Seen the light - Our quest to be MF starts here

lulabelle1

Or, bless you, I know how you feel with the car, we just had to fork out for a service (£237) and new tyres and it still needs to have rear pads and discs which will be another £220. We did well with our tyres - they should have been £75 each and we managed to get them for £25 each from a recycling place, they were virtually brand new........

On the bright side, the odd repair bill and replacing ware and tear is probably cheaper than forking out a fortune each month for a car loan, so stay positive.

My DH is off to do the food shopping after work - I've done the meal plan and shopping list, so am hopeful that he sticks to the list and spends less than the £120 that he spent last week!!!

How is your meal planning going? I remember you said that DW had done a super meal plan, I would love to know the kind of meals she is cooking so that i can take some of her ideas as inspiration and hopefully cut down on my shopping bills even more.

Enjoy the kids at the weekend...

L

lulabelle1

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS wrote: »

Plus, although it will take a whle circa 20 weeks of taking your own lunch, the car fixing money will be paid back. I can't recall whether you have a savings account for car maintenance but it may be worth saving a set amount to cover insurance, MOT, tax, etc.

Good luck

Great idea Tilly, I've started to do this too. I'm saving £200 per month which should in theory cover all costs (apart from fuel) for both of our cars. Unfortunately for me, I only started it last month and already the bills have exceeded what I have saved, bad timing!! Over the next year it should work out really well though...

I've also started a savings account for Christmas, Birthdays and Holiday

Daryl_S_2

I don't have a specific pot for car repairs, but do keep some savings aside for things like this (see below). Its a routine service item so i've had it planned out for a while.
I normally do all the work myself so only have to pay for parts only.

I will be putting some aside in case of repairs required with the ltb, although we have done everything possible in the last 10years!

My wife Marie will be coming on here soon with he meal planning. She advises it's is £100 not £90.
We are waiting for internet to go live in the new house, that buy the way is via Orange. Marie got a new phone with £200 cashback, which allows us to get phone and internet for £17.70 per month.

Also this month I have;
Upgrade ltb electrics to new RCD consumer unit - £336
Upgrade resi house to new RCD consumer unit - £336
Timber treatment works to eradicate woodworm - £469.50

I have this covered by a little contingency pot i had. When the old fixed rate came to an end, i was still at my last job and couldn't afford to OP, but i continued to DD the same amount into the account i used to pay the mortgage. This allowed me to cover my car insurance this year too.
So total outgoing inluding VAT will be £1484.70.
As this is covered by the contingency, i should be able to make an OP, and put a little back into the emergency fund.

Daryl_S_2

lulabelle1 wrote: »

Or, bless you, I know how you feel with the car, we just had to fork out for a service (£237) and new tyres and it still needs to have rear pads and discs which will be another £220. We did well with our tyres - they should have been £75 each and we managed to get them for £25 each from a recycling place, they were virtually brand new........


L

I use my car for work and cover circa 20k miles a year, so i can't reduce spend on my tyres due to the amount of motorway speeds i do.

Just be careful with the recycled tyres, many of these have an unknown history and can come from crashed cars, write offs etc

lulabelle1

Thanks for the tip re tyres....
DH knows a bit about cars so checked them thoroughly, hopefully they are fine. The place was recommended by a friend, but I hear what you're saying....
I will ask him to check them over again to be on the safe side.
Looking forward to seeing Marie on here.
L

Daryl_S_2

lulabelle1 wrote: »

Thanks for the tip re tyres....
DH knows a bit about cars so checked them thoroughly, hopefully they are fine. The place was recommended by a friend, but I hear what you're saying....
I will ask him to check them over again to be on the safe side.
Looking forward to seeing Marie on here.
L

Didn't mean to worry you or anything, I thought about some once and someone asked me where i thought part used tyres came from, made me think.
Anyway, another cup a soup and homemade sandwich lunch, then off out on site inspections.

lulabelle1

we've been told that they come from police cars and ex rental cars mainly.
Apparently if a police car gets a puncture they have to be replaced rather than repaired. Also, when rental cars are sold on, types are replaced even if they are virtually brand new.
Still will get DH to check them over again.....

WMF_MARIE

Hi All
I am Daryls OH. Its great to see other people wanting to get the best out of their lives and make the most of their future. Have to say I ahve always been a bargain hunter and If I can get it cheaper somewhere else or preferably for free then I am a happy bunny!
I am a stay at home mum at the moment waiting for my two little men to reach school age before I go back to work.
So here are some of my plans so far. I previously worked as an administrator and data analysist for an aircraft parts company. But I have always wanted to be a teacher (was just waiting to develop the patience lol) So I Found a fab deals through phones for you on the orange panther contract £26 a month 3000 text 200 min 750mb internet plus £200 cash back. I am using the cash back to pay for my Biology GCSE course to make me elligible for teacher training. When I come to do my training I plan to do a GTP graduate teaching placement as this means I will be earning while I learn rather than a university course I will have to pay for.

Being a home mum I have the time to cook meals in advance.
General rule of thumb is keep it simple.
I make most sauces from scratch as these can be made in bulk, frozen and used when needed. Also it is generally cheaper and tastier.
I buy Pasta Rice, porridge, potatoes in bulk. Morrisons do a great deal on muddy pots in a huge sack for no more than £3 last time i looked and last all month.

I either get meat from butchers at the end of the day on a saturday or look for the 3 for 10 at Sainsburys or Tesco
Iam hoping that the budget for next month goes to plan and will be keeping my eye out for everyone elses tips. look forward to seeing how everone gets on.
xm

Daryl_S_2

Car newly MOT'd this weekend, but it didn't come cheap
Still, onwards and upwards - over payment time this Friday!:)

lulabelle1

Welcome Marie - nice to see you on here....

Myself and a few others were amazed at the £90 per month target for food spend, so I know that I for one will be looking out for any tips you can give for recipes etc.

There were some huge ham joints for half price at Mr T last week so we bought one and managed to get 4 different meals from it which we were super pleased with. Even though, we still managed to spend £100 for the week on food, cleaning stuff, loo rolls, etc etc.

I'm sure there are many ways we can save some money!