Starting out my journey !!! Altho its a small start

Queen-Bee_2

Hello Staceydaisy, and welcome (even though it's a bit late!!)

I wish I'd known how much every £ of my mortgage was going to cost when I took it out, 'cos it would have focused my mind on getting it down much earlier...

A key change for me has been to write down all my expenditure in a little cash book, and then transfer it to to an on-line spendingdiary, which has various tools to analyse where it's going.

Being aware of what I spend my money on makes me use it much more wisely. I was shocked when I realised how much I was forking out on buying sandwiches at lunchtime and coffees out. At the time, £3.99 or £1.70 here and there didn't seem that much, but when I added up the actual spends at the end of the month, I was stunned!! Guess who makes their own sandwiches these days?

Best of luck with your journey,
QB

museumworker

Hi Stacey and welcome :hello:.

I'm very pleased to see your diary on here. Like you I am new to the MFW status, and can only realistically pay small amounts here and there at the minute. I'm in awe of the huge amounts everyone else seems to pay, if slightly overwhelmed! It would be very good to follow someone in a similar situation to me to see how you progress, and what you learn on the way.

I've been doing the Make £10 a day challenge for 2 months now - on the DFW boards, and it is great for focusing the mind. It's also useful to see how other people manage the challenge. I've just set myself a £5 a day target - I work full time and have a young daughter so don't have bags of time to commit. My first month was a bit rubbish, but this month I've made £96 (was about to make another £40 from a focus group yesterday, but bust my ankle and so had to cancel :mad: ). So about to make my first ever overpayment of £125!:j Feels very good.

Do you have many books? I've made about £50 from Amazon in the last 2 months, it is really easy and free to list them - much easier than ebay as you don't need to photograph or make a detailed description.

And e-bay - I know its a pain, but I try and put up 5-6 things once every two weeks, just to help with the challenge. By the time a fortnight has passed I'm ready to face another listing session!

staceydaisy

thank you so much guys for the comments another warm smile on my face this morning when reading my posts.

queenbee - me too i used to buy 20 cigs a day and a sandwich and numerous cans of diet coke sometimes spending up to £10 a day. What a waste of money but i suppose they wer the days before we bought our firsy house. I too now make pack up and sometimes even ifim off to town shopping i sometimes take a sandwich as otherwise tempted to go spend a fiver in maccy d`s.

Museum worker - I am so pleased somebody is following my diary who is in a similar situation to me, I too wonder at the people who manage to pay hundreds and thousands but i suppose there situations are different to ours. I dont have many books left after selling lots but i do list on ebay when i get that muster of energy. Please keep on following and commenting to keep mine and yourselfs inspiration going

staceydaisy

Well guys ive paid another fiver today whoo hoo!!!!!

but the ironic thing is if i wasnt doing this diary i wouldnt have paid it because id have just kept it in the bank so my balance was a bit higher i know daft but thats how i am

staceydaisy

Just want to add a quick update

I am really pleased that my mortgage account is now just under 98k.

Still in negative equity but im getting there slowly but surely.

evab_2

Well done, keep it going - even that £5 will help!

setmefree2

well done :T:T

bevan840

staceydaisy wrote: »

but the ironic thing is if i wasnt doing this diary i wouldnt have paid it because id have just kept it in the bank so my balance was a bit higher i know daft but thats how i am

Hiya Stacey

I know what you mean on this, I like to see money in the account so always leave a few pennies in there It's nice to see it when it's not in overdraft hehe

Still doing well, keep it up xx

CrushedKitten72

Hurrah!!! It's great to see someone else paying off smaller amounts of cash, I would love to pay off hundreds a month but I just don't have it, so I pay usually around £40 with a couple of extra £10's here and there... It's take 3 years off my mortgage so its certainly worth it.

gallygirl

CrushedKitten72 wrote: »

Hurrah!!! It's great to see someone else paying off smaller amounts of cash, I would love to pay off hundreds a month but I just don't have it, so I pay usually around £40 with a couple of extra £10's here and there... It's take 3 years off my mortgage so its certainly worth it.

Every little helps. I have £4.75 to collect from the bookies (winning mystery shop bet :j), and that will be going to mortgage (or more accurately, savings account which is higher rate than mortgage ). However, it is an internet account so I don't have the embarrassment factor to deal with, I'll just bung the cash in my purse & do an electronic transfer.

Good luck all :beer: