Sweetdaisy's aim to be mortgage-free

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi SweetDaisy, I am so sorry to hear about the health problems, what a few days you have had. You must feel completed exhausted. Sending a big :grouphug::grouphug.

I truly hope you find sme time to put your feet up and read something on your Kindle. Pride and Prejudice is one of my favourites.

My very best wishes for 2012.

Tilly x

CathT

Hi, hope your DS is much better now, a lot of babies seem to be coming down with bronchiolitis lately.

sweetdaisy

Thanks Tilly and Cath, the Boys are getting better. There were lots of babies/young children admitted to the Children's Ward when I was there on both occassions, apparently it is quite common for young ones to get it at this time of year.

I decided last night that I am going to keep a Spending Diary for 2012, however have not yet decided if I am going to include money spent on fuel for the cars, as it is a necessity and can't see how this expense could ever be reduced.

I already know the cost of all monthly bills so am going to keep a Spending Diary for money spent on treats, going out for a meal, clothes etc. Either way I am sure it is going to be an eye opener.

sweetdaisy

Happy New Year everyone

Here are my goals for 2012:

1. Lose my post-baby weight
2. Exercise by doing a 45 min walk or 30 min crosstrainer session 4 times a week
3. Sort out my attic and de-clutter
4. Have the patio area completely slabbed
5. Carry on with my monthly mortgage overpayments
6. Aim to get 3 x monthly salary in savings for emergencies
7. Continue to stick to weekly budget i.e. general spending, food shop (and keep a Spending Diary)
8. Keep on top of household cleaning/laundry everyday so that it doesn't build up
9. Do lots of activities with the children on weekends and have fun
10. Close down some surveys site accounts which are no longer profitable/take too long to reach the payment threshold and focus more on the good ones
11. I am a worrier, so I'll try and not let things worry me too much
12. Give blood

sweetdaisy

It's nice to see so many people with new MFW diaries for 2012 :wave:.

So,we are into the fourth day of the New Year and I have been for a walk everyday . . . wonder how long I can keep it up ? I've had a few odd looks as the weather is not great, but if I wait for the weather to improve, I won't do any walking!

I have started a Spending Diary and decided that I would include DH's spends on his hobby of Downhill/Mountain Biking and so far he has spent £96.96 :eek:. Ok, these are parts that he needed for his bike due to wear and tear, but I think I am going to be shocked to see the total spend at the end of the year.

Did an online food shop and was £5 under budget. I'm really pleased with this as the shop also included cleaning/household products and I saved £7.50 by making the most on offers of the food that I currently buy.

I am not going to get too obsessive about the Spending Diary, just interested to see what our 'Spending Money' is being spent on. Also, as DH is going to be made redundant this year it will be a good excercise to see if there are any areas we can cut down on.

sweetdaisy

It's only been 17 days since I made my New Years Resolutions and I have fallen off the 'healthy eating' wagon a little, but got back on it last Sunday. However I am still going for my walks to keep active and enjoying excercise again.

Weather depending, the builder is going to start slabbing the patio area at the beginning of February. It's going to cost £1,500 but will be nice when done as DS1 will be able to ride his bike/scooter out the back and he won't have anymore chippings to sneak into the house .

On the MFW side of things:-

I checked my Mortgage balance online and last year (Jan-Dec 2011) I paid a total of £2,717 in interest. So I am looking forward to reducing the interest paid this year as we are now making overpayments.

Monthly mortgage payment has been made, including an overpayment of £60. Just have to wait until 23rd January to find out how much interest has been added to the mortgage for the month.

February is an expensive month for us as both of our Car Insurances are due for renewal. DH's Car Insurance is due in a few weeks so have been looking around for a better deal and so far have found a quote which is £110 cheaper and it has the same cover . As soon as I get my renewal quote I'll be looking for a better price too.

As there are no Council Tax payments in February and March, I will put the Council Tax money towards our Car Insurance, rather than take it out of savings. I am also going to pay for them by Cashback Credit Card, so that I can build on my cashback which will be paid in January 2013!

sweetdaisy

To say that February is an expensive month is an understatement! Just renewed our Building and Contents insurance which cost £300 and this time it includes Accidental Damage for household goods. Still looking at quotes for our Car Insurances due in February, so haven't renewed them yet.

Received our Quarterly Mortgage Statement today and even though we only started making monthly overpayments of £59 in November 2011, our estimated date to pay off the mortgage has jumped from 1 month early (figure at last quarterly statement) to 1 year and 6 months early .

Didn't think that overpaying £59 a month would make such a difference. This doesn't include money in our Offset accounts as I don't want to include our savings as I know the balance can change as we will need to replace the cars in a few years and may have to dip into savings at the end of year due to DH being made redundant.

sweetdaisy

Had a busy day renewing our car insurances and saved £122 . My insurance quote from my current provider was priced at £388 and as they are a broker service the Insurers they recommended came up on a Comparison Website for £44 cheaper and the excess was reduced from £400 to £250!

I didn't go through a Cashback website (as they didn't offer cashback) but did pay for both of our insurances using my Cashback Credit Card.

I have had my Cashback CC statement today and they have added £96 of earned cashback to my account (not bad as I've only had the card for 2 months), so this money will be used towards the insurances. However, I have now exceeded the '5% cashback introductory offer' so cashback has been reduced to 0.5% until I have spent over £6,000 on the card and then it rises to 1% and so on.

So, having renewed two Car Insurances and our House Insurance this week, we have spent £990 :eek:. Glad it's all done out of the way and roll on two free months of Council Tax . . .

I have also been keeping a Spending Diary and have noticed that I am now more concious of what I am spending money on and have noticed that we are spending a lot less on 'bits and bobs' and takeways. We are of course still doing lots of activites with the children and having fun as life is for living .

macgirl

Hi Sweetdaisy

I've been enjoying reading your diary this morning - well done, you're doing great. My DD1 was hospitalised for 4 days when she was 6 months old, right before Christmas like your DS. She stopped breathing twice which was truly terrifying. Luckily she's nearly 8 now and apart from eczema, is really healthy. Hope your DS is over it now?

I'm subscribing, so will keep popping in

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Morning SD, sounds like you did well on the car insurance. Its motivating to know that spends on the one hand, can be offset with better deals/cutting cost on the other.

Tilly x