The Mortgage Free in Three - Take 2 challenge (MFiT-T2)

curlygirl1971

tattycath wrote: »

We are still managing some overpayments-but I've been off work for 2 months-only just gone back a couple of weeks ago. I'm hoping to increase overpayments over the next few months.
Another big bill that costs over £200 a month should be finished by august so I'm hoping to snowball those payments with the mortgage overpayments.
I have to say you're very organised-I haven't even thought about how to work out average spends for everything. My budget is very ad-hoc. I work out how much my main bills are like mortgage, utilities etc then i just spend what i spend when it comes to grocery shopping, petrol etc -couldn't tell you how much i spent last month
So if anyone can give me some ideas of even where to start-that would be great. Thanks

Managing OP's whilst on reduced income is a great achievement - and hopefully the fact that you'd been OP'ing should have been quite reassuring to you whilst you weren't working - I think most mortgage providers allow payment holidays if you've OP'd

No, not organised! Just a spreadsheet nerd. I'd say keeping my accounts spreadsheet is one of my favourite past-times. Not something everyone wants to be bothered doing!

What do you mean? 1) Tracking your spending? 2) Reducing your grocery?

1) Depends what you have time for / how far you want to take it. A simple option would be to keep a little note book. Categorise your spends and then perhaps total off every month

2) I've not been brilliant at this myself. There seems to be lots of advice on other threads - menu planning, shopping from a list, batch cooking, cooking from scratch. I do these and I've swapped my main shopping to Aldi. I used to (okay I still do) 'enjoy' shopping in a big supermarket like Tesco. Looking at all the different things - displays, offers, things I didn't need but could pack into cupboards' love new things in my basket! I've just stopped it. Shopping is no longer an activity - its a task.

tattycath

curlygirl1971 wrote: »

Managing OP's whilst on reduced income is a great achievement - and hopefully the fact that you'd been OP'ing should have been quite reassuring to you whilst you weren't working - I think most mortgage providers allow payment holidays if you've OP'd

No, not organised! Just a spreadsheet nerd. I'd say keeping my accounts spreadsheet is one of my favourite past-times. Not something everyone wants to be bothered doing!

What do you mean? 1) Tracking your spending? 2) Reducing your grocery?

1) Depends what you have time for / how far you want to take it. A simple option would be to keep a little note book. Categorise your spends and then perhaps total off every month

2) I've not been brilliant at this myself. There seems to be lots of advice on other threads - menu planning, shopping from a list, batch cooking, cooking from scratch. I do these and I've swapped my main shopping to Aldi. I used to (okay I still do) 'enjoy' shopping in a big supermarket like Tesco. Looking at all the different things - displays, offers, things I didn't need but could pack into cupboards' love new things in my basket! I've just stopped it. Shopping is no longer an activity - its a task.

Thanks for that hun.
It's more tracking my spending really. My grocery bills could be greatly reduced if: 1) I didn't shop with my teenagers and 2) I actually spent the time meal planning.
I've got a bit lazy as of late-I'm back at work but still not fully recovered, so have reduced my hours for a few months So meals have not been as 'from scratch' as they could be.
I will have to try the spending diary thing-not something I've really done.
The only thing I have is an excel spreadsheet that shows what mortgage overpayments I have made and when-I update it every time i make an extra payment. My DH created that spreadsheet because, to be honest it's not my forte.
I have a static over payment anyway that is part of the DD for the mortgage-but i try to make regular extra payments throughout the month. It's been just the odd 15 quid now and again whilst on less money but hoping to up that significantly later this year-fingers crossed.

tattycath

Oh and I have this thing for trying new things and have cupboards full of all sorts of stuff i haven't or possibly won't use.
I've toyed with the idea of buying my shopping on line so i'm not tempted...

financialbliss

Good news. I'm done (for now)...

• I'd managed to miss out a few chart 04 updates, which I've now added in.
• I've also added in the latest batch of updates for chart 05
• I've also caried updated balances forwards from chart 05 to chart 06
• I've actioned a few challenge objective changes
• I've actioned all personal messages
• I've added Kipper to the mortgage free roll of honour.

Mortgage free roll of honour growing slowly but steadily at 5 challengers now. Expect us to beat the three challenges of 2010 during 2011 as we already have two this year. Don't prove me wrong

Financial Bliss / Maz123.

curlygirl1971

tattycath wrote: »

Thanks for that hun.
It's more tracking my spending really. My grocery bills could be greatly reduced if: 1) I didn't shop with my teenagers and 2) I actually spent the time meal planning.
I've got a bit lazy as of late-I'm back at work but still not fully recovered, so have reduced my hours for a few months So meals have not been as 'from scratch' as they could be.
I will have to try the spending diary thing-not something I've really done.
The only thing I have is an excel spreadsheet that shows what mortgage overpayments I have made and when-I update it every time i make an extra payment. My DH created that spreadsheet because, to be honest it's not my forte.
I have a static over payment anyway that is part of the DD for the mortgage-but i try to make regular extra payments throughout the month. It's been just the odd 15 quid now and again whilst on less money but hoping to up that significantly later this year-fingers crossed.

You're a busy lady so don't be tough on yourself! You're doing great!

(Don't suppose you could leave the teenagers at home could you?)

