Getting a Grip and Saving towards the mortgage

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  • Busy_Mee1
    Busy_Mee1 Posts: 1,015 Forumite
    edited 19 August 2016 at 5:11PM
    It is a bit cold and rainy here today - come back summer !
    August seems to be going really quickly and I am looking forward to our long weekend away next week, I just hope the weather sorts itself out.
    I have been really pleased with our new approach to grocery shopping this month and spent £62.33 this week. A total of £160.12 so far this month - there is one week to go and although I am not sure I will bring it it under £200, it is still loads better than the £80+ a week I have been spending. ( and massively better than the £130-150 I was spending a couple of years ago before I discovered MSE :eek:) I think next month I will try again for £50 a week but it is getting tougher as the freezer is running down - fish finger fajitas anyone :rotfl:
    I have been cooking more and made a really nice beef in red wine casserole on Sunday with dumplings ( the dumplings made my boys very happy :D ) and another large quiche for the boys while I was away on Tuesday night. Last night I made a baked leek and bacon risotto ( stole the recipe from Fortune, who got it from BBC Good Food). This was really easy and I used pudding rice which I had in rather than the more expensive arborio rice and it worked just as well.
    In other MSE news I have been doing the usual bank account patrols and received the first £4 reward on my C@@P account, but I have had to email to chase up Mr Mees. I have done all the usual Tilly Tidies and the O&S account is mounting up nicely - £120.75 so far this month. I also did the online shop with Asd@ to get £8.98 cashback which should be enough to get the £15.00 refer a friend bonus in Mr Mees account. I spent exactly the £25.00 required and paid £1 to have it delivered. I will do another £25 order again on Mr Mees TCB account, so that he can have the £8.08 too ( by he I of course mean me :rotfl:)
    The painter has disappeared to another job this week, I am hoping he will finish off next week and then I will have the painful task of paying him.
    I think that is all my news - excercise is going well but the diet isn't, I will need to get a grip of this soon :eek:
    Have a great weekend
  • Busy_Mee1
    Busy_Mee1 Posts: 1,015 Forumite
    Morning all, I am up early as we are heading off for a weekend away with the kids. I am really looking forward to it, we have lots of walking and cycling planned so I am hoping the weather will behave itself. Work has been stupidly busy this week and as a result my diary has been a little neglected but I am determined to keep it going because it really does help keep me focused.
    The painter turned up again yesterday and has promised to return next week to finish up, as long as the weather is fine. I just want to get this finished and paid for now.
    In MSE news I have been checking the spreadsheets and found that I am still £15.42 short of saving £1000 this month, so after a quick check around the accounts I found a spare £10.22 which I swept into my savings. I just need to find another £5.20 before the end of the month, which is going to be difficult because all the accounts are now "tidy".
    I have definitely decided that the C@@P accounts will have to go, I have had some correspondence re Mr Mees £4 reward and apparently this needed to be activated when he opened the account and he didn't so now he has to ring up so they can explain the T&C s :mad: I am not going to be able to persuade him to do this for £4 so I will switch the account instead. I have been trying to decide where next and think it will be the H@lifax because I don't want to stay with them. I want to try and end the switching sequence with N@tionwide or FD to get their high interest regular savers. Following the S@antander 123 reduction in interest, I am going to need to find other options - I am thinking a couple of Tesco accounts ( providing they don't follow the same route). In the meantime I have borrowed some money from my mortgage reserve to max out the S@antander account for the next 2 months whilst they are still paying 3%. My mortgage rate is dropping to 0.94% from the 1 September so I suppose it is all swings and roundabouts.
    I cashed in the 20 p jar yesterday and will be using the £50 that was in there towards our weekend away. I also am taking food with us, a picnic and flask for the journey and stuff to make a cooked breakfast every day, so hopefully that will help with the spending.
    The grocery spends are still going well I only spent £45.31 yesterday and cooked up a big batch of sweet potato and butternut squash chilli last night, which we had for dinner and 3 portions with rice put into the freezer which will provide meals for DS at work.
    I really do need to find that extra £5.20 for savings this month, because September will be a very poor savings month because the holiday credit card bill needs to be paid. September is however going to be operation Eb@y month !

    Have a great weekend :j
  • Busy_Mee1
    Busy_Mee1 Posts: 1,015 Forumite
    A bit late with the August update, but was straight back into work after our weekend away. We had a fantastic time, the weather was glorious and we spent a lot of time outside in some beautiful countryside. There was lots of laughter and I am feeling very blessed - time spent with my family is so very precious :)
    So on with the August update. August has not been a very hardcore MSE month, we have had lots going on, birthdays and other family events but I don't regret a penny spent. We did however get a grip of our grocery spending and managed to get our weekly shopping bill down to just over £50 per week. I did also manage to just scrape together just over £1000 into savings, with a final tenner found from the PayPal account. The numbers for August are as follows :

    £1004.88 Total into savings this month
    £153.34 Into free money this month
    £1143.46 Total free money since April
    £39,396.28 Total savings
    £255,828.61 Mortgage
    Savings:Mortgage 15.40% (slowly creeping up)

    Savings in September are going to be difficult because of the large holiday credit card bill that needs to be paid but I am determined that we will break the £40k barrier which means finding £603.72. I am budgeting £60 per week for groceries and will be starting operation Eb@y :T
  • Busy_Mee1
    Busy_Mee1 Posts: 1,015 Forumite
    I am pleased to be working from home today - I imagine the commuter traffic will be horrendous as everyone returns to work and school. Travelling over the last 6 week has been so much better (sigh).

