XSpender - MFW in Training

XSpender

:eek: to the cleaning cost and double :eek: when we found out it is valued at £1000 more than we paid for it 4 years ago and is not insured for that much so that will be another expense :eek::eek:

Still under my £400 budget. Only just mind at £370.76. For once I am doing OK against my grocery budget at £180/£260, this is after having to stock up on quite a few store cupboard items.

Spent £65 of my personal spends on a dress for the races and some holiday clothes at the weekend. Bought 2 pairs of trousers from the charity shops near my DM's, 3 tops and a sun dress and got he dress I had seen on the internet for the races at less than half price in the sale. I am over the moon with with I got my money.

Couple of quid made in PADs to the mortgage pot this weekend.

I have a few tasks to accomplish before our holidays at the end of the month:

• order settlement figure for mortgage #2
• raise £200 from ebay, sales and current account surplus
• find a spreadsheet that works out how much I am saving on my interest only mortgage
• reset the hot water timer or maybe turn it off as we hardly use it
• achieve my grocery budget for the first time ever:o
• get back into the swing of proper meals and home baking

That little list should keep me out of mischief for a while:)

XSpender

A massive 98p left of my £400 budget:o I did think it was a bit tight when I set it at the beginning of the month. The food part of it is going well, it's the rest that has blown it out of the water:mad:

Ordered a settlement figure for mortgage #2 todayso I can update my WIOTH figure. I took today off as holiday as nothing happening at work ( I am loosing the will to live it is that boring) to be called by the nursery at 11 to say DS had a high temp and I would need to come and get him. He is happily playing away and chattering to himself now, no trace of temp. I think they over react when a child is under the weather/teething.

Managed to dye my hair, tidy up and get my hair cut but all my plans of catching up with the housework, paperwork and batch cooking have gone out of the window so far but I am determined to:

• vaccum everywhere
• make lasagne for tea
• make a cake
• clean the kitchen sides
• organise and list the contents of one of the freezers

I received the car insurance renewal today and it is due end of July, I thought it was due end August:eek: It has gone up about £120 p.a. Will go through TCB to see if I can get a better deal and some cashback. We have a claim outstanding against us but have full no claims protection so I don't know if this will effect the cover elsewhere.

DH has been head hunted by another company and feels quite excited about going in for a chat but also disloyal to his current company. I said it is worth going to see what the set up is and what the package is and then make a decision about it. He is doing really well where he is but this is a much bigger branch to run.

Got DH to agree to listing some stuff on ebay this weekend to cover the cost of our holiday at the end of the month. Need to make sure he gets it done as he is at work sat am, out sat night so probably rough sunday;)

XSpender

My well laid plans have not happened so far this weekend but there is still today and DS is at DMIL for the day so should get some stuff done. He has been up since before 6 so 2 loads of washing done and I am about to get dressed and get busy in the kitchen. The freezers will get sorted and listed today as I will be rearranging them to fit my batch cooking in:D

I have 8 eggs just past their sell by date so that is a ginger cake, some chocolate buns and egg mayo for lunch:) Not that I am going to eat the cake and all the buns for lunch mind you;) We have £40 left in the grocery budget and 11 days of the month left. My plan today is to get cooking and batch cook some meals for us and DS. Apart from a little fresh fruit and some value fromage frais for DS we do not need anything else.

The 'anything else not a bill' spends are through the roof at £254.53 out of £140 allocated and this is why I feel so skint this month. Again. £52.03 on alcohol and £37.29 on takeaways and ice creams. I have had to pay £25 for a haircut this month too as my friend who cuts it for free couldn't fit me in. I will need to budget again for haircuts as my friend won't take anything for doing it and I don't want her to think I am taking advantage. DS also needs his doing next week but I have found somewhere that will cut it for £5.50 instead of the £10 I was paying. He is only 14 months but has a full head of hair:) There seem to be a lot of small spends adding up to a big total on things like shoe repairs, safety catches, calpol, a prescription, 2 haircuts, a notebook and a hanging basket.

