Statement of intent

atypicalblonde

Hi Stuart,

Phew - I have just read this thread from beginning to end, and am completely amazed by your achievements - they are fantastic! As a relative 'newbie' to this board you are a true inspiration to me, and if I could emulate (sp?) even an ounce of your achievements I would feel very proud.

Keep up the great work - can't wait to see you on the mortgage free roll of honour!

ATB x

MoneyQueen

Hi StuartGMC,

Have read your complete thread...

Very interesting and motivating....

Especially the fact that while offsetting the mortgage to the maximum, you are enjoying this and doing things with your family... which obviously keeps you going...

Good Luck

StuartGMC

ATB and MoneyQueen thanks indeed for your kind words and your time in reading my "ramblings", it's great to think that in addition to these being my sounding board and "open declaration" of intent, they help others to tackle things too, although I know they can get a "bit" verbose!

Whilst we started out in Oct 1994 on our mortgage and overpaid throughout, it was this forum which really kicked things forward in terms of focus and more pro-active actions. I wish this had been around when we started, but then that was back when the internet was just launched (my own web site celebrated 10yrs online in 2008 :j).

Cash is running low in the bank Current a/c but I really don't want to move anything from the savings back. This is slightly "mad" as it both offsets, but psycologically I am reducing my savings if I do so but more importantly our effective interest rate has risen to 1.48% which is not good. Anyway, OH is paid on Friday so all will be well and things should improve with my pay end of month and then again through Feb.

I note I didn't get cashback from Play.com via TopCashBack so need to look into this; seen a few posts indicating they only pay once.. "listen very carefully, I'm not 'appy about zis!". So will need to chase.

Nothing saved in January so far but I did make the full £814 contribution in December to the savings, plus the full OP and the S&S ISA investment so perhaps I shouldn't be too harsh on myself? However January is supposed to be £912 to savings so this is I think going to be missed in consideration of the credit card bill which will be issued 18 Jan to be paid 12 Feb....

S&S ISAs have dropped back from intial gains over the first few days of the month, but keeping with them for now including the Russian one. The amounts invested should significantly increase once MF, so I do need to find the time to start planning for this (as if my to-do list is not long enough!).

We are back on track for holiday planning, hope to get this in place at the weekend, and Mexico looks to be very much back in the frame. This should be good for DD to compare the Mayan culture and built history with that she has grown up with due to holidays around the Med / North Africa in terms of Roman, Greek and Minoan, etc plus the strong Celtic and Roman history from our home town.

Well I hope all of you are doing well and even if you don't maintain a diary here, I do hope you post occasionally to keep me and others going.

atypicalblonde

Your posts certainly are inspiring to many Stuart, and I greatly appreciate the thoughts and encouragement that you have posted on my thread. Ultimately, we are all heading towards the same goal, and what a great goal it is too!

All the best

nesssie1702

If anyone's having trouble finding this thread, then "subscribe" to it....

Select the "Thread Tools" option above

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I only started using it recently, but it's great for finding threads that you're following, without having to go through several pages in the forum - yes, you've guessed it - this is one of the ones that I'm subscribed to!

Welshlassie

The other option is whenever you post to a thread it automatically subscribes you, so you then go to UserCP at the top of the forum and all your subscribed threads with new posts are listed.

As usual Stuart you are doing amazing, fingers crossed for that fully offset position as soon as possible.

PS I've made some adjustments to the Excel version of the spreadsheet to allow for different years on the Fuel, Grocery & clothes thread (and gifts and appliance sheets that I've since added), let me know if you want to formula or whole workbook for others.

StuartGMC

WelshLassie
Many thanks. Off work today (chills, fever, aches etc - usual winter virus) but hope it will clear quickly.

I would definitely be interested in receiving the new version please. I send your Excel version when I send out the OpenOffice one. Perhaps I can modify the latter too.

I should note that the actual one I use at home now has been heavily modified with various permutations on ratios of spend, income, baseline costs, listing of potential position to hit mortgage free total, forward projections on cash saving / spend until we get to 65.... oh, and some additional graphs now recording the value and profit(loss) of the Stocks & Shares ISAs too.

I think it keeps me out of trouble but OH and DD have stated I'm obsessed with it, which is probably true at the moment. Maybe it will change once mortgage-free but then it will be down to maximing savings and growth (where will I post that sort of info?). I think once closer to retirement and in retirement it will require several hours each week to monitor best options etc.

So far this month is not good, with no savings being put aside, although we've hit the OP target at start of month. Credit card bill usually generates on 18 of the month, but as this will be Sunday I can't recall if they run it tomorrow night (which would be good as OH is out on weekly shop at this moment). Bill is high with car costs etc so it will be very difficult to also find the £912 that should go into the savings this month. I think I'll just have to be logical and accept what can go across and look at 100% offset impact (I don't presently include a consideration of the current a/c in this date, but this will help of course).

OH has been in to talk through the holiday in Mexico and needs to go back now they've reverted with a price over £4k as it's not clear how they arrived at this value; we were expecting about £3.7k. My budget for holiday is £4.3k which is everything from leaving the house to stepping back into it. So need to look closely, but as DD is still able to get a child place, then this still provides a saving over the cost in 2010 when we'll start facing adult costs for her. We've booked holidays online in the past, but these particular offers this year are very poorly detailed in terms of the room options etc hence need to actually go into the travel agent. I will just check on my NatWest Yourpoints to see if this gives us anything, otherwise will use for a short break etc.

Lunar_Eclipse

StuartGMC wrote: »

OH has been in to talk through the holiday in Mexico

Very jealous.

How old is your daughter Stuart? Whereabouts are you planning to go in Mexico? I have it on my (mental so far) list of places to visit on our 2011 long holiday - the latest project in our house, hence the question. We almost went for our honeymoon; looks like a lovely country. Of course the weather, cold beer and food are very good starters.

setmefree2

Mexico sounds lovely......

Have you looked at booking the hotel, flights, etc yourself? or are you looking at a package?

ShelleyC_2

I went to Mexico in 2006 for 3 glorious weeks - was about an hour south of Cancun. It was fab :j

Hope you get a bargain and have a wonderful time.