Our MF way of life starts today.

babybakey

WOOHOO i saved a fortune this afternoon.
well as youll all know theres peopl you just have to buy for at xmas etc so i popped into boots for some headache tablets ( damn thinking about it i forgot them lol ) and they have reduced all the xmas stuff by 75% now so spent £45 and got £180 worth of stuff :T:j:j:T
so im really pleased i got lots of stuff and have finished one family off already and my immediate family have lots now so will just need their main things and thats it im really pleased although i spent £45 its going to look like ive spent more and will save us a fortune in the long run.

i did be naughty and popped in M&S and got a couple of fish cakes and was seduced by the choccy and choc covered strawberries though whoops , i was good though i resisted the percy pigs , so im proud of myself

time to get the xmas book started again , and go through what i already have , anything we have to recycle from xmas and then i can find things cheap throughout the year for thing i still need to get . bargain !

newgirly

Hi babybakey, welcome to the mfw boards, one thing that did stick out to me, if you don't mind me saying is your grocery bill, we are a family of 5 ( kids 10/10/13) all very fussy eaters, all eat packed lunch for school and our bill is under 1/2 of what yours is.

I have found it is hard work, but possible to reduce it by batch cooking and using up leftovers for me and dh, the kids eat the same really as before , just less junk. There are some brilliant ideas and threads on the oldstyle boards and it takes a while to get into but there are huge savings to be made when you have a big family, best of luck with your new challenge

cha97michelle

Welcome and good luck. Lots of smaller things definitely add up. How about using less gas and electric so bills are cheaper. Shopping around and getting cashback.

I try and join some challenges on other boards too to keep me motivated. There is a list of all of the challenges on one of the sticky posts on the debt free wannabee board.

You'll find there are lovely people to encourage you all over MSE.

babybakey

newgirly wrote: »

Hi babybakey, welcome to the mfw boards, one thing that did stick out to me, if you don't mind me saying is your grocery bill, we are a family of 5 ( kids 10/10/13) all very fussy eaters, all eat packed lunch for school and our bill is under 1/2 of what yours is.

I have found it is hard work, but possible to reduce it by batch cooking and using up leftovers for me and dh, the kids eat the same really as before , just less junk. There are some brilliant ideas and threads on the oldstyle boards and it takes a while to get into but there are huge savings to be made when you have a big family, best of luck with your new challenge

i have started making small changes , at the moment that includes 2 children in nappies were going to try and potty train our 2yr old in the spring so thatd save us about £40 a month. Obviously Erin wont be nappy free for a long time but she will stop milk in about 6mths time and go onto one bottle of special stuff a day and the rest normal milk. so that again will save about £40 a mth .
ive started getting strict on the food we have , ( need to be stricter on myself as ive not been ) kids have to finish the cereals we have now before i will buy another box we have about 6 boxes on the go as they mess about and get bored with them after 2 bowls worth. so ive promised them a box of their favourite if they finish them so its been a challenge for them.
my husband is terrible for saying theres nothing in the freezer knowing i wont check the small freezer in the garage as its so cold out there. but i emptied it a bit today and ill keep doing so until i can turn it off in a week or so then he cant pretend theres nothing so he can call a pizza .
weve cut back on takeaways too tonight we had a KFC instead of taking the mother in law out. which saved us about £20.
I dont cook from scratch much but i am starting to do it more.

im going to not go proper shopping until we really need it as we have lots of odds and ends to finish up , then i will do an online shop to save money. Im hoping i can curb the spending on food from now on , the thing is though its always been a family thing for us as hubby and i dont drink ( well only on special occasions) neither of us have ever smoked and we dont go out. so its our only treat and hard to change really.

ive made some cash selling off some things i brought on impulse at the last cake show to other caker friends i have so thats made me £50 which will save me having to pay out for stock from my own pocket.

were taking a hit in earnings now though were £480 a mth worse off as my maternity money has ended and i need to try and earn it again or we wont be paying anything extra off the mortgage. its so frustrating its like 2 steps forward and 3 back.

wantabetterlife

Hi BB, i have also been trying to avoid tescos because no matter what my intentions are i always spend at least £50 when i get there. I am trying to stick to one big shop in the month and then just buy fresh food as and when i need it.
Went to lidl earlier and only spent £23 :j:j and this included a couple of bottles of wine at £2.99 each
i am also on maternity leave at the minute and one part of me is dreading going back to work but the other part of me wants to get back to a normal wage and to be able to make better progress with overpaying the mortgage.
Have a good weekend.

babybakey

Well the postman brought us something exciting today !!!
the paper works arrived for the shortening of the mortgage !! :T:T:j:j
were going to reduce it to 21yrs for now which makes our payments just over £541 a month now instead of £459 which reduces almost 6yrs off the term. this is a permanent change so we know we will definately be MF by the time were 52yrs old. ( as im nearly 31 )
were doing well so far on saving money and not spending we had tea out last night but it was a KFC and Kebab instead of taking the mother in law out for tea as planned. saved about £30 !

weve been chucking all change in the kids spare money box every time weve had any in our wallets and have £20.43 so far in a week ! so thats going to build up over the month and if we needed anything a day or two before payday we will use it but if not it goes in the ISA now once a month.