A spending spreadsheet can be a lot easier than a Mortgage spreadsheet (mine is anyway)

I have different sheets:-

1) A budget - Income and Expenditure with expenses categorised (eg Food, Fuel, Utilities, Clothes, Car, Activities.......) and these are grouped into Needs, Wants & Savings (eg Mortgage OP). Some needs are outside of your control (ie Council Tax) and some you can influence (Ie food)

2) A spending spreadsheet. Whether Cash, Bank Debit or Credit - every penny goes on a sheet by date (rows) and then across columns in expenditure categories the same as on my budget. There is a monthly and then yearly summary. I also track my Bank Balance on this sheet and have a separate tally for my credit cards so I know what I will be paying next month. I don't rely on my Bank Balance - I'm human - I make mistakes and therefore my spreadsheet could be wrong. So I reconcile it against real balance from time to time.

3) Other sheets - ie savings plans, projected cashflow, net worth of MY HUUUUGE EMPIRE etc :rotfl:

4) I email it to myself every couple of weeks....just incase I loose it one awful day (like the bleak month of March 2005 :eek:)

It's extreme, it can be time-consuming, it can be nerdy. I don't have a family so I guess that's where I find the time - it's helped me micro-manage and make the most of what I have got especially when that wasn't a lot. A few years ago it helped me see that I was actually on a downward spiral.

With the help of online banking I've been able to move money around to the best place for it on any given day. One year I could have left my money where it was and made £10 - instead, by being bothered I made almost £500.

If you want to keep a spending diary - then do it. You don't need to go to extremes - just spend 5 mins every day jotting it down

curlygirl1971

tattycath wrote: »

Oh and I have this thing for trying new things and have cupboards full of all sorts of stuff i haven't or possibly won't use.
I've toyed with the idea of buying my shopping on line so i'm not tempted...

Oh I think we all do that at some point esp when things are on offer (but you end up spending more than you would have done.....)

A couple of families I know use online shopping. The savings made by being focussed more than cancel out the delivery charge. If you do it then look at a cashback site.

I just print out a shopping list and I'm not allowed to stray from it. I don't have teenagers but the BF's inability to walk past Cheerios on offer has often been my downfall. So I try to go on my own as much as possible

Anyway sorry to all MFW's for going a little off piste this evening

Trying_to_be_good

Not off piste at all - all really helpful to me, at least, in helping to keep focused on the day-to-day budgeting, where it can easily slip!

tattycath

curlygirl1971 wrote: »

You're a busy lady so don't be tough on yourself! You're doing great!

(Don't suppose you could leave the teenagers at home could you?)

To be fair one of them is brilliant at looking for bargains-it's my oldest teenager who likes to spend spend spend. I once did an exercise told them they could both have a trolley and they had £20 each to spend for a full weeks shopping. My oldest teen got very little for her £20 -she was getting all branded stuff and not really focussed on the objective, whereas my other teen got loads-considering she was a teen :rotfl: she
was checking prices and downshifting so she could get more stuff
A spending spreadsheet can be a lot easier than a Mortgage spreadsheet (mine is anyway)

I have different sheets:-

1) A budget - Income and Expenditure with expenses categorised (eg Food, Fuel, Utilities, Clothes, Car, Activities.......) and these are grouped into Needs, Wants & Savings (eg Mortgage OP). Some needs are outside of your control (ie Council Tax) and some you can influence (Ie food)

Any chance of a basic sheet template please?

2) A spending spreadsheet. Whether Cash, Bank Debit or Credit - every penny goes on a sheet by date (rows) and then across columns in expenditure categories the same as on my budget. There is a monthly and then yearly summary. I also track my Bank Balance on this sheet and have a separate tally for my credit cards so I know what I will be paying next month. I don't rely on my Bank Balance - I'm human - I make mistakes and therefore my spreadsheet could be wrong. So I reconcile it against real balance from time to time.

Basic template please?

3) Other sheets - ie savings plans, projected cashflow, net worth of MY HUUUUGE EMPIRE etc :rotfl:

4) I email it to myself every couple of weeks....just incase I loose it one awful day (like the bleak month of March 2005 :eek:)

see, I said you were organised

It's extreme, it can be time-consuming, it can be nerdy. I don't have a family so I guess that's where I find the time - it's helped me micro-manage and make the most of what I have got especially when that wasn't a lot. A few years ago it helped me see that I was actually on a downward spiral.

With the help of online banking I've been able to move money around to the best place for it on any given day. One year I could have left my money where it was and made £10 - instead, by being bothered I made almost £500.

If you want to keep a spending diary - then do it. You don't need to go to extremes - just spend 5 mins every day jotting it down

Yes, thanks i shall try this spending diary thing. I save bits of money all over, i have a tin for the hols, a tin for a special night out (should one come up-lol) a sealed pot and a tin for £365 in 365 as well as a tin for small change-not really very MSE because if I banked it I could earn interest-not alot in this current financial climate, but more than I'm getting now.
That said I do have an account I pay into as regularly as i can for some work we need doing on the house-well, some of the work anyway.

tattycath

curlygirl1971 wrote: »

Oh I think we all do that at some point esp when things are on offer (but you end up spending more than you would have done.....)

I'm really bad for this. I tend to go shopping straight after work a couple of times a week-very impulsive

A couple of families I know use online shopping. The savings made by being focussed more than cancel out the delivery charge. If you do it then look at a cashback site.

Ooh Thanks for the tip-I didn't know you could get shopping through cash back sites

I just print out a shopping list and I'm not allowed to stray from it. I don't have teenagers but the BF's inability to walk past Cheerios on offer has often been my downfall. So I try to go on my own as much as possible
I sometimes write a list but more often than not I forget to take it or i deviate away from it

Anyway sorry to all MFW's for going a little off piste this evening

Yes, my apologies too.

golfiematt

all helps, no apology needed for me anyway.