10 years to clear £334K - our FIRE journey

CCW007

Thank you!  We used to OP previous mortgage until we needed to clear some debts but it was done via rounding up our monthly payment so only got to see balance updated once a month and didn't feel very exciting, although we were OPing over £500 a month.  Very much enjoying making ad hoc payments and seeing the balance update the next day!

Talking of which... £6.17 OP sent to bring balance down to a nice round £332,080.  Was tempted to send £86.17 but can't really justify it this month!

Grocery challenge (GC) £7 / £150 (toilet rolls from Amazon).

CCW007

Managed to get to Aldi so cancelled Amazon loo rolls.  Bought tomatoes, AF beer, beans and tomatoes.  Also popped in to M&S in town at lunchtime and got AF red wine and salad. 

GC £51.15 / £150.

Other spends this month - cat food, spare parts for our fruit cage and sponsorship / charity donations.  Happy that they were all planned / necessary

ETA - I forgot to add my vegan baked box I have just subscribed to from this month - £20.  It's from a local small business I'm keen to support so I won't be cancelling this as it's a lovely treat and does several meals as they can be frozen.  Was going to add some extras but won't do that this month. 

GC total updated - 1/3 of budget used and we're only four days in!  Will need to buy veg at the weekend and getting low on soya milk but I can use oat milk instead which I have plenty of so hoping to eke this out before having to get a supermarket delivery.

try_harder

I like the sound of the vegan baked box i would love one ,i wish they had something similar here ,we are not vegan but one of our children is and three are vegetarian and my other daughter is 90 % vegetables and we seem to eat the same as them ,i cant remember the last time we ate meat 

CCW007

We're not vegan, I guess I'm flexi because I still eat fish and seafood sometimes but I've cut out meat and dairy milk.  I try and choose vegan options when I can because the more demand there is, the more companies see there is a market for those products.  And the vegan bakes are good! Last time was two pies, two quiches, two slices and two cookies so not bad value.

They do deliver further afield but obviously charge for delivery - because it's only a couple of miles from here they deliver for free.

CCW007

GC £55.32 / £150.  £4.17 spent on Wednesday night at Tesc0 on double cream which I've made into butter for the freezer, and a few other YS bits.  I pop in after running club and often get some good bargains.  Keeping track like this is really making me realise how much I spent on groceries without thinking - that and the fact we are not popping into the Co-op to buy booze as we are off the beer at the moment so saving all those little £10 / £20 shops when we pick up something because we are there.

This week has been spendy though - OH has a car he needs to get on the road by July for an event so has been buying parts ready for our time off next week.  I have been better at resisting my impulse buys though so we're definitely doing better this month than we would have done.

Two weeks to payday and getting my payrise back-dated to last April - will be offset by the rise in NI unfortunately but will still clear a good wedge. 

Otherwise no MF news to report!  Just looking forward to my week off - 8.5 hours until the laptop gets switched off for 10 days!  Planning on lots of healthy things like running (first park run tomorrow), gym, maybe get out on the bikes and then getting on with things round the house - get our bedroom redecorated so OH can finish rewiring and plumb in the new radiator and maybe we can move back in there sometime soon! 

Decluttering is also on the to do list and I'm hoping I can raise some funds - our local car boot might be opening Easter weekend so that might be something to consider.

try_harder

Saving money on food has been a real life changer for us ,i am saving such a lot now and yet i dont feel we are suffering in any way 

I hope you are enjoying your break and doing all the lovely things you said you would 

CCW007

Thanks try_harder.  Ran yesterday (first parkrun), spent rest of day chopping wood for next winter so need to get it stacked today as I think it will be raining next week.  Parents coming to visit on Wednesday so looking forward to that.

Two TGTG bags bought and a few bits in the supermarket so total for GC is now around £80/£150 for the month.  In good news though, we managed to stay off the wine last night as that would have added lots of £ to the GC!

try_harder

We have run our central heating al year on free wood .We have two wood burners one in our ktchen and he main one in the living room which heats all our radiators 

Sounds like you are still doing well on the food spending ,i havent spent anything out of this weeks food budget yet but going shopping today.. Sorry about all the missing letters in my spellings ,im doing several things at once as we do

astrocytic_kitten

Came by to say hello! I’m another one with cat food and vets bills and everything, sounds like a good move to a vet with longer hours. My cats alway manage to develop worrying symptoms around noon on a Saturday right after my vet’s phone turns off, so I’m left wondering if they can wait till Monday or if it’s the out of hours vet for them 🤦‍♀️

CCW007

Hi astrocytic_kitten, thanks for dropping by.  Always the way with cats - we've had emergencies on New Years Day, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, two of which required emergency vets

We bought a fruit cage late last year, put the frame up, have been gradually prepping the ground and today put the cover on - only to discover the netting is too short.  So we need to get on to the company we bought from but as it was six months ago I'm not sure we will have much joy.  We can buy another piece of netting to overlap if needed. 

Will be getting advice from dad when he comes up on Wednesday about where to plant the canes / bushes we have - we should be almost able to fill it with raspberry canes, two blueberries, gooseberry, jostaberry and something else I can't remember.  So hopefully if not this year then next year we should have lots of soft fruit from it.

Ran this morning after my not so great Parkrun - managed 5k on easy pace and had some left to pick up the pace at the end so that's helped my confidence.  Not particularly fast at 36 minutes but that will improve in time.  Signed up for a HiiT class in the morning - am excited and dreading it in equal measures!  Think it's only half an hour so just got to get through it!