Mortgage free in Forever Home :-)

KajiKita

Just updated my signature (as I do at the end of every month / after payday). 

I can see that I am making steady progress, massively helped by the CoL payment from my employer this month. I'd like to get my 'actual' savings over £5K this month but I think I will struggle as the car's clutch needs looking at according to hubby, the cat is due a vet visit for her boosters etc and I need to start making inroads into C/Mas presents etc. 

However, to some degree, this is why we have savings isn't it, so these things can be dealt with without drama or going back into further debt. 

KK

badmemory

Wow, well that was not what I was expecting.  Happy birthday

Tescodealqueen

What a lovely gift. Have a lovely day

Merlin's_Beard

That's an incredibly thoughtful and fitting gift - how lovely.

KajiKita

I have been reading quite a bit on multiple threads about having savings pots. I just have my savings as one lump atm. I think it would be worth me breaking them down into categories and tracking my spends v what I have in the pots (iyswim) as I think it might well make me more accountable on my budgeting / spending. 

Does this make sense to everyone|?

KK

KajiKita

Oh, I have had a poke around on the t'internet and it looks like it is possible to swop locks / catches over on S@msonite cases. There is a company that will do it for you, (but obviously you have to pay for them to do it along with the materials and the collection / redelivery) so I think I will investigate me DIYing this further - I will have to flutter my eye lashes at my husband to get it back down from the garage roof where it has been stored for me to get details of it etc.   

KK 

Baileys_Babe

KajiKita said:

I have been reading quite a bit on multiple threads about having savings pots. I just have my savings as one lump atm. I think it would be worth me breaking them down into categories and tracking my spends v what I have in the pots (iyswim) as I think it might well make me more accountable on my budgeting / spending. 

Does this make sense to everyone|?

KK

Yes it makes sense to me, when my OH used to  see the bank balance was looking good he used to think it was okay, to loosen the reins on the spending to stop this I separated all our different pots (mainly annual bills) into different savings accounts as well as tracking all the pots on a spreadsheet which we could both access. Once he could clearly see how most of our money was allocated he has been much better at sticking to the budget, he also likes knowing that when a bill comes in or we have a holiday it doesn't effect our plans that month as we have the money to cover it. 
This month I have closed all our separate pots and put the money all in one account again as we could get a decent interest rate, we will continue to track each pot on the spreadsheet, hopefully this with give us the best of both worlds virtual savings pots and earning some interest.

KajiKita

Thanks @Baileys_Babe - we don't have a shared savings account, just a shared account that the bills come out of (which we cover with pretty much the bare minimum each month, or every 2 weeks in Hubby's case), so the savings I am talking about are completely within my control.

I think I will keep the money as one lump, earning interest like you say, but I will have a separate tab / entire spreadsheet(! ) to track what categories I have savings in along with an estimate of how much I need to put aside each month for all of them. I am nearly at a year of detailed tracking now, so almost everything in a year's cycle has repeated now (cat MOT, car MOT, insurances, dentist, clothes spend, etc etc.) so it would be a good time to do it for even better fiscal discipline next year!   

KK

KajiKita

So, the window cleaner came yesterday. I have paid his bill tonight and cancelled the service. I feel so mean 😭 but I did make it clear that it was no reflection on his work - we are just cutting back.

Another £12.50 pcm for saving / OPing.

KK

KajiKita

I was doing a read-through my old posts last night and I am actually quite pleased with how far I / we have come since the start of the year. I have moved from being in debt / out of control. no savings to speak of,

to

- debt controlled (and can be paid off when I am ready to),
- savings (limited but almost at 3 months' minimum spends),
- OP'ing the mortgage (partly though opportunities that have come along that would previously have been frittered on 'stuff' and earning more via QMee etc.),
- far more clarity on what I am spending on what
- and much more conscious spending.

It was quite a positive and reassuring thing to do to go back over those post as I am sometimes horrified at how far we have to go, but I can see I am building good foundations and I have learned and changed a lot over the past 9 or 10 months.

KK