MoneyQueen’s MFW Journey and Daily Diary

MoneyQueen

Hi everybody,

I am finally back in UK (returned on 20th). Hope everybody had a very nice Christmas.
Floxxie and SMF2, Thanks very much. Holiday was really good and the weather awesome.. though it feels like a distant memory now. :rolleyes:

I did most of my Christmas Shopping in India with the money that MIL gave me so it has been a moneysaving Christmas. :j. Wish I could say the same about all the shopping I did yesterday in the Boxing Day Sale.:rolleyes:

SMF2, I have failed the Clothes Shopping NSY Challenge so will remove it from my signature. I and DH have spent £600 altogether on clothes/ shoes/ accessories/ lush bath stuff. For DH he actually needed all the stuff. For me, most of the stuff was just what I wanted.

I will post my update for December at the end of the month.

Take care everyone..

MQ

MoneyQueen

I and DH had a discussion about past one year of the MFW journey and we have decided that we wouldn't want to cash all the ISAs in October 2010. This is because we won't be getting this tax free allowance again. I have calculated the total money that we have in Cash ISAa and atm we have £32529. I will add another £10200 to this when we invest for 2010-11

So in my December update, I will be removing this figure from our "Net Debt"

We have also transferred £10,300 to India in November and will be transferring another £1500 next year (around April Time) to take care of the Stamp Duty and Registration Fees etc. That should be it all I think.

What this means is that we won't be able to be MF by October 2010 as we had thought earlier. :sad:

At the moment 11/11/11 seems more appropriate but as I haven't done any calculations yet, this may change.

setmefree2

No need to feel :embarasse You're doing brilliantly:T. It will be really nice to have a big fat balance in a cash ISA too :T

MoneyQueen

Thanks SMF2

Happy new year to you too..

Just a quick post to wish my Diary a "Happy Birthday" as it has completed one year

I will be doing the full update for December and a another for 2009 tomorrow

MQ

StuartGMC

MQ
Very best wishes for 2010

MoneyQueen

Thanks Stuart,

May New Year be very happy for you too.

MQ

MoneyQueen

Here is the update for December. I have included all the shopping that we did in the Christmas Sales, but there will be some stuff that we would return next week so I will update the balances next week again.

I am currently working on an update for the whole year. Will be posting that later today

Update for December

Monthly Salaries = £4916.48

Mortgage

Balance = £96006.72
Interest Rate 1.29%
Monthly Payment £873.81
OP done in December £0

Savings (These are all Net Rates)

Reg Saver 4% Expires Feb 2010 Adding 500 per month = £3375
Reg Saver 4% Expires Feb 2010 Adding 500 per month = £3125
Reg Saver 4.8% Expires Mar 2010 Adding 250 per month = £1825
Reg Saver 4.8% Expires Mar 2010 Adding 250 per month = £1825
Reg Saver 5.8% Expires Jan 2009 = £3250
Reg Saver 5.8% Expires Jan 2009 = £3250
Reg Saver ISA 7% Expires April 2010 adding 300 per month = £2700
Reg Saver ISA 7% Expires April 2010 adding 300 per month = £2700
Fixed Savings 4.07% Expires Jan 2010 = £6000
Fixed Savings 3.72% Expires Jan 2010 = £8000
Fixed Savings 3.72% Expires Jan 2010 = £3200
Fixed Savings 4.08% Expires Jan 2010 = £5000
Fixed Savings 4.08% Expires Nov 2014 = £3200
Fixed Savings 4.08% Expires Nov 2014 = £3350
Fixed Savings 2.24% = £9000
Cash ISA Fixed 5.00% Expires July 2014 = £7218
Cash ISA Fixed 5.00% Expires July 2014 = £10589
Cash ISA Fixed 3.75% Expires Dec 2012 = £3878.91
Cash ISA Fixed 6% Expires Nov 2011 = £3644
Instant Access Savings Account 2.2% = £35.01
Instant Access Savings Account 2.2% = £35.01
Instant Access Savings Account = £1.03
Current Accounts + MB Float (This includes Moneybookers and Paypal) = £8617.92
Cash + Loose Change = £165
Euros - £195.98

