Busy Mee's Last Leg

shangaijimmy · 29 June 2018 at 9:44AM

Have no regrets about paying for a gardner! Class it as manual labour. The last thing you want is to spend all weekend gardening and then have no time to sit in it ans enjoy it. Instead someone else can do the work and you can sit and enjoy all weekend!

themadvix · 29 June 2018 at 10:39AM

Assuming you drive some/all the way to work, don't forget that your fuel costs will go down when you retire too.

Busy_Mee1 · 30 June 2018 at 7:03AM

Gosh how did we get halfway through 2018 already, it doesn't seem possible.

Anyway here are the June figures and I very happy to report that we have hit the £70k in savings to offset the mortgage :j We have managed to save £10k in 6 months :T

This has been quite aggressive and our emergency/fund has been decimated and so in July I am going to pause all savings for the month to pay a humongous credit card bill that covers four long haul flights and to top the emergency fund back up.

The figures are as follows:

Saving in June. £1663.96
Total savings. £70,000 :T
Repayment mortgage. £67,583.55
IO mortgage. £169,000.00
Total mortgage. £235,649.17
Savings offset mortgage to £165,649.17
Savings:Mortgage. 29%

The prospect of retirement is becoming very real now, it is only 16 months until Mr Mee retires. We have just received our new pension statements and I have been playing about with the figures in the Civil Service Pension modeller. The figures are much better than I originally thought and it looks like I could definitely go in 21 months

Tracking our spending has been really helpful as it is giving me the confidence in knowing that we will be able to live quite comfortably on our pensions for the first few years and then our SRP will kick in 6 years later for Mr Mee and 12 years later for me.

Given that this is becoming a very real prospect I have started to think practically about sorting out a few things, like paying for car and replacing the boiler.

My car is currently on 0% finance, with a final PCP payment of £6000 due in September. I am going to take this £6k out of the savings (gulp !) and this will be my forever car. I have had it from new, it is low mileage and regularly serviced and so I reckon will last another 20 years. It is also automatic so suitable for an old lady to drive around in :rotfl:

We are in the process of having the boiler repaired so I think we will get another winter out of it, but we will probably need to get it replaced next year ( hopefully when I have recouped the savings from paying for the car).

I think that is all for now, July is going to be a very dull month with no savings. I might need to give myself a bit of an odds and sods challenge to see how much I could save in bits and pieces of money to keep the focus up

beanielou · 30 June 2018 at 10:39AM

All sounding good

glass_half_full · 30 June 2018 at 2:49PM

Hi BusyMee,
Congratulations, that is a wonderful achievement ! :beer:

I am impressed how you manage to save at this level. How do you maintain the self control? Now I am finally debt free, I am determined to build up some decent savings over the next 12 months and beyond.

On the subject of spend tracking, have you come across YNAB? I use the free version before they started charging for it. I found it indispensable to track every spend, every day during my debtbusting.

Busy_Mee1 · 30 June 2018 at 4:31PM

Hi Glass Half full - thanks for popping by. There are a few things that have motivated me. Firstly in the beginning it was fear ....we had ended up with a large mortgage and a big chunk of it on interest only and I was really worried that we would never get it paid off.

Secondly Mr Mee is 5 years older than me and retires age 60 next year and I could see our that his earned income was going to come to an end shortly. I am also not sure I want to go to work when he is at home :rotfl:

Thirdly and I think probably the most important thing has been keeping a diary, this has kept me focused and made me accountable for my spending. I do feel like I need to beg the forgiveness of the forum for excess spending :rotfl:

I have seen YNAB. I currently run a free spending app and my own spreadsheets, but I might have a little play with YNAB to see whether it helps. I know others have found it an absolute game changer.

Also my general rule with the savings is that once money is moved to savings and has been declared on here, it doesn't come out again. This is money owed on the mortgage and shouldn't be touched....hence the big deal around using £6k to pay for my car.

glass_half_full · 1 July 2018 at 6:38AM

Hi Busy Mee,
Thanks, that is interesting. I can see you are treating the savings as if they are mortgage repayments wth the same level of seriousness as it were. It is interesting about posting on these diaries keeping us accountable isnt it? I feel the same about that. Its strange how that does seem to work even though its anonymous and relies on ones own honesty. I find seeing others setting and achieving goals really motivating. Makes me feel like I can do it too. Your point about retiring at the same time as Mr Busy Mee is also interesting. For me, its still a few years away, but I will need to have that conversation with my OH when the time comes.

Busy_Mee1 · 1 July 2018 at 6:58AM

Morning GHF - I was busy posting on your diary while you were posting on mine :rotfl:

Anyway as I am having a savings holiday in July to get myself back to a square edge financially, I thought I would set myself a little challenge to me interested and focussed.

So I have cleared out my odds and sods account and moved the money to my emergency fund. I am now going to see how much I can save in bits and pieces this month, so things like rewards, interest, topcashback, Tilly Tidies etc. I am going to sweat the small stuff :T

Target is £150

I have already requested a payment of £12.55 from TCB to get the ball rolling

themadvix · 2 July 2018 at 10:19AM

Car decision seems very sensible... I wish we had your savings rate though! :rotfl:

Loving the small stuff target - seems like a great idea to maintain focus!

Busy_Mee1 · 2 July 2018 at 10:44AM

Thanks MadVix, we haven't always been in this position and we won't be here for very much longer ...hence the need to maximise the savings now

We have had another glorious weekend weather wise and according to the forecast this warm weather is set for another week at least. I cannot remember such a long period of good weather for years.

Nothing too much to report on the finances...pay day came and went and I did two Tilly Tidies of £2.60 and £5.50 to round off our two main accounts.

This kicks off the July Sweat the Small Stuff (SSS) Challenge with a total of £8.10.

I did the grocery shopping yesterday and spent £81, but this is to last a fortnight as we are away next weekend. I made a spicy Mediterranean cous cous salad ( made up recipe) to use a shrivelled up pepper and a lonely courgette, feta and olives. This will do for lunchboxes for the next couple of days.

I have to say the SSS Challenge is motivating me again....I am even contemplating some Ebaying............believe that when you see it :rotfl:

Busy Mee's Last Leg

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