My SOA

firesidemaid

i agree with verbatim as you do not have debt apart from the car loan - but, in the future would it not be nice to have the money in advance to make such a purchase?

my mortgage is at 1.29%, and my only debt at 1.9%, but i feel so much more wealthy because of this site. it is always good to take stock and analyse spending patterns.

in the last year we have weaned ourselves off credit cards (even tho they were always paid off each month) and feel a lot happier - this is why our budgeting is so important. we earn a good wage, but 3 years ago never seemed to see any of it either. we have doubled our normal mortgage payments gradually and overpay on top of that, because paying off the mortgage quickly is really important to us, whilst still enjoying ourselves (this is where the being wiley with money comes in).

only the two of you can decide what is most important to you.take care x

losingpatience

firesidemaid - The £46 was for a full tank of petrol which normally lasts for 14 - 18 days so normally we do just spend £100 a month but this has gone up alot recently. In the future I hope to be in a position to just pay for a car up front, I am normally a good saver believe it or not! We got a new kitchen last year which we saved up for and paid in full at the time which was £5,500 so I'm not one to take out loans for things unless I absolutely have to!

Verbatim - My OH has been off work since October and thankfully his work have said they will pay him in full for as long as needed. If for whatever reason they go back on their word we have insurance in place to cover his salary.

IWantToBeFree - I will ring tomorrow to get this sorted, thank you

iamana1ias - I'm only talking about the odd occasion we'll got a bottle of wine between us with a meal when we go out, yes I have wine in the house as well sometimes but I don't see the harm in having the occassional drink when we go out?? I'm not a big drinker which is why I don't normally mind driving, but I don't want to never drink when I go out either

Thank you for all your advice and comments, it really is appreciated.

I have made some changes, I now shop online for food so I can keep track of what I'm spending as when I used to go in to the supermarket I would go in expecting to spend £20 and spend £100! I also do batch cook and freeze up portions and tend to cook everything from scratch but do admit to buying the odd "convenience" food as well, this is mainly for my OH so he can quickly cook something while I'm at work through the day.

losingpatience

I've decided to try to keep track of what I spend over the rest of the month. I have £243.91 left in the bank after all the bills have come out, so already we've spent £156.56 ( although we did get paid on the 23rd of December ). I know a fair chunk of this would have been because we went out on New Year, the rest I really don't know, although I am beginning to see how this happens. I took £10 out of the bank yesterday, spent £1.80 in the fruit and veg shop for food for my guinea pigs then went to the chip shop and we both got fish and chips which cost a further £6.00.

I had brought my dinner in to work with me so there was no need for me to buy anything, I just couldn't resist when I walked past the chippie. Complete waste of money I know. I have brought my dinner in with me today and well definitely just have that today.

I'm going to have to buy some new clothes for the funeral on Thursday, believe it or not I don't own a pair of black trousers or skirt! OH also needs a shirt for this. So I'm going to go to Matalan to see if I can pick something up cheap.

Managed to pay the £337 for the car from our savings I'd put to one side incase things like this crop up!

OH starts his radiotherapy tomorrow, I'm going with him to his first appointment, I think I'm more scared and worried then he is, he seems completely calm about it. I've been reading up about the treatment and apparently it's very important that he has a high protein diet whilst getting his treatment which the hospital never mentioned so I may have to rethink what I buy from the supermarkets whilst he's getting his treatment. I'm not really sure what to get though, it said things like full fat milk, chicken, red meats etc so that will probably mean I'm going to spend more on food then I normally do.

He's off to the hospital now for another scan so he'll have to pay for parking which will probably be at least £2.20 as he's always in there for at least 2 hours. So add that on to yesterday's spends and thats the £10 I drew out yesterday gone.

misscousinitt

I agree that your SOA is ok for the moment - I'm sure that you can tweak it as you go along when things come up for renewal - you have enough on your plate at the moment.

The important thing is to track where your surplus is going and as per your last post you are doing this now. The surplus you should have will be plenty to take up the slack on any extra shopping, petrol and parking you need - however, saying this I would definately check out with the hospital about reduced parking rates or passes - its worth a go.

Gook luck with your MSE journey and I wish your husband a speedy recovery.

firesidemaid

check with OHs doctor re. the high protein diet - they may have advice to offer and even diet sheets etc. both tinned tuna/salmon and beans/lentils have lots of protein too.

i was checking on the parking options at one of our hospitals, and they have several options on offer as an example. £10 for a week's unlimited parking or £40 for a month. also a prepaid card with £50 of credit for £25 - this was on their website. i hope you can find something at yours to help.

wishing you all the best for tomorrow x

losingpatience

firesidemaid - The hospital only offer a discount on the higher parking charges on a weekend but thankfully we have arranged hospital transport to take him to and from his appointments which should save us a small fortune!

We have both cancelled our cineworld passes so the last payment for those is this month. I also forgot that you don't pay council tax in Feb and March so I was stupidly happy when I remembered! lol

Now over the weekend I've been thinking about what, if anything, I can do to pay some money towards my mortgage and loan. I've been looking on barclays about early repayment charges and I think they just charge 1 months interest as an early repayment charge. We have our holidays booked for this year but I've worked out if we don't go on holiday next year then I can pay this loan off by August 2011 which will free up just over £200 a month. I'm just not sure whether this is a wise thing to do??

