MoneyQueen’s MFW Journey and Daily Diary

setmefree2

MoneyQueen wrote: »

Hi, I am not really spending any time on MSE as I have an exam on Monday..

MoneyQueen

Thanks Floxxie and SMF... I have tomorrow off so will study the whole day tomorrow and have valentines day free

Floxxie, the Bingo win is actually the daily Scratchcard thingy... have never ever won anything in my life in bingo - so I don't even try now :rolleyes:

Right, update for the last 10 days or so

Have spent £46.51 on Grocery this month... and it is just 12 days have passed :eek: so not really good on that front...

Have submitted the Gas and leccy readings

Gas - 52 KWH per day - up 2 KWH from last month - but its ****ing snow here everywhere
Leccy - 6 KWH per day - up 1 KWH from last month
SMF2 - I am an avid reader of your Energy Use thread...:T.

Take care everyone and I should really study now :sad:

Floxxie

Are you around MQ or still recovering from the exam?

Hope things went well for you.

Floxxie
x

MoneyQueen

Hi Floxxie and everyone else on MFW

Exam has gone well. But have been very busy at work. Even bringing stuff home to finish and staying awake till 2 in the morning... :-(
My personal target in March is to analyze why I am busy whereas everyone else at work seems to enjoy themselves
DH thinks because I try to do a good job where as others don't really care. I know this is true to some extent(DH has worked with some of the guys in my team before and knows them very well) So I do need to do something about this because right now work is spoiling my personal life...

Okay rant over..

I and DH have to paint our flat roof as it has been leaking for over a month...

Now the good news ir that we have opened the Bradford and Bingley Monthly saver account at 6% for both of us this week

I will provide a full update in the evening...

Take care everyone

MoneyQueen

Hi,

Never got to paint the roof today... Probably tomorrow if it remains dry.

But we cleaned the house from top to bottom instead... Now it looks beautiful and smells nice

Update for the last few days

We never posted 5 mobiles for recycling last month so took advantage of the love2recycle deal for Feb, so if we send them all this month then that should make £39 :money:

I phoned our energy provider for reducing our DD as we have been in credit for the last 12 months so it has been reduced to £42 from £77 :money:

News at food shopping front are not good this month. We have spent £85.41 and have exceeded our budget of £80 even though we have not done any big shop. Have had 3-4 eat outs/ take aways this month and used ready food instead of cooking from scratch. So need to sort this in March. Will try to use as many vouchers as possible and see if I can bring it down in March

I won £100 in Scratchcard - not from free Scratchy but the one for which you have to pay and then spent £15 out of the winning to try to earn more... :eek: so have been left with £85 now... Just need to send my ID now and hopefully this should be in my account soon. Though I have learnt something new about me - I have a Gambling Streak and found it difficult to stop even when I had lost £15. So I know I should not really do MB. Have left this task for DH

I have done some overtime this month so hopefully should get extra £180 in Feb Salary

There have been some upexpected expenses this month - £20 for a friend's son's BDay present and we bought some wall decorations from Argos for £14 which were real bargains -70% off.. How much I love Hotukdeals

I am expecting to receive a £10 M&S voucher from Pigsback soon - though ordered it 2 weeks ago and haven't received it till now so may have to check with them

Have updated the balances for Feb - Will put them in the next post

MoneyQueen

Update for February

Monthly Salaries = 4546.04 (This is more than normal as I have got some pending OverTime Payment in Jan salary...:o

Mortgage

Balance = £103749.58
Interest Rate 1.79% :T
Monthly Payment £897.66
OP done in February £30.20 (£20.20 from Daily Scratchcard Payments + £10 from my current account)

Savings (These are all Net Rates)

Reg Saver 4% Expires Feb 2010 Adding 500 per month = £750
Reg Saver 4% Expires Feb 2010 Adding 500 per month = £500
Reg Saver 4.8% Expires Mar 2010 Adding 250 per month = £0
Reg Saver 4.8% Expires Mar 2010 Adding 250 per month = £0
Reg Saver 6.4% Expires Mar 2009 Adding 250 per month = £6374.45
Reg Saver 5.6% Expires Nov 2009 Adding 500 per month = £2000
Reg Saver 5.6% Expires Nov 2009 Adding 500 per month = £1800
Reg Saver 6.4% Expires Nov 2009 Adding 250 per month = £1000
Reg Saver 6.4% Expires Nov 2009 Adding 250 per month = £1000
Reg Saver 6.4% Expires Oct 2009 Adding 250 per month = £1250
Reg Saver 6.4% Expires Dec 2009 Adding 250 per month = £750
Reg Saver 5.8% Expires Nov 2009 adding 250 per month = £1000
Reg Saver 5.8% Expires Nov 2009 adding 250 per month = £1000
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 5.2% Expires Nov 2009 = £2937.61
Cash ISA Fixed 6.3% Expires July 2009 = £6700
Cash ISA Fixed 6.3% Expires July 2009 = £10000
Cash ISA Fixed 6% Expires Nov 2009 = £3655
Cash ISA Fixed 6% Expires Nov 2011 = £3644
Instant Access Savings 3.2% = £ 3251.55
Current Accounts 0% = 671.37

