Washing Away My Mortgage & Debt by 2035

jwil

Good luck with the plans for the year.  Glad you got the holiday sorted.  Sorry about the split but it sounds like it was the right decision.

Squirrelz92

jwil said:

Good luck with the plans for the year.  Glad you got the holiday sorted.  Sorry about the split but it sounds like it was the right decision.

Thanks @jwil. Yes the longer time goes on the more I do believe it was the right call. Much happier in myself! 

Cara_

Good morning Squirez92,

I've just read through your diary and you are doing very well with your budget and paying off your loan / mortgage overpayments. That's a good saving on the 2026 holiday.

It will be nice to get the outstanding bits completed on your kitchen and once it is painted it will look great. You seem very capable and I'm sure you will feel really pleased when you have made some raised beds for your garden.

Cara

Squirrelz92

Cara_ said:

Good morning Squirez92,

I've just read through your diary and you are doing very well with your budget and paying off your loan / mortgage overpayments. That's a good saving on the 2026 holiday.

It will be nice to get the outstanding bits completed on your kitchen and once it is painted it will look great. You seem very capable and I'm sure you will feel really pleased when you have made some raised beds for your garden.

Cara

Hi @Cara, many thanks for stopping by

Very much looking forward to getting the final bits done in the kitchen. Will then have a 100% completed room in my home after 4 years 😂 Hoping the quotes for the raised beds in the back garden won't cost a fortune, but I know that the price of timber has shot up in recent years so may have to save a little extra! x

Squirrelz92

Successful January!

Sent £333 as budgeted and planned as an overpayment to my mortgage.
With my spare cash on payday eve, I managed to purchase travel insurance, airport parking and put enough money aside for boarding the dogs, rats and hamster. With the remainder, I threw this into my holiday pot for spending money

A new month and another round of saving the pennies to hit my goals.

Decided to rip out everything in my daughters room and cleanse it Has plasterer round on Thursday to skim the walls and ceiling. Will purchase paint/gloss this weekend to get busy with once the room is dry. Will hire a carpet cleaner to attempt to save the carpet! Then flatpack loft bed and drawers arriving from Ike@ on the 31st so that will be hilarious to put up. Never normally have issues with flatpack but building a loft-bed alone I reckon will throw me some challenges! I put the cost of these items onto my CC (I know, I know). I have no issue being able to pay it off and I am on a 0% interest deal until April 26. 

After my daughters room is done, I shall be doing the same to my sons room. The same work to be done so roughly the same costs, although his room is larger so shall be more to skim!

February Finances:

Salary - £2,713
Child Benefit - £170
CSA - £291
Total - £3,174

Bills - £1,744

Disposable Income - £1,430
Mortgage Overpayment - £333

Remaining Balance - £1,097

Hoping to save roughly half of this to finish off my holiday spending money (roughly would like £300 and have £115 at the moment). The rest will be for reno work as the CC's are both on 0% interest.

Squirrelz92

Took the dogs out for an early morning walk and it hailed the whole time which was painful at times but lovely to be out in a different type of weather. Met a few more 'Karen's' who felt the need once again to scoop up their beloved Dachshund and make the rather boring joke of 'ooh your dog will eat mine' .... ended up telling her to stop judging a breed just because 0.01% of them are brought up poorly and without training. My lad is a complete softy and although he runs across a field like a freight train to initiate play with anyone who will give him the time of day, he has never so much as growled or acted aggressively to another dog. Makes me so sad that people can be so quick to judge a dog just based on their looks. Just fuels the fire for me to get another cane corso! 😂 All I seem to do on walks is advocate for him which I shouldn't have to do. He has perfect recall and I put him on a lead if I see another dog coming up to us on one so its not from my lack of being irresponsible! Frustrating!

In other news, doing well so far only spending £4 at Tesco for a lunch deal yesterday. Needed the walk as budget reviews and alterations stressed the hell out of me. Today however I shall be throwing money at a new pair of football boots and school shoes for my son. Might treat myself and visit Go Outdoors and purchase a new pair of hiking boots with my leftover Xmas money. My wellies are begging for a break!

Daughter has gymnastics from 2-3.30pm so me and my son shall do the shoe shop in-between this time. Was hoping to trot off to B&Q to start my paint/primer/gloss collection for my daughters room but the plaster is nowhere near dry yet which is frustrating! Was hoping to get that big job done this weekend before the flatpack furniture arrives on Friday. Oh well! 

in_need_of_direction

They both look like big softies, especially smiler.

Squirrelz92

in_need_of_direction said:

They both look like big softies, especially smiler.

They are indeed! My GSD is an old boy and isn't much of a player anymore but its sad knowing that people still feel the need to make snarly comments or pick their dogs up when they see both of mine off the lead  

Squirrelz92

Weekend was expensive. I try and hold off on buying anything that is needed in the last week before getting paid so I can purchase it all the first week after my monthly wage hits my account ... it hurts less this way! 😂 Took my son to Sports Direct to find a pair of football boots. Well he is definitely turning into a teenager ... had a budget of £45 which I know doesnt open up for a lot of choices but its something. Naturally he eyed up every pair that came above and beyond this figure and sulked when I said its too much money. We came to a deal after finding a pair for £58. He had some leftover Xmas money and said he wanted to use it to pay for the rest of them. Thought that was more than reasonable so we bought them. Ruddy typical that the game was cancelled the following day so he couldn't try them out 😂 Hopefully this weekend we shall have better luck weather wise.

Food shopping came to £90 instead of the normal £60 a week budget. £20 of this were for my sons new school shoes and £10 was for a top up of wet dog food. So actually I did come within my 'food' budget. Animal supplies (rats and hamster) came to £30 for new bedding and food. Should do me for another month at least.

Having the wobblies in my job again. I always feel so stupid compared to the other FBP's for other sites. They just seem to 'get it', whereas I am left wondering what the heck we just had a conversation about or what it is I am supposed to be doing. I am unsure as to whether to speak to my manager about it ... conscious that I am the only female FBP so naturally I feel as though I am already at a disadvantage as its such a male dominated industry. If I raise a problem regarding how I am feeling and that I am out of my depth a bit, I don't want them to think that its because 'I am a girl' and I am being emotional. Don't get me wrong, none of this sort of behaviour has ever been displayed, but its always in the back of my mind from experiences at prior workplaces. 

Studying sucks. Onto my exam questions but unless I get the peace and quiet at work, I am struggling to do it at home. Really need to pass this exam in March as I will have to wait 6 months to resit So tired of studying. It's sucking the life and soul out of me!