Mortgage Free by 53!!

enthusiasticsaver

Congratulations on now being DF. I have followed you over from the DFW board and look forward to seeing your mortgage overpayment progress.  We planned to be MF by the time our kids started Uni.  Planning forward is a great idea.  We did 5, 10 years and 15 years at about your age going up to retirement.  Plans do change though.  We had a wedding for DD2 to help pay for and helped our kids with a house deposit after Uni before eventually retiring at 58.  Initially it was going to be 60 but dissatisfaction with jobs persuaded us to go earlier as we could afford it.  

I think  you are right with continuing with the holidays too.  Building memories with your kids will never be something you regret and there needs to be balance.  No one knows what is round the corner. 

crunchy_time

enthusiasticsaver said:

Congratulations on now being DF. I have followed you over from the DFW board and look forward to seeing your mortgage overpayment progress.  We planned to be MF by the time our kids started Uni.  Planning forward is a great idea.  We did 5, 10 years and 15 years at about your age going up to retirement.  Plans do change though.  We had a wedding for DD2 to help pay for and helped our kids with a house deposit after Uni before eventually retiring at 58.  Initially it was going to be 60 but dissatisfaction with jobs persuaded us to go earlier as we could afford it.  

I think  you are right with continuing with the holidays too.  Building memories with your kids will never be something you regret and there needs to be balance.  No one knows what is round the corner. 

Thank you @e@enthusiasticsaver ! And thank you for all your support over the years! I’ve been on here for about 8.5 years now - gulp.

You are right that things change so our plan is loose and sustainable. 

Year one is - I wonder how much unexpected money we can find in a year to go towards reducing the mortgage and also will we be able to afford reducing the term in August? Then we are planning on building momentum from there.

Holidays are our thing - we don’t go out really - I remember in one of my previous diaries saying I wanted to show my children the world. At the time they are very small and I think it might have been you that said that will come - they are now 8 and 10 so it’s definitely time. We only have our children on loan and things will be so different in 10 years time. 

Maybe I should have named this diary-: ‘Im not really in the mood to really actively try and pay off our mortgage early but know we should be sensible and try’ 🤣

This is a start so let’s see how we get on.

Crunchy xx

crunchy_time

Happy Friday everyone!

wow this week went quickly! 

The only money saving thing I have to report is that our broadband bill was about £10 lower than expected so that went in the mortgage overpayment pot bringing it to about £41!

Hoping for a low spends weekend.

Crunchy xx

enthusiasticsaver

crunchy_time said:

enthusiasticsaver said:

Congratulations on now being DF. I have followed you over from the DFW board and look forward to seeing your mortgage overpayment progress.  We planned to be MF by the time our kids started Uni.  Planning forward is a great idea.  We did 5, 10 years and 15 years at about your age going up to retirement.  Plans do change though.  We had a wedding for DD2 to help pay for and helped our kids with a house deposit after Uni before eventually retiring at 58.  Initially it was going to be 60 but dissatisfaction with jobs persuaded us to go earlier as we could afford it.  

I think  you are right with continuing with the holidays too.  Building memories with your kids will never be something you regret and there needs to be balance.  No one knows what is round the corner. 

Thank you @e@enthusiasticsaver ! And thank you for all your support over the years! I’ve been on here for about 8.5 years now - gulp.

You are right that things change so our plan is loose and sustainable. 

Year one is - I wonder how much unexpected money we can find in a year to go towards reducing the mortgage and also will we be able to afford reducing the term in August? Then we are planning on building momentum from there.

Holidays are our thing - we don’t go out really - I remember in one of my previous diaries saying I wanted to show my children the world. At the time they are very small and I think it might have been you that said that will come - they are now 8 and 10 so it’s definitely time. We only have our children on loan and things will be so different in 10 years time. 

Maybe I should have named this diary-: ‘Im not really in the mood to really actively try and pay off our mortgage early but know we should be sensible and try’ 🤣

This is a start so let’s see how we get on.

Crunchy xx

I remember you saying in one of your first diaries that you thought travel was important and good you have managed to do some with your family. We did too and still do now even though they are adults and we have the added bonus of our grandchildren too so we consider ourselves lucky they still want us to go with them. There was a period in their teens though when they were not quite so keen and preferred to go with friends. Didn’t last long though 😉

crunchy_time

todays todays money saving news - vacuum cleaner has had it. Button stopped working. Husband has taken it a part and thinks it’s the motor. Part is currently not in stock. New vacuum it is then as we can’t survive without one and have absolutely no time to drive it anywhere to get it fixed. It’s survived 4 years -RIP my little friend. New one ordered with emergency fund so that will now need topping up. 

