pippa80 is a mfw!

summerday

Hi Pippa,

Good luck with your MFW journey. OH and I are kind of similar to your OH, we do want to OP but we also want to have great experiences and make the most of life in the meantime so we've had quite a lot of holidays over the last few years, inc 2 long-haul exotic ones and numerous city breaks etc in Europe. We also have meals out etc. BUT we are always determined to get the very best value on everything, people are often amazed when I tell them how little our trips away cost as I scour the web for ages to get best hotel deals etc, always use 2 for 1 vouchers for meals out.

Having said that, we have managed to save up tens of thousands over the past 6 years, if we hadn't moved 3 years ago we would have paid off our 1st mortgage in full by now but it was worth moving for the better quality of life we have here in our 'new' house. We still save what we are comfortable with in ISAs and pay a lump sum every 2-3 years when we remortgage to reduce the balance. This also means we are able to access the best remortgage rates.

Hope you'll be able to trim the entertainment budget, there should be some scope there.
Best wishes,
Summerday.

uzubairu

summerday wrote: »

Hi Pippa,

Good luck with your MFW journey. OH and I are kind of similar to your OH, we do want to OP but we also want to have great experiences and make the most of life in the meantime so we've had quite a lot of holidays over the last few years, inc 2 long-haul exotic ones and numerous city breaks etc in Europe. We also have meals out etc. BUT we are always determined to get the very best value on everything, people are often amazed when I tell them how little our trips away cost as I scour the web for ages to get best hotel deals etc, always use 2 for 1 vouchers for meals out.

As summerday says, you can have many memorable moments, holidays etc and still do it cheaply whilst saving to be mortgage free.

In the last 3 years (since stepping up the desire to be mortgage free) we've been abroad on holiday 9 times, and we haven't paid brochure/online prices at all.
We eat out regularly (with vouchers where possible).
We set aside a monthly budget for holidays and entertainment (which guarantees us 2 holidays per year) .

It did take a while for my OH to get with the program, but it does help now that he is fully onboard.

You'll get lots of helpful advice on this board on ways to make the journey to mortgage freedom an enjoyable one.
Good luck in your quest.

pippa80

Aaargh! Our boiler stopped working last night

Hopefully it won't be too expensive to fix (it is old and we're saving for a new one).

What are people's thoughts on paying for expensive repairs/replacement with a 0% credit card vs taking the money out of our overpayment fund? Is that a crazy idea?

pippa80

Well, the repair cost £270. Could have been much worse but still not very MSE this month!

Will seriously consider whether we should get a new boiler on 0%cc rather than saving through the overpayment fund. It's all well and good to be saving/earning interest on the saving for it, but if we need to shell out for repairs over the next couple of years that will wipe out any saving!

Sepa74

If your existing boiler is on its last legs, it might make sense to get a new one sooner rather than later, especially if you can get it on a 0% CC.

Don't forget, a new boiler will also be much more energy efficient so reduce your energy bills as well. I LOVE my combi boiler hot water on demand at mains pressure, AND it takes up a fraction of the space of the old boiler.

pippa80

Well this has been a very non-MSE couple of weeks, with a lovely holiday in the Cotswalds plus a fancy shmancy anniversary dinner! Have also got some quite expensive things this month, catching up with friends for dinner, theatre etc

However, I have downshifted our shampoo, conditioner and soap to Waitrose own brand (I know, I'm so middle class, it can make you weep!). Also plan to make lots of cheap at home dinners (we're veges and with the weekly veg box I often make lots of truly cheap stew type dinners) and packed lunches this month.

Mortgage balance this month almost exactly £149,000, not including this month's overpayment and overpayment fund savings (£590). We're due to save approx £36 in interest this month compared to if we hadn't made any overpayments!

Have applied for the 0% credit card, if they're willing to lend me enough to get the boiler replaced we'll seriously look into it.

GeorgieFTB

OK, I normally do this on DFW so as this is a slightly different so don't take anything too harshly I just normally having to facepalm a little when income and outgoing really don't match up

pippa80 wrote: »

Hi there MSErs,

I'm going to try and do a MFW diary. We have been overpaying our mortgage since we got it in October last year. It's with the Co-op, which has a great overpayment fund thing that we are using for our savings, in addition to our regular overpayment. Overall, we're doing well but I think we could do better!

