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And now we go again...
Comments
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sounds like a reasonable plan for the car replacement. Blooming cars never stick to their owner's plans for them and they have no regard for budgets or timings.
3 -
Does indeed sound like a sensible car plan. Well done!
3 -
Hooray for sensible plans!
4 YEARS 10 MONTHS DEBT FREE!!! (24 OCT 2016)(With heartfelt thanks to those who have gone before us & their indubitable generosity.)...and now I have a mortgage! (23 AUG 2021)Original End Date - Sept 2041 *** New projection - Aug 2038 (reduced by 3 years & 1 month)2 -
Thanks all - it's a plan, how sensible it will prove remains to be seen, and of course it's all complicated by us having a fair few busy weekends coming up over the next few months too - fun stuff, but also ugh to the timing. it has got me thinking though about how relieved I am that thanks to years of MSE behaviour we are fortunate to have the emergency funds as needed for this sort of situation.
Anyway - we've been doing some planning for fun stuff:
Isle of Wight weekend - accommodation is all booked, and we've managed to snag train tickets down for just over £20 as well - assuming we can get the way back for similar or ideally a bit less that will be easily as cheap as driving, allowing that if we drove, MrEH would have to get from Central London to somewhere I could sensibly collect which would also have a cost.
Main Hebrides Holiday: everything that needs to be booked is booked, I believe, and the balance for cottage is sitting in the holiday account ready to pay. we ARE a touch short on funds for that at the moment - a combination of having moved some surplus funds elsewhere earlier in the year and a few things being a little more spendy than previously, but we have sufficient more going into the holiday account prior to the trip, plus some excess to be diverted from the food account, that this should all be fine.
My Lundy Trip: Trains are booked and I should be OK to get all the way back to London on the day we head home. Overnight accommodation for the night before we head across is booked. I'm waiting for my pal to confirm the amount to pay for the accommodation, and I need to book the boat - in fact I should call and deal with that this week. There is sufficient money in the savings account I am using for this for those though to cover them and I think my spending money as well - plus I have scope to top it up a little before we go. The travel down by train has actually worked out cheaper than it would have cost to drive it plus parking the car down there, I think!
We're planning for a different sort of holiday for next year - a tour of Scotland incorporating some of the North Coast 500 and North East 250 routes which should be fun. We're currently working on putting together an itinerary, but are conscious that a lot of the accommodation for this will need booking well ahead so we need to star working on that properly. Ironically enough for a plan which arose out of being fed up being reliant on Calmac ferries appalling service, we seem to be incorporating a lot of ferries! the money for the next phase of bookings is already sitting in the surplus I yanked out of the holiday account previously, and we will be able to book some stuff which won't need payment made yet too.
It does feel a little counter-intuitive having all that stuff going on when we also have the car situation to sort out, but sometimes stuff just arrives like that doesn't it - and we do have plans in place to cover everything and hopefully to refill the coffers a bit too!
🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00. Balance as at 31/12/25 = £ 91,100.00
SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her7 -
Sent you a pm
L
Total Debt Dec 07 £59875.83 Overdrafts £2900,New Debt Figure ZERO !!!!!!:j 08/06/2013
Lucielle's Daring Debt Free Journey
DFD Before we Die!!!! Long Haul Supporter #1243 -
Small heading-for-the-end-of-the-month OP made to the mortgage, the remaining surplus has already been earmarked to head straight to the car account.
In further "when will the spendiness ever stop" news MrEH renewed his car insurance last night - £292 hit to the car account there. Mine is due in a few weeks too but I've had a look and frankly for the £9 a year increase they can have the renewal - we're both then with the same company too and leaving it to roll means less attack on my headspace AND the payment will come out later as well. Next job will be to look at the breakdown cover - I'm hoping that both cars being 10 years old doesn't mean that will increase…
I've bought new makeup - needed - but stocked up well, got a freebie thrown in AND paid under £15 per item which is an excellent price, lower than I've seen before for it, so I'm content.
Tomatoes have started producing well now - should be able to strike those off the shopping list for the forseeable with any luck! There is a few more tromboncino squashes that can be harvested as courgettes as well - I'm keen to keep harvesting those to keep the fruit coming - at some stage I will designate one plant specifically for letting them grow on to squash size.
🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00. Balance as at 31/12/25 = £ 91,100.00
SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her7 -
Have a look at the Nationwide Flexplus account - for £18 a month it covers breakdown for all vehicles, travel insurance and phone insurance so can be quite economical when you have more than one vehicle especially if you have a joint account plus savings accounts as then you'll both get the £100 Fairer Share payment which covers most of the cost of the account and means that your breakdown and other instances will only cost you £16 for the year.
No need to use it as a current account - we don't. The only money we put into it is to cover the monthly payment plus our regular saver amounts.
6 -
Should double check that this covers vehicles over 10 years old - it did when we took it out (including for Europe, which is why we took it out - it was cheaper than standalone short-term breakdown cover for our older car), but that was a long time ago and their breakdown provider has changed since. You could also try V1rgin, which is cheaper and has similar cover (we switched when Nw put their prices up - but we also don't take an old car abroad these days).
Mortgage free 16/06/2023! £132,500 cleared in 11 years, 3 months and 7 days
'Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.' Ernest Hemingway6 -
We're already N'wide customers, but until now have paid far less for our travel and breakdown insurance than the account fees would have been, so hasn't been cost effective for us at all unfortunately. The biggest issue with the packaged breakdown cover policies for us too is that they often don't cover other than mainland within the UK - or at last they didn't when I explored the options a few years back. I don't fancy risking being stranded in the Islands with no breakdown cover!
My cover was with EverSure this last year and I was quite impressed with them when my car broke down up in Lincoln - all very smoothly and easily dealt with, including my reclaim for the cost of the train fare home. Of course, the policy cost may well go up this year to take account of that, though!
Interestingly I have just done a quick search via the supermarket of money people and it looks like I should have plenty of options to choose from around the same price I paid this year which is excellent news! I'll also wait and see what Eversure give me as a renewal price - if that fits, that will be another straight autorenewal which would be handy.
🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00. Balance as at 31/12/25 = £ 91,100.00
SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her5 -
Lundy accommodation money now paid to my friend. ✔️
Three days accommodation for next year's Scottish adventure booked - very usefully that doesn't need paying until next year either which helps the finances. ✔️
So far we are running nicely under "per night" budget for that one - but we do still have some likely more expensive places to get booked for so we won't count our chickens too soon!
Isle of wight - decision is made that we will travel across on the Hovercraft and back on the Fastcat - thus shoehorning two "unusual" forms of transport in. Both options seem to cost much the same as the ferry so we figure we may as well have the time-saving.
🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00. Balance as at 31/12/25 = £ 91,100.00
SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her8
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