GAP and LMG, can we become mortgage free?

debtfreewannabe321

Morning GAP, well done on your pay rise, I am reading through your diary, very inspirational and helpful. I have started doing TT again, this is what helped me to build my emergency fund the first time I was paying off large debts. I have also started with the PAD which is newer to me ( i think i tried this before and failed!) and watching the balance come down even if just by a £1 is quite satisfying

girlatplay

beanielou said:

Enjoy your weekend 

Thank you.  It was a nice weekend and I'm looking forward to this one too, which actually started with a flexi day today. I hope you have a good weekend.

savingholmes said:

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.

She is much better now, thank you.

I'm trying to PAD each day to keep me going but I need to stop for a bit this month now. Explanation below.

EssexHebridean said:

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! 

That's an interesting way to think about it.

debtfreewannabe321 said:

Morning GAP, well done on your pay rise, I am reading through your diary, very inspirational and helpful. I have started doing TT again, this is what helped me to build my emergency fund the first time I was paying off large debts. I have also started with the PAD which is newer to me ( i think i tried this before and failed!) and watching the balance come down even if just by a £1 is quite satisfying

Hello, thank you for popping in.
I do tend to waffle a bit in my diary but I feel that if something works for me then I like to share as it might work for someone else too.
I lurked around DFW for a while before I decided to join the MSE forum.  I had tried PAD but it didn't work for me. I joined the forum and started my first diary.  Someone mentioned the PAD thread so I decided to try again and something just clicked. It really did help me to get debt free quicker.  Then when I took out my next loan, which was a considered choice with purpose, I used the same principle and paid off £20k in 2.5 years.  I completely agree that seeing the debt balance come down is satisfying.  I made a competition out of it for myself.

girlatplay

It has been such a busy week with work I just lost track of the time.  I thought I should catch up with diaries again.

I have done a £1 PAD each day since I last posted and I have received £1.21 in interest so declaring a PAD for this week of £9.21.

Random number today was 43 so I sent £21.50 to the Random Pick Fridays account. I also got 1p interest on that so that's up to £35.51 at this third Friday of the year.

I'm going to have to stop the daily £1 PADs until payday now as I was a wee bit spendy today.  I want to get back into sewing again so bought some material when I was out with my mum. Mum gave me some money towards it (she wanted to treat me to it but I managed to talk her down to 50%) in cash.  The cost wiped out my allowance account, although I do have the cash in my purse. I need to hold on to that to see me through the next 10 days. I do have a small overflow account but I really don't want to use that unless I absolutely have to.

If I am to make any PADs between now and 31st then they need to be from surveys.  Best get cracking (not right now, must sleep now).

savingholmes

Enjoy your materials / crafts.

I'm not enjoying the chilly weather currently feels so much harder to do anything - and I feel really nesh this year. I think it's a change of meds but I'm so much colder than normal. Hope it's light and bright where you are.

girlatplay

savingholmes said:

Enjoy your materials / crafts.

I'm not enjoying the chilly weather currently feels so much harder to do anything - and I feel really nesh this year. I think it's a change of meds but I'm so much colder than normal. Hope it's light and bright where you are.

I need to get the sewing machine out, it's in a box still.

It was 'warmer' today than it has been (was -4° a couple of days ago). It's really windy out there right now but I just dropped LMG and her friend in town about an hour ago and the car said it's 10° now. That's balmy!

savingholmes

It's perishing and windy here.

beanielou

Happy making. 

Very very windy here now. 

girlatplay

At Christmas, when we have a meal at home, we used to give table presents to each person having dinner, that then evolved to a £1 lottery ticket each, which has now evolved to a £5 scratch card each. I don't think it will evolve further, I think we are all pretty happy with that. It's instant win (or not) and just a bit of fun. None of us are gamblers so nothing to worry about. My bf had his DDs and me round for dinner on New Year's Day (LMG had other plans) and decided to do the same with the scratch cards. I was lucky enough to win £5. It's been in my bag ever since and today when I picked up some groceries I remembered to cash it in.

I only bought groceries today when I was out. We went to my sis's for lunch and she provided the food. Sometimes we go for a wander round the shops near hers but we just went to the supermarket so I only picked up what we needed (all within the grocery budget).  I just didn't feel the need to buy anything else.

I counted up the cash in my purse and I have £35 and some change. I don't tend to carry cash as I'm not in shops much but having this is a good thing as I can only buy in person, not online so it should see me through to 31st. All I expect to have to buy is a coffee for bf and me on date night which is usually a Wednesday and actually just consists of us meeting at a coffee shop after work, having one coffee each and a chat for two hours. It's the only way we can fit seeing each other into the week as the rest of the week I get held up at work.

I'm missing not PADing already!

savingholmes

Nice to have a little win. 

You can always ditch the envelope idea and stick with PADing. You have to do what motivates you best.

girlatplay

savingholmes said:

Nice to have a little win. 

You can always ditch the envelope idea and stick with PADing. You have to do what motivates you best.

This is true, I could ditch it, but I still quite like the idea as I'm keeping it separate from the buy out fund. I think I said before that LMG is going to be studying abroad for 3-6 months, probably early next year, and I want to be able to go and visit her, wherever she goes. I do have money aside for this already but because of my health issues my travel insurance is really expensive so I'm thinking I'll use the envelope money towards the insurance. I have a holiday fund that I save into each month and I was sort of building that in preparation but then when I saw the envelope challenge it was one of the ideas that I thought I could use it for. I've already kind of decided that's what I'm going to do with it and it means I won't need to find that money at the time. I'm going to stick with it and just not PAD now until payday, unless I get any money from surveys or the like (nowhere near right now).