Pavlovs_dog starting as she means to go on...

pavlovs_dog

the other thing I found quite motivating was tracking the fall of my daily interest. It was £15/day when we first started, and is now £14.30 ish.

pavlovs_dog

We've had a funny few months and I've come to realise that I need to climb fully back on the diary wagon to keep me on the straight and narrow where being a MFW is concerned.

We've had a change in circumstances which has thrown our budget somewhat. OH historically has always worked a twilight shift, earning him a considerable anti social hours bonus. This made up his part time retail wage into something more substantial. However this summer he was put in the position of having to swap to a new shift and lose the antisocial hours bonus, or lose his job. Consequently, we've lost 25% of OH's pay. He has to cycle to work and back as we can no longer share a car. Whilst our petrol costs have decreased slightly OH is constantly knackered and it means meals are a challenge as we can't eat together 5 nights out of 7.

Then mum was put in a position where she felt she had no choice but to leave her job. She's now able to claim some benefits, but they don't cover all of the projects she'd taken on when she had a steady wage coming in, so we've been helping her out by loaning money to ease her cash flow where we can.

On top of that, my nan has been very poorly indeed and is spending a lot of time in hospital whilst they try and fix her up.

As a result, my eye has been well and truly off the financial ball, a message driven home by a few horrific CC bills of late. So this is me, climbing back on board. I'm hoping to steady the ship between now and the new year, and come back with a new project for 2013 to keep me focused and motivated.

pavlovs_dog

Now the numbers...

Mortgage today stands at £121,626 meaning we've cleared our first 10k in just over 24 months. A significant percentage of that has been through overpayments. Our original 2012 MFW target for OPing was £1500, which we broke early in the year, leading to a revised target of £2500. At the time the target was set, I had dared to believe we could possibly even hit £3k for the year. Due to our change in circs I'm doubtful we'll manage to hit the £2500 but I'm going to give it my best shot! Daily interest is currently £13.92, down from £15 when we first started the mortgage. LTV is just shy of 30%.

November aims

1)keep food spends below £180 by using up items from the depths of cupboards and freezer

2) get an accurate measure of our petrol bills, given change of circs and price rises.

3) Review home phone and broadband - can we save money?

5) Contact L&C for new life assurance quote

6) lunch to work every working day 0/20

7) as many NSDs as possible

8) be more proactive with swagbucks and superpoints. If I can reach cash out this month It is a pain free extra boost towards Christmas shopping.

In short, we're going back to those basic things that are all too easy to forget about.

CathT

Sorry to hear things have been o difficult for you lately. I hope your nan recovers well and things improve for your mum.

Perhaps the 'all the small things' thread might be a boost. I used to have money coming in from TCB all the time but barely use it now!

pavlovs_dog

I do read the all the small things thread for inspiration. It is very good at making you realise that the little things do add up. I'm pretty disciplined at throwing all money from Quidco to the OP pot, following the discipline that money I never had to begin with is money that won't be missed. Don't know what it is but I'm not fond of TCB. Will have to have another look on the run up to Chrimbo, see if I can convert!

£20.45 on food so far this week. Hopefully that should be sufficient to get us through to the end of the week. I just need to convince OH to stay out of the Tesco express! Plenty of food in our stores, and I bought a chuck which has been stripped bare, providing quite a bit of meat to be s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d.

Had a good run on swagbucks, hit the daily target 3 days running which means I'll get a bonus paid out at some point.

Found a christmas present on my bro from Amazon. I have a fair chunk towards the price in vouchers that I cashed in from Ipsos, which reduces the cost to me significantly. Will go through nectar as well to make up the extra few pennies.

lunch for work 1/20
NSD 1/28

pavlovs_dog

trip to Argos today. OH received a gift card for long service at work, so we spent some of it today on a 15tog duvet (13.5 just wasn't cutting it in chilly south Wales :eek:), new pillows, pillow covers and a curtain pole for our bedroom. I may have mentioned at some point that we received a pair of curtains as a present last Christmas and we've been unable to hang them as we didn't have a pole to put them on! Going to be a fiddly job as it is a bay window so things need to be cut to size, bent to fit etc. Think I'll speak nicely to FIL or stepdad and get some help. I figure we've managed 10 months without the curtains up, so a few more days won't hurt. (don't panic, we do have blinds, the neighbours don't have to see us in the nuddy :rotfl: the curtains are for texture and extra warmth). As an added bonus we got a £5 voucher for spending over £50 but will need to find a use for it as it expires at the end of the month.

Took lunch to school again, so 2/20 there. Counting today as a NSD as the GV was 'free' money and I didn't spend anything else.

After an easy few days, swagbucks has been slow today. Won't make me rich but my amazon experience yesterday made me realise that it does all add up.

Inspired by Peonie and newgirly I've signed up to the Mortgage Free in three (Mfit) challenge for 2012 - 2015, which coincides nicely with the overarching aim from the outset of this diary, which was to be as close to £100K as possible when we are eligible to remortgage from July 2015. Need to start thinking of some interim goals and challenges to keep me on track and hopefully speed up the progress.

also slowly starting to catch up on lots of MF diaries. looking for [STRIKE]ideas to pinch[/STRIKE] inspiration on extra ways to save the pennies.

pavlovs_dog

managed 5/5 on the taking lunch to work front. Eating out of the freezer and cupboards was also a huge success last week. Looking forward to another cheap food shop tomorrow once I've rifled through the cupboards and freezers to draw up a meal plan.

having a low key weekend. having been tired and full of snot all week, resulting in very little work being done of an evening. So today I am mostly locked in the office in an attempt to 'get sh*t done' and rediscover the floor. Have a MOUNTAIN of books to mark so will start them when I sit down to watch the rugby later on.

games night at a friends tonight, so will raid the cupboards to see what nibbles we can take with us.

have a good weekend folks :beer:

moneycurious

Hey, you seem tio have climbed back on the wagon quickly.... i love the using up months , there is something quite nice in running everything right down. HOw much have you managed to knock off this year?? Signing up to the 3 yr challenge is a biggie, i dont think i could do that. I know what you mean re the 25% loss of income, i used to do a extra "service" for my employer, back in the good old days and i was on over £30,000 with it , this was wheni was young and friverless, wish i had saved the money as wehn it came to getting a morgae i was on my lowest income in years, added to it we have to take 4 days unpaid leave - to try and save jobs..... my lesson has eben learnt the harsh way - but fortunate to still have a job i suppose!!!
Good luck with the marking , lil sis has to do that - and its not a job i would do for all the tea in china!!!

xx

pavlovs_dog

I find my problem is not so much knowing WHAT to do to make progress but remaining focused when life gets in the way. When I stick to my diary, it focuses the mind. There is a fab sense of community here.

So far this year we've reduced our balance by just over £5k, £2k of that has been OPs. It just goes to show, even on a humble income with limited spare funds at the end of the month, you CAN make a difference with small changes and staying focused.

And don't rule yourself out from the MfiT challenge. There is a real range there - people paying off huge amounts (some of who will manage to clear their mortgage during the challenge), poor church mice like me doing what we can (I'm aiming for £15k from normal and OPs) and some lucky sods who are MF and are looking to build up their savings. Give it some thought... would be good to have a partner in crime

moneycurious

I think i'll give it a miss, thanks. My brain is small and very blonde at times ( think the years of bleaching has leaked in!!), so going to plod away with my diary, and look for insperation off all our friends on here.
You have made a massive dent this year, £15k is very achiveable. i am just contemplaiting the things we can cut back on next year in the hope to be MF asap.... although rome wasnt built in a day!!
As my OH states very frequently , its not wat you earn its how you spend it that counts! xx