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the long path to mortgage free freedom

24

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  • phew I survived the first saturday of my new plan !!!
    weekends are always going to be a problem for spending.
    todays saves
    1) washing dried on line again (yes we have lots of washing :D)
    2) meter readings submitted i'm hoping they might reduce the direct debit
    3) another sale made so an extra £10 into fund. i'm going to update next week once i've counted and put it into bank.
    4) lovely day out at the beach with the kids :cool2: packed lunch made including a pack of cakes from my yellow sticker purchases much cheaper than buying sandwiches.
    5) managed to buy a pair of new shorts for myself in the CS for £1.87 :T probably my best bargain to date.

    hopefully I can keep this up tomorrow :D
    :coffee:i find a cup of tea can solve most problems:coffee:
    :dance: but alcohol solves them all :dance:
    basic emergency fund 387.87/500
    £1000 emergency fund #290
    mortgage 91,719= 21y 0mnth :eek:
    6 mnths exp 0/6633
  • first weekend over (including shop for packed lunches ) without too much spending. I managed to write a list and stick to it. we had an enjoyable and free afternoon at the park flying kites.

    todays saves

    1) called and cancelled CC so hopefully that will help increase our chances of being accepted when we re mortgage.

    2) bought reduced bread to put in the freezer. nothing else on sale today.

    3) sorted out a few bits to go on eb*y.

    4) a couple more 1p, 2p and 5p into relevant saving pots.

    5) baked a batch of chocolate chip buns from what I had in the cupboards instead of buying cakes.

    looking forward to tomorrow when my DD come out ( I know that sounds really weird lol) so I can get started on our new budget.

    counted what we have saved up this week so another £45 to add to emergency fund. i'll update my signature once it's in the bank incase theres any more to add.
    :coffee:i find a cup of tea can solve most problems:coffee:
    :dance: but alcohol solves them all :dance:
    basic emergency fund 387.87/500
    £1000 emergency fund #290
    mortgage 91,719= 21y 0mnth :eek:
    6 mnths exp 0/6633
  • busy couple of days but managed not to spend and i've got my budget started. a couple of things might need tweaking ( especially the food budget as not sure we can stick to £25 a week once freezer/cupboards are used up). spent a lovely afternoon making cash envelopes from scraps of card we had in the house to fit in my new money folders. they are cheque size multi pocket folders from w*lko which were £1 each I have 2 and they have 13 pockets each so enough to keep me organised. the little card envelopes will stop coins falling out and make it easy to see which section is for what. I've made a few spares to fill up the second folder as we will have extra things to budget for that I havent thought of. I'll update todays saves later.
    :coffee:i find a cup of tea can solve most problems:coffee:
    :dance: but alcohol solves them all :dance:
    basic emergency fund 387.87/500
    £1000 emergency fund #290
    mortgage 91,719= 21y 0mnth :eek:
    6 mnths exp 0/6633
  • well first week of new budget is going well although I think some things might need looking at again. heres what i have been up to.

    1) changed bank account so should have £75 by mid august to cover school uniforms.
    2) added a bit more to emergency fund so it now stands at £131
    3) walked around l*dl with my list using the calculator on my phone to add it up as i went. a few strange looks but hey it kept me within budget :o
    4) its strangely satisfying to fill up cash envelopes and mark them off the budget sheet ( yes i'm strange :D)
    5) trying to use as little energy as possible by only putting lights etc on when absolutely necessary. hopefully should be able to reduce DD next month.
    6) still walking to school :T i'm shocked how much it was costing us in diesel :eek:

    still motivated we will get there.
    :coffee:i find a cup of tea can solve most problems:coffee:
    :dance: but alcohol solves them all :dance:
    basic emergency fund 387.87/500
    £1000 emergency fund #290
    mortgage 91,719= 21y 0mnth :eek:
    6 mnths exp 0/6633
  • a bit of a set back today I've realised when I calculated remortgaging I'd worked out the difference over 2yrs which was saving us what we would have paid in fees. BUT i need to do it over 1 yr as if we wait till the second year we wont have early repay fees. by doing that we don't save enough to cover the fee's. I'm going to have to have a better look at it. on the plus side i've added a little bit more to the emergency fund. moving slower than I want but we don't have a lot of wiggle room in the budget. I don't want to deprive the kids of holidays etc so that is budgeted in but it means the budget is very tight. so anyway this weeks achievements

    1) walked to school all week and only used car when I really needed to go out so not had to put in diesel yet.

    2) managed to still dry washing without using dryer although did have to finish them off in dryer last night but only for 10 mins.

    3) the £25 per week food budget has proved challenging ( i think I was a bit ambitious) but I have managed to keep it to £35. we have almost nothing left in the freezer and cupboards though so will have to be creative.

    4) ppi refund has been agreed :T only for about £50 but every little bit helps. I had already claimed all the ppi I knew I had so i used a claims company as a belt and braces aproach. I figured even after they took 20%, 80% of something was better than 0% of nothing as I wouldnt of been able to do any more claims myself I had no paperwork and nothing showing on my credit report so had no clue if i had any ppi unclaimed.

