New recruit: First steps (advice appreciated)

BaconandEggs

babyb06 wrote: »

Welcome!

Some good comments on your SOA. I agree with Katsu - you seem to have a v high monthly surplus - is that real or are there extras you've forgotten to add to your SOA? That was certainly the case for me. If the surplus is real - then wow! You will soon make huge in roads into your mortgage.

I am similar to you - i like the cushion of insurances if anything were to go wrong. WHilst you want to cut down on the excess you need to keep things that are important to you

BabyB

I'm not much of a gambler. I feel there is too much at stake at the moment.

One of my main motivators for doing the diary and SOA is to have peace of mind that money is not being wasted. I really don't like wasting anything.

You are right, that it is probably worth setting a sensible pace and keeping what is important. What are the things you class as being important?

Alot of the things I enjoy are cheap/free. I couldn't do without my sport club membership as it is one of the things I enjoy most.

Thank you for your kind words and good luck with your MF journey too.

BaconandEggs

Next weekend I'm going to look into the cycle scheme at work. It would be nice to cycle to work when the weather is nice like it has been. Good exercise and reduction in petrol costs.

fillyfop

Hi,

With the breakdown cover, I would definitely suggest looking at cashback websites. I was with AA last year and switched to RAC this year for just the basic pacakages. After cashback, it only costs £7 (AA) or £8 (RAC)

More expensive packages get more cashback so always worth a look!

katsu

BaconandEggs wrote: »

It turns out the Mrs is with autoaid
It's my RAC which is costing loads.
I'm liking the sound of autonational!

Bacon - if she really is MrsBacon then you are automatically covered by autoaid - for free. It gives free spouse cover to policyholders so is such a total steal.

fillyflop is right that you can get roadside only for a good price via cashback sites, but if you want the more involved packages (I do because I do a 40-50mile daily commute, plus we do travel to see friends & family up to X hundred miles from home and so I would not want to just be helped at the roadside or towed to a local garage miles from home) then you are better served by autoaid or autonational.

Think about what you need - but if you are married then cancel the RAC now and get the details sorted from MrsBacon.

cha97michelle

Sounds like you have been helped lots already, so i will say welcome and good luck. Your mortgage payments are what mine were when we first bought our house, and we chose to reduce the payments so i could stay at home with the kids and live on one salary.

This is certainly a game to make MF work to your advantage.

My only tip is definitely don't consider the water meter if you want kids. My DS2 is currently potty training and using 6 or 7 outfits some day. A whole heap of washing. And we are on a meter. It leaves me a bit scared to do much else.

kingster2069

Good luck with your journey!

I just got our building and content insurance. First time I've combined the two which cost £132, plus I got £30.00 cashback using topcashback site. This works out to £8.50 a month, less than half of yours, so many a little money to be saved:beer:

BaconandEggs

fillyfop wrote: »

Hi,

With the breakdown cover, I would definitely suggest looking at cashback websites. I was with AA last year and switched to RAC this year for just the basic pacakages. After cashback, it only costs £7 (AA) or £8 (RAC)

More expensive packages get more cashback so always worth a look!

Thanks, have previously looked into this but really wanted homestart, which is normally more expensive.

BaconandEggs

katsu wrote: »

Bacon - if she really is MrsBacon then you are automatically covered by autoaid - for free. It gives free spouse cover to policyholders so is such a total steal.

fillyflop is right that you can get roadside only for a good price via cashback sites, but if you want the more involved packages (I do because I do a 40-50mile daily commute, plus we do travel to see friends & family up to X hundred miles from home and so I would not want to just be helped at the roadside or towed to a local garage miles from home) then you are better served by autoaid or autonational.

Think about what you need - but if you are married then cancel the RAC now and get the details sorted from MrsBacon.

Thanks Katsu.
I can tell you're quite passionate about the cover from autoaid.

I'm going to write an update in a bit about what I'm doing re breakdown cover.

BaconandEggs

cha97michelle wrote: »

Sounds like you have been helped lots already, so i will say welcome and good luck. Your mortgage payments are what mine were when we first bought our house, and we chose to reduce the payments so i could stay at home with the kids and live on one salary.

This is certainly a game to make MF work to your advantage.

My only tip is definitely don't consider the water meter if you want kids. My DS2 is currently potty training and using 6 or 7 outfits some day. A whole heap of washing. And we are on a meter. It leaves me a bit scared to do much else.

Thank you. That is great. We would also love to be in a position where we don't HAVE to put any children we have into childcare, and have one person at home looking after them. Something to aim for.

I agree about the meter. We don't waste water but know that it is a good selling point on a family house to not have a meter and that it will work out cheaper once we have kids.

BaconandEggs

kingster2069 wrote: »

Good luck with your journey!

I just got our building and content insurance. First time I've combined the two which cost £132, plus I got £30.00 cashback using topcashback site. This works out to £8.50 a month, less than half of yours, so many a little money to be saved:beer:

Great idea.

I'm going to get a quote for B+C combined.

Will be writing an update shortly on my findings from this morning.