Husband also received a parking ticket as well - I may have already said that, can’t remember. Thank goodness for emergency fund! 

But, due to the rubbish weather cancelling our plans with friends this is a no spend weekend and I have shuffled £150 to our holiday spending money pot in Monzo. We know what we are doing next weekend and it won’t cost a lot and then the following is a new month. Every cloud!!

I’ve had a bit of a sort out of my wardrobe today and got rid of some things I never wear anymore ready for a charity shop. There are a few bits that could sell so I shall start psyching myself up for this!

crunchy_time

I did I did my second to last food shop of the month today and pretty much spent the £150 budget. We have £129 left for the week after this one which is plenty as we have loads of food in. 

And I have actually made some flapjacks for the week, although we may need another batch at some point. I’m buying tortilla chips instead of crisps for the kids because the prices for crisp are ridiculous and it’s all crap anyway. 

I had to pop into a supermarket earlier in the week and they had a large gammon from the Christmas stock reduced from £12 to ……£1.20!!! Cooked up and ready to eat half this week and half the next. There was another one but I left it for someone else to take. Can’t believe it was such a bargain!!

I can’t remember how I discovered it but I’ve just signed up for the lollipop app so shall be doing that this week to see if it helps us. There are some lovely quick recipes on there.

Another app I want to get to grips with is Vinted as I know it’s better than eBay. But  I’m still in the eBay habit unfortunately.

We are bracing ourselves for a cold and depressing blue Monday week ahead!

we can survive it!!
Crunch x

crunchy_time

Morning all!

Currently at gymnastics with DD enjoying a coffee I bought myself!

What a busy week! I got paid on Thursday and I have got an £86 a month pay rise! Not to be sniffed at.

we have received some quote in for the work for the house which is narrowing what we want to do down. We think we will have the porch and new front door which together will cost around £10k but going to get some more quotes together. It is quite lovely having around £40k sitting in the bank at the moment. Husband and I are going to investigate putting about £20k in a high interest account for a year. He thinks it will earn about £600 interest. 

We have been using our fuel budget wisely as well. Husband gets paid next Friday so trying to run down what is in both cars so we can save some of the file and monthly spending budget towards our holiday spending money. 

I can’t believe January is nearly over. I feel like my life is running away with me at times. 

This weekends plans are entertaining friends today and then a quiet day tomorrow.

Ive decided to use some of this money to do the course I have always dreamed of doing. It will cost around £3k and once I have done it I can double the amount of money I am earning so will be a good investment. I finish in about a years time. Something really positive to focus on. 

I still have t sold anything yet from my wardrobe clear out so must get on this this weekend. 

We have started to pay into the kids stocks and shares ISAs which they can’t access till they are 18. £25 a month each and the grandparents pay in about the same. I think it will be about £5k each at that age. They can use it to buy a car or go travelling. Hopefully the former and then save up for the latter if they want to go. The first payment goes out on 1st feb.

So lots to get on with. I also have to look into upping my pension payments so shall dig out the paperwork for that this week to start the ball rolling with that. 

Have a great weekend!
Crunchy xx

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Lovely plans Crunchy.
Nice amount saved for children, enough to make a difference, not enough that they can go mad
Course sounds good, always nice to have positives to look forward to at work

crunchy_time

I've come home from work with a sickness bug.  It was NOT nice trying to find somewhere to be ill at work.  I don't think I have ever felt that way before at work.

Anyway, husband has hurt his back so we won't be going anywhere for the next few days so I've done my January round up a few days early.  He gets paid this Friday.  

January
£277 saved in holiday spending money pot!  This is from left over fuel and family spending money.
£62.66 in mortgage overpayment pot from tilly tidies and smaller than expected bills.
£164 saved towards house stuff

However, we need to start paying back into the emergency fund since we robbed it for the new vacuum cleaner so will save £100 a month towards this.  I may use the council tax payments for the next few months to top this up instead.

February plans
The family spending money will be hit a bit more this month since it is half term and we have a dog groomers appointment as well.
I am also limiting myself to £125 a week on food shopping for February and have stopped buying clothes now until the Spring.

This shall be a nice challenge for us to stick to.  Hopefully, we will have some fuel money at the end of the month to chuck towards our holiday spending money fund. I need to save roughly £200 a month.

Challenge accepted!

Crunchy 

crunchy_time

So we have some quotes in for the home improvements.

£9k for the porch which we think will add curb appeal and up-level this house so this is going to be a goer out of the money we got given of which there is £38k ish left.  We may use the big pot to pay for it but as a loan and aim to replace it with the house stuff pot we are currently building. But it depends on when it is done.

My husband's pay day is tomorrow so getting excited about a money shuffle!

Crunchy xx