Small PADS have been made to my virtual mortgage pot which stands at £10.00. My personal spends are getting low with £65 left after lending DH £20 for his staff night out last night. Will see if he has any left when he gets out of bed. I have the races with the girls in 2 weeks time so do not want to spend anymore out of this account.

My MFW knowledge came in handy earlier in the week when I was talking to a colleague about how she could reduce her balance to enable her to remortgage when she moves onto the SVR. Another colleague admitted to overpaying their mortgage too while on the SVR.:T This MFW lark is catching on;)

Have a lovely Sunday, hope the sun keeps shining:)

XSpender

Hello Diary, long time no speak:o

7 days left to payday and it can't come quick enough.:o My 'owt but bills budget' is standing at £548 when my budget was £400. I must have been a looney when I thought that I would spend £140 on everyting except food as my diesel alone this month cost £95 and that is less than normal:doh:

I have only managed to pay the £41.06 normal op to the mortgage this month but have paid for a passport for DS, chunnel and 5 nights in a hotel as part of our 2 week holiday. I can't wait.

Food budget is going well, I might even hit it for the first time ever.:) I find I am buying a lot more basic items this month and I have got back in to the swing of meal planning. I have even saved the leftover mash from dinner ( I always make too much) to make cheese and onion pasties. I did spend most of Sunday in the kitchen cooking our meals for the week but it has saved me time on an evening and we have eaten much better.

I am still awaiting my sett fig for the #2 mortgage so still can't update my WIOTH figure.

DM and DSD are coming for dinner on Sunday which I am looking forward to. Have planned my meal around what I have in with a couple of cheap additions.

My job is still rubbish but if they want to pay me my salary, £10/day expenses and more than likely extend my contract while I sit and do literally nothing, I shouldn't grumble. I am lucky to have a job and it will get better once the project gets moving it is just so boring, there is only so many things I can google lol. I have applied for another job this week so I will see what happens.

Right, off to watch Lewis if I can stay awake long enough.

XSpender

WIOTH figures are now up to date. We have reduced our balances by £4203 since the start of the year. Not bad considering the main part of our mortgage is interest only so no standard capital repayments are reducing it. Actual overpayments are a measly £287.42.

My goal is to transfer all our mortgage on to capital and interest d reduce the term but we just can't afford it until either we have repaid mortgage #2 or are no longer paying DS nursery fees. One payment left on the HP and then we will just have mortgage #1 and mortgage #2 to tackle.

I still think I am being over optimistic with my savings/overpayments targets I set myself. I don't actually see where in our budget this extra money can come from:(

I worked out the other day that if I went part time 3 days a week on my current salary and I would only lose about £200/month after taking into consideration the reduction in diesel costs. Something well worth considering:)

Gone over my GC budget a bit again this month. We have stocked up on quite a few non food items like loo roll.

This is the first time in quite a few months I have listed all my spends and tried to budget and it has thrown up some areas I can try and cut back on.

XSpender

:eek:*****Long rambling post warning******:eek:
Here I am back on the MFW wagon after a disastrous few months where several emergencies left us overdrawn (when we don’t have and can’t get an overdraft) and having to request back the few hundred pounds of overpayments we had made to our first mortgage this year and the bit we had put away for DS (18 months).:(

Our spending on groceries has also gotten out of hand and I am back on the grocery challenge again. Shouldn’t ever trust myself not to be on it TBH.:o

We will be back on track from January and will only have a small amount left to clear our HP which saves £120/month. DH is also earning an extra £120 to £180 per month cash in hand.:T Don’t know how long this will last so we will enjoy it while we can.
I am restarting my diary as over the last few weeks DH and I have had a bit of a LBM and come to some conclusions about our finances and have realised that if we are ever going to realise our forever home/MF dream we need to get a grip and sharpish.

