Brand spanking new to money saving and to my MFW diary

taka

Congratulations PP! :T :j

clearmydebts

Congrats PP! I am 30 weeks pregnant and had morning sickness up until week 17. It's terrible isn't it?

It is my first baby as well so not clued up how much they cost either but between all the equipment they seem to need an awful lot. When are you due?

Floxxie

Congratulations!

I've had three little ones - with my first son I got caught up in 'having to buy everything' and ended up giving lots away (brand new with labels) as a little one doesn't actually need a lot at all. If you can, breastfeed (bottles, sterilising and formula are expensive and take up a lot of time) and maybe consider reusable nappies (I only used these with my third). If you can borrow from friends or family then do so especially with the more expensive items - prams, cots etc.
And when you do have the baby, you will be shocked by how much people buy for you!

I've always found that I end up with more money being on maternity leave than I do when I am working - others find that they have less, but I guess that depends on how much you already pay out - travel and childcare were massive 'work' expenses for me.

Anyway looking forward to how you manage both challenges

setmefree2

Congratulations and Good Luck

Penny_pauper

Thanks Everyone!

Am very excited now that I've stopped being sick

Clearmydebts, I'm due on the 23rd of June. I'm in the lucky position that this is going to be the fifth grandchild in our family so have lots of people to (hopefully) beg, borrow and steal from! Sat down yesterday and went through all our finances and tried to work out exactly how much we will need during the mat leave and I worked it out at our current level of expendictures. Floxxie, my husband is in complete agreement with you that our outgoings most likely won't be as high when I'm not doing my usual daily 75 mile round trip commute but I'm not taking any chances and am going to err on the side of caution and aim to over save.
I feel we have been very lucky that we had started on this challenge for clearing the mortgage as it gave us the incentive to clear all our outstanding debts and give our finances a good going over before we suddenly realised that we needed to start saving with a purpose and quickly!
Things that need doing:

Contact Barclay's to open one of their saver accounts for our annual big spends/maintenance fund. Have always been guilty of paying what ever needs paid on the credit card and clearing it with next months wages, not any more, going to be organised!:rolleyes:

Have contacted Nationwide and have set up a change to our big mortgage repayment so will be consistently over paying by £200 a month.

Thanks to our run in with redundancy we are still used to living on my wage so about 80% of hubby's wage will be going into an ISA for the mat leave/baby fund.
I know from looking through my diary I tend to make grand plans and then reality wacks me around the back of the head and says 'No you don't' but at least I feel I've got some sort of a plan (a financial one at least, no idea what I'll do with a baby when it gets here)

PP

pammyj74

Wow congratulations, that is fab news. Its happy things like this that really test us when we think we have a plan. It will be a greater challenge for the mortgage of course but what a great event. I am a single mum to 3 kiddies and still manage to OP each month so I am sure you will be fine. You just have to adapt and thrive
Good luck

Penny_pauper

Morning
First overpayment of £200 for the mortgage challenge went to Nationwide this morning. Have worked out that I need to op by £250 a month to hit my target of reducing the mortgage by £20k in three years. I know we can budget for an increased mortgage payment by £200 but will need to be frugal throughout the month and then send what ever is left in the kitty to try and make up the £50 quid difference.
Have had a minor disaster with the bathroom, after thirty years of service it has decided to retire and as such has started spewing water down the kitchen wall in the floor below. Fortunately it's water from the sink and not from the toilet :rolleyes:. Finally managed to get an emergency plumber out who has patched it up but say's he's not sure how long the fix will hold so it looks like the bathroom will have to go. Bye bye emergency savings pot! Hello only 3 months maternity leave!
I suppose getting the new windows fitted was the best thing we've done to the house (particularly as they went in before all the icy weather arrived) and I'd thought they were a huge expense at the time so maybe getting the bathroom replaced will save us money in the long run as it won't need to keep getting patched up time and again. Or maybe I'm just trying to talk myself into a great big spending spree!
PP

pawlala

Hi Penny! £250 x 12 months x 3 years = £9000

How will you manage to get the extra 11k to reach your 20k target within the 3 years?

Penny_pauper

Hi Palwala

The £250 will be the monthly overpayment but with my usual payments and the fact we're on a very high interest rate of 6.79%, according to the snowball calculator, it will knock off a total of £20K from the overall mortgage by the end of the challenge. I think I might be £370 short by the end up but I'm hoping to find it from somewhere. Back of the couch perhaps?
God, now hoping my sums are correct!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
PP

pawlala

I getcha