Juicygirl's forever home but NOT forever mortgage diary!

Courgette

It's scary isn't it when you add it all up for the first time! We're a family of 2 adults, a teenager, a baby and a fussy cat and my weekly target for everything inc cleaning products, cat food, baby formula etc is £60. I find this quite challenging at times but I usually get it in under £70

HTH

Yorkielass

I've just found your diary, I'm a MFW wanabee, our house is up for sale and if/when we move we'll join the MFW ranks straight away, for now we're saving funds for moving expenses.

Anyway congratulations on your pregnancy - was a rollercoaster reading your diary and so pleased this are going well.

Reading your diary through on your SOA you say you pay for things like road tax etc whenever you need to etc. I thought I'd share the way my OH and I do this (well I do it all actually but anyway he agrees it's the right thing to do for us):

We worked out, (albeit several years ago, it was the plan to sort this again when we moved but that's taking long than hoped) how much we spend on car tax, services, mot, breakdown, car insurance and home insurance in a year, the big things where you either have to pay for them in one go, like an mot, or where paying up front for the whole year is cheaper, and worked out if we put £100 into a savings account linked to our current account so we could transfer money easily when things need paying for, this would cover our 'annual spends' and mean we wouldn't suddenly have to find the money one month. This is done by standing order.

We also calculated how much we spend on gifts in a year roughly and then spread that over 12 months too paying into another savings account and also a monthly amount towards holidays into a 3rd account.

You could have 1 savings account and keep a spreadsheet of what you're keeping money for or several savings accounts, one for each thing, depending on how things work best for you. We've been doing this over 3 years and we've amended the standing orders for holidays and presents a few times but it's all worked really well.

katsu

Our weekly food spends are generally around £50-60 for two adults. We buy low GI and fresh where possible, so things like bread are quite dear.

juicygirl

Katsu, i'm keeping you very busy today! Thank you for your reply on my other thread too x

katsu

No problem juicy. Honestly, although our situation was different to yours, as long as you have no financial link to someone their debt correspondence is annoying but doesn't affect you personally.

lilly_of_the_valley_2

Juicygirl, that is wonderful news really pleased for you and your husband. I am sure family friends will buy lots of stuff for the little one when she/he arrives. We have had lots of IVF cycles but had an almost 4 year break... got 3 embies on ice!! My friends is due a little boy in november very excited. Made an overpament of 21.56 this week I always laugh as the bank get rather upset when its small payments!!

Congratulations and take care xx

juicygirl

Hi all,

Just a quick post. Not forgotton about my diary, just been preoccupied with baby plans :-). All of our disposable income has gone on baby equipment and furniture and I am pleased to say baby is due in 3 weeks.

Now though, I am organised and have a few weeks leave before baby born to reassess our finances. So far I have just organised a new deal for our mortgage to take us til Aug 2014. My income ( I am bigger wage earner if you remember) will reduce drastically when I go back to work and 3 months of my mat leave will be funded by our small savings account.

So it's all a bit up in the air at the moment but I still want to try. So I have decided to set some small initial goals for the reminder of 2012:

1. Make overpayments of £2k minimum- this is probably as realistic as it gets, but also gives me a cushion in case I need to take a one month payment break at the end of my mat leave
2. Reassess our finances at least every 3 months to check we are getting best deals
3. Monitor use of petrol and put any savings made fom not commmuting to mortgage pot
4. More cooking from scratch when I'm back on my feet

2011 wasn't as successful on the overpayments front as I hoped and I learned the hard way when I came to renew my mortgage. Hopefully I can do better over the next 2 years!!!