Mortgage free & able to live the dream!

SWSEGirl · 30 October 2017 at 12:40PM

chelseablue wrote: »

We're normally relatively good during the week, its the weekend spends we need to keep an eye on too.

Thank God a wedding is a one off thing (well hopefully once!)

Hey Chelseablue! I sometimes dread Monday's purely because I know checking my bank balance will be depressing :rotfl:

Weddings are hideously expensive - but I can honestly say it was the one day I really enjoyed spending the money - not helpful I know! We also sold a lot of the wedding [STRIKE]tat items we bought afterwards - so were able to recoup some of the cash. And you're already way ahead of us in that you have a home, we definitely did things in the wrong order!

SWSEGirl · 1 November 2017 at 10:00AM

Well it's that slightly scary time of the month where there's still 3 weeks until payday, but my bank balance is diminishing at a rate of knots!

Council tax comes out today, then my credit card on the 12th, so I've budgetted around this - although no doubt there'll be some additional spends I haven't accounted for.

I'm actually quite exhausted & overwhelmed at the moment with work & life - I very stupidly said I'd help out with a local sports group with their admin & it's spiralling out of control

I'm not doing a good job & I feel like I'm letting them down. Not sure why I put myself in these situations. Does anyone else ever feel totally overwhelmed by life??

Actually keeping this diary feels cathartic & like I'm doing something positive for myself - I've come so far from the days when I literally had no idea what was in my account & when my finances contributed to my overall feeling of being out of control.

SWSEGirl · 3 November 2017 at 7:37PM

TGI Friday....it's been a long, stressful week & I'm exhausted. After having family every weekend for 5 weeks my husband & I are going out for pizza just the 2 of us. It's really much needed. I did consider being MSE & eating at home...but we really need to be without the distraction of the TV& washing up, so it will be money well spent.

One really depressing thing that happened today - we asked for John Lewis vouchers as wedding presents (2 yrs ago) - we didn't have our flat then, but were working towards it & asked for vouchers in order we could choose lovely home bits when the time came. We checked in store & were told vouchers dont expire.

Fast forward to today - we've finally made a decision on what to buy (weeks of discussions & making lists - the vouchers are precious, so we wanted to invest in things we'd keep forever) - and I discover they've all expired. I am beyond gutted - £1000 gone. And it was money that would be a real treat for us, and very important being a wedding present.

I spoke to customer services who said nothing could be done. I've written, but am not holding out much hope.

On the back of the cards - it reads that they expire 24 months after last transaction, I believed we were fine as we haven't made any transactions, but apparently the original purchase
Of the cards counts as a transaction. I feel incredibly stupid for saving them & agonising over spending them, but I felt reassured by customer services in store when we originally decided to ask for these vouchers as presents.

Bit tearful today

cha97michelle · 3 November 2017 at 9:43PM

Welshlassie wrote: »

I struggled with the month periods for a while as I'm paid on the 20th, but you need to change your mindset.
Work out what the money you have at the moment needs to do before you get the next lot of money in, so what bills need paying, how much food do you need, fuel etc. then fill those categorises with that amount of money, when the end of the month rolls round any available money left in those categorises will roll over into the following month.
When you next have some income just add to the next categorises you need to fill.
If you're paid monthly then you'll probably fill all your categorises once and then they'll just roll over.
In the summer we finally managed to fill up next months categorises with what we were paid in this month so are no effectively a month ahead. It's much easier to manage now.
There's a great group on FB that will answer any questions you have and talk you through how to do thinks.
I used a spreadsheet for a while, but kept loosing track and over extending ourselves with what might come in. This is why I like YNAB you only budget what you have at that moment and can't forecast ahead.

fully agree with this. I fully credit YNAB to helping me raise a deposit to buy a new house so we can rent our current one out. I find it a great game to see how many days I can hang on to my money before it gets spent. I'm up to 138 days. Really helps me to see where our money is going and how to make more of it.

Last year I used it to save hard for a holiday of a lifetime.

Worth persevering with.

Just read your bit about the JLewis vouchers - might be worth getting in touch with more senior management and appealing to them. That is an awful lot to lose. I think they have perhaps the best customer service of any store I have ever shopped at so its got to be worth a try.

SWSEGirl · 4 November 2017 at 11:53AM

Thank you for replying cha97michelle!

I've got 2 weeks off at Christmas & I'm going to get both me & my husband on YNAB - I'm going to devote a day to getting more organised & trying to work out how to make it work starting from the 1st of each month.

I'm still waiting to hear back from JL, I hope their customer services live up to their reputation. Stupid me for spending so much time trying to get the most for our vouchers- that backfired spectacularly!

Horrible weather today & Im babysitting - currently tucked up in a local cafe with a hot chocolate while my little charge sleeps. When he wakes up I'm hoping the rain will have moved on & I'll be able to run him round the park here.

