GAP and LMG, can we become mortgage free?

savingholmes

EssexHebridean said:

Oh that’s great to have the pay rise confirmed, and getting it with back pay as well - cracking! 

Completely agree on the adaption of challenges too - there’s a fine tradition of that on here too isn’t there. I suspect a lot of the folk being seduced into the original challenge will end up giving themselves serious cashflow issues because the thing that looks so cute on insta turns out not to be so practical in their own circumstance! Thank goodness for this place teaching us the value of budgeting and ensuring that the books balance! 

Sorry GAP I missed out on congratulating you on your pay rise too. 

I totally agree with EH on the good call you made adapting the challenge too. I don't know whether the original challenge reflects unconscious privilege too but what grated on me most was the thought of it not earning interest all year because it had been put in a literal envelope instead of an earning savings account.

girlatplay

savingholmes said:

Well done on the PAD and move to the next brick. I don't know whether your signature reflects your up to date picture but at 3,103/40,000 it would be equivalent to 7.76% - I find tracking the percentage part also helps. 

Thank you. Yes, it's up to date in my sig. That's a good way of thinking about it. I also like the idea of counting down to £0 rather than up to £40k. Stems from my debt payment days, seeing the balance come down. When I changed it from £3,103.45 saved to £36,896.55 to go, I could immediately see I need to find £6.55 to round it down.

beanielou said:

Woohoo. That’s fantastic. 

Thank you. I feel like I'm right back into it again.

EssexHebridean said:

Oh that’s great to have the pay rise confirmed, and getting it with back pay as well - cracking! 

Completely agree on the adaption of challenges too - there’s a fine tradition of that on here too isn’t there. I suspect a lot of the folk being seduced into the original challenge will end up giving themselves serious cashflow issues because the thing that looks so cute on insta turns out not to be so practical in their own circumstance! Thank goodness for this place teaching us the value of budgeting and ensuring that the books balance! 

Or end up giving up the challenge as it's too out of reach.

I'm not exactly sure where I would be if it weren't for these forums, the wealth of knowledge and all the great advice. I would be debt free as I was already nearing the end of that journey when I got here but I don't know that I would be where I am today.

savingholmes said:

EssexHebridean said:

Oh that’s great to have the pay rise confirmed, and getting it with back pay as well - cracking! 

Completely agree on the adaption of challenges too - there’s a fine tradition of that on here too isn’t there. I suspect a lot of the folk being seduced into the original challenge will end up giving themselves serious cashflow issues because the thing that looks so cute on insta turns out not to be so practical in their own circumstance! Thank goodness for this place teaching us the value of budgeting and ensuring that the books balance! 

Sorry GAP I missed out on congratulating you on your pay rise too. 

I totally agree with EH on the good call you made adapting the challenge too. I don't know whether the original challenge reflects unconscious privilege too but what grated on me most was the thought of it not earning interest all year because it had been put in a literal envelope instead of an earning savings account.

Thank you. I've really worked hard with long hours this financial year, most of us have at my work, so I'm glad it has finally been confirmed.

Yes of course, the interest too. Here's me making sure I get an extra 0.31% when there might be people with nearly £400 in the first month and no interest at all. I still like the challenge idea but I'm glad I decided to do it my way.

Thank you all for your thoughts.  Hopefully I'll manage to complete the challenge.

Not managed the NY resolution (lights out by 10.30pm) as tonight LMG is sick (as in vomiting - it's either a bug or something she ate today) so I'm keeping an ear out. I know she's an adult but I can't help it.

LadyWithAPlan

On the Insta challenge .. those sums are high for most people £100 etc .....  your version is at least more doable..

I loved reading Tilly Tidy and her TT's but actually PADS _- payments a day- I find having tried it, I preferred an actual budget without too much  extra cashflow and bank float  as I have discovered I spend it .. Now with my super tight YNAB budget I really wouldnt want to do such a challenge. However if it gets some people saving...

My extra savings  per month are  where I work to find extra cash - cashback, ebay sales, ex gratia, using vouchers - those I feel I can sweep into extra savings - so basically having to work to  earn extra money vs finding it from my existing money.

So thanks you have inspired me to use some of my saved vouchers so I can save extra this month... Airtime rewards and I have some survey vouchers I can exchange for supermarkets so I may do some of that to keep Jan spend down but savings up.


Where I can underspend on categories I do sweep into savings at the end of this month - or right now I am looking at my planned Jan  spends and sweeping money where i can  into my tax category so I dont have to drain too much from my PBs where my tax savings live. 

Your split on xmas dinner is a great idea. I bring drinks and pay for the FR turkey so ...

girlatplay

LadyWithAPlan said:

On the Insta challenge .. those sums are high for most people £100 etc .....  your version is at least more doable..

