One step at a time

sunshineli

2024 has been a big (and expensive) year. I got married! We also moved into our ‘forever home’. Weddings and moving house are so expensive, and I am now looking towards getting a hold on our finances in 2025.

I have been on the MSE forum for years, and contributed to some threads particularly on the old style moneysaving board. I have been intending to start my own diary on the mortgage free wannabe board for so long. I love this time of year for reflecting on the current year and making plans and goals for the future, so I thought now was the perfect time!

About me

I live with my DH and our dog in a little bungalow. Although I am only in my late twenties I have chronic health conditions which make working full time really hard for me. My main aim is to increase our savings and reduce how much we owe on the mortgage so I can eventually reduce my working hours. 

Current finances and mortgage situation

We owe a whopping £281k on the mortgage, and thinking about being ‘mortgage free’ feels too overwhelming. This is why our focus is to just reduce the amount owed, rather than paying it off. By focusing on one step at a time, our goals feel more achievable. Before we start to make any overpayments we are looking to build our emergency fund.

2025 goals and intentions

I am inspired to live a slow and peaceful life, to support my health. I believe I can do this whilst striving for my financial goals. 

Before we overpay the mortgage, my aim is to build our emergency fund to 6 months of essential expenses. This is about 12k! We need to save approximately 10k to reach this goal. We aim to add £400pm to our emergency fund so this is going to take some time.

I would also like to support by health by managing stress and eating well on a budget. This can be a struggle with energy limiting conditions but I intend to batch cook simple meals for the freezer on days when I feel a little bit better.

I am looking forward to documenting this journey, and I will be back with more details soon.

RedLipstick

Sounds like a fantastic year, big congratulations!

I've been a lurker for few years now reading everyone's' stories, just started being active on the forum so I can too keep myself more accountable and follow my progress over the upcoming months. 

I'm looking forward to read about your journey. I'm just going through quite a dramatic change to my diet over the past couple of months (aligning with AIP diet) - it's been quite a challenge to keep the meals balanced and healthy and on a budget (found the healthy food quite expensive, especially the organic and gluten free stuff, not to mention 0.5l of bone broth costs like £7!), while also trying to grow the EF and overpay on the mortgage. I will be interested to hear your story and how you manage that. I've tried every kitchen gadget on the planet, so far a slow cooker being my favourite and can cook healthy in batch so that is handy.

Also love the idea of slow and peaceful life!

Good luck on your journey, keep posting!

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary. 

Flossymuldoo

Wow, congrats on an exciting 2024 and good luck with your goals moving forward!

twinklie

Welcome to you and your shiny new thread. I also have a health condition which makes it difficult to work full time. So I’ve been a part time worker since my early 30s. I work from home mainly as well which has been helpful for me. 

I’m going to be following your thread with interest. Even with a scary sounding mortgage you are so much further on than I was at your age. Congratulations on being a newly wed too. 

seventh88

Happy new diary! It's a really good idea to set goals that feel less overwhelming and more achieveable. I think I'll take a leaf out of your book with this. I like your aim to live a slow and peaceful life. I also have health conditions and have to pace myself with work/socialising - spoon theory and all that. I look forward to following your journey, all the best for the next few weeks ahead.

sunshineli

Well its been a while since I last posted on here. The start of the year was not very frugal as we were on honeymoon. When we got back I was then struck down with flu.

I have started trialing ordering groceries every 5 days instead of every 7. For me I find it so much easier to plan 5 days of food rather than 7, and it prevents any fresh food going bad before I have time to use it. I don’t think I will spend any more money doing grocery shopping this way, as I won’t end up doing little top up shops. But I will monitor it and see how it goes. 

My current monthly budget for groceries is £300 per month (2 adults) and so far this month we have spent £121.71. This is low because 10 days of the month were spent on holiday and food spends came out of the holiday pot. 

Since I have returned from honeymoon and back to work, I have realised I can’t continue with my job for much longer. Unfortunately it is a very stressful job, one which exacerbates my health issues quite badly. I am therefore starting to look for other jobs. I don’t mind if I have a pay cut, as my health and wellbeing is priority. 

In line with trying to prioritise my health, tonight I have meditated and written in my journal. I really want to get into a habit of doing this regularly again as I think it will make a difference to my wellbeing. 

A positive money saving thing I have done recently is start a mortgage overpayment savings account! Although my priority is building the emergency fund for a bit more financial resilience, I would like to add a little bit to a mortgage overpayment fund. It currently has £100 in it and I will overpay it once it reaches £500.

sunshineli

RedLipstick said:

Sounds like a fantastic year, big congratulations!

I've been a lurker for few years now reading everyone's' stories, just started being active on the forum so I can too keep myself more accountable and follow my progress over the upcoming months. 

I'm looking forward to read about your journey. I'm just going through quite a dramatic change to my diet over the past couple of months (aligning with AIP diet) - it's been quite a challenge to keep the meals balanced and healthy and on a budget (found the healthy food quite expensive, especially the organic and gluten free stuff, not to mention 0.5l of bone broth costs like £7!), while also trying to grow the EF and overpay on the mortgage. I will be interested to hear your story and how you manage that. I've tried every kitchen gadget on the planet, so far a slow cooker being my favourite and can cook healthy in batch so that is handy.

Also love the idea of slow and peaceful life!

Good luck on your journey, keep posting!

Thanks for your comment! I have heard about the AIP diet but I confess I don't know much about it. I will have a research as I also have an autoimmune disorder so it could be helpful. I tend to find healthy food always takes much more effort to prepare and cook (which makes sense as its usually basic ingredients rather than convenience food) but it makes is very difficult when you are unwell with limited energy.

It's great to hear a slow cooker has been helpful for you, I haven't used one before as being vegetarian I don't know how useful it would be for me.

sunshineli

twinklie said:

Welcome to you and your shiny new thread. I also have a health condition which makes it difficult to work full time. So I’ve been a part time worker since my early 30s. I work from home mainly as well which has been helpful for me. 

I’m going to be following your thread with interest. Even with a scary sounding mortgage you are so much further on than I was at your age. Congratulations on being a newly wed too. 

Thanks for your kind comment. Working from home is a game changer for me, I definitely wouldn't be able to cope working in an office full time.

sunshineli

seventh88 said:

Happy new diary! It's a really good idea to set goals that feel less overwhelming and more achieveable. I think I'll take a leaf out of your book with this. I like your aim to live a slow and peaceful life. I also have health conditions and have to pace myself with work/socialising - spoon theory and all that. I look forward to following your journey, all the best for the next few weeks ahead.

Thanks for your comment. I find pacing really difficult, and it is always a working progress for me! I wish you the best for managing your health conditions.

seventh88

Well done on your progress this month and I’m sorry to hear that you’ve had flu and that work is becoming unmanageable. I hope the honeymoon was everything you imagined it to be. It’s great that your starting a MFW pot, however small that feels at the moment, because every bit really does add up against that interest and from the comments on the forum many people have said how they wished they’d made overpayments sooner, even if it was just small amounts. So keep going and know that everyone on the forum is behind you and rooting for you!