Time to get serious

EatingTheElephant · 26 January 2016 at 8:50PM

Hello Everyone :wave:

I have been reading this forum for quite a while now. There have been many mentions that a diary has helped many of you with your goals, so I'm here to join in and knuckle down.

My oustanding mortgage is very small, that is not the real challenge!

This year the mortgage will be gone, however we are really keen to move.

Getting a mortgage for the type of house we want will be difficult, so the plan is to save as much as possible. It doesn't help that I am very impatient!!

The initial focus is to clear the current mortgage and reduce the outgoings. On the 1st January it was £9400 and I was hoping to have it paid off by the end of the year. It is currently at £3900 :T

So far I have claimed credit back from energy suppliers, claimed outstanding expenses from the business and sent off scrap gold. Ate from the mealplan, there was lots of food left over from Christmas and used the nectar points at $ainsburys and T3sco points for food, claimed the cashback sitting in T0pCashback, scoured all the accounts to shuffle bits into the mortgage and bought virtually nothing all month (not sustainable I know!!).

Off to hunt for the next financial area of focus....

PrincessLou · 26 January 2016 at 11:11PM

Good luck with your diary! :j

What type of house do you want and how much will you have to save?

EatingTheElephant · 27 January 2016 at 7:44AM

Thanks for stopping by PrincessLou, I'm quite excited to have a visitor already

We would love a house in a more rural area where our horses could be closer. Ideally in the back garden, but that might be a bit of a stretch!!

If I had to put a figure on it I think we would have to aim for saving around 300k.

This doesn't seem possible on paper, but not a lot of things I have done have seemed possible so why change the habit of a lifetime?!

I've checked the ofcom form to see if we would be better off on a water meter and it reckons we would save £38/m, so worth doing I think. This has now been requested with our local water board. Also digging out the paperwork for my existing ISAs so I can look at consolidating them and getting a better rate.

PrincessLou · 27 January 2016 at 10:51AM

EatingTheElephant wrote: »

This doesn't seem possible on paper, but not a lot of things I have done have seemed possible so why change the habit of a lifetime?!

Reading the diaries on this board have really changed my view of what is possible when it comes to saving and overpaying. Some people pay off or save such incredible amounts within a relatively short period of time it astounds me.

Have you saved anything towards the £300k so far or are you starting at £0? Do you have a time frame in mind?

Maybe think about posting an SOA. It's a really good place to start on seeing where you could maybe cut back or change the way you are spending and everyone posts helpful comments.

SueP19 · 27 January 2016 at 11:09AM

If I can go from 11 days to a repossession hearing last August to overpaying then you can get your house in the country.

A wise man once said to me "Don't focus on the problem, focus on the solution"..................took me many years to understand that one and I was doing it without realising.

So go for it and you will only ever get support here :j:j:j

SueP19 · 27 January 2016 at 11:11AM

EatingTheElephant wrote: »

Thanks for stopping by PrincessLou, I'm quite excited to have a visitor already

We would love a house in a more rural area where our horses could be closer. Ideally in the back garden, but that might be a bit of a stretch!!

If I had to put a figure on it I think we would have to aim for saving around 300k.

This doesn't seem possible on paper, but not a lot of things I have done have seemed possible so why change the habit of a lifetime?!

I've checked the ofcom form to see if we would be better off on a water meter and it reckons we would save £38/m, so worth doing I think. This has now been requested with our local water board. Also digging out the paperwork for my existing ISAs so I can look at consolidating them and getting a better rate.

What area are you aiming for because £300k would get you quite a bit round here

EatingTheElephant · 27 January 2016 at 2:32PM

OK first challenge I haven't worked out how to do quotes yet!

I completely agree with what you have both said about the astounding progress made by people on this board.
I'm hoping it will rub off

Looking at the ISA situation last night I have around £24k saved already. I'm hoping DH still has an ISA lurking too. I did set one up for him years ago, but it may have been cashed in.

Unfortunately 300K doesn't get you much around here, I'm factoring in that our house should provide some of the money needed too when we get to that point - though slightly apprehensive as have never sold a house before but shouldn't need to worry about that for a few years yet! (possibly 5?!)