    5) need to start researching free / cheap activities for the kids summer hols. the local libaries have a few things on so i'll start there. I also have a years admission ticket to a local museum so i'll see what activities they are doing.

    it's going to be a long term plan but hopefully I can start overpaying soon and start seeing the difference i'm having to be very determined to stick to filling up the emergency fund first :(
    :coffee:i find a cup of tea can solve most problems:coffee:
    :dance: but alcohol solves them all :dance:
    basic emergency fund 387.87/500
    £1000 emergency fund #290
    mortgage 91,719= 21y 0mnth :eek:
    6 mnths exp 0/6633
  • savingholmes
    savingholmes Posts: 27,061
    Name Dropper First Anniversary Photogenic First Post
    Forumite
    Good luck on your journey
    Achieve FIRE/Mortgage Neutrality by mid 2030
    1) MFW Nov 21 £201,999 with 237 payments to go - now £184,341 Equity 26.26% (lower post move compensated by EF) plus spent £10K+ on home improvements/emergency repairs
    2) Mortgage neutral by June 2030 AVC £8.063/£127,466 AVC target 6.32%
    3) FI Age 60 annual income target £12,500/30,000 41.66%
    Achievements: CC free since April 22. 1 year EF from Jan 24 & dedicated pot for home improvements
  • thank you savingholmes. i'm a bit frustrated at the moment but determined to get things moving.

    tonight we took the kids to the beach and stopped off at m*rrisons on the way home. fantastic yellow sticker hall DH has decided we might go more often :rotfl:
    so heres my saves

    1) walking to school only one more week to go :eek:

    2 washing dryed/wet/dryed/wet and finally dryed on the line (stupid rain) :D

    3) returned something i'd bought for myself. I decided I could manage without it even though it was a massive bargain but £30 back into the budget.

    4) yellow sticker hall included for the total price of £1.96 :money:
    3 loves of bread, 2 packs of bread buns, 2 packs of part baked bread buns, 1 individual steak pie, 2 packs of stewing steak, and 5 packs of mediteranian pork kits (pork, veg and sauce sachet)
    we now have a very full freezer :rotfl:

    tomorrow is a massive work day for our small business which will hopefully generate a nice cash flow. fingers crossed for lots of sales.:T
    :coffee:i find a cup of tea can solve most problems:coffee:
    :dance: but alcohol solves them all :dance:
    basic emergency fund 387.87/500
    £1000 emergency fund #290
    mortgage 91,719= 21y 0mnth :eek:
    6 mnths exp 0/6633
  • wow busy day.

    we have planned a sale wekend for our small business (very small and run from our home) and managed to make £49 profit today which is fantastic. sale again sunday so need to advertise again tonight and hopefully make some profit. its going straight to the emergency fund so we should have about £64 to add so far this week and hopefully more. once the emergency fund is filled up these payments will be going to the mortgage.
    todays saves

    1) managed to get a few bits in CS for kids again 3 of which were brand new and still had shop labels on. went off budget but they will save me in the long run so just need to juggle a couple of things.

    2) day out to a free innovation festival in town where the kids got to try a few activities and came out with a few sweets, pens etc as freebies. happy kids.

    3) dinner was m*rrisons cafe feed the family for £10. 2 adults and 2 kids meals 4 drinks and fruit for the kids fantastic value for a treat. finished off with choc ices from the shop 70p for 8.

    following my discovery of d*ve r*msey on you tube i've now discovered another few vids from people in the uk. its my new obsession lol and keeping me motivated. our holiday is now only a month away so need to start looking for vouchers for the places we visit while we are there.

    ok now to go through the budget and check whats what.
    :coffee:i find a cup of tea can solve most problems:coffee:
    :dance: but alcohol solves them all :dance:
    basic emergency fund 387.87/500
    £1000 emergency fund #290
    mortgage 91,719= 21y 0mnth :eek:
    6 mnths exp 0/6633
  • savingholmes
    savingholmes Posts: 27,061
    Name Dropper First Anniversary Photogenic First Post
    Forumite
    I have a similar youtube obsession currently - it definitely does help. Hubby now finally on board - and asking 'What would D've do?
    Achieve FIRE/Mortgage Neutrality by mid 2030
    1) MFW Nov 21 £201,999 with 237 payments to go - now £184,341 Equity 26.26% (lower post move compensated by EF) plus spent £10K+ on home improvements/emergency repairs
    2) Mortgage neutral by June 2030 AVC £8.063/£127,466 AVC target 6.32%
    3) FI Age 60 annual income target £12,500/30,000 41.66%
    Achievements: CC free since April 22. 1 year EF from Jan 24 & dedicated pot for home improvements
  • I have a similar youtube obsession currently - it definitely does help. Hubby now finally on board - and asking 'What would D've do?

    I'm working on completely converting the hubby and making him watch. the kids are on board though lol they are 6 and 7 !!!

    i've been watching m*mmafurfur shes kind of a uk version and although i dont follow her rules exactly it still helps motivate me. :T
    :coffee:i find a cup of tea can solve most problems:coffee:
    :dance: but alcohol solves them all :dance:
    basic emergency fund 387.87/500
    £1000 emergency fund #290
    mortgage 91,719= 21y 0mnth :eek:
    6 mnths exp 0/6633
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