The final countdown to June 2026

carboot_karaoke

Afternoon everyone,

Its such a treat to have the sun shining 🌞 

We've had a "spendy" but, really happy weekend. Surprised the kids with a night away, followed by friends over for dinner yesterday. I'm shattered ..lol 

I wanted to stay in bed when the alarm went off @5.45am to go to the gym, but l did feel much better 💪 after my work out. 

I thought id better make our mortgage overpayment before l spend it. Another £3,100 has been paid 😇 bringing our new total down to £53,700.

CK 

carboot_karaoke

Afternoon Everyone,

The last week has felt like a blur with work, two funerals, and a wedding to attend within that time.

The result has been additional spending on, condolence flowers, wedding gift, hairdressers , nail appt, outfits and drinks / taxi etc but cant be helped.

I also failed on the healthy front, only went to the gym once but ate and drank more than normal.

So yesterday l pressed the "reset button" decided to assess the financial damage. 

Each month Mr CK and l have a small £100 allowance with which to purchase clothes, gifts, meals out, basically anything that's not considered a regular bill. I managed to build up a buffer during covid, some months I'm under budget, other months I'm wayy over...like this month 🙄

Plan to recoup overspend

1) Don't spend more than £50 this month - the other £50 can be added to top up my account
2) I need to get back onto Ebay / Vinted, I've got the kids summer clothes to list
3) Research prices then weigh in a small bag of gold jewelry either broken, odds or l no longer use 
4) Look into switching bank account for cash, l need to read the T&C's - l know I'm not eligible for two of the bank accounts (currently have accounts with them)

I finally heard back from the Gym reference the overpayment, considering it was only £5 it took weeks and 5 emails to sort out, unbelievable !! But the result is a reduced charge this month  ☺️

I have also got back on the fitness game 💪 got up early and gone the last two mornings , but feel exhausted ..lol. 

Finally, I have made an early overpayment this month of £1600. Hoping to add a bit more later in the month, but probably best to wait until the Easter hols are over.

Also a few expensive jobs are pending on the house, plus waiting for confirmation if tenants are staying or leaving so everything feels a bit fragile atm 😬

carboot_karaoke

Good afternoon. All,

We are away for a few days by the coast. While im watching the sea 😊 with a cuppa  l thought I'd have a catch-up.  

In truth, not much has changed since my last post. With the kids been off school all attention diverts to them. 

While packing l sorted out there wardrobes and have set aside a large pile of outgrown clothes ready for listing on vinted. This would have been a good time for listing with lots of parents off work realising that there children have grown.  Alas, l ran out of time then, ironically spent about £60 on clothes for them on Vinted 🤣. 

Although we're on holiday we're keeping the spends as low as possible.  The kids have spending money from grandparents .  We're self-catering but trying to be a bit more relaxed than normal...it is a holiday after all. I was surprised how difficult l found it. We decided to buy convenient food like a few dine in meal deals, ready cooked curry and microwave rice plus treats, couldn't get over the price of some things.Mr CK was very good and put back a few of his indulgences so far about £100 spent. I kept telling myself that this was the price of "one meal out," not the several "meals in" we had brought.  

Aside from holiday and kids spends (both have a separate fund) I have been pretty good, and it's payday on Friday.  So far, I've spent £22.08 / £50

£10.99 on gym membership, this includes the £5 refund 
£1.50 on a protein shake bottle - not yet used 
£1.99 on a macdonalds wrap of the day - oops 
£2.10 on a steak bake - oops again 🤣
£5.50 on the gym on the holiday, the accommodation - to balance out the eating and drinking 😉

I nearly forgot l did pay an extra £100 of the mortgage, bringing our new total down to £52,000. I need to use some of this holiday time to contact a few tradesmen for some quotes before making any more significant payments. 

We have offered a new 12mth contact to our tenants but haven't heard back 😕 yet they have until the end of June, but l really wanted to avoid void periods and the utility costs, etc. 

Mr CK has just brought me a glass of wine 🍷 so I'd say that's time for me to go . 

carboot_karaoke

Evening all,  

Just a quick update, firstly a confession ...in my personal spending l forgot l had brought a dress for myself @ £18.84 on vinted so total for April £ 40.92. I'm comfortable with that I'll pop the excess into my savings account and try for a similar result in May. 

The other, more important information is that the tenants have renewed for another 12 months 🥳🥳. I'm so pleased, they have paid rent on time every month and seem (judging from the pictures) to be looking after the place. I was beginning to feel a bit anxious about what would happen if they decided to move out. This is because my own job is also uncertain atm. 

To me this is a 12 month lifeline l do not intend to waste. I want to be as close to mortgage free as possible by the end of the next contract.  

