LJ's Mortgage free road to early retirement

LouiseJ

New job is going OK, seems quite straightforward but will involve travel which I will claim back from employer at rate of 35p per mile and will claim the rest of the mileage allowance via my tax return:D

Have 1 mystery shop to do tomorrow for £10 but no others lined up for the rest of the month, they are a bit thin on the ground at the moment.:mad:

My hayfever is starting to kick in but I have seen a good tip on the daily chat thread in DFW that if you take a spoonful of LOCAL honey each morning and night it may help your body to tolerate the local pollen allergens whether it works or not I dont know but it would be cheaper and kinder to my body than anti H's.

elantan

yeah i saw that today good advice ...glad the job is going good

elantan

i had someone trying to use my account as well not itunes though it was the apple store and tesco

angelavdavis

Good job the bank picked up on these weirdy transactions!

Apparently, some of the staff at A&L in Brighton have been arrested for stealing funds!!!

I guess they have updated the security in case - too bad for the thief he picked a bad week to try to swindle some unsuspecting victim.:D

LouiseJ

I have recently replied to financialbliss's interesting question about what percentage is your mortgage payment of your total montly net income.

I worked it out that my percentages are

Mortgage (payment + Overpayment) = 29.5%

Savings = 18.5%

Living costs/holidays/clothes (everthing else basically) = 52%

I would like to see that savings percentage a little higher to around 20% at least. I will have a look at my budget at the end of June as I will have my first salary payment from my new job (pension payments will be taken off at 6.4%) I am not counting these in the savings % at the moment until I know how much they are going to be for definite.

Both of the boys are desperate for some new summer clothes and trainers and we all need some clothes for our big holiday. Luckily neither of the boys are into designer labels so I will be OK to buy things from peacocks/asda/tesco.

I will definitely need some really comfortable shoes for the miles and miles we will be walking in the theme parks and dont mind paying for a really good pair as they will be worth it.

Nothing worse than hurting feet on holiday.

Have a great weekend everyone!

setmefree2

LouiseJ wrote: »

Both of the boys are desperate for some new summer clothes and trainers and we all need some clothes for our big holiday. Luckily neither of the boys are into designer labels so I will be OK to buy things from peacocks/asda/tesco.

I will definitely need some really comfortable shoes for the miles and miles we will be walking in the theme parks and dont mind paying for a really good pair as they will be worth it.
Nothing worse than hurting feet on holiday.

Hi Louise,

Clothes are really cheap in the states particularly T shirts. There are loads of Malls in Orlando. Agree about the "comfortable" footware. You probably need open flat sandals though - it will too hot to wear shoes IMHO.

All The Best

SMF2

abouttimetoo

wow! Good for you :T :T

LouiseJ

abouttimetoo wrote: »

wow! Good for you :T :T

Well you have to give yourself something to keep you motivated dont you:rotfl:

Kaz2904

LouiseJ wrote: »

Well, I have been talking to OH and we have decided what we want to do when the mortgage is paid off.

We are going to buy one of these

Travelling around Europe A la Max and Paddy:D (except I suspect ours will be a bit smaller):rotfl:

Ours won't be when the mortgage is paid off as social services might get onto us! We want to do it when we retire- don't know when we'll do that yet?
DH said we can get as far as China on land or right to the top of Russia with a little ferry crossing to Alaska and then hit America.
I can't wait but think that grandchildren might put a halt to that. Hopefully they'll be born before we're 50 so we'll be able to see them grow up before we leg it and we can go before they have children!

LouiseJ

I have worked out that I am averaging £340 overpayment a month against a target of £310 so I am quite pleased with that.

I am looking into moving some of my Kids savings from a Saveforit 5.55%account with the Halifax to a Halifax 1 year fixed term account 6.5%, which is almost a full percentage difference.

I drip feed £40 a month each into a Halifax regular saver at 10% I also have a family bond for each of them so hopefully when they are 18 (which scarily isnt that far away as they are soon to be 13 + 15 in August) they will have a nice little sum to start them on their way.

Then there will be Uni, I suppose and house deposits, weddings, grandchildren *sigh* there is just so much to spend your money on isnt there:rolleyes: But we are definately having that Motorhome......one day.

I have been looking at some prices and there are some really nice 1-2 year old models for around 20-30K......small change that:rotfl: But more do-able with the mortgage gone.