2020 vision. VoucherMan's MFW diary

southerndave

Just catching up, great diary! Don't spend too much on eBay, its easy to get into it.....:eek:

black_taxi_2

just to say--I posted about having a build into wall sound system for tv,flat.on hidesight NOT a good idea,i live on the 1st floor,stone build tenement flat.mice have chewed wires,as they climb up thru stonework.

electrician says he has to rip my wall down replaster,im taking the loss,removing speakers,covering up,my vanity cost me :eek:

VoucherMan

Another £369 off the balance . MFiT-T3 update form submitted.

It's only taken them 3 months! but at last Npower have sorted out my account. I'm not going to complain though. They originally told me I was due a refund of about £30. When I phoned to ask what was delaying it they said they'd miscalculated. My refund was over £70 :j. I think maybe I'll cancel my DD now in case they change their mind again. With that bit of extra cash I managed to scrape together an extra £100 for the EF pot. Safely in the ISA now before I get the urge to spend it.

As for other bits

VoucherMan wrote: »

Thinking of going completely mad this weekend & getting a couple of lottery tickets & a scratch-card. My annual gamble.:A
Completely forgot.
Driving home today I discovered a money spider climbing up me. Now it MUST be time to get my lucky card.:cool:

• A pile of ink cartridges waiting to be sent off for recycling. They're not going to earn me any Clubcard points otherwise.Posted
• A small hole in my trousers where it's not supposed to be. Really need to get it sewn up before it gets any worse. Done
• The list of CD's still hasn't been sorted. If I haven't checked them by this time next month then they're going to a charity shop regardless of value. Gone through the rest of them £30 if I'm lucky. One of the CD's they were offering £2 for had gone down to under £1. Off to a charity shop.
• Have to start practising making mince pies too. Based on recent usage I've got about a ten year stash of mincemeat in the cupboard! Haven't done mince pies yet. Made a couple of fruit cakes though.
  Next weekend hopefully. No more dieting till the new year
• And before I forget (as if I could) the ironing. After my last three or four evening marathon I decided I was going to iron every week to keep on top of it. Never happened! So tomorrow, Waterloo Road night, I'm going to get straight. I can't do everything at once. This week... I will :A
• While I'm making a list may as well add sorting the freezer. I haven't gone through it since last December. There could be all sorts of interesting bits in it. All sorted. Just need a few bargains now to fill it up again

VoucherMan wrote: »

One of my ebay saved searches came up with something I wanted to buy.
I bagged myself an extra 20% or so saving. :j
:

An email three days later. The item had mysteriously disappeared from the storeroom so full refund, nothing spent there.

southerndave wrote: »

Don't spend too much on eBay, its easy to get into it.....:eek:

No worries on that one. If it's not on my list I don't buy it. and even then the price has to be right. I'm limited on what I can spend anyway. Without giving them all my bank details they limit the amount I can spend. About £1700 per year I think :eek:
I came close once a couple of years ago.

VoucherMan

:j :j :j :j

£400 better off than I thought.

Just having a look to see how it's going and found I seemed to be falling behind. Then I discovered my September ISA transfer I'd noted in the wrong column on the spreadsheet.

So I should still reach my target despite a few unplanned / unaccounted for outgoings. I'd forgotten to add vets bills to the spreadsheet. That, together with getting a little carried away with the shopping due to some special offers at the supermarket, means that although I'll be able to transfer my final £200 into the EF I probably won't be making any extra ops until November. Mind you some of the forthcoming bills will be moving to the credit card so that gives me another month. I might be able to squeeze a few more £££ out yet.

Hopefully then full steam ahead. With a bit of luck (A.K.A. me reigning in the spending) I might even exceed this year's target. Not forgetting the bonus that I won't need to buy any tins of cat food for 18 months or so.

And at last I persuaded myself to get the ironing done. :A Only took a couple of evenings. Now if I can just keep on top of it. Only a bit to do from this weekend. Watch this space....

VoucherMan

Long overdue for an update so here goes.
Be warned I've been playing with those spreadsheets again.

I've reached my target for the year - just, or at least I will do when my last op goes through on the 20th. This is only because I increased my monthly op to compensate for the Halifax dropping my monthly payment.:o As a small consolation I'm thinking of rounding my last op up to £500.

Next year's going to be much tougher! I've set myself a target of £7000. I don't think there's any way I'll reach it but it should hopefully make me try harder.

My initial plan - on top of my regular £220/month - extra ops of £500/month from March onwards. Except for July & October when it'll only be £300, and September when I hope for £600.
This just isn't going to happen though. I'd previously budgeted £1000 to get some plastering done which isn't accounted for here. Then there's a replacement vacuum cleaner wanted after my old hoover blew up last week. And I'd like to buy a de-humidifier to try out in the cellar.

So if I take out £1200 for 'spends' that leaves just over £5400 in the op pot. I should be able to make a few savings in the amount I've budgeted for food/insurance/petrol etc but not £1600. The only way that's going to happen if if the pay rise faeries come through again, and that rarely happens 2 years in a row.

Still, all that said things are looking quite good. Yet to be confirmed but I reckon I'm at 21.52% in the MFiT-T3. That's about £350 better than I estimated when I signed up. If things continue as planned I could beat my target by £1000 or more.:j

Lots could change before then though. Not least I'm having another think about dabbling in a shares ISA. Going to have a think about it and a read up over Christmas. If I do start one that'll certainly be a setback for the mortgage, but short term pain, long term gain hopefully.

