The ups, downs, and occasional sideways bits of trying to be mortgage free

shangaijimmy · 29 June 2017 at 7:58AM

So frustrating to see isn't it. I'd feel like it';d be putting my life on hold...bit dramatic i appreciate!

armchairexpert · 30 June 2017 at 2:04AM

No that's right! I was starting to factor that extra money in and now whooosh.

It'll come through, it's just that I have to get my accountant involved and because it's the end of financial year I have to do a bunch of other paperwork in order to create the document they want, and I am partially dependent on other people to get information to me. So I'm guessing August-ish.

Last day of the month so I've finalised the budget for July. I bumped up my savings pots because I don't think I'll have enough money saved up for Christmas/birthdays (both girls are December)/repairs if I don't, but that's meant that the over payment has melted away AGAIN. The reduced phone bill should start trickling through soon, and my income goes up next month, so it's not all despair and gloom, but i'm getting sick of running on the spot!

Ah well. Plodding on. There's a pork shoulder in the slow cooker that I'm turning into pulled pork for tonight; we'll have with fresh rolls and HM coleslaw as a Friday night treat and there should be loads of meat left over. I stripped the leftovers off a roast chicken this morning too so I now have 3 carcasses to turn into stock plus enough leftover roast meat to make a respectable soup next week. Let the July budget commence!

Tahlullah · 30 June 2017 at 8:11AM

Sometimes, running on the spot will also get you what you want!

Look at the positives. You haven't gone over budget and you have managed to start saving for the things that count. You have enough food and toilet roll to last you for a month and you have a plan for when the extra money arrives in August. Looks like you are rolling with the punches to me!

Is there no money left to overpay, or have you made a small overpayment? Even if it's small, you should celebrate it. If there is no overpayment, but you are managing to still budget without borrowing, you should celebrate it. All of these steps lead to the end game. You are still on track.

You have given yourself a July challenge of only buying fresh food. My challenge is not to buy anything. OK, you have more chance of success and I will be cheering you on. I am assuming that food for Rufus and Rufus's bum will be classed as an essential in my challenge? If not, I had better accept defeat now.

Tx

shangaijimmy · 30 June 2017 at 8:16AM

Great viewpoint Tahulllah. I'll throw into the mix a daily TT for motivation. The little bits do mount up. I put the TT's in a separate saver then OP the pot every Sunday morning. That way i get to see an OP on mortgage account every week!

armchairexpert · 3 July 2017 at 1:44AM

The big news here is that I went backwards by $1100. This is a side effect of having everything go in and out of the mortgage account: my mortgage balance also includes money that's earmarked elsewhere, so it does go backwards sometimes. This was a lot, though: my net worth (mortgage minus credit card balance) now stands at around where it was in March. I.e., all those small OPs I've made over the past three months have been wiped out.

The reasons for this are:

I paid a lot of July bills in June, in anticipation of changing across to new mortgage accounts. As it turns out, that's not happening for another couple of months so I didn't need to do it. But it does mean that hopefully very little money will come out in July!
Similarly, I ended up buying a lot of July groceries in June because of Costco trip. That was another $200 I wouldn't have yet spent otherwise.
I'd have to be an awful person to complain about this, and I am not doing, but it's still a fact: I sponsored my mother for a refugee ration challenge and then three separate friends all had really awful things happen to them and I put in for collections for them (flowers, wine, delivered meals) and all in all, I spent about $150 on things I hadn't budgeted for. $200 if you count shouting another friend to dinner because his wife's business is hitting a financial wall and they may lose the house.
Annual mortgage fee of $400 came out, which I'd forgotten to budget.
Mr E went over the homewares budget by 100% because he wanted to get a bunch of fruit trees into the garden before spring comes. Another $200 over.
The alcohol budget is fairly modest, but twice a year we (Mr E) gets a box of wine delivered, and that also arrived in June and I hadn't built up a pot, so that's another category where we've already spent all of July's money (and halfway into August): $100 over.

That's $1100 even without the advance-paid bills. It's no excuse, really: all of those were discretionary choices that we made. Wine, gifts for friends, apple trees. Obviously it's not okay to justify things like that when it takes me so far over budget, but at the time every one of those purchases felt like it was hard to argue against because they were all time sensitive. I don't think I really regret it, but I will have another look at the end of July and see if I've been able to make up some of that lost ground.

This has also been very instructive because none of these things felt extravagant, and yet it just doesn't take that much purse-string-loosening to put us in the red.

Current goal, therefore: make up the June loss within July, which should be possible, thus ending the first six months of MSE budgeting a smidgen ahead of where we started. We are $5K ahead of where we were this time last year, my business is still growing, and we now have a nice low maintenance car not a money pit that leaks when it rains.

armchairexpert · 3 July 2017 at 1:59AM

And here's the general life update: rolling along nicely, thank you. We went and bought a few pieces of clothing on the weekend (work shirt and pants for Mr E, various bits for growing children), and I let Mr E and the girls out of my sight while they chose things, so that could have been cheaper, but as long as nobody wants anything else this month we're golden.

Spent Sunday doing housey things: Mr E and Big Girl started painting the lounge room, Little Girl and I deep cleaned her room and did a big wardrobe purge. She gets her sister's hand-me-downs and also all the hand-me-down from her sister's friends who don't have younger siblings, so it mounts up until we can't close the drawers. Nothing worth eb'ying, sadly, since it's all been through at least 2 and sometimes 3 children already. Went for a nice long run. Got some work done on the novel. Still waiting for my freeloading hens to start laying; they're the right age now, so hopefully will get their acts together. One of them is crowing, but I haven't managed to catch them in the act and see which one.

Made pizza, flapjacks and bread last night for lunch boxes. So far only grocery spends have been tomato paste and salami for pizzas, plus dairy. Not quite sticking to 'fresh only' but close.

