A penny at a time - MFW + Minimalism/Zero waste/Simple Living/Frugal/Old Style/Crafty

simplelivingcottage · 12 July 2017 at 5:35PM

Hello,

I hope I am ok starting a post here! I’m Nessy I live with my other half and our two pup pups in a small terraced cottage which we bought coming on two years ago.

We bought our little cottage because
a) It was small. All we have is a falling down garage (not near the house), a super small garden, small lounge, small kitchen, two bedrooms, dodgy craft room and a non working bathroom at the moment (don’t get me started on that one!).
b) Because it was everything we wanted at a lot less than what the bank was offering us, that way we knew if one of us lost our job we would still be able to pay the mortgage.
c) Because it fits within our values e.g. it doesn’t have modern central heating, everything is warmed by the back box.
d) I was a stupid woman and fell in love with it!

Anyhow so that’s the house, now onto the rest. I would really like to reduce my mortgage, get some savings together, re-build the other half’s garage and actually still have fun while living a more simpler life. Ultimately I am doing this so that in a few years when and if we manage to have kids, we might be able to survive on one wage coming in or maybe I could reduce my hours or maybe we will just be able to survive living while paying out for the little gremlin or two, you never know.

Note - Myself and the other half are on a basic wage, nothing spectacular and I actually think the other half is on minimum wage! Where we live we cannot just go to an Aldi or a Lidl because there isn’t one. All we have over here is Tesco, Co-op and M&S. We have two phone providers of which they cost the same. We only have one company we can pay for the electric. This all means where most people swap and change between things we cannot because it just isn’t available to us.

To make each bit easier I am going to separate the accounts.

The Joint account - Overpayment
Currently at the moment I have my money and the other half has his and then we put a certain amount into the joint account. I put in a grand and the other half puts in 700. I earn more so it is only right this happens. From this we pay out for the dogs insurance (no matter how much I am not changing from where we are/not paying), the monthly electric (paid by a meter, as this was in the house already and we like the idea), our food for the month (really need to get better at this), the monthly vet payments as it’s cheaper than buying the flea, wormer and injections separately. Our garage which stores the one day camper, a load of motorbikes and our beloved car. The TV licence and the telephone/internet. In winter our coal/wood comes out of this as well.

I’ve worked out that after all that jazz, without the winter costs and the telephone/internet fluctuating then we should have around £230 spare each month. From this spare payment I am hoping to save for our rates and anything else left over will go to overpaying our mortgage which I can put 10% extra down each month. Hoping to also get our food shopping sorted so that I can skimp extra money from that to put towards overpaying. I think the way to do this will be to pre-plan, take the money out of the account to pay in cash then whatever is spare put in safe place then put it all back in the bank at the end of the month-ish to overpay. I feel every extra pound I can get will be worth it.

I’ve read quite a few of these diaries prior to joining and a lot of people are putting a lot of money down. Sadly for me it will be whatever spare cash we have so most likely just a few pounds a month, nothing amazing! Also while I’m typing I think I would really really like to pay of our mortgage before I’m 50/before the other half is 50 which is three years earlier than me, so that’s going to be the aim. I think this means I am trying to cut off 3/6 years of our mortgage. More would be amazing but I really need to realistic.

My Account
From my account I have shaved off everything that I think I possibly can so that I can enjoy myself this year, I’m hoping to go away a few times this year. I have a Quilt Festival in Birmingham, a week “homestay”, our normal holiday to the other half’s parents, a trip to the Christmas Markets in Berlin and a concert in December!!

So my aim is to save for each of the above items, so that I actually have money to spend when away and also to actually save money for a rainy day. I am currently saving £100 into a savings account so will continue to do that no matter what.

While do everything above I really am trying to live a more minimalist/zero waste/simple living/frugal life so this is going to be a main thing for me.

So yep, think I’ve rambled enough, going home now to make a master food list so I can start making a proper effort at meal planning. Not just oh what should we have tonight nights. This Saturday will also be my first week keeping to a budget/menu planning/actually keeping to it.

Exciting times ahead!

P.S sorry some of the above might read pretty random, I keep going back and adding more stupidly!!

beanielou · 12 July 2017 at 9:24PM

Happy shiny new diary

Debtslayer · 12 July 2017 at 11:15PM

Hi
Welcome to the board
Couple of things that stood out to me:
Electric you say is meter; I presume you mean prepayment meter. I would consider changing this as you will pay significantly more for your electric this way than you would normally.
Vets monthly payment. How much is this? We buy all flea and worm treatments online, they are the same products and much cheaper than from the vets

simplelivingcottage · 13 July 2017 at 8:26AM

Thank you

simplelivingcottage · 13 July 2017 at 8:30AM

Hello,

Thank you for your reply

Sadly as I said there is only one company which we can get electric from and when we first bought the house we checked whether we would be paying more with the meter or not and actually it's the same. The base rate is the same daily so we don't spend more there and I probably think because we can see the money going down daily were less likely to put something on "just because"

With regards to the dog tablets ect it works out to be over £100 cheaper for me with both our pups to get them done by the monthly payment than buying them separately. I did look online but with postage it didn't look worth it, plus I would be worried that I would not be getting the product I requested and something else entirely wrapped up in the right packaging. I might just be a wee bit scared of buying items like that online. If in future I see a better deal I will change over!

