Due to be MF by 45, but want it sooner!

cat04

Ok, well I'm back again. This time I intend to keep at it and not let life and everything else get in my way

My SOA has changed a bit, some things have gone down, don't think much has gone up at all. There are still some things on my 'to do list', such as my mobile phone contract, bringing the grocery spend down further and organising some life insurance.

We've scrapped the holiday fund as we did quite a lot of carboots so put the profits into a tub and used that for spending money on our week in Skeg with the kids, OH's Grandparents, his brother and his cousin!! Half of my exam marking money paid for the caravan, so in affect it was a free holiday (The marking is done online and isn't too taxing and I see it as a bonus).

As of yet we haven't started making any mortgage overpayments, but this is again something to add to the list of things to organise.

Plans have changed regarding OH's self-employment. He didn't feel comfortable enough giving up a set monthly wage with the econemy the way it is. The plan is hopefully in Jan/early next year to find some part time work and get himself set up with his self-employment. This way he still has a set wage if things are slow going to start with. We are saving a bit every month to help with set up costs etc. This is one of the reasons for not starting any mortgage OPs yet.

One bit of advice I'm looking for is what others do with regards to OPs. Do you pay something every month (i.e. set amount Direct Debit) or just pay some off when you have it?

I know I can cancel a DD anytime I want to if we find we can't afford it, but I don't want to set it up and then feel like I've failed myself by having to stop after a couple of months (I know I won't have in the grand scheme of things, but I have low self esteem so I will think it anyway!).

On the otherhand, if I don't set up a DD the OPs will get pushed to one side and 'forgotten' about and then I'll be cross with myself for not making any, say every 3 months.

michaels

Have you any budget for house maintenance expenditure and either a car replacement fund and/or extra for car repairs?

Also are the clothes, gas and electric expenditures realistic long term, we have 3 young kids and spend about 6x as much on clothes and more than twice as much on gas/electric with our showers plus two baths a day for the kids, the heating on all day and the washing machine on seemingly non stop.

cat04

I would also appreciate some suggestions of ways to make (poss save) money. My plan is to try and make as much extra money in various ways so this can go into the pot for OPs, meaning it isn't eating into what's left in our current account. We could really do with just sticking to mortgage, bill payments and DD for savings coming out of the CA and mortgage OPs being earnt some other way.

If I can remember everything, this I what we do now to make/save money:

• Carboots - As I mentioned before, this went on paying for our holiday spending money (Came home with less than a tenner, but meant we didn't have to use 'our' money at all ) Not sure what we will do with the CB money now, might save it for next years hol - if we have one!
• Ebay - listing things on free listing days to make as most profit as poss.
• Sold old mobiles to CEX/Ebay
• Mystery Shopping - these are VERY thin on the ground at the moment, so not much going on there.
• Survey sites - I really need to get my motivation back to complete more of these. I'm signed up to so many companies and have an inbox full of surveys waiting to be done. Obviously for the ones that pay out really money, this will go in the OP pot. For ones that pay out in points I convert to either supermarket vouchers to reduce spend, or to save for Xmas, or Amazon/Argos etc to use for Xmas too (saved loads last yr doing this!) Also do Consumer Pulse.
• Quidco/cashback sites for all insurance/online purchases etc
• Nectar American Express for all CC spending (paid off in full each month) and I save the points for shopping/alcohol at Xmas.
• This goes for other points cards, e.g, Tesco, Boots, Co-op dividend card - either use to reduce shopping bills or save till Xmas
• Exam marking once a year in July (with the possibility again in November)

Is there anything else I'm missing that we can do? Would love to increase our income (esp when OH goes part-time/SE).

I know that we are really lucky in that we're not scrapping the barrel and we have some savings, but there is a big padlock on those and I don't want to dip into them at all unless absolutely vital.

Thanks for looking

cat04

michaels wrote: »

Have you any budget for house maintenance expenditure and either a car replacement fund and/or extra for car repairs?

We don't have a set budget as such. There is nothing major that needs doing with the house, just decorating as and when we get round to it (started the spare bedroom in the summer hols and need to crack on with it!) I have 4 accounts with between £100 and £600 in them with no specific purpose so we would use these if needed for car and house maintenance.

Our cars are in good condition and run well so I wouldn't think we would need to replace them for a long while yet (fingers crossed). But if we really did need to, we would just have to use our '6 month reserve' fund and then build it back up.

Thanks for your reply

cat04

michaels wrote: »

Have you any budget for house maintenance expenditure and either a car replacement fund and/or extra for car repairs?