This week is a bit quieter, work-wise, so will hopefully get on top of accounts and things.

Tahlullah · 3 July 2017 at 8:15AM

Well, I would call that a 'sh*te happens' month. A lot of spending, but as you said, time sensitive. You could choose to beat yourself up about it, but what would it achieve?

Look on the positive side, you are ahead of the game on a lot of things now, such as he bills and food. So this month, you can try to draw even. And we all forget to budget for stuff, but you won't forget next year!

I would try and draw a positive spin on your 'charitable' money. everyone needs a hand up at some point in life. Everyone. And when you help someone, it comes back. Paying it forward. This is something you should celebrate, because although you only had a little money yourself, you thought of others. Good on you!

You have a plan. Stick to it and you will soon be at draw even point. And draw even point does not mean in arrears.

Remember, if you can still move forward after a hard month, you are doing something right!

OK, the only buying fresh food is out the window! Admit it!

mfmaybe · 3 July 2017 at 8:40PM

armchairexpert wrote: »

The big news here is that I went backwards by $1100. This is a side effect of having everything go in and out of the mortgage account: my mortgage balance also includes money that's earmarked elsewhere, so it does go backwards sometimes. This was a lot, though: my net worth (mortgage minus credit card balance) now stands at around where it was in March. I.e., all those small OPs I've made over the past three months have been wiped out.

The reasons for this are:
I paid a lot of July bills in June, in anticipation of changing across to new mortgage accounts. As it turns out, that's not happening for another couple of months so I didn't need to do it. But it does mean that hopefully very little money will come out in July!
So a timing difference, not an overspend?

Similarly, I ended up buying a lot of July groceries in June because of Costco trip. That was another $200 I wouldn't have yet spent otherwise.
Adjust the July food budget accordingly

I'd have to be an awful person to complain about this, and I am not doing, but it's still a fact: I sponsored my mother for a refugee ration challenge and then three separate friends all had really awful things happen to them and I put in for collections for them (flowers, wine, delivered meals) and all in all, I spent about $150 on things I hadn't budgeted for. $200 if you count shouting another friend to dinner because his wife's business is hitting a financial wall and they may lose the house.
Don't even begin to feel bad about it. If you aren't struggling to make ends meet (as in, can't feed or clothe yourself and family) then charitable payments and the like are a perfectly valid expense. Perhaps I'd go as far as to say obligatory.

Annual mortgage fee of $400 came out, which I'd forgotten to budget.

Mr E went over the homewares budget by 100% because he wanted to get a bunch of fruit trees into the garden before spring comes. Another $200 over.
Ah but that's an investment that will *cough* bear fruit :rotfl:

The alcohol budget is fairly modest, but twice a year we (Mr E) gets a box of wine delivered, and that also arrived in June and I hadn't built up a pot, so that's another category where we've already spent all of July's money (and halfway into August): $100 over.
12 bottles? In which case, that's 2 nice bottles a month. Stick a label on each bottle with the month you are going to drink them. Now it's just another form of budgeting

That's $1100 even without the advance-paid bills. It's no excuse, really: all of those were discretionary choices that we made. Wine, gifts for friends, apple trees. Obviously it's not okay to justify things like that when it takes me so far over budget, but at the time every one of those purchases felt like it was hard to argue against because they were all time sensitive. I don't think I really regret it, but I will have another look at the end of July and see if I've been able to make up some of that lost ground.

This has also been very instructive because none of these things felt extravagant, and yet it just doesn't take that much purse-string-loosening to put us in the red.

Current goal, therefore: make up the June loss within July, which should be possible, thus ending the first six months of MSE budgeting a smidgen ahead of where we started. We are $5K ahead of where we were this time last year, my business is still growing, and we now have a nice low maintenance car not a money pit that leaks when it rains.

So things are generally moving in the right direction, you are still refining the budget, and being a good citizen while you are at it? Sounds ok to me

. I don't subscribe to the "mortgage free or die" philosophy. Imagine if mortgages didn't exist? So try to overpay and cut it short, yes; but for me it's not about living a life that doesn't make me happy in the meantime.

armchairexpert · 4 July 2017 at 11:05AM

You're both correct, and yes the July food budget and wine budget are adjusted accordingly. I don't really feel bad about it (especially the gifts! although it would be nice if nothing bad happened to anyone I loved for a wee while) but it's eye opening to see how what feel like small choices add up. I've said this before, but it can't be overstated how wide the gulf is between how wealthy we think we are, and how much money we actually need to maintain our lifestyles. At the beginning of this I would have told you I have $2,000 a month left over after bills and essentials, and therefore I could basically spend what I liked. But it's nowhere close to that now that I have a better grasp on how many expenses there really are.

July is rolling along. It's freezing here, and pouring with rain, so all I want is comfort food. Had gorgeous pork sausages with onion-and-mushroom gravy, mash and veg for dinner, and the girls had leftover rice pudding from yesterday for afters. There's bread rising in the kitchen, the chickens are safely locked up for the night and the children are sitting by the heater in their PJs with their Dad for a bedtime story. I'm typing in bed and really should be working!

Cherryfudge · 4 July 2017 at 11:27AM

So many things I was going to say have already been said (more lucidly, too).

You were there for your friends when they needed you, which in the end matters 100% more than money. You have family around and hot meals when you need them. You are learning from experience which is tough but helps protect your future and your family's future. Lots of this month's expenses are already part-covered. The progress you made from March onwards is still progress: if you hadn't done that work, your situation would have set you back that much further now. You are still 5K ahead of this point last year...

I think this is a blip in the graph not a change of trend. Keep focussed on the long term goal: you'll get there!

The ups, downs, and occasional sideways bits of trying to be mortgage free

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