Shouldi - Mfw 2009

SHOULDI

What I've done this year:

- Changed gas/electric suppliers - Dec 2010
- Use Top cahsback for online purchases (save over £400 over passed two years)
-Used Amex 5% discount credit card for 3 months in both mine and wifes name over last 12 months - made over £200 doing this.
- Opened First Direct 8% Regular savings accounts in both mine and wifes names. Potentially making £150 each gross over a year.
- offsetting our wages against our mortgage
- checked for best 1 year fixed cash ISA accounts in April and transferred all previous years funds to these accounts. Added full Ida limits in this year.
- saved £3600 each for next years ISA's (currently offsetting against the mortgage) still need to save £1500 each to max ISA limit by April 2011.

Wow. Seeing it all written down does show how much we have achieved. There are areas I would like to do in order to improve this: matched betting, mystery shopping.

For now I just want to try and enjoy time with the new born over his 1st Xmas and enjoy the time off work...

cha97michelle

You have done well up to now for sure. Enjoy your first christmas with your little one. So magical. Good luck for continuing your plans in 2011.

LilacPixie

Aww a December snow baby. The only think I would say is see if the monthly fee for your bank account is worth it... Are the services availible with it 'worth' the £144 a year it cost you??

With regards to baby they cost as musch or as little as you want really.... Personally I would say spending a little on classes like baby massage and baby yoga is well worth it if you OH does not have many friends with young kids as you can never under estimate the reassurance of having others in the same/similar situation plus adult company is always welcome even if it is sitting in a soft play centre havng a coffee while the mini person rolls around in a ball pit.

[Deleted User]

Hey there
looks like youve done great so far! and congrats on your little one
no thoughts on SOA other than what LP mentioned about the bank account fee- I know some give free things like breakdown and mobile phone ins which may make the fee pay for itself if that makes sense
enjoy your holidays!

SHOULDI

Wow, I can't believe it's been four months since I last updated this.

DS is now 5 months old and I'm loving every minute of spending time with him.

This month was the first month of DH getting statutory maternity leave payment (enhance lasted 4 and a half months). It's a big shock to the system, But we have re-done our budget and we have enough without dipping into savings.

It will get more difficult come August as DH hasn't decided whether she wants to take another 3 months off work (unpaid) until end of November.

It's morally a tough one as financially it makes sense for her to go back to work after 9 months but this opportunity to spend 3 extra months with DS won't come again... With a guarantee of her job...

And child care is a HUGE cost! I can't believe how much it costs... Obviously very naive being a first time parent.

What to do...??? Or should I ask, what would you do?

SHOULDI

Ok, so it's been over a year since I last updated my thread!

DS is now 18 months and our MFiT3 T2 target has just been reached, six months early. :j

It's been a crazy 13 months with DH taking redundancy, my company being aquired by another, and me hanging on in there through a real time of uncertainty.

I'm really pleased we have reached our goal set 2 and a half years ago in the MFi3T2 challenge. We have paid off £100k which is truly amazing!

I would like to try and pay off as much as we can in the next six months and then the remainder of the morgage by 15/15/15. Not sure what the target will be as I would like to set this closer to 12/12/12.

Hope everyone is doing well. Need to try and make it a goal of mine to update my thread at least once a month!

SHOULDI