Sweetdaisy's aim to be mortgage-free

sweetdaisy

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS wrote: »

Hi SD, you are an inspiration :T
Tilly x

I just feel that my mind is in constant overdrive thinking about ways that I can be MF (think it's called being obsessive :rotfl:). The boys are still very young and with working full-time and an hour commute each way to work (give or take depending on traffic) I've got to get my bum into gear and make plans so that we will be financially secure if I change jobs with a pay reduction.

Also, there is some progress now that DH is showing more of an interest about my MFW plans - shock horror . I sort out all the finances as it's not his forte, but since he has been in his new job and I have been telling him what I have been doing about his increased income i.e. increasing the offset savings, he is asking every so often about when we expect to be MF.

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

sweetdaisy wrote: »

Also, there is some progress now that DH is showing more of an interest about my MFW plans - shock horror . I sort out all the finances as it's not his forte, but since he has been in his new job and I have been telling him what I have been doing about his increased income i.e. increasing the offset savings, he is asking every so often about when we expect to be MF.

That's great to hear

Tilly x

sweetdaisy

Had a great Mother's Day and received a lovely card and a basket of flowers from the children . This is the first year that DS1 was able to write his name properly on my card and DS2 put his little stamp on it by drawing a squiggle! Took DS1 to a birthday party this afternoon and after that I went for a lovely walk - it started to sleet and was freezing cold but it's good for clearing your mind.

Had an underspend this week of £30, so £15 added to the Underspend/Treats 'pot' and £15 placed into Savings.

Matt_The_Chippy

Just wanted to pop in and say hello on your diary. Its a great read to see the progress. You're a lot more disciplined than me when it comes to sorting the smaller amounts into their alloted pots or funds. I think I need to follow your good example!

Have a good day.

sweetdaisy

Matt_The_Chippy wrote: »

Just wanted to pop in and say hello on your diary. Its a great read to see the progress. You're a lot more disciplined than me when it comes to sorting the smaller amounts into their alloted pots or funds. I think I need to follow your good example!

Have a good day.

Hi Matt

When my Husband was made redundant in October last year it meant that we had no option but to look at our finances and see where we were spending most of our money (I kept a Spending Diary for a while, but no longer need to keep one as I hardly ever impulse buy anymore). Luckily my Husband was only out of work for just over 2.5 months and he was able to get temp work at the beginning of January, so we used some of his redundancy as a weekly wage until he started work again. This depleted some of our savings, so as soon as he started his temp job I wanted to try and put back into savings what we took out.

With DH's new job he is still on a temp contract and we have no idea how long he is going to be there (they only need to give him a weeks notice), so I have been quite disciplined in setting up various savings 'pots' within our main savings account. My reason for this is that when he is laid-off from work, I will at least know that we have the main expenses covered and enough money in our Emergency Fund etc. I am also working towards putting a little each month into the 'Birthdays/Christmas pot' so I know that come December, I will have this money set aside.

It may sound a lot, but here are my savings 'pots' so far:

Emergency Fund
Mortgage Overpayment
Christmas/Birthday
Car Repairs/Replacement
Husband's Mountain Biking/Music Expenses
Family Treats
Childcare Costs
Annual Insurances (Car and Home/Building, TV Licence etc)
Holidays

I like to be organised and by having the 'pots' I am not tempted to dip into savings unless I really have to. I may be able to make my money work harder for me (through offsetting), but the one thing that I won't compromise on is having fun with the family. This is why I have a 'Family Treats' pot so that I have money set aside for the children and their activities .

sweetdaisy

Not much to report this week - the week started off badly and continued from there! On Monday DH's car battery gave up the ghost and he had to bump start it with the children in the car, so that he could get them to school/nursery on time. That set us back by £90 .

Driving on the motorway, passing a lorry, a stone hit the windscreen and when I got to work, noticed a chip in the windscreen, so going to have to get the Auto people to come and repair/fill it. Will need to check car insurance policy as I am sure that I have windscreen cover.

Work has been busy and challenging to say the least. I am 'on-call' and was called out to work to sort out some problems. At least I get my mileage expenses paid and have accrued Toil for the extra hours I have worked.

Monthly mortgage payment paid yesterday, so automatic £57 direct overpayment made. I have added money to the offset savings account and Mortgage Overpayment 'pot' now stands at £210.

On the bright side - had our Council Tax letter for 2013/2014 and it has only gone up by £60 for the year .

gallygirl

sweetdaisy wrote: »

On the bright side - had our Council Tax letter for 2013/2014 and it has only gone up by £60 for the year .

Ours has been frozen :T:T:T:T

QB_Wolf

sweetdaisy wrote: »

Not much to report this week - the week started off badly and continued from there! On Monday DH's car battery gave up the ghost and he had to bump start it with the children in the car, so that he could get them to school/nursery on time. That set us back by £90 .

£90 for a battery:eek: It's upsetting, I had to get a new tyre last week and I'm sure if it wasn't an emergency I could have paid less.

southerndave

Daisy, watch your insurance excess and NCB with those windscreen muggers! AutoG**s and the others charged fantastically high rates plugging the 'it wont cost you a penny' line, but it pushes everyone's premiums up and can cost you more in excess than the repair.

Some years ago we had an insurance quote, but I decided to try a local windscreen repairer. He came to our house, replaced the screen rather than fix a crack and charged less than the excess was due and less than a quarter AutoG*** wanted to charge through our insurers.

Be careful!

sweetdaisy

southerndave wrote: »

Daisy, watch your insurance excess and NCB with those windscreen muggers! AutoG**s and the others charged fantastically high rates plugging the 'it wont cost you a penny' line, but it pushes everyone's premiums up and can cost you more in excess than the repair.

Some years ago we had an insurance quote, but I decided to try a local windscreen repairer. He came to our house, replaced the screen rather than fix a crack and charged less than the excess was due and less than a quarter AutoG*** wanted to charge through our insurers.

Be careful!

Thanks for the advice . I used the 'Auto' people many years ago and didn't realise that it affects excess and No Claims Bonus. I'll have a look at some local companies. I have around 3 chips in the windscreen, so may need to look at replacing it.