I earn £33,000 a year but I still have £55,000 on my mortgage with repayments of £675 a month. I’m about one month off from collecting my pension under the old system, but I’m going to have to work past the retirement age to pay off my mortgage.
I bought my council house in south-east London for £26,000 19 years ago and five years later I only had £19,000 left to pay, but then I had to remortgage for £80,000 due to credit card debts. I also had to pay for an undergraduate course, MA and law practice, so from nearly mortgage free I ended up with a large amount to repay. I don’t regret it, as I went on to earn a good salary.
I live a very frugal life, a very simple one. I go to work, attend mass on a Sunday, read a newspaper, go for a walk in the park, watch TV or an old film on DVD. My partner lives abroad and we have no children.
I pay all my usual bills on time and I have no outstanding loans or credit cards. I’m in credit of about £200 with the gas and electricity company.
I give to charity when I can but only to Catholic charities. If someone stops me and asks for help with money, then I’ll never refuse. It’s a rule I have. I pay £25 to the Catholic church each month.
About five years ago, I rented two of my rooms out for pennies, one for £280 and the other larger one for £380, all bills included. I did it as a favour for two of my friends. I wouldn’t do it again, because the style of the house means that you get no privacy.
I also had renovations done to the house, which was making the massive sitting room into a spare room and smaller lounge with a partition wall. I had to spend about £7,000, but the work included new doors, soundproofing and painting.
I spend about £200 a month on food, which is all organic, everything from chicken to milk. I buy a paper each day, except Sunday, which comes to more than £19 a month.
I manage to save about £190 from my wages each month. I visit Paris and Lourdes each year, staying in Airbnb properties; I pay for a whole house in each city. I spend three nights in Paris and then I travel on the TGV train to Lourdes where I’ll stay for a another three nights and four days. It costs about £500 with flights, accommodation and the train fares. I also go to Dover about once a year, which costs me about £16.
I’ll travel to Ireland about once a year to see family, and I’m going off there again in a couple of weeks. I pay about £90 for the flights, but my accommodation and food are free.
The only luxuries I bought recently are a new lilac shirt and I also bought three new T-shirts because they needed to be replaced.
I work hard and it is tiring, so on a Sunday when I’m doing the early shifts at work, I’ll treat myself to an Uber for the journey to work and then I’ll take a tube home. All the public transport I take is free, as I get concessions because of my age.
When I finally pay my mortgage off, I’d like to buy a lovely iPad and a Hugo Boss suit. I’d like to visit Paris for three to four weeks and not have to rush back to work; I’d just like to take it easy and to not worry about money. I’d love to pay for a new fitted kitchen. I play the lottery about once every six months. Even if I got £1m tomorrow, my life would still go on as it is.
As told to Amanda Hall-Davis