These are our ‘big’ goals for 2012 and beyond:

· Learn to save. Having previously both been up to our eyeballs in debt due to overspending, saving doesn’t come easy to us and we need to ‘learn’ how to do it. Not sure how though.
· Our savings pot is to be there for emergencies initially but as the pot grows it is to be used to repay our 2nd mortgage. This is a shift from overpaying our 1st IO mortgage.
· Learn to stick to a budget so there is a surplus left to save. We don’t use credit any more but what we have, we spend.
· Settle 2nd mortgage by end of 2013, ideally by June 2013, saving us £460/month.
· Save like crazy people to move to our forever home in 2015 with a big deposit as we will find it difficult to get a mortgage due to previous credit problems and will have to pay stamp duty, fees and what have you.
· Repay the new mortgage as quickly as we can as we will be 45 by then with a 5 year old and need to have more money saved if he wants to go to university and for our old age
· Repay the money we borrowed off DS and start saving for his future again
· Redecorate living room, stairs and landing, bathroom and our bedroom, one a quarter starting with the living room in March/April and finishing with the bathroom in September as all are lucky grubby
· Save for our holiday abroad to see family in September. We had a problem with our accommodation on this year’s holiday and chose to move hotels which ended up costing us quite a bit and contributed to the mess.

Because of the expense of the festive season and a couple of bills that bring us up to date I am not intending to start saving until January 2012. If we stick to our reasonably generous budget we would have £700+ month to save and more in bonus months and when I earn mileage expenses.

I am having a practice this month of monitoring and hopefully sticking to my budget by keeping a spending diary on here and also to record any extra earnings which will be going into the savings/2nd mortgage savings pot. I also need to do some research about the best place to put my savings, not sure if to do a regular savers or ISAs, some I want access to and some I want not to be able to touch.

Will post back later with spends to date.
Cheers for reading if you got this far:beer:

yukkibear

welcome back x

SomersetSaver

XSpender wrote: »

· Learn to save. Having previously both been up to our eyeballs in debt due to overspending, saving doesn’t come easy to us and we need to ‘learn’ how to do it. Not sure how though.

Coming out of lurkdom to offer some advice on this, based on what I have done myself. (Sorry if you do this already, I've not read all your diary as yet)

The only way I learnt how to save was to have DDs or SOs go out of my bank account to a savings account on the day I got paid.

That way, the money wasn't in the account and so mentally I didn't have it to spend in the first place. I also cut up the cards to go with the account so I can't take any money out of them.

Also, I am a "pot" kind of person so have lots of different accounts set up for different things (e.g. holiday, car, general monthly spend) rather than one account supposedly divided up for all those different things. That way can easily see what's left for each aspect of your budget.

It can be a matter of trial and error but it IS just a habit really so keep at it!
SS

mooomin

SomersetSaver wrote: »

Also, I am a "pot" kind of person so have lots of different accounts set up for different things (e.g. holiday, car, general monthly spend) rather than one account supposedly divided up for all those different things. That way can easily see what's left for each aspect of your budget.

I am still in debt, but have been debt-free briefly, and the only thing that works for me (for debt payment or savings) is making small regular payments. I use the Payment A Day challenge and transfer a small amount daily. Doing that cleared over £9,000 in debt and built up £1500 savings in under three years, so it works for me.

If you're scared you might spend, have a savings account separate from your own bank account. Mine is with ING and I'm using it to save up for a treat next year. My other savings account will be used to repay my loan early and that's with my existing bank. I've trained myself not to think of it as "my" money though

Like SS, I'm a pot person. I have accounts with my main bank for *deep breath* bills, food, entertainment, Christmas, credit card (I transfer money there as soon as I buy something on my card) and car expenses.

XSpender

Thank you both for your replies.

I have 4 e savings accounts with my bank and I used to have DDs going in to them, and more recently, transfered money over to them. What I find happens though is that I transfer the money back as we get short towards the end of the month so I really need to get to grips with the budget.

I think the best approach may be to have 'pot' accounts at a different bank as suggested, with limited access, as well as an easy access account at my bank.