Courgette's Go Big or Go Home Diary

Courgette

Hello my friends!

Soooooooooo, there I was last week just chatting to my sister and she mentioned that her and her husband are currently paying £1400 a month on their mortgage. "It's totally awful" she said, "It's more than I even earn at the moment", "this is why I'm selling stuff on Vinted for £1 rather than giving it to the charity shop" etc etc. All said with a massive smile across her face.

And all night (all week actually) I just couldn't stop thinking about it.

I left these boards a while ago because honestly I was sick of frugality and I was sick of deferred gratification. I also had some privacy concerns but that's a different thing.

Recently however I've been missing having a big scary, ridiculous goal to work towards.

Also this week our mortgage tipped under £50,000 which, although still a lot, is not thaaaaat much really in the big scheme of things.

Now the thing is, we don't earn loads. We do okay but £50,000 is about or a bit more than our annual household income. We could manage another £100 here or there but where does that really get us? MF in 2035 rather than 2037? Not very inspiring is it? I'd rather have coffees out and all the other stuff.

Since I've been off these boards I've spent money on quite a bit of stuff, no regrets. I've been on a yoga retreat twice, I've got a gorgeous handbag, a nice, reliable car (deffo not a ferrari) and other stuff. I've got a bit of spending out of my system and I'm really ready to come back and get stuck in again.

Now the go big or go home comment of the title? Well truly being tight and watching every penny for the next however many years sounds pretty grim. If I'm gonna clear this mortgage I wanna go all in and get on with it.

In my head I've got 2 years, mostly because the overpayment for this kind of matches what my sister is paying and I'm nothing if not competitive! There's things I want to do in the house like replace the hall/stairs/landing carpets and redecorate. I can hold off for 2 years but I don't wanna hold off forever. My kids just keep on getting older too and I don't wanna spend the rest of their time at home being tight.

I'm looking for a sprint rather than a marathon. Crack on, get it done, move on. Does that make sense?

Now, my husband says I'm insane and should chill out a bit so at the moment I'm on my own. I mean, I have told him my plans and he knows me well enough by now not to bother arguing but for the first part of this sprint I'm gonna be on my own. He also has a semi-secret credit card debt to clear. Long story.

So here I am back with no clue at all how I am gonna manage this. I've been lurking for a few days to get the feel of the place again and really check in with myself that this is what I'm gonna put my energy to - and I am! Whoop!

Thanks for reading and for following along!

South_coast

Courgette said:

I'm looking for a sprint rather than a marathon. Crack on, get it done, move on. Does that make sense?

Yes, absolutely. Rip the plaster off rather than suffer death by a thousand cuts 👍

Welcome back. Looking forward to hearing your plan of attack 😀

the_end_of_the_rainbow

Great to see you back.
Looking forward to seeing you win the race!!

Courgette

Thank you so much!

First big task is to complete my tax return for 24/25 so I know how much of my savings are needed for tax. I've a feeling it might be more than I'd ideally like because I didn't pay that much to my pension last year.

We've got a big 100lt chest freezer which is great because you can fit loads in but less great because we only tend to use the stuff in the top third and the rest just sits there. One small frugal thing I'm going to be doing is using one thing from the bottom each week. This week it's rhubarb which no one in my family likes except me (which is probably how it ended up in there in the first place!). I'm gonna either do a rhubarb and apple crumble or a rhubarb cake. Surely if I put enough sugar in they'll eat it!

With two teenage boys our food bills are a whole event in themselves. We're spending at least £600 a month so I want to look at what we can do here. We've started getting meat from Waitrose because I could no longer ignore environmental and welfare issues around it but it's not cheap

Looking at ways to up my income too. If I had 12 students on my most expensive monthly package for 2 years in addition to what I've already got then that would pay £50,000 before tax. 12 is a lot to bring in but it's also something tangible to aim for.

Had a sales call yesterday for one of those spots, will follow up with him on Monday

Have a good day!

Cornish_mum

Welcome back Courgette,
 I too have released my purse strings over the last couple of years. I wish you all the best with your return to frugality. The last time I did I found a bit of gamefication and the frugal art of substitution (from old frugalwoods blogs) helped. Some frugal habits have stuck (home haircuts, family picnics instead of meals out), and pretty much every day I thank the former frugal me.

Take care CM

Nonnadiluca

Re meat, I don't eat it but DH does once or twice a week and I have seen 'Higher Welfare ' chicken in Aldi and Lidl, though higher than what I'm not sure. Still, I assume there must be some level of welfare standard regulation in force. If that's something you could live with it would save a few pounds. 

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary 

pennywisepoundstupid

Welcome back Courgette, rhubarb is lovely in overnight oats, i use greek yogurt, rhubarb, honey for sweetness and oats/granola/museli whatever we have in, sometimes add a bit of ginger if i have some. xx