VoucherMan

Hello diary. Hadn't forgotten you. Honest!

Big change in the plan since the last update. I'd been thinking of paying the mortgage off as quick as I could with a view to moving afterwards. I been subscribed to Rightmove for probably a year now, keeping an eye on new properties coming on the market. In all that time I've not seen anything that stood out. Certainly not enough to consider moving.

With that in mind I've taken a slight change in direction. I've not given up. I've even increased my monthly standing order op from £220 to £250 . But the other £4000 of this year's target is likely to remain outstanding

Instead I'm going to focus on making the house comfortable for retirement :eek: and see if I can't make that happen a bit sooner.

I've got this idea in my head that I could invest some money and get a better return than I'd save by overpaying. Then I might have a nice lump to add to my early retirement fund. Plenty of time to think about that though.

Meanwhile I'm revisiting an old hobby. Spending money:D:eek::):A:o(delete where applicable)
I've got the vacuum cleaner & dehumidifier I mentioned last time. Spent a small fortune getting the car through the MOT. Slight compensation - both house & car insurance are cheaper this year after a bit of quote hunting. Still 2 weeks to go for the car insurance so I may get one cheaper still :money:

Elsewhere got myself a Harmony remote control. Best gadget I've bought. I wish I'd known about them years ago. A nice new 32" tv for the bedroom (to replace the 20" one I got rid of a couple of years ago because I never watched it :think: Had a spending spree at the local garden centre. Now I've got a living room full of plants including a four foot tree next to my desk.

But for the real spending I've decided to get some more of the home improvements done. This year was going to be the year of the cellar upgrade. As well as that I'm now getting the spare bedroom done. Might move into it myself then. Seems a shame to have a glow in the dark night-sky ceiling that's never looked at.
Got a quote and got booked in. Second week in April:( Oh well, I guess that's a sign of a good plasterer.
Once that's done, carpeted & decorated I might think about getting another room done. Big plans growing for the bathroom!...

Well that could be it for this year's update(s). Lots of spending, little saving. I've even got the emergency fund to top up again as I raided it last month. Also got a new AMEX card to maximise my cashback as Capital One won't give me a decent credit limit. Trouble is I need to spend £3000 to get any cashback and a lot of places don't take it :mad:.

VoucherMan

Time for a quick, unscheduled update. Something to look back on when I'm trying to work out where it all went wrong.:p

This year's money-spending is going exceedingly well, almost too well. I temporarily panicked when I realised I'd lost track of the direct debit for the new fireplace I've just bought. Fortunately when I phoned up the bank they assured me they first payment will not be until after pay-day. Otherwise I'd have had to cancel one of my monthly ops.:eek:

Not sure where all the money's gone though. A few improvements to the house: a couple of rooms plastered & decorated, a cat prison (AKA a new back fence so I can let them out at night without fear of them escaping), a few useful tools, and my favourite, theatre tickets for my parents.
Since they changed their mind about going once they found out the tickets cost more than 2 shillings and 6 pence, I bought them tickets as an early Christmas present. If the opportunity arises in the future I'll certainly do it again. Beats paying off the mortgage any day. :A

To summarise the current state of progress.

MFW 2013 : Failed
MFIT T3 : Failed (although if I knuckle down next year I could come close)
2020 vision: I think I'll struggle to fail. :think:
optimistic 2018 target: Still very achievable.

VoucherMan

:dance::dance::dance:

Below £40,000.

I small milestone, which I should have reach a lot sooner , but it still feels good. Next year I want it down to £30,000.:cool:

VoucherMan

All is still quiet in VM's world, so not much to report, except that by next month I should be on target (2020 finish).

I've cleared out the current account for this month's op, which brings me 2 months closer to my target. Next month one of my ISA's matures, and since there's no decent rates on offer I've decided to use it for an extra op.:)

Then I'll be in sight of my MFIT-T3 target as well. It's a bit of a cheat though, as this was unplanned, so I'm going to set myself a new, unofficial target of £23000 for my end of year balance. Watch this space...

Still going to fall short on the MFW, as I'm not going to count my ISA op. I'm enjoying spending money a little too much now:o, but the focus is still here. I still want to pay it off by 2018.

VoucherMan

Time for a (last?) visit to the thread. Though I abandoned it as it didn't help much, instead preferring the MFW & MFIT challenges, I sill like things to be tidy, and free of loose ends. To that end, I can happily say that as of today I'm as good as mortgage free   .

My monthly check of the mortgage showed a balance of just under £150, so I decided to ask for a redemption figure, and now it's done.

It had become less of a priority in the last couple of years, when it occurred that I'd have a lot of money with nowhere useful to put it, so I decided to focus on funding the pension. All had been going well until March, when furlough kicked in, and I was convinced I wouldn't be returning to my old workplace. I'd gone as far as consulting my Financial advisor, even moving the pension into drawdown focused funds. I'd decided that if redundancy came, I'd consider it early retirement, so re-booted the overpayments. Despite being called back to work in September, the psychological urge to clear the mortgage remained, so now it's done.

The MFWs really helped me focus in the earlier years, especially having one to play with myself one year. I see my small alteration to the spreadsheet is still being used too. Hopefully that's helping a few others on their journeys.
I still recognise a few names on the current MFW, chipping away at it. Hopefully most of the others have already made it to mortgage freedom. You were the main inspiration to me. I never said much myself, but it was good to read the comments of others.

Now I can focus on putting all those spare funds into my 'early retirement fund', and if all goes as I hope, that may arrive much sooner than I thought (before furlough that is).