to on your way home from/to work. I saved about 3p/L by doing this.
That, and shopping at Aldi (although their click and collect price is a bit <blueshrieking emoji>.

HTH

FA

xx

Four_Seasons

Hi, I am another lurker on cheery's diary. I too have trouble on 'offers' appearing on my phone/computer. After a tip from Foxgloves diary I now transfer myself a monthly allowance and when it's spent that's it no more until following month. It has definitely made me very choosy what I spend on!! It was always so easy when I paid with cc. The very best of luck I will be cheering you on x

chicker

Welcome and good luck with your new diary! I definitely feel more focused on our goal when I’m visiting the forum and updating my diary regularly!

Chicker x

Tescodealqueen

Hi KK I am an occasional poster on Cheery’s diary so wanted to say hi and we’ll done on starting your diary xx

edwink

Hi KK

Glad you have started a diary that will help keep you focussed on your end goal.  I visit a lot of the diaries on MSE and it is amazing what others have or are in the process of achieving debt wise or mortgage free wise.  Well done on making the first move of starting a diary, now you are off the starting block there should be no stopping you now.

I'll be cheering you on along the way, good luck. 

Edwink x

Chiglepig

Glad to see you took the plunge, KK.

Hope the new job works out - two redundancies, ouch!

KajiKita

Chiglepig said:

Glad to see you took the plunge, KK.

Hope the new job works out - two redundancies, ouch!

It was a bit ... Sometimes I feel like I have been really feeble and ill disciplined and then I remember that in the past 2.5 years we moved house (including me moving from where I was living away during the week for work), two redundancies, a pandemic and getting Covid to the extent I was ill for months after .... Then I don't feel as useless!  

Thanks for the good wishes

KK