I loved reading Tilly Tidy and her TT's but actually PADS _- payments a day- I find having tried it, I preferred an actual budget without too much  extra cashflow and bank float  as I have discovered I spend it .. Now with my super tight YNAB budget I really wouldnt want to do such a challenge. However if it gets some people saving...

My extra savings  per month are  where I work to find extra cash - cashback, ebay sales, ex gratia, using vouchers - those I feel I can sweep into extra savings - so basically having to work to  earn extra money vs finding it from my existing money.

So thanks you have inspired me to use some of my saved vouchers so I can save extra this month... Airtime rewards and I have some survey vouchers I can exchange for supermarkets so I may do some of that to keep Jan spend down but savings up.


Where I can underspend on categories I do sweep into savings at the end of this month - or right now I am looking at my planned Jan  spends and sweeping money where i can  into my tax category so I dont have to drain too much from my PBs where my tax savings live. 

Your split on xmas dinner is a great idea. I bring drinks and pay for the FR turkey so ...

I feel a bit bad as I had a wander in the DFW challenge threads and saw my challenge there! (Only, 1-52 weeks at the full amount of each, not halved like mine). I didn't know it was there. I wish all who are doing it, all the best.

I love TT's. I only do them with anything less than £1 and they go to a separate account I set up about 3 years ago. I have £130 in there, just from small "change". It's less than £50 per year but as I've said before, the pennies count. It means I can keep my accounts rounded down to the nearest pound.

I originally became debt free using the PAD method and joined the Payment a Day challenge to do that. It was so addictive. I used to work two miles from where I lived and got the bus. When the weather was dry I started walking it and "PAD'd" the unused bus fare. If I found 1p in the street, that went in a tin and was counted too (then paid into the bank with other coins). TT's were counted. Anything to get extra pennies to PAD. I would not have got debt free so quickly without the support of that thread. My £1 PADs now are just me syphoning off my personal spends, just to keep me interested until I can do bigger ones in the month. They're all online ones now as I rarely leave the house anymore! Also, it doesn't have quite the same buzz as seeing the debt balance come down.

The survey vouchers to exchange for supermarkets sound good. Anything to reduce the bill is a positive in my book.

I think YNAB budgets very similarly to how I do my own budget (I tried it once and felt I was duplicating the information in YNAB and in my own spreadsheet so stuck with my own). If I underspend in categories I just leave it there and build up a surplus. It was handy in the motor account last year when I had to wipe it out for car nonsense. Good if you can sweep some over for your tax and touch less of your PBs.

My BIL likes to go out for Christmas dinner (to a restaurant) and it's just so expensive now, it's hard to justify the cost. Spreading it out over the year is less painful. My bf has to work every other Christmas (on an on call rota) so it's easier persuade my sis that we need to stay at home those years, in case bf gets called away.



LMG has stopped throwing up and managed a little soup. I should sleep better tonight.

Usual PAD today of £1.

EssexHebridean

Glad to hear that LMG was able to try a little bit of soup - and of course you were worried, it comes with the job description doesn't it! 

The other thing to remember on challenges that we see on Instagram - is that there is a very good chance that the person who is telling other people what a great idea it is and that they should be doing it may not even in fact be following it themselves - that's the peril of social media - we're comparing ourselves with what others choose to show us of themselves - and we have no idea whether that is in fact how their lives really look, do we! 

girlatplay

EssexHebridean said:

Glad to hear that LMG was able to try a little bit of soup - and of course you were worried, it comes with the job description doesn't it! 

The other thing to remember on challenges that we see on Instagram - is that there is a very good chance that the person who is telling other people what a great idea it is and that they should be doing it may not even in fact be following it themselves - that's the peril of social media - we're comparing ourselves with what others choose to show us of themselves - and we have no idea whether that is in fact how their lives really look, do we! 

This is very true. I try hard not to compare myself to what I see. Took a while to realise this though. Helps (in a sad way) that my sister has a friend who posts her amazing husband and life all over socials but behind the scenes my sis says they are hanging on by a thread. That kind of opened my eyes a bit.

girlatplay

Friday again already.

Just on to declare:

2 x PADs from each of yesterday and today = £2
Random Pick Fridays = number 23 = £11.50

The weekend will begin in a couple of hours.

beanielou

Enjoy your weekend 

savingholmes

Hope LMG is feeling better. 

Well done on the PADs and for designing life around you. Totally agree on how misleading social media can be.

EssexHebridean

I read on someone's blog a few years ago about "the perils of comparing our wrinkled, slightly grubby inside with someone else's shiny sparkly outside" and that stuck - because that's exactly what it's like isn't it, for all we know, the picnic rug in the photo which looks so picture-perfect on instagram or wherever might have been laid on top of a patch of mud! 

Good PADing again!