Pavlovs_dog starting as she means to go on...

aliasojo

Good luck with it all pd and sorry 'bout your nan. x


*silver lining.....less furniture = less dusting*

pavlovs_dog

katsu wrote: »

Have fun at the Mr A's Pavlov. What happened about your brickwork holes?

FIL came round and taught OH how to patch it up so it's been DIY'd. OH has since taken to patching up bits of the wall in the basement. I haven't ventured into the loft yet to investigate his pointing skills, but if his work in the basement is anything to go by I shouldn't have anything to worry about.

pavlovs_dog

Happy new year everyone! A very apt time to review past targets and set new ones.

pavlovs_dog wrote: »

September - December 2010 - paving the way

Our aims in this period are to

*try to finish furnishing PD Towers as best we can with the last bits of spare savings

there is no furniture that we don't have that we cannot live without. There are still plenty of bits that we would like to buy (OH is developing a worrying obsession with the fact that we don't currently possess a single lightshade :eek: ) but this will be on an as and when we can afford it/we see good offers basis.

pavlovs_dog wrote: »

* build up a slush fund in the current account to deal with the unexpected.

there have been less unexpected events than anticipated so far, so we've agreed to keep this slush fund lower than we had originally planned for as we have money in readily accessible savings accounts should something happen where we need cash quickly.

pavlovs_dog wrote: »

* fine tune budget from forecasted figures to actual incomings and outgoings and get a much better feel of how much we actually have left at the end of the month.

this is an ongoing process. It's difficult to make long term plans for the whole year because we're paying inflated bills for several things until the new financial year in April, and we know that my take home pay will increase at the end of September but we don't yet know by how much (here's hoping it's better than £100 a month eh?!)

With that in mind, we're working on a status quo budget which we will revise in April when bills change. Unfortunately even the status quo contains a lot of ifs and maybes because OH may potentially have more overtime in the pipeline for Jan (a very rare occurrence in his job over recent years) and we know the council tax will go up to reflect the re-banding at some point.

for the next few months, I want to get a tighter grip on the grocery and petrol budget (i'm a bit too laid back about the former and have probably budgeted a little generously for the latter).

pavlovs_dog wrote: »

January 2011 - on your marks, get set, GO!

* Start overpaying the mortgage each month. I've forecasted that we should comfortably be able to OP at least £100/month.

As things stand at the moment, at the end of each month of the status quo budget we should have in the region of £130 spare, which is less than we had anticipated. This is because of the inflated bills. As we keep finding jobs to do around the house, we don't want to plough all of this money into OPing. We've agreed £50 of this will become a regular monthly OP, and the remainder will deal with unexpected expenses (which we will work into the budget so that they are provided for in the future) and whatever's left will go towards the many and various things that need doing around the house. This figured may be revised in April, and will definitely be revised in September to reflect the increase in my take home pay.

pavlovs_dog wrote: »

* set ambitious but achievable target with which to join MFI3

I have posted on the MFW thread today to register with a target of £1500. This is just over 2 months of normal mortgage payments. This amount is lower than I would have liked, but has been scaled to reflect the amount of things we want to do to the house over the coming year. of that £1500...

£400 will come from Jan-Aug OPs of £50
£400 will come from Sept - Dec OPs of £100

that leaves £700 or £58.33 a month to find. This money will come from:

*savings made on grocery challenge
*savings made where I have over-budgeted for petrol
*using vouchers earned from surveys to buy presents instead of £ saved for same purpose
*money made from extra work (e.g. tutoring)
*spare money left lying around

pavlovs_dog wrote: »

* drip feed emergency savings/rainy day fund. We do have a safety cushion, but i'd be happier if it was bigger.