MissLemon · 13 July 2017 at 1:52PM

Yay for a new diary! And another crafty person.

You've reminded me to look at our vet's monthly payment for injections and worming. Our pup is due for his injections this month.

Meal planning will really help with keeping the food bills down. Whenever I do them I always spend less, use more of what I have already in the cupboards and tend to try new recipes from all my recipe books I have.

And as people have said on my MFW diary every pound or penny you put towards the mortgage is a pound or penny you will never pay interest on again!

shangaijimmy · 13 July 2017 at 7:17PM

Shiny new dairy :hello:

simplelivingcottage · 14 July 2017 at 9:00AM

Hello all,

Thank you for the reply’s its lovely to know people are out there trying to do the same thing. :j

So I spent yesterday trying to figure out what I can do with the money we have left at the moment and whether I can pay something even if it’s a couple of pounds of this month. I still also am quite confused on when I can pay the money of my account. I might have to pop into the bank to find out. I’m also having a fiddle with a few overpayment calculators/spreadsheets and they all say something different so I’m unsure on what that means.

Righto onto other exciting things firstly I got my first harvest from the garden, two pineberries (very weird but wanting to grow more next year), one strawberry and one tomato. Not a lot but it’s very exciting anyway.

Secondly I’ve decided on our menu plan for next week, still need to discuss with the other half on what he wants me to get but the dinner menu is sorted so that’s all good. Going to see if I can download a tesco app or something so that I can see how much it’s going to cost in the end and that way in the weeks coming I can add to it. I’d love to do the mysupermarket thing but I think I will start depressing myself when I see how cheap I could have gotten something overseas.

Oh and before I go (not putting my shopping list up till the other half has told me what I need) I’ve decided that our shopping is going to be £60 a week for both of us and £60 a month for the dogs, which will be a super stretch as I really like getting treats for them. Might end up making my own and then giving them one big treat a week. I need to find/make a master shopping purse so I can take the money out every week. Thankfully there is a cash machine outside Tesco and only use that money, anything extra will go aside into a savings purse. That way I can either move the “spare” from our account into savings and use that money next week or put it into the bank once a week, if you can do that with coppers ect. Will have to look into it.

simplelivingcottage · 14 July 2017 at 9:05AM

Hello,

You will have to tell me how you get on, I pay around £12 for Joey and £15 for Larry a month, but we get the chewable flea and wormers which are expensive in themselves and obviously we get injections and two vet checkups with it. Joey is up early next month for his and Larry is up in November sometime (I'll get a text) but as he gets a few different ones from Joey, he's a rescue from Romania I find it's worth while even just for the lack of stress and trying to figure out where to find the money.

What type of pup do you have? Also what crafts do you do. I am super crafty and will try everything at least once. I'm really trying to get rid of my current WIP's so that I can work on a 1/2 WIP basis!

Kittenkirst · 14 July 2017 at 9:45AM

Welcome to the board Nessy

I'm Also a bit crafty, but mainly in the jewellery realms; I do silversmithing and beading which I love but need to actually do it more rather than stare longingly at beautiful things on Pinterest!

Planning meals from the store cupboards and packing lunches/snacks and taking coffees out with me I find helps keep costs down, as well as using cashback sites for purchases/insurance/energy switches.

Good luck on your journey, we'll all be cheering you along :wave:

MissLemon · 17 July 2017 at 7:01PM

simplelivingcottage wrote: »

Hello,

You will have to tell me how you get on, I pay around £12 for Joey and £15 for Larry a month, but we get the chewable flea and wormers which are expensive in themselves and obviously we get injections and two vet checkups with it. Joey is up early next month for his and Larry is up in November sometime (I'll get a text) but as he gets a few different ones from Joey, he's a rescue from Romania I find it's worth while even just for the lack of stress and trying to figure out where to find the money.

What type of pup do you have? Also what crafts do you do. I am super crafty and will try everything at least once. I'm really trying to get rid of my current WIP's so that I can work on a 1/2 WIP basis!

I will. Not sure if it will be worthwhile or not.

I mainly sew clothes but also knit (slowly) and crochet (a bit faster).

A penny at a time - MFW + Minimalism/Zero waste/Simple Living/Frugal/Old Style/Crafty

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