bitbybit's road to freedom

bit_by_bit · 4 June 2018 at 9:08PM

Back from a great week at Hay Festival. We didn't do too bad with spending on food. We ate three evening of the four we were away but took packed lunches and snacks.

We didn't do as well on the books. We spent quite a bit but half were second hand, the others were new, several of them signed for us.

Not been great on the writing down the expenditure as it hasn't become a habit yet.

Today has not been a no spend day but I passed McD's on the way home from work despite wanting a chicken sandwich meal desperatly, I went home and ate leftovers. Later spent just under £50 on the weekly shop for our family of five. We are using up freezer contents and any bits I can find. Got to claw it back somewhere.:D

bit_by_bit · 11 June 2018 at 2:38PM

Back from another festival. I did buy food, but only twice and about 4 cups of tea which were reduced in price because I was reusing my cup. I came home with money still in my purse so all good.

I did a check on my mortgage last week and find I will go sub £30,000 by at least £150 next month. I am very happy with that but I could have been there sooner had I not been so spendy.

Danger areas this week: I have one evening out this week which will cost me about a tenner Including ticket to an event and food and a drink.. I will also be going to my DS1's wedding on Friday, Accomodation and food will mostly be taken care of, just a few drinks I think. I will take emergency snacks and milk and tea bags for our hotel room.

Looking forward to a time when I can save properly again, I think it will be August though. Patience is a virtue in this game

bit_by_bit · 3 July 2018 at 1:23PM

Back again to report a heavy financial few weeks. Just hols to get out of the way next week and then its time to slow down.

Good new is that I have still managed to over pay, albeit only £15.00 today. it was none last month so pleased.

Also I am down to £29,100 without the overpayment or this months mortgage payment take off, so sub £28000 when that clears.

At the end of last year we considered downsizing and looked at some houses nearby. This finally kickstarted DH :T to think about adapting our house to suit our needs for the next five years as we are not going to be able to downsize with three grown ups kids needing rooms.

So today the buiilder has come today so he can measure up for a quote. Hope to start in August.
We are moving the downstairs loo to the understairs, opening the space up in the extension we had built 20 years ago. We are moving the patio doors to a more central point, and where the loo was will be a couch for sitting and chatting and gazing out onto the garden. Finally we are doing a total refit of the kitchen. So more money out but this is being budgeted for.

The house had tripled in value in the last 20 years and hopefully this will improve that further.

bit_by_bit · 19 July 2018 at 10:19PM

Back from hols and straight into cutting back and listing spending. We did a food shop for £77.00 at the weekend and are using food off the allotment, freezer and given food to supplement. We are a family of 5 (three men with healthy appetites).

Keeping a spending diary is good though, easy when you have NSDs. I have taken packed lunch or leftovers all week.

As always when I come back off hols I am decluttering madly, the whole house is a pig sty. We are having some building work done in August so it has to be done.

Last payments into two regular savers next month so I am having a savings holiday of one month to clear just have a bit in the bank, then I will be back to it.

bit_by_bit · 22 July 2018 at 8:13AM

So this week there have been three NSD's and I have managed to keep the spending diary properly for the first time. I have also been taking packed lunch and leftovers to eat at work.

I have managed to no spend at least £40 on my usual snacks and lunch form the M&S shop at work and the Aldi and McDonalds on the way home. This should not only be good for my wallet but also for my waistline.
It has been tough walking/driving past some days. I need to work on having food with me to replace those points where I used to drop in for food.

In other news I have managed to do a whole load of clearing and decluttering both at home and on the allotment. Son No1's room which doubles as my craft and writing room is a work in progress but a lot better than it was. He had a van full of bags of clothes from when he left his GF. They have been in there for about a year. I thought he had enough clothes as it was. Anyway he got rid of the van and his room filled up with bin lines so badly that I couldn't get through to open the window.

All sorted now but he hasn't got rid of much.

The builder has come and quoted us £10,000 but we expect it will double that as we are buying the tiles and the kitchen to be fitted. Luckily it is all budgeted for. Will be paying on a points credit card and then paying it all off asap.