I spoke to my bank today and theyve helped loads they said if we set hubby up with a new account theyhave one which gives you £5 a mth when you pay in £1000 so i asked if it counted if you transfered money between accounts and he said yes as long as it goes into the account from any resource then it counts , and i have the same account so from now on the payday will mean we do a cheeky bank transfer and then earn £10 as we will both get the payment then , every £10 counts especially as its £120 a year !!!! :T:T

Ive gone through the wadrobe and cleared out everything of mine which i havent worn in the last few years i do it regularly but had kept a few just incase i lost the weight etc to get into them. well they will be on ebay later as im still fat :rotfl::rotfl:
I have a huge mountain of stuff on the bed at the moment waiting for when hubby gets home so i can go take some pics then whilst i watch casualty tonight ill list it all and get selling. i reckon theres at least £200 worth of stuff we have to sell.

the kids are doing well with the food rules and ive promised them were going to have just 2 boxes of cereal at a time now and whoever finishes a box gets to choose the next one we buy so theyre happy eating it all now . weve decided to defrost the freezer in the garage for a while too so we can eat all the food and see if we actually need it turned on all the time if not it will save us in energy and will mean we dont have a ton of food we stick in there and dont see for 6mths as we never go out there its just the over flow really.

im really enjoying this and now have my little notes and the reciept clip on the fridge ,plus a income sheet too so i can write down every bit of extra money we make. even things like saving £10 a mth on sjy are on there.

keep your ideas rolling in on what we can do i knwo once the stuffs all been sold i will struggle getting the money so i need to find other ways . and advertise the cake business more too.

babybakey

Hi Everyone,
Well weve had confirmation through now that the payments have gone up for the mortgage being shortened and ive set the standing order so it also over pays by £11 every month it will sit on account but hopefully if the rates go up in a few months we will have a small buffer and if they dont we will have a small bonus oneday to add on.

weve really cut back on what we spend and are doing lots of local food shopping in the mini tescos. its helped and we have only been food shopping properly once so far this month i usually go several tiems a week as i always either forget stuff or dont fancy whats in the freezer etc.

Im going to do some batch cooking today to hopefully save me going again for another week :-) it all helps doesnt it. I have been selling on ebay too , only 2 things so far but its meant the money i made on those has paid for my new business logo which would have come out of my own pocket usually. Im breaking into the wedding market now with my cakes so hopefully it will help me raise near the £400 a mth we ideally want to pay on top of the usual payments ( actually i only need to do £310 as the rest was done with the mortgage shortening)

i had a little house !!!!!! session at the weekend ( looking at houses id love to one day own , and some silly priced ones lol) looking at what we could get one day if we can do this MF thing, we figure if we can pay off £101k in 10yrs we can then take a smaller mortgage out to get a much bigger house. Which would be lovely and again we'd pay that off in another 10yrs which would still be less than we originally had the mortgage for :-)

right im off to do the school run ill update more as and when things happen. so far though its fab and were enjoying it!!

babybakey

I knew there was a point to forgetting the online shop yesterday , today we got a £7.50 voucher on email :j nice saving. weve decided to turn off the other freezer in the garage and see if we cope without it. seems silly having food sat there not getting eaten.

i have lots of things to ebay this weekend, were having a huge clear out. I managed to kit the middle child out with clothes today from our eldests old things so thats got to have saved me well over £400 !!

Ive batch cooked some mixed bean chilli today fed myself and my sister who came over and i have 6 servings for the rest of the week or maybe two. Which helps as it only costs £10 to make much better than 6 x £3.50 ready meals you get in the supermarkets.

ive decided tomorrow i shall be sitting down with everything we pay out and the calendar and working out when we can start looking for better deals on everything. each bit we save monthly i shall tot up and then when we know what weve saved i shall have the payments for the mortgage upped by 75% of what weve saved the other 25% we can enjoy or put towards making more money somehow.

The kids have adjusted well to finishing the cereals off etc and were so pleased to get their treat box when theyd finished the 8 YES 8!! boxes they had half eaten before. so we have a game now whoever finishes the last bowl chooses the next cereal. so they finish boxes better now.

weve been keeping every reciept this month so we can see where the money is going. im sure we will be shocked on payday as to how much we have spent needlessly .

i hope everyones doing well xxxx

GreenNinja

Hi Shelly,

Have bookmarked your diary, you seem so motivated, look forward to reading your progress. I too am on a MFW quest and trying to go up a gear this year in repayments by thinking of anything I can to spend less money.

:beer:

babybakey

ahh thanks, its quite addictive saving the money isnt it. i have had a few people say i should pay off the overdraft before starting to pay the mortgage off so going to try and work how we can do that quickly.

Its hard though we have 3 very small children so i have to work around them and being self employed i only bring in a small ammount. its getting better though , ive just had a last minute wedding fair book me for tomorrow so fingers crossed ill get some good interest :-) its all free and i just have to do some cake samples , which i have most of my supplies for except some eggs :T so no outlay really

just gone through all the old insurance documents and other bills and done a list. now each month i will check if anything needs renewing ive marked 3 weeks before everythings due on the calendar with a shinny star so i dont forget and ill go get a better deal from somewhere, ive never tried before so bound to get something , Hubbys car insurance is £639 !!! :eek: so should be able to get that lower.

i even resisted my daily choccy today ( i will have some tonight haha ) but usually i get some on the way home from school and then again at night ill cut out the morning bit now and then the evenings ill try and do next

fingers crossed this is us on our way to being MF