Total Savings = £94179.86

Debts other than mortgage

Balance to be paid to a Credit Card on 16th Feb 2010 (currently 0%) = -£2,522.40
Balance to be paid to a Credit Card in Dec 2009 = -£117.85
Balance to be paid to a Credit Card in 19th Jun 2010 (currently 0%) = -£2,652.98
Balance to be paid to a Credit Card in May 2010 (currently 0%) = -£4,863.14

Total Debts other than Mortgage = -£10156.37

Mortgage + Debts – Savings = £11983.23

SOA for December

Monthly Household Income (after tax) = £4916.48
Mobile -£19.57
Mortgage - £873.81
Transfer to Regular Savings Accounts - £2100
Council tax (Paid by 0% Credit Card) - £0
Telephone and Broadband - £40.45
Fuel (Paid by 0% Credit Card) - £30.05
Electricity/ Gas (Direct Debit) - £35
Food & Groceries + work Expenses - £102.22
Shopping + Misc (Paid by 0% Credit Card) - £997.51 (This includes Christmas Presents/ Boxing Day Sale Shopping/ Christmas Cards)
Credit Card Payment (0% Balance Transfer) - £25.00
Credit Card Payment (0% Balance Transfer for 9 months) - £49.12
Credit Card Payment (Purchases at 0% for 12 months) - £34.00
Credit Card Payment (Full Payment) - £12.18


Elecricity – 6 KWH/day
Gas – 75 KWH/day :eek::eek::eek::eek:
Grocery Spend £102.22/£100

Will update my signature now

Floxxie

Happy New Year MQ!

And a huge congratulations on managing to keep an eye on the savings/mortgage/debts

MoneyQueen

2009 has been a good year. We have managed to keep track of all our spending/ savings/ debts and at the same time have made some effort for a better life

Our Direct Debit for Elec/ Gas is set to £35 which is much lower than previous years :j
Grocery Spend for the year has been £1236.99 which even though is more than the estimated £1000, but is still much lower than previous years:j

Mortgage is reducing Nicely but most of it is due to the lower BoE Base Rate

Here are the figures

Mortgage Balance at the start of the Challenge: £105,191.52
Mortgage Balance on 31st Dec: £96,006.72
Mortgage repaid in 2009: £9,184.80

Over Payments done this year: £159.61

Total Savings at the start of the Challenge: £59,114
Total Saving 31st Dec: 106,479.86 (including £94,179.86 in various saving accounts and £12,300 that we have transferred to India)
Savings Accumulated in 2009: £47,366

Total Debt (excluding Mortgage) at the start of the Challenge: £3200
Total Debt (excluding Mortgage) at the end of the challenge: 10156.37
Debt Accumulated in 2009: £6,956.37 :eek:

This is one area that we need to look into as even though this includes all the general monthly spending (a big portion of this is general/ miscellaneous shopping)

We have set the following Targets for 2010

1. March 2010: Be "virtually" Debt Free
2. March 2011: Enough in Saving Accounts to be Mortgage Free(if we want) while having £42,730 in Cash ISAs
3. July 2011: Be MF with £42,730 in Cash ISA and £10,000 Emergency Savings

Obviously this is going to take great efforts so we have made some new year resolutions

1. Use Up all the Toileties/ Makeup I have accumulated over the past year before buying any more (Have joined the No New Toiletries 2010 Challenge)
2. Reduce the Grocery Spend while still eating healthily
3. Meal Planning and More Batch Cooking
4. Don't shop without a list
5. Grow own Salad (DH's new year resolution)
6. Try to earn all the extra money through Overtime/ MB/MS/ Anything else
7. Ebay all stuff that we no longer need/ use
8. Reduce Miscellaneous Spend (I have joined Frugal Living 2010 Challenge
9. Shop from farmers markets as far as possible (This is mainly for supporting local shops rather than Money Saving)

Heres to 2010 :money:

MoneyQueen

Floxxie wrote: »

Happy New Year MQ!

And a huge congratulations on managing to keep an eye on the savings/mortgage/debts

Thanks Floxxie..

Happy New Year to you too..

How are you getting on with MB? I haven't touched it for ages..