Mortgage free in Forever Home :-)

Cheery_Daff

KajiKita said:

redofromstart said:

happy new diary ( from another lurker ;-) ) and good luck with your challenge

Thanks @redofromstart

Go'on do a thread ....  You know you want to ....   

KK

Redo already has a thread! 😊😊

Excellent MSE work today! Well done!

KajiKita

Oooh, how do I find it @Cheery_Daff? 
(I'm struggling a bit with the navigation here atm).

KK

KajiKita

Missed one
- Used my new customer number from Accord to log into my mortgage account so I can see a 'live' balance figure now 
KK

redofromstart

I have a 'debt free' diary here dating back to when we had some financial challenges: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5687957/x#latest
Should really be on mortgage free these days but am too lazy to move plus its easier to find my recipes on one thread.

If you click on someones user name it should give you the option of looking at 'discussions' which shows the threads they have started.

redofromstart

KajiKita said:

Missed one
- Used my new customer number from Accord to log into my mortgage account so I can see a 'live' balance figure now 
KK

I find being able to look at mine in real time really motivational.  Just rounding it down or whatever, its a few pounds I will never pay interest on again.

KajiKita

redofromstart said:

I have a 'debt free' diary here dating back to when we had some financial challenges: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5687957/x#latest
Should really be on mortgage free these days but am too lazy to move plus its easier to find my recipes on one thread.

If you click on someones user name it should give you the option of looking at 'discussions' which shows the threads they have started.

Thanks for the tips Redo 
I shall head over and bookmark your thread 
KK

Suffolk_lass

KajiKita said:

Suffolk_lass said:

Hello KK, I just found you via Cheery's diary too. I reduced our grocery spending (including everything pets, cleaning toiletries and cosmetics) from over £700 to under £200 a month over a number of years (clearly a slow learner) and we are now debt and mortgage free, and have reached the age between giving up paid work and drawing our state pensions. We do both have modest occupational pensions in play - anyway - I feel my experience on here might enable me to chip in with suggestions from time to time.

Thing one, plan your meals from what you have in. Unless there are things you can't live without, stop paying the SM to store their stock for them. Write a list of just the things you need to finish your meals and only buy those things, not the "we always have x in" (beyond a few essentials, which for me are cheese, butter, yogurt, milk and some fresh and frozen veg).

Thing two is Tilly-tidying your currant accounts down to a round figure. When flush this is the next £50 for me, but more often £10 or even £1 - with well over £20k shifted to pay down the mortgage in this way, I can recommend it

Good luck (subscribed)

Good morning @Suffolk_lass
We've always done the meal planning thing (largely so hubby knows what he's going to be eating every day - one of his little quirks ) and after Christmas we realised we had freezers bulging with foods so we are eating those down before buying any more  
Can I ask how often you 'tidy' your balance down? (I love this idea btw  ) - is it a once a month thing after payday or every week? I will add this to my monthly review actions, once i have a full month's pay from my new job  (Getting so excited for that now!!  ). 
KK

I do it after every spend - I have a spreadsheet - I like a nice spreadsheet ( ) that maps out when all the payments as SO or DD go too and the addictive nature of it means I log in most week days to check (as both our current accounts are joint, there are often little unexpected DH transactions).

And I track them monthly and annually and log them as part of my Savings total on the "Save £12k in 20nn" thread - the 2022 one is just getting going if you fancy joining it - some of my savings do go out as we have both stopped work now but if I had not saved it, then I would be cashing in other stuff in less available locations. One of the current accounts has saved over £22k since I started. It's named after Tilly (on here) but I think some later exponents use other names.

KajiKita

Hi @Suffolk_lass
I have done my first Tilly-Tidy of 48p to savings 

In other news I have finished logging into all my accounts on my new (Christmas present!) iPad (jeepers, resetting all the logins for accounts etc takes for ever!) and updated all my transactions in the month to date on my spreadsheet tracker. 

Currently I have:
- £714 of an 862 food / groceries budget left
- £578 of my monthly spend left v. my income (I have already deducted all my planned savings, transfers to joint accounts that we pay the food and household bills etc from)

Included in my budget is a £100 cash / pocket money per month but I have just checked my purse and i have £111.13 in there so I won't need that this month or possibly next month either. It will be very satisfying to sweep all that 'budget' into my savings account when I get paid again! 

KK
 

Chiglepig

KajiKita said:

- put the Sarah Raven, Landsend Sale and JW Parker catalogues straight in the recycling without even looking at them! #go_me!

  I SOOO get this - I have to do it too. Particularly SR. My garden is full, but if I dare to open the catalogue I know I'll be plotting just where I can fit one more Dahlia! It is a work of marking genius.

KajiKita

Chiglepig said:

  I SOOO get this - I have to do it too. Particularly SR. My garden is full, but if I dare to open the catalogue I know I'll be plotting just where I can fit one more Dahlia! It is a work of marking genius.

Sadly my garden isn't full .... (it's been under-gardened / neglected for years before we bought it), it needs lots and lots of plants for the effect I want, but I also have a bad habit of buying / ordering plants and the areas that they were planned for are not clear / weeded / prepped for them and then they outgrow their pots / die .... a sickening waste of both plants and cash.

So, this year's plan is just to focus on cultivating the bits I already have as borders / veggie beds, keeping on top of weeds (planning a weekly 'snip patrol' for the bindweed, bracken and brambles!) and I am aiming to only grow things from seed this year (I have a lot that I didn't get time to sow last year) apart from things that are more difficult such as (small!) shrubs and snowdrops etc. There are also some lovely ornamentals in the garden (e.g. Japanese anemones, bugle etc.) that will respond well to being divided so I hope to do a fair bit of that this year

I grew dahlias from seed last year and some of them were lovely!  Those are overwintering in the cellar 

KK