Total Savings = £70483.98

Debts other than mortgage

Balance to be paid to a Credit Card in Jan 2010 (currently 0%) = £ 2772.40
Balance to be paid to a Credit Card in Oct 2009 (currently 0%) = £1157.66
Balance to be paid to a Credit Card in Jun 2009 (currently 0%) = £4398.75
Total Debts other than Mortgage = £8328.81

so we are a bit nearer our target that we were at the start of the challenge :money:

SOA for February

SOA for February

Monthly Household Income (after tax) - £4546.04 (Salaries) + £20.20 (Scratchcard)
Total - £4566.24
Mobile -£29.36
Mortgage - £956.82
Transfer to Regular Savings Accounts - £4000
Council tax (Paid by 0% Credit Card) - £0
Telephone and Broadband - £22.52
Fuel (Paid by 0% Credit Card) - £33.39
Electricity/ Gas -£77.5 (Direct Debit)
Food & Groceries (including eating out once a month, Paid by 0% Credit Card) + work Expenses - £90.91
Shopping + Misc (Paid by 0% Credit Card) - £167.75 (includes £15.42 Post Office expenses, 117.80 Paint for the Flat Roof (some of this will be returned), £14.53 wall decorations from Argos, £20 for a friend’s son B’Day present)
Credit Card Payment (0% Balance Transfer) - £25
Credit Card Payment (Purchases at 0% for 12 months) - £32.00
Credit Card Payment (0% Balance Transfer) - £101.25


Total: -£970.26 (This is –ve as had a couple of savings accounts matured in Feb so shuffled money in different accounts)

Elecricity 162 KWH
Gas 1250 KWH
Grocery Spend £90.91/80 :eek:

Have updated my signature

Floxxie

Wow MQ, that's an impressive pot of savings and debts! :rotfl:

Good to see you back. February hasn't been a great month for me in terms of doing. I also seem to have failed all my budgets.

Don't worry about being a secret gambler. I am too when it comes to bingo but MBing is completely different and does not have the adrenalin rush that bingo has (except when you have a panic that you haven't set it up correctly!!)

Did you do Min*y Bingo on TCB for £30?

Have spent the evening listing books on Amazon and GreenMet. Didn't even realise the time I was having so much fun!

What was your exam in?

Floxxie

StuartGMC

MQ
Those regular savings requirements in total are a significant part of the income; how are you covering the bills? :rolleyes:

Wish our savings and investments could be that level but they're only about 30% of net income, when we achieve the aspirational savings amount on top of the S&S ISAs.

MoneyQueen

Floxxie,

It was just a certification. I work in IT so need to update my skills regularly :sad: . None of this when we are MF as I am staying at home then

I am also glad to be back...

Have to go through everyone's diaries. Am in bed since morning due to cold so this should keep me busy

DH is washing the car today as it is quite sunny here.

Didn't paint the flat roof today also as I am feeling too weak to be there(supervising ) when he paints and I can't let him do this himself incase the roof collapses. A friend of mine broke few bones when the roof that he was painting collapsed so am not taking any chances.

I never did the minxy bingo thing. and now the cashback has been reduced to £5 :sad:

Stuart,

Had got a RS matured in Feb (around £7000) so could put extra in other Regular savers. Also had got overtime payments. March should also be fine as DH's RS matures. We try to spend everything on 0% Credit cards as far as possible. Other than that the only bills are (Energy+Internet/Phone+Mobile+Minimum payments to Credit Cards) which totals to £200.

If any month I can't afford to pay this much in RS, I will reduce the payments for that month. I know some RS don't allow this, will check the T&Cs before doing this. Also barclays RS allows you to miss payments in between. Have £3200 in an Egg Money card (instant access) so can use this to drip feed the Regular Savers for as long as possible.

MoneyQueen

Another News - DH has finally acknowledged that he is not going to do MBing :mad: so now I will have to take the plunge

Will be starting that from next week :rolleyes: