rlc22's 3 year challenge!

rlc22

Hi Everyone :wave:

I've been reading loads of MFW diaries and have decided that it's time for me to take the plunge myself and get stuck in

I'm Rach, and live with my hubby and our 14 month old son in a 3 bed end of terrace house. We've been here just over 3 years and I really want to move now, but we're not in a position to afford it without increasing our mortgage to scary levels which I'm not prepared to do.

So, my plan is to spend the next 3 years paying off at least an extra £10k a year so that we can then think about moving into a bigger place.

We've just applied for an offset mortgage with FD and we're having the valuation this week, all being well my OPing plan will start as soon as we complete on the new mortgage (mainly because I just got our credit card bills from last month and we have spent A LOT of money!).

I'm going to keep this diary to help keep me on the straight and narrow and hopefully stop my needless spending (of which there is currently quite a lot)...

Rach x

originalmiscellany

to this part of the board - I'm sure you'll be made to feel very welcome here

It sounds like (don't think I'm being judgemental!) you could benefit from listing your debts on your cards and the APR so you know exactly what you're facing - sounds like you're really optimistic and keen to make a difference, so well done you

Secondly a SOA could be beneficial to ensure you've got everything locked down and to economise as much as you can in order to really speed up on your over paying.

Thirdly, it might be worth you clearing your card debt first - purely as you will pay a higher amount on your card than your FD mortgage which is probably a very good rate currently!

All the best with your targets and hope all your MFW dreams come true

rlc22

originalmiscellany wrote: »

to this part of the board - I'm sure you'll be made to feel very welcome here

It sounds like (don't think I'm being judgemental!) you could benefit from listing your debts on your cards and the APR so you know exactly what you're facing - sounds like you're really optimistic and keen to make a difference, so well done you

Secondly a SOA could be beneficial to ensure you've got everything locked down and to economise as much as you can in order to really speed up on your over paying.

Thirdly, it might be worth you clearing your card debt first - purely as you will pay a higher amount on your card than your FD mortgage which is probably a very good rate currently!

All the best with your targets and hope all your MFW dreams come true

Hello and thanks for the welcome

Luckily I think that my idea of overspending might not be as bad as you're imagining. We can clear the bills this month (we always pay our credit cards in full every month), but it just means that we have to dip into our savings that are reserved for some building work for the house.

I'm definitely going to do an SOA though as I know that although I appear on the surface to be good with money, the reality is that we are definitely more wasteful than we need to be and I would much rather that money was used for something better, like helping us OP the mortgage.

rlc22

I've just checked my Onepoll account and I'm at £37.40... so close to the £40 payout now - let's hope there are some good surveys over the week and I can hit it before the weekend.

DH reached the magical £40 the other day so am now just waiting for it to arrive in the bank, then I've got my first OP!

SmlSave

Welcome to MFW Rach I look forward to reading about your 3yr journey

rlc22

SmlSave wrote: »

Welcome to MFW Rach I look forward to reading about your 3yr journey

Thanks SmlSave. I was reading your diary the other day and it's one of the ones that inspired me to get going myself

Congratulations on the pregnancy too - it brings back so many memories when I see that people are expecting. I think that having a child is the most fun thing I've ever done

SmlSave

Are you sure that you were reading the right diary Rach? :rotfl:

Thanks for the congrats Its great to hear you describe it as fun

rlc22

SmlSave wrote: »

Are you sure that you were reading the right diary Rach? :rotfl:

Thanks for the congrats Its great to hear you describe it as fun

Haha - definitely your diary. I was pretty impressed by how motivated you are, building walls, planting things and all the rest. Plus you use lots of smilies - I like that .

There are times that I could use a lot of other words to describe parenthood (tiring would be one ), but overall it's the best fun ever!

rlc22

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1990
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1946
Benefits................................ 116.39
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 4052.39

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 1200
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 276.70000000000005
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 184
Electricity............................. 70
Gas..................................... 0 - included in electricity figure above as we pay for both together
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 24
Telephone (land line)................... 20 - includes broadband
Mobile phone............................ 75 - :eek: - both have iPhones...
TV Licence.............................. 10.87
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 54.95 - eek! :eek:This includes Sky Sports Mobile as it's cheaper than getting it for the TV and stops DH hogging the telly:rotfl:
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 300
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 350
Road tax................................ 25
Car Insurance........................... 75
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0 - all paid for with childcare vouchers included in net income
Other child related expenses............ 30
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 11
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 300
Holiday................................. 150
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 3276.52


Assets
Cash.................................... 5000
House value (Gross)..................... 310000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 9000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 324000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 208054...(1200).....3.99
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 10000....(276.7)....0
Total secured & HP debts...... 218054....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 4,052.39
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,276.52
Available for debt repayments........... 775.87
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 775.87

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 324,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -218,054
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 105,946

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.

Hmmm - that doesn't look too bad on paper and most months this is pretty much how it is. Unfortunately we seem to have gone off the rails slightly for the last 2 months and have basically squandered away our surplus rather than saving it.... time to get back into good habits.

Things to do:

1. Call Sky and cancel movies
2. Look into Freesat and see if that would suit DH's TV needs
3. Start proper meal plans to see if we can cut down on grocery spending
4. Bundle up DS' old clothes and list on eBay (4 blue Ikea bags full of stuff to get rid of!)
5. Declutter spare bedroom and list any suitable items on eBay

Any other tips to cut back really appreciated

SmlSave

I'd strongly suggest the OS boards to you Rach for cutting down your grocery spends, they have loads of great ideas How about a challenge to get down to £250p/m?

You spend £300 on Entertainment. Can you cut this down, where do you go?

rlc22

SmlSave wrote: »

I'd strongly suggest the OS boards to you Rach for cutting down your grocery spends, they have loads of great ideas How about a challenge to get down to £250p/m?

I reckon I could do that. I'm going to go through my recent receipts and look at exactly what I've been buying. I'm also determined to waste less food. For the obvious financial reasons, but also because it's ridiculous to throw things away. I've been stewing up apples that have been about to turn and have a huge amount of mash potato and mashed carrot in the freezer (mainly saved in little person sized portions to make it easy to prepare meals for the nipper

SmlSave wrote: »

You spend £300 on Entertainment. Can you cut this down, where do you go?

Good, good question! DH and I have an "allowance" of £150 a month each to spend on what we want. I can't speak for him, but I'm sure that mine just ends up frittered away...as I definitely don't have anything to show for it . I've just started making a concerted effort to take my lunch to work with me, so that should help me save here!