Mortgage Free by 53!!

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Hey crunchie
just caught up with your diary, you’re doing so well!
Your planned holidays sound fab!

crunchy_time

ohdearhowdidthathappen said:

Hey crunchie
just caught up with your diary, you’re doing so well!
Your planned holidays sound fab!

Ah thanks! Lovely to hear from you and what you have managed to achieve as well! Well done on getting rid of the second car!
 Crunchy xx

crunchy_time

Hey all!

So I’m currently in Thailand, halfway through a two week holiday but I got a virus just before we left that simmered for a few days as a sore throat but now has turned into full blown bacterial infection of ears, chest and throat. Had to make a trip to drs yesterday to get all the meds and on antibiotics now. Currently in bed with the most amazing few whilst husband has taken kids down to the pool.  I can sleep so spending some time thinking about money as I still can’t believe that we can afford to do these trips. These trips also make me reflect a lot on what I want out of life, of course.

So since January, lots has been going on and it’s been a bit of a juggle keeping on top of things financially so when we get back I am all about streamlining things to make them more efficient for us. 

Mortgage is now £236,300 
I haven’t paid off any of the Cc that is due to be off 0% in September so this is what will need to be tackled when we get back.
The EF which we want to be £10k is about £7900 now but this is also the pot we use to to pay for car services, oil etc so the plan is still to keep it capped at £10k when it gets there and then any extra money we put into a mortgage overpayment pot.

Husband and I were talking about- the main issue we have at home is food as in overspending and not planning enough so this is the big area to tackle when we get back. I think we can do a lot better so husband is on board to plan for our success.

one thing I have gotten good at is selling and buying on Vinted. I’ve saved a small fortune on clothes for the kids over the last few months.

This holiday was very needed, the time between the last one we had in May 2024 and now has been very stressful for personal reasons with lots of emotional turmoil so I am glad for the break and that’s prob why I am now ill tbh but I’m glad for the chance to reflect and unwind and put a plan in place for when we get back. 

crunchy xx

dawnybabes

Enjoy Thailand ! Hope the meds work quickly so you can enjoy it. 

I remember being poorly once on holiday but I just dragged myself down to the pool each day and just laid there reading and feeling sorry for myself but going brown 🤣🤣

crunchy_time

dawnybabes said:

Enjoy Thailand ! Hope the meds work quickly so you can enjoy it. 

I remember being poorly once on holiday but I just dragged myself down to the pool each day and just laid there reading and feeling sorry for myself but going brown 🤣🤣

Thank you!  Thankfully, it didn't affect the holiday too much.  I just couldn't drink alcohol for a few days.  I did have to go back to a doctor again and get more meds as I was worried about flying home with an earache, so I will need to claim these off insurance this week.

crunchy_time

Morning all!

It's about 4am here.  I have the jet lag.  I would have been able to sleep a bit longer but the dog woke us up, and I just couldn't get back to sleep.  We are back from Thailand and had the most amazing time!

I have about 4 loads of washing left to do, and it's back to work on Tuesday, so time to get the finances back in order.

I mentioned above about the credit cards and wanted to expand on this a bit further.  So it all got a bit messy towards the end of last year.  Husband had lots of business trips abroad and spent money on them that he couldn't claim as expenses, so we had to absorb them, and they ended up 0% on a credit card.  He also had a big tax bill for some reason, but he is still owed money from HMRC, so it all got a bit messy.

We have ended up with:

£1421 0% until 30th September 2025
£1204 

And then we have the following:

£818 0% until December 2025
£25700% until July 2026

On a separate card that costs about £36 a month so it's not getting paid off very quickly, and it is not really affecting our finances too badly at the moment.  On it is garden furniture, Son's bike, car service bill that was £1500 and a few other things that we thought we would 0% for a while to spread the cost whilst we built back up the emergency fund.

So, the first priority is the first card.  I'm very good at flushing, so my plan is to save up to pay this off and try really hard to stop using the card.  When I do it's mainly for shopping online, and then I pay it back with money I have, but I'm going to be more intentional with my spending and not so panicky.

I already have £42.80 saved up towards this - the £1204 as this is accruing interest.

It's going to be tricky as we have lots of plans for the house this year, so getting the balance is going to be tough, but we have been through tougher in the past.

I'm going to post more regularly now to keep myself accountable.

Crunch x

crunchy_time

Todays food shop to last till Friday came in at £147 out of a £160 a week budget which is a great start! 

The difficulty is maintaining consistency of course!!

The husband gets paid on Friday and I get paid on Monday but May is a 5 week month for us so the budget is a little stretched.

Crunchy X

crunchy_time

Morning all

Hope you are enjoying the long weekend!

Daughter was supposed to go to a guide activity today but she has chickened out so is at home with me whilst husband and son go bike riding.

My plan was to get loads of fiddly organisational bits completed.  I have a very long list.

My main missions at the moment are

a) not spend any money on my credit card
b) be measured about what we can do with the house and socialising and not bite off more than we can chew.
c) Save up £1204 as quickly as possible to pay off this CC whilst sticking to our other goals.

I had to use my cc last weekend when we were out for the day with friends, as it was the only card that would work on the machine at the pub for some reason.  But other than that,t I used my own account to buy a book and the same with some of the school uniform.  We don't use the cc to bridge gaps as the money is more often than not there but quickly buy stuff using a credit card, then get distracted, and this has got to stop.  

When we were out with friends last weekend, was the only socialising we have planned for this month at the moment.  I'm trying to keep things a little more flexible at the moment and not get so booked up as I want us to do things at the weekend together and also we have lots of DIY to do.

So far, I have £100 saved up for this credit card.  If the above goes well, hopefully it will be more by the end of the month.

We would normally round down the mortgage to the nearest £100 once the min payment had been made but it's £98 this month, which seems a lot.  Again, it might be doable if the above goes well.

Right, I am going to crack on with this list and then perhaps report back later and see how much I got crossed off.

Crunchy xx