Also was thinking of upping our payments to Abbey by either £25 ( the equivalent of the cineworld passes ) or £50. Even if we up it by £50 we'll only be £25 worse off per month and I can easily reduce it back to what it currently is if we find we can't cope. I'm just worried that when the interest rates go up we'll really struggle, I know paying an extra £50 a month isn't going to make a great deal of difference on what we owe, but I think knowing I'm trying to do something will at least give me piece of mind, or is it just not worth it?

firesidemaid

that's fab news about the patient transport - well done on sorting that out.

re. your other questions. another poster has said, the only debt you have is the loan currently (and the mortgage:rolleyes:). when i first started my MF journey a)i couldn't believe i hadn't discovered overpaying years earlier! and b) i went at it hell for leather - paying every spare penny off.

now, i have realised that there has to be a balance. so, what i would suggest is doing yourself a full budget of what you currently spend/would like to spend - you know how much money you have coming in - and play around with the figures. you both have to decide what is important to you - you can have the extra mortgage payment AND the holiday if you budget for it and reduce your other spending/pots/allowances.

i have been doing this budgeting ie. putting amounts into virtual pots etc for about a year and the books balance/it works well if you document allowances/spending etc. make sure you even budget for christmas.

the other thing is to be savvy with money - buy what you need/want, but at the best prices. look on here and also on www.hotukdeals.co.uk regularly (i got my mum + dad a hotel for £2 for 2 nights recently). use the clubcard and boots points scheme to your advantage;).

find deals on here too - there really is a thread on everything! spend a litlle time going through them and see what suits/works for you.

also, is there anything that you enjoy/ a hobby that you could use to make a little extra money? (mine is ebay).

losingpatience

The only thing I would class as a "hobby" that I have is baking, I find it relaxes me but I don't think I would have the time to make anything out of it, plus I know there's alot of health and safety issues involved with it.

I bought myself ( from my own money ) hugh fearnley whittingstalls latest cookery book so I've been looking through the recipes from there. Alot of them you only need cheap cuts of meat so I'm hoping there's some cheap and tasty recipes in there. My sister is stopping over at the weekend which used to mean we would all get takeaways but there are a few recipes for pizzas in there so I thought it might be fun if we all made our own pizzas. I have most of the ingredients I need in, just need some mozarella, but even if I have to buy a couple of things it's still going to be cheaper than ordering a takeaway.

As for spends I have bought OH a new pair of smart leather shoes at a cost of £27. He's been using the same pair for about 9 years now and they're definitely looking their age! The downside of OH being taken to and from his treatments is he has to hang around for sometimes hours waiting to be brought back so has been going to the shop and getting a bottle of pop and sarnie/pastie every day. I'm not sure how much this is costing but it's soon going to mount up but I suppose it's still less than what we would have spent on petrol and parking and my parents have kindly gave us £100 as a gift towards the car repairs ( even though I insisted I didn't need anything! ) so this money can go towards that.

Have discussed the idea of overpaying by another £50 on the mortgage to OH, think we're going to go through our finances to see what they would be if we were to do this. Although I've also cancelled a DD from Weight Watchers which I had forgot about which was £9.99 a month ( I had forgot about this which is why it wasn't on the SOA ) as I haven't really followed the plan for months so that combined with the cineworld passes is a saving of £33.97 per month. If we were to overpay by another £50 we'd only be £16.03 out of pocket in comparison to what we are now which I think is more than manageable.

firesidemaid

sounds like you're really getting into the mse mindset already!

re. your OH buying snacks at the hosp (and i know you can't really deny his those.....) - if you know what he drinks generally, could you at least get him some bottles/cans of that from the s/market to take. would he take sarnies/rolls (in a sturdy plastic box) if they had some of his favourite good quality fillings in? eg. ham/turkey/chicken etc - even the hand carved stuff to weigh out would prob. work out cheaper/better/nicer than shop ones. does he currently pay for these out of 'his' money?

re. the Hugh (big big fan) book etc - did you use www.find-book.co.uk to find the cheapest price and then go through quidco etc for cashback?

i have had over £1000 from quidco over the last 2 years - last night i ordered 3 books like this. 2 to be delivered to local whsmith store and one through ebay (all with cashback).

my OH though can't bear the wait for books to be delivered (so pays almost full price in store) and is happy to buy expensive snacks too - all out of his own money. i have to go and wait outside as it pains me to see how much money he wastes, but that is my problem and his money!

i think just belonging to this site and being aware of everything makes a vast difference. in a few months you might start to forget what financial life was before you found this site x

losingpatience

As it happens I went out for a walk on my lunch, I live on a high street so popped into herons. They had cans of pepsi for 25p each so I've bought 4 cans of that. They also had those cadburys clusters 10 packets for £1 so bought some of those as well for him to take in so he doesn't buy a bar of chocolate each day ( he's one of those annoying people who can eat whatever he wants and still stay skinny! ) I might bring up the idea of him taking a sarnie in with him, I've told him to have breakfast before he goes in but he still gets hungry ( I don't know if this is down to the treatment that he's getting an increased appetite ) I have a joint of topside beef in the freezer I got whilst it was on offer at Sainsburys. So even if I cooked this then sliced it up for sandwich's it would still work out cheaper. Think it only cost £10 for the meat and I cut it into 3 good size pieces. I know really I could use this for meals, but if he's spending £2 a day on a sandwich it's going to save us money.

He's paying for this out of the money my mam gave me at the moment, I didn't think it was fair to expect him to have to pay out of his own money considering he's stuck in the hospital for hours through no fault of his own.

I've never actually heard of that website but I've had a look and it definitely looks useful so it has been bookmarked! I do use quidco but ordered the book from amazon ( I think it was £11.50 ) so couldn't get cashback but got nectar points. I spotted Hugh's meat book whilst I was on amazon as well which looks fab but it's a bit more pricey. I could barely cook anything when we bought our house 3 years ago as I'd lived with my parents up to then so had everything done for me but now I just love cooking and trying out new recipes.