Sunday 8 November 2015

Austerity Christmas


In preparation for the impending redundancy I've minimised all outgoings.

  • Mortgage term extended to 5 years from 2.5 with resulting payments halved to £860.
  • Pension payments reduced from a veritable £560 flood to a £20 trickle.
  • No going out to eat every Friday night - £60 to £80  a week saved.
  • Use only two of the three cars and SORN the 3rd one when the road tax is due (my beloved old Merc), and if push comes to shove, selling it.
With all those little adjustments I reckon we can last till July before I run dry, although I'm certain it won't be that long before I get employment of some description. Even then we have some savings that would last us another 6 months.

Next October, when the lease on the cabin expires, we could feasibly kick the boys out of the cabin, move into it, and then rent the house out to defray mortgage costs, so all in all we're not exactly staring penury in the face.

The really annoying thing is having to push the mortgage settlement date out by two and a half years - we really wanted to get that paid off ASAP so we didn't owe anyone anything. The mortgage is our only debt, as we have no truck with credit cards. I can understand how people fall into the trap of building up unsustainable debt, but using expensive credit cards at usurious rates is just foolhardy.


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