Going to try and nip out as the rain has just stopped, my steps have been pitifully low the past few days with the rain :eek:

EatingTheElephant · 30 January 2016 at 7:29AM

It's the weekend at last.

A bit of a hectic end to the week with a visit to the vets with the dog, parents evening and a dying 4x4. Menu plan needed shuffling to accommodate, but resisted the takeaways.

DH does still have an ISA, although it has been earmarked for a replacement if the 4x4 is definitely dead, hopefully DH can resurrect though.

I was hoping to take the dog for a bracing walk to the beach this weekend but he's still not feeling himself so will stay home and try to keep him resting. Easier said than done!! This should give me chance to catch up on paperwork and maybe doing a cookathon so there is plenty of food that can be grabbed in the week.

There is also a 40th birthday lunch to go to, so will need to get a card and present for that.

One of the horses needs a new thicker rug, I found the one I wanted at £90 under RRP so not entirely un-mse but it does reduce how much I can send over to the mortgage. Also decided one of the rugs I got at the start of the winter that hasn't been used can be sold. I'm thinking of trying a local FB horse group, not tried this before but hopefully will be better than eBay as no postage.

I have £100 left over this month to send over to the mortgage, so will send that in a minute.

Have a great weekend :beer:

Eager_Elephant · 31 January 2016 at 11:12AM

Hi :wave:

Saw you on Sue's thread and thought I would pop in to support a fellow Elephant along the way!!

I am loving your aspiration of a house with land for horses - Debt Free2012 has just purchased a farmhouse and some land and has just moved her horses on to the land so the dream can be done. She has a diary on here.

I currently rent a house that I am hoping to buy - we have 4 acres which we rent within our village and we have chickens, turkeys, geese and at some points in the year we have pigs and sheep.

The future aspiration is a house with land attached but in Suffolk we would need in excess of £300,000 for that so that is a plan for the future.

Good luck on your journey!!!

EatingTheElephant · 31 January 2016 at 5:44PM

Thank you for popping by eager elephant and for the words of encouragement

Your setup sounds fab, would love to have chickens too when we get some land of our own.

Great news, looks like DH has repaired the 4x4, so hopefully will get a bit more use out of it yet:j

New ISA opened and transferred a previous one into it (same provider). The other smaller ISA is due to mature early part of this year so I've printed off the forms ready to transfer. Also set it up so I could compulsively check the balance on my phone.

I started off the year thinking that it would be difficult to clear the remaining mortgage this year, however after such a great start this month I'm wondering if I need to aim a little higher.

A new target has been set to add to the savings as well as clear the mortgage. I really don't think this is going to be possible, but better to aim high!

I've been reading a few diaries over the weekend and I thought I would borrow the following from hiddenshadow for my end of month roundup.

Mortgage (aim 0): £5,500/£9,400 (56%)
ISA (aim £30,000): £0/£6,000 (0%)

EatingTheElephant · 3 February 2016 at 8:16AM

Morning everyone,

Everything is moving in the right direction. The regular mortgage payment has come out along with the £100 I transferred over at the weekend.

Travel expenses for last month were also transferred across and a small refund from a horse insurance I reduced.

Total today is £3,267.

The MSE email came through today so I have signed up for the energy club switch to my existing supplier. I should save a couple hundred pound a year plus get £30 cash back, hopefully I'll get accepted.

Quite tempted to sign up for the M&S bank account too, so will look at that later.

The horse rug has made its way back to the house so I can photograph it for FB (a very small step in the right direction) and DH has wiped a techie gadget that I'm going to eBay.

There is a mobile to send off too, I've found the best price for it (sadly only £30), but better than nothing. There should be another very old mobile around somewhere so will need to find that before sending off.

Unfortunately an unexpected spend, DD has a job interview today and needed smart clothes with nothing really that suitable in her wardrobe, so frantic dash to M&S. It should be a good experience for her if nothing else, plus I'm really pleased with all the work she has put into preparing for the interview.

Time to get serious

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