Jellie wobbles into her MFW journey

*Jellie*

Having become debt free it is time to try and tackle the big sparkling new debt- our mortgage!!

Many thanks to all those who have supported me as a DFW and inspired me to get my debt cleared before we took the new mortgage on. I hope that by using similar techniques as a MFW we can clear it by 2020. Our plan is to do this while still being able to spend some money on fun things and while also doing bits and pieces to the house and garden as necessary. However, to do this I need to make sure I don't fall back into old spending habits of splurging! My particular pitfalls are clothes, books and dvds.

The mortgage started at £295 995 at the start of May with £30 770 in the offset account. We are now at £291 583.78 with £22 983.79 in the offset account. We have actually been successful in adding quite a lot to the offset account but moving costs, new curtains and a fairly new car have taken money out of it. We decided that the car was worth buying now in the hope that it will last us through until we are mortgage free (my old car wasn't large enough to meet our needs).

Generally we need to put aside £1000 a month into the offset to meet our goal. However, this is likely to be 2 steps forward and one back for at least the next few years. We are getting married on 30/7/2011 :j and although we are planning on making it relatively low key there will still be lots of expenses. We are also expecting to make some home and garden improvements and OH is doing a part time course for the next few years which we'll be paying for.

Financial goals at the moment are
1. Move all my direct debits across to the mortgage account
2. Reorganise my budget and keep track of spending on phone again
3. Sit down with OH once a week to update spreadsheet of spending so we both have an idea of what is going out on food etc on CCs
4. Get back into meal planning etc.

My diary tends to veer off to cover other areas too. I struggle with a long term illness which can sometimes leave me feeling isolated so I am also doing my best to get some regular exercise and I also want to make an effort to find the fun again and make some new friends. This means making an effort to find things I can do to meet new people in the community which are MSE.

Sorry for the huge long starting post. They'll probably be a few more to come as I want to shar how the wedding preparations etc are going!!

Thanks very much for reading this! Hopefully you can help me along the way!
Jellie x

Froggy-G

:jGood afternoon!

Welcome to the MFW board!!

Woohoo! I am the first person to write on your MFW diary!
Don't worry we will follow your progress closely and support you all the way!

Froogy-G :rotfl:

*Jellie*

Thanks Froggy- it is great to *see* you. Do drop by for a cuppa and a chat whenever you fancy!!

poppyoscar_3

welcome jellie and good luck with your quest!
can i drop in for a cuppa too?
PO xx:D

Queen-Bee_2

Hello Jellie,
Nice to *meet* you! Looking forward to reading your diary and also hearing about your efforts to meet local people for MSE activities. I'm in the same boat!! Thinking about joining a book club or something - anyway, best of luck and welcome to the board,
QB

greent

Hello Jellie! Welcome to MFW I see you're alreadya neighbour in Lewis Lane, too!!

Slightly confused by the dates in the 1st post, though... are you already married now, or are you getting married next year? (I'm not being picky, just confused!!)

I drink loads of tea, so will regularly be dropping by, if that's ok - see ing as you're a neighbour, and all that!!

*Jellie*

Thanks for the lovely welcomes!

poppyoscar wrote: »

welcome jellie and good luck with your quest!
can i drop in for a cuppa too?
PO xx:D

Of course- the more the merrier!

Queen-Bee wrote: »

Hello Jellie,
Nice to *meet* you! Looking forward to reading your diary and also hearing about your efforts to meet local people for MSE activities. I'm in the same boat!! Thinking about joining a book club or something - anyway, best of luck and welcome to the board,
QB

I've just checked online and my local library has a reading group once a month so I need to see if they have vacancies. I'm not sure how else to track one down as I'd quite like one that meets more frequently. I currently belong to one online but would like something similar in real life!!

greent wrote: »

Hello Jellie! Welcome to MFW I see you're alreadya neighbour in Lewis Lane, too!!

Slightly confused by the dates in the 1st post, though... are you already married now, or are you getting married next year? (I'm not being picky, just confused!!)

I drink loads of tea, so will regularly be dropping by, if that's ok - see ing as you're a neighbour, and all that!!

Thanks for dropping in and for pointing out my mistake . I'm looking forward to meeting all the Lewis Lane residents!

gallygirl

*Jellie* wrote: »

I've just checked online and my local library has a reading group once a month so I need to see if they have vacancies. I'm not sure how else to track one down as I'd quite like one that meets more frequently. I currently belong to one online but would like something similar in real life!!

:wave:hello :wave: and welcome!

Having paid off debt already you've got the discipline to carry on with the mortgage so am sure you'll find it a doddle .

Em, bit of advice re the book club - probably best not to suggest Chalet School or Enid Blyton :rotfl:

I'll have a cuppa and one of those calorie free hob nobs please

SkintGypsy

Greetings! We have just started too. It somehow seems like a very scary prospect to me, which is weird considering I thought nothing about taking on a 25 year mortgage!

Best of luck in your quest.

Gypsy

*Jellie*

gallygirl wrote: »

:wave:hello :wave: and welcome!

Having paid off debt already you've got the discipline to carry on with the mortgage so am sure you'll find it a doddle .

Em, bit of advice re the book club - probably best not to suggest Chalet School or Enid Blyton :rotfl:

I'll have a cuppa and one of those calorie free hob nobs please

Thanks Gallygirl- I hope you are right that we have the discipline to do it!
I guess you're right regarding book club- better think of something more high-brow that I probably won't be able to understand!!
Looks like I better get some baking done in here

SkintGypsy wrote: »

Greetings! We have just started too. It somehow seems like a very scary prospect to me, which is weird considering I thought nothing about taking on a 25 year mortgage!

Best of luck in your quest.

Gypsy

You're right- I'm feeling scared too in case we don't manage it!! As long as we take baby steps in the right direction then it's all positive! Even shaving a few years off will be worth it even if we can't halve the time we have it!

*Jellie*

I've been having wedding dress wobbles!!
I decided to go and check out dresses by myself to get an idea of what I wanted and then I was going to ask my mum, sister etc to come along to help me decide which was best. The problem was that I realised several bridal shops have sales on at the moment and thought it was a good time to look.
I found this dress first

I really like it but it is a bit more of a meringue than I thought I would get and I'm not sure if it suits me. It was reduced from nearly £1000 to under £200 so I decided to snap it up. Unfortunately everyone is on holiday at the moment so no-one could reassure me that it looks ok.

However for that price I decided I could get it altered to fit and get a second dress for after the church service. I had a look at some and ended up buying one as I managed to get a discount as it was a little shop soiled. Just over £100 so I'm really happy about the prices but I'm still worried whether they look ok on me and whether my family will be upset that they didn't get to help me look.
This is the dress for the meal etc.



I'm within budget and got 2 dresses- I just hope I'll stop wobbling when I can show them to someone!!