Lois_E begins a long MFW journey

Peonie

It's hard isn't it. I want to pay off the mortgage, renovate the house and reach my savings target at the same time.

I agree, saving is not as much fun.

Have you decided on an emergency fund target?

Lois_E

Thanks Tilly & Radish. I've done some calculations and worked out I think I can afford to put £160 across into the savings account on Tuesday and still have enough left to see me through until my TCs arrive on the 16th, so I've set up the payment.

Next targets:
1) Get savings up to £1000.
2) Pay another £100 off FL1 to shave another month off my MFD.
3) Decide whether to open a new ISA for 2012-13 or put more money into my 2011-12 one, and start filling it.
4) Get quote for loft work and make sure I have the money for that in savings so I don't have to take anything out of the ISA for it in the autumn.

ETA Thanks Peonie too.
I'd like to have about £8k between the savings and the ISA, I think.

Lois_E

Happy Easter to all the MFWs.

Lois_E

NSD yesterday and I hope today as well.

Ominous clouds on the financial horizon, though. DD's bed really does need a new mattress (any suggestions for where to get a decent but cheap small single mattress?). I've been putting off getting her a decent one, but she now says it's too uncomfortable and she'd rather sleep in the spare room or on a decent mattress on the floor. We have other mattresses, but none the right size for her high sleeper bed. Also, the washing machine is failing. I am going to try to get it repaired but am afraid it may be past it. :eek:

ETA DD isn't being fussy. Her existing mattress really is awful. I wouldn't want to sleep on it myself - far too lumpy. She was OK on it when she was really little because she was so light, but as she's grown, she's started to feel the lumps more.

Peonie

We recently bought a mattress from Ikea and it is very comfortable. We also have a mattress protector which is good as it can be thrown in the washing machine.

Lois_E

Thanks Peonie. Will take a look at Ikea.

Washing machine repair man booked. Now need to look at what's clean and what isn't, and decide if I can last until he comes, or if I need to go next door and ask my neighbour if I can do a wash in her machine. I'm sure she'd say yes, but I won't ask unless I think I need to.

I got a bill from the builder today too, for the most recent lot of bits and pieces. It's not too bad on its own, but with the mattress and the WM repair, it's all adding up again this month.

On the bright side, the living room is now more or less finished, so I can get curtains. I got some in the Homebase sale on Saturday, but have since found some very similar ones online that are a lot cheaper, and are already the right length rather than too long and needing taking up. Oh, and they've got thermal linings, so good for the gas bill. So I'll be off to take the Homebase ones back later.

Lois_E

WM repair man has been.

The bearings have gone and it's not economically repairable.

Have to get that money back out of savings then.

pink_poppy

That's a shame about the WM, hope you manage to find a good deal on a new one.

Any luck with the mattress?? We need to get one for my DD1, I was going to look in Argos but might try Ikea now.

Lois_E

Thanks pink poppy. I'm putting the mattress question on hold while I think about the washing machine problem. At the moment a good deal is the least of my worries - I can't find a machine at all that will do what I want.

The machine I'm replacing is a washer-dryer. I mostly use it just for washing, but I do like to have the option to do an automatic wash and dry - for when I realise at bedtime that there's no clean school uniform and want to put on a load that will be ready to wear by morning. I also tumble all the shirts for just 10 min at low temperature to take the worst of the creases out. My kids are at the "getting clothes dirty" stage of life, so I often wash at 50 degrees if I don't think 40 will do the job but don't want to blast the clothes at 60. So I want...

6kg wash capacity or better
Automatic wash and dry option
Drying at low or high temperature
Drying with timer that will do 10 min (rather than minimum 30 min like some of them)
Quick wash
Timer delay
Possibility of cottons wash at 50 degrees
Decent spin (1400rpm or better)

My 8 year old Zanussi will do all of that, so I wasn't expecting it to be so hard to find. But so far I've looked at the spec for loads of machines - downloaded the pdf instructions for several of them to track down the info I want - but nothing that will do all those things.

Anybody got any suggestions?

Radish72

Would it worth ringing Zanussi to see if they do the same spec and can give you a part number, might be easier to search then