I worked out our bottom line today (how much our essential bills and outgoings cost us). I also sat down and worked out exactly how much we have in savings over the various accounts. Although in the long term much of the money is earmarked for other things (eg J's pension, wedding fund, paying large annual bills such as insurance, replacing the car when it dies etc) if the worst came to the worst the money could be used to tide us over. We are currently two months shy of hitting 3 months worth of our bottom line. By the end of the year, we should have about 4- 5 months worth behind us. We are fortunate that if the proverbial really did hit the fan then the in-laws are in a position where they could help out. I would view asking them as a last resort (we're grown ups and should be able to look after ourselves), but knowing that that failsafe is there makes me slightly less worried about not having so much in savings.

originalmiscellany

Pavlov's dog - just to say keep up the good work! I enjoy reading your posts and honesty; Most enjoyable and sounds like you've got great plans for 2011!

pavlovs_dog

and now for new targets

AROUND THE HOUSE

*finally sort out getting chimneys capped
*finally sort out getting aerial fitted
*repair damage to guttering caused by ice/snow
*lay insulation and board out attic
*get curtains or blinds for dining room and study
*buy coffee table for living room
*buy new TV for living room

FINANCIAL

*join and stick to grocery challenge
*look into reducing energy tariff and usage
*invest in veg patch after last year's reasonable success
*budget better for XMAS and birthdays
*be more disciplined about doing surveys

PERSONAL

*take better care of myself (eat better, drink more, exercise more)
*get into a bed time routine (me time before bed, getting a good night's sleep each night)
*being more organised
*bring less school work home (i can't see my desk for paper at the mo, and 99% of it is school stuff)

pavlovs_dog

originalmiscellany wrote: »

Pavlov's dog - just to say keep up the good work! I enjoy reading your posts and honesty; Most enjoyable and sounds like you've got great plans for 2011!

it's nice to know people are reading my ramblings

happy new year originalmiscellany - have you made any resolutions?

Zeddy

I've just read through your diary and it's great reading. I like how you've moved into a new house and haven't felt the need to splash out buying all the furniture/accessorise straight away, we're about to move house and I really want to do the same, but it's so hard!

pavlovs_dog

Zeddy wrote: »

I like how you've moved into a new house and haven't felt the need to splash out buying all the furniture/accessorise straight away, we're about to move house and I really want to do the same, but it's so hard!

it's partly because i'm quite[STRIKE] fussy[/STRIKE] discerning and so would rather wait until I find just the right thing than waste money on things that will do for now. Thankfully OH thinks that way too (he's been looking for a new TV for weeks)

originalmiscellany

Resolutions not as such.
I've made some general targets for me and MrsOM to use - such as to entertain friends at least once a month, and to try something interesting in terms of cooking once a month. I like the idea of experimenting in a culinary capacity.

Secondly, it'll be to save and overpay as much as possible, I've not set specific targets on paper, I know what I'd like but fortunately with MrsOM on board, it makes life easier as she's aware and willing of getting our mortgage down.

Thirdly, to tie down all bills and direct debits to lower rates where possible. I tried to ring a few but found they're shut today, which is no surprise.

So nothing unachievable like lose 14 stone by February 2011 and clear the mortgage in a month. Simple, sustainable targets are the way forward.

pavlovs_dog

tried to make an OP via online banking but hsbc don't list accord as an option on their create payee menus so it looks like BACS payments are no longer an option for OPing.

I could increase the amount of my monthly direct debit, but this early in the house ownership game there's this little paranoid voice in the back of my head that says not to commit to that outgoing just in case. I know it's not really a logical argument given that we do have £ put by for an emergency and I'm sure we could adjust the DD back down if we fell on hard times.

another option is to see if i could make frequent one off payments over the phone via debit card, which would kill 2 birds with one stone as the call would be free on weekends, yet would count towards one of the 10 monthly calls we have to make to avoid BT's low use charges. I know what I'm like though and i would get twitchy having to wait until the weekend to make the OPs.

there is of course always the trusty cheque made payable to myself method, but in true MFW form I'd begrudge the pennies wasted on the stamps :eek: :rotfl:

decisions, decisions