Our 'regular' overpayment is £190/month.

Here is our SOA:

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1700
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1800
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3500

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 903
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 8.33
Council tax............................. 95
Electricity............................. 30.5 - the normal iis this cheapest/ have you looked on com[ariision sites and used cashback sites etc
Gas..................................... 30.5 -err ditto
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 19
Telephone (land line)................... 18 - £30 for phone and internet, I'm sure you can get cheaper deals...
Mobile phone............................ 45 - drop a tarrif if you don't use some of the free minutes...
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 12.5 - see telephone
Groceries etc. ......................... 200 - includes organic box and ocado, don't really want to be less 'ethical' with this - thought about growing your own? Still ethical but might save you a few bucks, maybe worth trying some of the heritage types
Clothing................................ 40 - not bad could save by planning your wardrobe better but its not that much...
Petrol/diesel........................... 50
Road tax................................ 2.5
Car Insurance........................... 48.25 - save each month and paid anually
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50 - as above
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 242 - what is this could you get it cheaper?
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 6
Buildings insurance..................... 6.13
Contents insurance...................... 6.6
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 5 - only the 2 of us, so don't need to buy for family overseas
Haircuts................................ 15
Entertainment........................... 900 - I know this is ridiculous, it is the amount we don't transfer into our joint account for bills, overpayments etc - yep, if I was you I would move £500 into an instant access account then move back whatever you need during the month!
Holiday................................. 350 - saving to go overseas to my brother's wedding next year - cool have a good time!
Emergency fund.......................... 100
(Unnamed monthly expense)............... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 3195.31


Assets
Cash.................................... 6800
House value (Gross)..................... 190000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 199800


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 145000...(903)......4.69
Total secured & HP debts...... 145000....-.........-

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


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,500
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,195.31
Available for debt repayments........... 304.69
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 304.69

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 199,800
Total HP & Secured debt................. -145,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 54,800

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

That was fun...I think you could really up your payments if you wanted to, the entertainment fund is massive, but you said it was just what got used... a spending diary will probably help you to break down the £900 into what your spending it on.

If I was you I would figure out what you could pay into your mortgage then actually pay 80% into the mortgage every month and 20% into a treat fund, whatever doesn't get used for treats can go into the mortgage at the end of the year. Then you won't be depriving yourselves! You can always mess about with the percentages

Gx

pippa80

Thanks Georgie - yep there is definitely scope to increase our savings/overpayments. Over our holiday we talked quite a bit about it and think that one of the keys is actually spending more good time at home, watching films, cooking, gardening etc. That's all a lot cheaper than eating out etc!

Elec and gas - yep we've done all the comparisons. This will go down once Ovo recognise that we're using less (we were with them at our old flat but this was the minimum we could set our DD to at our new address).

Need BT line for phoning folks back home via override number. Recently switched to cheaper broadband.

Would loooove to grow our own! Unfortunately we have a London sized back garden

We actually spend less than that on clothes, but both have fairly good jobs (I got promoted at the start of this year and OH has a new job) and are trying to build up our work wardrobes a bit!

Other travel = London travelcards, no saving to be made.

We have investigated that entertainment/stuff left over money a bit and have some radical plans from next month (budget is blown this month due to holiday!). I'm hoping to set 'budgets' for various things, OH's sport travel, clothes, genuine entertainment etc, and try to stay to those. Let's see

getmore4less

I think you need extra goals

Saving for thngs so you don't need to go CC for things like the boiler.

The obvious one is a loss of income fund.

Your current savings won't last long if you drop a wage.

New car, white goods etc all need replacing over time.

The Key is getting the SOA into enough detail so you know where it all is going and can make your choices.

What about early retirement as part of the life ballance.

getmore4less

Need BT line for phoning folks back home via override number. Recently switched to cheaper broadband.


Check VOIP free to other computer and can be video, or the likes of Skypeout rates against override costs.