To celebrate we had fish and chips = £35 yikes 😱 but delicious 😋 😂

I'll access the overall cost once we're back home not going to worry about it now.

LadyWithAPlan

Great news re the tenants extension and your OP focus is fantastic! 

beanielou

Good news on the tennant extension. 

carboot_karaoke

Thanks @LadyWithAPlan @beanielou it was a relief.

So we are back home, unpacked, washing machine on its 3rd load    cupboards and fridge empty !! 

Need to pull a food plan / shopping list, together. I hear the weather is going to be hot next week how exciting I must incorporate lots of salads or maybe a BBQ.

I tallied up our total holiday spend for accommodation, petrol, eating out, takeaways, food from the supermarket and bits like ice cream etc.
All in £721.19 not bad considering we paid more for the accommodation alone last year. Plus we did eat well,  a pudding every night and polished off several bottles of wine. 

Our remaining holiday budget is £1278.81 - £528 for camping in the summer leaves a healthy £750.81 to cover spending money and other day trips, picnic etc.

carboot_karaoke

Morning all, 

So...im feeling a bit all over the place and think l need to offload to like mind individuals 

Might be easier to break it down into a few posts

In April my boss was approached by a larger company about a potential acquisition. Its very early days they have returned the non disclosure forms and contacted by there CFO. They have said if it goes ahead all jobs will be protected but It still makes me feel about nervous about the future. I currently have a lot of flexibility / perks in my job built up from +20 years of friendship and commitment. That will undoubtedly change if it all goes ahead.  

If they can agree terms I think its definitely the right decision for them, but l will have to think about my future perhaps sooner rather than later. Our accountant is coming in this week so l might show him the online courses l found, to bulk up my CV if it becomes necessary to leave.

Speaking of online courses, I've been attending a course about nurturing children who are Audhd. So far l've found it emotional, informative, brilliant. Our 12 year old has Autism and Adhd we are still waiting (have been for +2 years) for an official assessment. Made me determined to seek out more education / support to help our child thrive. 

carboot_karaoke

So onto to financial matters...

I finally got listing things on Vinted sold 8 items in the same day !! Then spent the money on clothes for the kids 

I also received £50 credit from Octopus for recommending another friend to join.

I had three quotes ranging from £2168 - £3907 but I'm going with the company in the middle @£2600. I liked the fact the owner came out to view the job as opposed to sales people. 

I also opened a 0% credit card so l can pay the £800 deposit on it (there a small business so he requested the balance via bank transfer).

This got me thinking about other things l could pay on the credit card and use the cash to make an overpayment instead. The balance on our camping holiday, car insurance, even the monthly food shop could be diverted onto the card. 

I appreciate it could be risky if l then didn't have the money to pay the balance but that's 2 years away and my brilliant mortgage allows me to withdraw funds up to the original value without a penalty. That's what we've done twice already. 

l need to get some numbers down to see the impact that could have but l welcome your thoughts. 

CK 

carboot_karaoke

In short our Monthly finances are as follows;

£577.15 - Total monthly bills excluding mortgage and home insurance paid annually. 

£100.00  - Paid into the government help to save scheme.
£100.00  - Spending for Mr CK
£100.00 -  Spending for me
£100.00 -  Allocated for the two younger children

£520.00 - Is our budget for food and petrol for my car

£1497.15 - Grand total 

£4682.00 - Our Net total income leaving us £3184.85 available for overpayments.

These figures will fluctuate for example last month l had to pay for the gas certificate on the rental property. Next month we will have service charges to pay. But as a general guide this is us.

In addition we have "pots" of money currently sat in a savings account offsetting the mortgage balance to reduce the interest.
£1367.81  Holiday (£498 balance to pay the rest is spending money)
£667.34    Insurance car is due in August, home insurance March 2026
£335.00    Utility bill / food short falls
£3500.00  Emergency Fund
£2500.00  Rental Property Emergency
£2056.56  Home improvement fund 

£10426.71 Total

There is another few £1000 gradually accrued over the last few years in our spending pots mostly during Covid. But we have a few celebrations next year which in my opinion warrant a holiday so I'm keeping that to one side to pay for that..

Although, l talk about becoming "Mortgage free" the reality is with such a unique mortgage product l wont surrender it a day early. Instead a more realistic aim would be to become credit neutral therefore not paying any interest (lets face it, that's the real issue) whilst leaving open the opportunity to re-borrow if necessary. 

If we could get the mortgage down to £6000 (the emergency pots added together) that would mean roughly £100 a month payment would have it cleared by the time it runs out in Feb 2031.

£52,000 current balance - £6000 to leave outstanding = £46,000

£46,000 / £3184 (max monthly payment) = about 14/15 months

We have tenants until June 2026 so I'm going to challenge myself to be at £6,000 by then.