Very few plans the rest of the weekend - we have (another!) guest tomorrow night, so I need to do all our washing & tidy the house. It feels like an endless stream of people at the moment.

My brother left cash for taxis after his stay (which I wasn't expecting) so I'm going to try and just use this for the next few days & help my bank account a bit.

SWSEGirl · 6 November 2017 at 4:32PM

Happy Monday - I am really flu-ey and exhausted, and got another unexpected house guest this evening. I generally love hosting people, but I am so tired at the moment - and cooking for more people just costs us more. i could also really do with a bit of space to properly chill out. I've got more guests this weekend, but after that I'm just going to say no to people - I think me and my husband could do with some time to ourselves - we really aren't seeing a lot of each other at the moment & I'm getting no down time at all.

On a more positive note - I've now opened my First Direct current account - and my current Barclays account will close at the end of November. I can't wait to no longer be paying £10 per month for my account, and daily fees to dip £100 into my overdraft (although I'm hoping not to go into my overdraft again....:o) I'm going to put the £125 joining bonus into our holiday pot. :T

SWSEGirl · 8 November 2017 at 8:12AM

Hump day! The weekend can't come soon enough, I'm struggling with a bad cold/ flu - but can't be off work as simply too much to do. I might try to work from home tomorrow to give myself a chance to get better.

Good news - we received a £140 dividend from some shares we own - not a huge amount, but a nice top up for the Christmas fund.

Happily I've only used my bank account for travel this week, so it's still looking healthy-ish. I should be fine until payday as things are going.

One thing I have been thinking about - when I switch banks I'll lose my mobile phone insurance (included in my £10 fee) - I haven't claimed on this for 2.5 years & my phone is quite old, but is it worth getting insurance? We have home contents, so I need to check if my phone is covered on that I guess.

Happy Wednesday all!

SWSEGirl · 14 November 2017 at 10:11AM

A few days since I last posted - yesterday was our first night without guests for a week - it was bliss! We cooked from what we had in & caught up on a new series we've been watching!. So nice not to be spending £15 on the way home on food for the masses.

All my big payments have come out for the month - so whilst my bank account is dwindling, I'm still hoping not to dip into my overdraft. I'm visiting my best friend & new baby this weekend, so I want to bake for them on Friday & I need to get her a nice gift.

My commute is very cold & miserable at the moment & I can't help dreaming about a holiday next year somewhere warm....I might look into that this weekend. It turns out I have 17 days holiday to take this year - I've rolled 5 days over & am taking 10 days at Christmas - but that still leaves me a couple of days & I'm planning on taking a couple of 3 day weekends before Christmas - such a lovely prospect! It'll also be great to have more holiday to play with next year.

Now I just need to start the Christmas shopping.

SWSEGirl · 20 November 2017 at 9:46AM

Ah Monday! Always comes round so quickly. Happily it's payday this week - which is lucky as my account is showing -£53

I need to give my head a wobble as this is happening every month & just means I'm on the back foot constantly.

I have had a few big spends this month - namely my Mum's big birthday & lots of guests to stay. Thankfully Christmas is well budgetted for & I need to make a start on ordering presents now.

I had a lovely weekend visiting my friend & her new baby, had dinner out with my DH & managed to get a few house jobs done. I'm in line to get a new role at work in the new year, with a significant pay rise - but lots more pressure. If it happens I'm seriously considering getting a cleaner - both for my own wellbeing & to save arguments with DH! I leave the house at 7.30am & don't return until 8.30pm most days, despite DH working from home 4 days a week most of the cleaning, washing & life admin falls to me & it's getting quite overwhelming. It's not very MSE, but I love the prospect of a clean & tidy flat :A

In other news - I've been squirreling a teeny £5 per week into a Moneybox stocks & shares account - I've already got £200, which isn't going to set the world on fire - but I never miss a fiver a week & am hoping to plough a little more into it in the future. :beer:

lessavyfav · 21 November 2017 at 10:28AM

Hiya! :hello: Enjoyed reading your diary so far — my husband and I also have a London mortgage (bigger than yours!!

) but there's relief knowing we're not the only mad ones on a 35 year term..we're hoping to clear it off much sooner too. You sound like you're doing an excellent job so far!

I'm also using Moneybox and started to increase my weekly amount to £10 + double roundups - averages out to about £35 per week and I have almost £900 in the pot now, hopefully £1000 by the end of the year. It's a great way to just sweep loose change and shows every little bit adds up, but I can't help but think I should probably move on to 'real' stocks and shares. I just love the ease of MB.

Anyway, good luck for your job promotion, sounds like you deserve that cleaner with all the people you've got visiting.

Mortgage free & able to live the dream!

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