1 mortgage, 2 babies, 3 years to be MF, 4 goodness sake!- weezl's diary

pammyj74

saltdough i just had a read here

cha97michelle

Oh goody - another Weezl thread.

Hello. Can't remember if i posted on your other threads but i read them way after they were posted so probably not.


First i wanted to say, congratulations on the new baby. I thought my age gap was small at 18 months, but that is going to be tough for you. You are never one for shying away from a challenge are you. I am often shattered but happy, and be prepared for some of your plans to go awry. Mine often do.


I must think rather like you. I made saltdough decorations with my boys last week. Ours were a bit more rustic. I think i probably rolled them too thick as they were in the oven for an hour, and the dough bloated a bit in places and trapped air. We painted ours afterwards with kiddy paint, and i am planning on slapping a bit of clear varnish over too to help them out a bit. I really like yours, and can also recommend ebay for a plentiful supply of cutters in different styles.


Also, i wanted to say, i have just started adding soya mince to my mince based dishes. It cost 76p for a 500g bag, and i use about 50 g of it which when rehydrated is hardly noticeable and makes the meals go that bit further. I suppose it depends on the mince you buy but we like the big trays from costco which we then freeze in 450g portions to do 2-3 meals depending on what i make. I also have started using a lot more beans and pulses.


Good luck with your challenge. I look forward to reading more about it. Particularly how your budget copes with 2 growing boys to feed. (Mine are both boys, and they eat almost as much as me for most meals - i.e. a sandwich for lunch would be 2 slices of bread each with filling. Followed by fruit or a yoghurt or home baked cake/bun. They are 3 and 18 months. They can also demolish entire bags of grapes in one sitting, and the littlest is a monkey and randomly helps himself from the fridge - slices of ham, cheese slices.)

Michelle.

cafelady

Hi

Just posting again as subscription settings weren't set up properly.

weezl74

Hi all thanks loads for the welcome and sorry I distracted us all onto christmas decorations chat

my mortgage free updates:

Have just been spending the last week dissolving ISAs, savings accounts my business account etc to transfer £8000 into my mortgage today as it is my annual o/p day :j:j:j:beer::beer::beer:.

I know lots of folk on here are a bit worried about having no savings, so I wanted to explain myself a bit...

• Although DH's job could be vulnerable as anyone's can, universities and hospitals are not as affected during recessions as retail-type jobs and professions.
• I am on annual leave then maternity leave and so my pay/benefits are secure until march 2011.
• The 'no savings' will be replenished by March and we can take a mortgage payment holiday at very short notice if the worst should happen.

Other news: having recieved a letter saying that renewal of our buildings and contents insurance would be £1, 198 this year, I had a Martin style hunt around and got the same provision for £265 :money:. I was also able to pay this on a 1% cashback credit card and therefore slighly lower, and wasn't able to pay the old insurer in this way so I'm very :T:T:T about that.

I hae also dropped both of our life/critical illness premiums to reflect the overpayment and our increased pension payouts on death in service. In more detail: for every year's additional pensionable service (ie year's working) the lump sum payable to our partner on our death increases, for DH by £5k and for me about £3k. So we reduce our life cover so we aren't overinsured. This has saved another £20 a month. :money::D

Despite my fears about not being up to doing our tax returns by self assessment this year due to having just had a baby (I feared I might lose that part of my brain due to tiredness/hormones!) I do feel able to do it:D:beer:, so we'll save another £425 in accountant's fees.

I am also making a more concerted effort to batch cook and budget well for food, to make christmas 'cash neutral' and to make next year's birthday presents where possible.

Phew, what a long summary!

So in my 2 and a bit years since meeting MSE my mortgage has gone from £143000 to just over £71000.

I'm rather thrilled. And all hail to saint Martin and all the inspiring people on here :T:T:T:T:T:T

Love Weezl x

alfiesmum

What an absolutely FANTASTIC thread. Brilliant achievement! I'm still trying to get my head around the 50p per day thingy for food - sounds too good to be true. But it's definitely something I'll aim for now. Your efforts so far just make me want to get out all the paperwork and dig deeper myself! Well done you. Definitely going to be following your progress with great interest from now on.
Thanks.xx

alfiesmum.

weezl74

cha97michelle wrote: »

Good luck with your challenge. I look forward to reading more about it. Particularly how your budget copes with 2 growing boys to feed. (Mine are both boys, and they eat almost as much as me for most meals - i.e. a sandwich for lunch would be 2 slices of bread each with filling. Followed by fruit or a yoghurt or home baked cake/bun. They are 3 and 18 months. They can also demolish entire bags of grapes in one sitting, and the littlest is a monkey and randomly helps himself from the fridge - slices of ham, cheese slices.)

Michelle.

Thanks Michelle

2 growing boys will indeed be an issue .

At the moment, Fergus eats homemade fruit youghurts, cous cous, macaroni cheese shepherd's pie... type things, which I'm mostly managing for 5p a meal :money:. His breakfast is half-1 asda own weetabix so that's 2-5p for breakfast. His main expense is formula, so after he's a year I've worked out we save a further £4 a week by swapping to whole cows milk rather than that

I can imagine if he takes to devouring a bunch of grapes it'll all go out of the window :rotfl:

DJ_Mike

Just read your diary and it's inspirational stuff - especially the living on minimal amounts per day! Totally sympathise that £1 is rather ambitious in today's terms but still impressed that you're keeping it to £2 a day by the sounds of things! I personally budget £125 a month for food and essentials but that's more than £4 a day for me! Guess I can do far better! ;-)

Also, big congrats on making such a huge overpayment! The fact that you've cut 50% off your mortgage in just over 2 years is absolutely incredible! Well done!

LilacPixie

Well done Weezl. You have cleared an amount in excess of my total mortgage in 2 years!!! such an insperation. Like another poster I thought a gap of 20 months between my two was small. Does HM yoghurt work out more economical??? We seem to spend upwards of £5 a week on yogs alone. I so so need to read your diary again as my food shopping is atrocious.

weezl74

LilacPixie wrote: »

Well done Weezl. You have cleared an amount in excess of my total mortgage in 2 years!!! such an insperation. Like another poster I thought a gap of 20 months between my two was small. Does HM yoghurt work out more economical??? We seem to spend upwards of £5 a week on yogs alone. I so so need to read your diary again as my food shopping is atrocious.

sorry, I meant that I buy plain yoghurt and then add stewed fruit. I used to make yoghurt from scratch, but no time now This way works out as 8-10 times cheaper than petit filous style yoghurts (supermarket's own version I mean!) then I freeze it in little tesco value food savers and get one out a day for fergie. Our spicy apple flavour one is 4p a portion

HTH

dexter_fan

Well done Weezl on such a great achievement :beer:

Very much an inspiration :T