    The painters have arrived again to finally finish off the outside, thank goodness ! It looks really smart but has taken longer and cost more than expected :eek: Still hopefully we won't have to do it again as we will have probably moved by the time it needs doing again.

    Operation Eb@y started yesterday, I listed 15 items and already have 1 bid and lots of watchers. I also had a bit of a result buying on eBay, replacing my much loved comfortable sandals ( but now a bit wrecked ) for an identical brand new pair. :j

    I have also had a new approach to the grocery shopping yesterday and meal planned and shopped for a fortnight - spending £102.76. The test will be to see if this lasts without doing any top up shops. I tried this because we are going away at the weekend, but if it works OK I might continue shopping fortnightly.

    The usual TSB interest and Tilly Tidies have been paid into the O&S account and I am going to need to be quite focused this month to hit the £40k savings target.

    We have a couple of big parental birthdays this month ( hence we are away this weekend) but the presents have been bought and are more thoughtful than costly, so we just need to pay for the petrol costs and some drinks for the party.

    I have started to get a grip of my diet and got the SW books out and everything and I have managed to get to lunchtime without eating any biscuits :rotfl: Not sure how I will get on at the party at the weekend but I figure that if I am good Monday to Friday it can only help:A
  • Hey BusyMee, how are/did your eBay auctions go in the end?
    I have a little pile of items ready to be photo'd & listed but I've left them in storage so will be cracking on with it next week instead! :)
    First home- Oct’16 until June’21: £170.995- Overpayments made £13,784 (25% extra!).
    New forever home- Sep’21 £309,449 @ 2.05%. Plan to clear it before 30 years!!!!!!
  • Busy_Mee1
    Busy_Mee1 Posts: 1,015 Forumite
    Hi Kittenkirst - hope you are well and your house is nearly ready. I will pop along to your diary later for a catch up.

    Operation Eb@y is well underway with 10 items sold on Sunday for £103.15 and 18 more items listed. It definitely feels like Eb@y has woken up again after the summer.

    The painter has finishing painting the outside of the house, so that saga is thankfully over and paid for:T

    But the exciting MSE news is that the £50.40 TCB for opening each of our C@@P accounts has been confirmed and I am now obsessively checking TCB to see when it is payable. I have £64.14 tracking in my TCB account and Mr Mee has £87.78 tracking in his.

    I will be mainly packing and posting the sold Eb@y items today, as well as doing some work;)
  • Fab work on the TCB & EBay front!!

    Bet you're so pleased the painting is all done- are you pleased with how it looks now? :)
    First home- Oct’16 until June’21: £170.995- Overpayments made £13,784 (25% extra!).
    New forever home- Sep’21 £309,449 @ 2.05%. Plan to clear it before 30 years!!!!!!
  • Busy_Mee1
    Busy_Mee1 Posts: 1,015 Forumite
    It looks great thanks- so much better.
    TCB takes ages to come through but it is sort of a nice surprise when it eventually does. I am also working up to another switch which should reap another £200.
  • Busy_Mee1
    Busy_Mee1 Posts: 1,015 Forumite
    I am struggling to update my diary at the moment because there is a lot going on at work and at home. The last time I was this busy at work I ended up abandoning my diary and I am determined not to do that this time. Keeping a diary has really helped keep me focused on saving through a lot of expenditure this year.
    Anyway on with the monthly update, Operation Eb@y has already netted me over £200 this month, with a final 9 items to be listed over the next couple of weeks. If these don't sell then I will just send them to the charity shop.:T
    The monthly figures for September are as follows
    Total into savings. £610.22
    Free money this month £173.68
    Total free money. £1,317.15. (Since April)
    Total savings. £40,006.49 :T:T
    Total mortgage. £254,911.86
    Savings: Mortgage. 15.69 %

    I am really pleased to hit my £40k target for savings, even though this is a small percentage of the mortgage it does make me feel more financially secure - we could effectively pay our mortgage for 40 months if we needed to.

    So onwards and upwards, I can't believe it will be October tomorrow, we will be away travelling for most of November and then we will be into Christmas. I need to think about some new targets :D
  • try_harder
    try_harder Posts: 1,527
    First Anniversary First Post Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    Hi busymee1 ,you sound very busy ,i hope all is going well,you have done amazingly well to reach such a high figure ,well done.I have not been around since August due mainly to losing my password and also with life in general ,i was busy with the children over the summer holidays ,two children off travelling ,gardening ,work in the house and so the list goes on but i really missed the diary and the support ,it definitely keeps me on the straight and narrow .I have been reading the diaries every day but was unable to comment so i am very happy now to be back .I hope that you manage to find time to write in your diary ,i find you very inspiring .
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