I want to be a MFW........ LP's Diary

SuzyWuzy_2

Hello there LP

Thanks for the update and congratulations on little pixie !

I've just read all of your diary. Thanks for the update.

Good news that your house is now on the market. I hope you get a buyer soon so that you can all move to a bigger property. Hopefully your dream house.

Good news too on the overpayments. Do you keep a spreadsheet on what you have overpayed so far? I've only just started to OP and is'nt it addictive! I cant wait until the end of August to see just how much has come off the total.

What a shocker about your OH debts. I don't know what I would do if it was me. We still love them no matter what don't we ..but all the same. money hurts, especially not having any. You've done very well to get the debt down so far.

Good luck

....and update it more mrs!

LilacPixie

I will I will. I don't have a spread sheet I am an excell dunce I just use a snowball calculator and I have the mortgage saved as a seperate snowball.

OH I still have moments of wanting to kill him but then I get over it.

SuzyWuzy_2

I used the snowball for our debts and thought it was excellant but wanted it more precise for the mortgage as Im eager to get it down asap so we can move.

I used Excel at work but had never created a spreadsheet before. I used Financial bliss' excel sheet which was easy peasy to set up if you were looking for one? Sorry just trying to be helpful.

gallygirl

Congrats on baby news. What is the correct name for a baby pixie? Pixling? Pixlet? I know, Pixel

Re OH's debts, well sounds like he is tackling it which is great. Also, the fact it is several rather than 1 large one means lots of mini-targets so that may help keep him on course

Pah to house not selling - it's a horrible time of limbo. Hope you enjoy your sun breaks, they are great value :T, and Ayr at this time of the year (taking a wild stab at holiday location!) is just like St Lucia......ish :rotfl:

SmlSave

Good to hear from you LP

LilacPixie

Gallygirl - you are obviously psychic as it is Ayr we are off too. Haven holiday park. To be fair the existing pixels ( love the name) are 2 and almost 4 so they will be in their element. This weekend will be spent doing lots of organising and packing to make sure we are all sorted for Monday Morning.

Suzy - that is a good idea. I think i will go hunting for that sheet.

Not alot else happening really. Pizza for tea tonight which is naughty but hey ho its a friday and I won £60 on a scratch card today so I have had a treat.

LilacPixie

OOO G&E statement is in, we are in credit and monthly payment is dropping to £68 a month from £78. In 6 months feb- august we used £176 electricity and £130 gas. I am very chuffed with that as we have a nice cushion for winter.

SuzyWuzy_2

Well done on the scratch-card win ! That's excellant news.

Great on the DD dropping by £10's too - it all helps

They say things come in 3's - I wonder what's next !

LilacPixie

Well I have returned from Ayrshire. It was nice and other than rain the day we arrived it was dry. Thursday was a scortcher at 24 degrees according to a local paper.I was so glad I had packed the factor 50 in my bag on the off chance.

I am in a quandry, I returned home on Friday to a letter from my unused emergency CC company advising they were uping my limit and offering a 16 month 0% rate on balance transfers subject to a 2.5% bt fee. I am considering transfering some/all of OH 3k cc bill to it. He was accepted for a card from his bank but only a £750 limit whereas I could easilly take it. I am in two minds. Ideally I want him to sort out his issues with money but at the moment the card is costing us almost £50 a month in interest alone and as it is a lower apr than the store card we have been paying only barely over the minimum payment at £100 per month. If this continues it will take 44 months to pay off, if I transfer the whole amount to my card and continue paying £100 a month it will be clear in 32 months paying only £146 interest instead of over £1300. I would obviusly insist OH closes his card account on transfer.

I have spent most of today looking at houses and trying to work out what we want size and location wise. I think that with my impending maternity leave that we will struggle to buy/make mortgage payments on a larger home but in the same way renting will be a struggle too. Good thing is my companies generous benefits package mean only 13 weeks of a 39 week maternity leave will be at SMP only
.

I really need to get making some extra cash from somewhere. Oh does anyone have any recomendations for a decent child savings account? My youngest has been given some birthday money and she doesn't need anything at the moment, I have had £130 sitting under an elephant on a shelf for 9 weeks now and I really need to get her an account. Both sets of grandparents are also wanting to top it up with 'pcket money' until kids are older. They are 2 and almost 4 just now.

LilacPixie

I am trying to be frugal, looking for suggestions on how to fit 2 adults and 3 kids in car seats in our car. I hope its possible because I don't think mentally or financially we can cope with buying a bigger car. I am totally anti mpv, I have looked at a few and had test drives but they are just not me, there is some other possibilities but they are all things like BMW 5 series or Audi A6 which is not exactly frugal or moneysaving plus would require finance even to buy a 4-5 year old one which I want to avoid.

I have also been thinking of when this place sells, deposit wise we will have enough for 15% on a ok functional for 5-7 years house but only scrape 10% on a longer term home and about 6% on a definatly forever home.

I find myself thinking that maybe we should rent for a while and try build up more of a deposit/clear more debt but rents are around £900 a month compared with current mortgage + op of less than £500 so I am unconvinced that we would actually be able to save that much at all because we would have the additional council tax banding going from an A to an E and the additional utility costs.

Other option would be to apply for social housing based on my medical need for a bungalow/ low level door property until we have the money or the mortgage deposit requirments change but to be honest I think we could be waiting forever for that.

I have been looking at our outgoings yet again and I have a small storage unit that has some of my website supplies stored in it plus boxes of randm stuff we cleared out for the EA pictures. There is alot of clothes/winter coats etc that I will not fit into this year while pregnant and due in Feb so I am thinking of giving it up, it is costing £89 a month and TBH alot of things clothing wise could just be put to a charity shop or charity, Nothing is particularly expensive things like coats that I have used for 3 winters already that were only £100 in the first place. I have probably had my monies worth and i just don't need the clutter at home or the expense of storing something I cannot use for at least another 15 months.

Other thing in there is a folding butterfly type table, no room or use for it here so was also thinking get a charity store to take it away, I was thinking maybe a domestic violence charity/womans aid may have a use if they help families set up home again after fleeing a violent situation, there is also some bits of toys the kids were bored of that I just shoved there out the way so they could also go. ALso se baby bits like travel cot, crib, bedding some wine

Mostly its packaging, beads, and gift boxes and I do have an attic that is mostly empty so I think it has to go.