Right off to the allotment to pick some beans and water of course.

bit_by_bit · 9 August 2018 at 11:03PM

Dipping in to say hello. It's been a busy few weeks again, and of course spendy. I have now reached the end of my planned big spends apart from the house remodel that we expect to start at the end of August.

On a positive note I am keeping to a spending diary and it has definitley made a difference to the amount I spend. I care more about every penny. My habit of buying food most days at work has been reduced to one day a week and not every week. I take in leftovers or packed lunch. I have a pack of cereal which is handy if I forgot my lunch.

Also in the good new section I can report that a family member who owed me £800.00 has paid it off in one go, and I in turn paid off a credit card which was just under £800.:T This month Son no1 who borrowed money to pay for some of his wedding is starting to pay it back, along with son no2 who is working (for the time being) and so can also pay some rent. This will all go to overpay the mortgage :T

We have saved about £50 on food this week as have been shopping from the freezer. It needs to be cleared out and moved to the garage. In addition Son No3 bought home butter , eggs, lemons and oranges after a clearout of the fridges at work. This has saved us money and we now are going to make lemon curd and lemon drizzle cake at the weekend for the first time, yum. DD has already done a lovely orange marble cake.:)

We are also in the thick of harvesting now and have been getting tons of tomatoes, courgettes, green beans and carrots from the allotment. Soon we hope to harvest the grapes and melons.

A final bit of good news is that DH is moving jobs, being forced to really as his company is farming out work. Anyway, with his current company he has a Pure card which he gets cashback for all sorts of things including the weekly shop at asda. Anyway, I always said that Aldi was cheaper but we have been a bit locked in to shopping at Asda. This will be no more and we can save a lot more than the 3% that we get off pure card. .

bit_by_bit · 10 August 2018 at 5:16PM

:TFinally, an opportunity to overpay today. Son No2 has paid some rent at last.

bit_by_bit · 1 September 2018 at 8:53AM

Back in to report an overpayment of £150 for August. This with my mortgage payment takes me to £28, 744.81. :j:T:j
I am over the moon. I haven't been able to overpay as much as I would like for vartious reasons, not least because we are having our downstairs remodelled and that is costng £20,0000 plus the early year expenditure for three weddings.

I am well on toarget to clear the whole mortgage by the time I retire

My aim now is to get the mortgage below £28,000 by the start of 2019

bit_by_bit · 26 December 2018 at 12:37PM

Back in for the final infrequent post in 2018.

I have achieved my target for 2018 in that I am below £28000 at £27980. :j:T:j

I have just under 30 months before I retire.:j:beer::j:

Taking off regular payments and regular savings which when matured over the next 2 years I need to find approximately £12050 over the next 30 months which equates to about £400 and month.

This is very doable.

Hopefully the next year won't be so expensive. Our remodel of the downstairs which started at the end of August has cost us over £25,000 and we are not finished yet as phase two ( nice new multi fuel stove and redecorate the rest of the downstairs).

DH very good at saving too but he has his own mortgage which he has been overpaying plus bank account juggling after I had done it for a while thanks to MSE. Long term he wants to retire in four years time which is also doable.

So bring it in 2019...................:D

bit_by_bit · 10 January 2019 at 9:32PM

Happy 2019 to one and all

So on my last post I said it was about 30 months until I can retire, but actually it is more like 25.:j

The mortgage now stands at £27,649 without this month's overpayment of £50 and the £291 for the regular payment. Interest was a little over £11.00 which is minimal but I am continuing to pay so if the interest rates go up I have less for them to charge interest on.

After a discussion about money, retirement and lump sums with DH we have realised that we can both stop working in 25 months time as long as he has a big enough savings pot. It would be better for him to hang on another year though so if he is happy at work he will do. If not he will have option to leave. His mortgage on his parent's house will also be paid off when mine is.

Back to the other project - decluttering. We moved furniture back and around post builders this week and are aiming to clear off two tall bookcases. They are going to be gifted to nephew's girlfriend who has just moved into a flat.

bitbybit's road to freedom

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