Also are the clothes, gas and electric expenditures realistic long term, we have 3 young kids and spend about 6x as much on clothes and more than twice as much on gas/electric with our showers plus two baths a day for the kids, the heating on all day and the washing machine on seemingly non stop.

The gas and electric are reduced until next Feb as we used Quidco and got £120 back, so I reduced our monthly spend accordingly. The actual DD is £66 per month (£30 elec and £33 gas). Whether this will change I don't know...although it will probably go up knowing energy companies! The central heating is good in this house and we don't need it on for too long before the house is hot and doesn't need to be on all day luckily. We won't be putting it on for a while yet anyway.

Clothes wise I have cut back on how much I spend. The vast majority is bought in the sales, using vouchers/coupons if poss etc, and a few bits at CB or charity shops. I bought DD1's school uniform with the Tesco double up offer. They now have loads of clothes, so I don't see us buying any for a while (I also bought the next size up in the sales too!) I probably do spend more than what I put in my SOA, probably too much of a guesstimate really. OH had lots of new clothes last year and doesn't really spend anything.

Is it bad that in their Santa sacks the girls get character socks and knickers?? That counts as an Xmas expense then lol

Again, being a bad mother (!), the kids don't have a bath every single night, but we do have a slimline dishwasher and the washing machine is on 6 out of 7 days.

Iris_Blue

cat04 wrote: »

One bit of advice I'm looking for is what others do with regards to OPs. Do you pay something every month (i.e. set amount Direct Debit) or just pay some off when you have it?
On the otherhand, if I don't set up a DD the OPs will get pushed to one side and 'forgotten' about and then I'll be cross with myself for not making any, say every 3 months.

Hi,

I pay off little amounts when I have them and make a bigger OP when we get paid. I didn't want to tie myself to a DD as such but TBH I think I pay more the way I do it now as the mortgage is constantly on my mind rather than thinking that a DD OP is due out of say the 15th". I get excited more this way.

It's what works best for you.

Good luck

cat04

Iris_Blue wrote: »

Hi,

I pay off little amounts when I have them and make a bigger OP when we get paid. I didn't want to tie myself to a DD as such but TBH I think I pay more the way I do it now as the mortgage is constantly on my mind rather than thinking that a DD OP is due out of say the 15th". I get excited more this way.

It's what works best for you.

Good luck

Thanks Iris, I like your way of thinking! Do you just transfer it over to your mortgage account online, or do you actually go into a branch? And how do you keep on top of what %age you've paid off that year??

I know we have a 10% limit a year for OPs, but need to find out if that's 10% off the starting amount for the year, or 10% of whatever the mortgage balance is at the current time. I have a lot to learn still!

Iris_Blue

I do it online with the H/f, although you cant transfer from a H/f acc to a H/F mortgage account. Daft! So I do it from my A&L acc to the H/F mortgage. You can set up a internal DD though from H/f to H/f. I'm sure you'll know that already.

It can take a few days to go through from the A&L so if I know the payments coming to me I just send it..I can't wait I'm impatient :rotfl:

Regards to the % I've only just started Oping. I'm new to it all too and also have lots to learn. I have a little running balance what I've paid off and I log all regular and potential payments on FB's (financialbliss on MFW) spreadsheet, which is a great help seeing the balance reduce.

I'm not on a rate so I can pay more than the 10%, there's no limit.


~P.s Sorry you did say that you was with the H/f didn't you ? - I cant find that post now and I think I'm imagining it. pregnancy brain

cat04

Iris_Blue wrote: »

Regards to the % I've only just started Oping. I'm new to it all too and also have lots to learn. I have a little running balance what I've paid off and I log all regular and potential payments on FB's (financialbliss on MFW) spreadsheet, which is a great help seeing the balance reduce.

I'm not on a rate so I can pay more than the 10%, there's no limit.


~P.s Sorry you did say that you was with the H/f didn't you ? - I cant find that post now and I think I'm imagining it. pregnancy brain

Yep, we're with Halifax for current account and mortgage, you're not imagining it! Congratulations on your pregnancy, hope it's all going well

That spreadsheet sounds interesting, esp if you can see the balance reducing

cat04

Just had an idea about the OPing so I can start right away. I was thinking that as our monthly payment is £471.76 I might set up a DD for £28.24 to round up each months payment to £500. That way I can start to shave off a small amount every month and then add to that when I've saved up a round amount, say £100. That way I get the best of both worlds - paying off a regular amount, plus paying more off as and when I have saved £100. So the times when money going into my mortgage OP pot are scarce I don't feel as bad