A stay at home mummy who wants to be a mfw - Yes I can and Yes I will!

I_want_a_baby

Thanks all (again )

Have to keep our fingers crossed very tightly as got an agreement in principle and they are doing their valuation tomorrow.

Re: Life insurance. We took out a policy with 100k cover a few months ago as we agreed that should anything happen we would need some rent coverage and money to 'sort everything out'. This would now obviously cover the mortgage with not a lot to spare so once we are in the new house we will up the cover on this.

Further Updates:
Superpoints - Went through email account & 'collected' all my 1 point emails from the last few weeks. Also did my daily clicks. SP balance below.
Completed an Opinium Research Survey.
Did a tiny bit of swagbucking!
Food from meal plan - making miniscule dents in my well stocked food cupboard!
Car taken to different more trustworthy garage for second opinion. They said the same as first garage. 'All in' quote £930! should be fixed next wednesday. Will spend this weekend sorting the finances out.
Husband has sold a car roll bar for £300! will definitely help with car bill!
Also sold some baby clothes which we will deliver when we get the car back for £25 & sold a chair & stool for £20.
Lots of sorting & de-cluttering taking place, photos sorted, magazines culled & paperwork gone through with two huge bags to be burnt!

Balances -
723SP
3104SB
£7.50 Opinuim Research (Need £25)

Further work on household finances/decluttering to be done this weekend as we will have no car so no other choice lol!

Hope everyone else is well.
Will try and reply to you better one evening when the kids are not up!

Stacey x

tootallulah

Many congratulations and good luck with your house purchase. I really enjoy your diary and am looking forward to you being mortgage free!

CathT

How did the valuation go?

I_want_a_baby

Thanks tootallulah!

CathT - Valuation was on Friday. Got a call from Halifax yesterday to say that the valuer cannot give a value on the property yet as the during his survey he discovered that the house has cavity wall insulation (as it was steel framed this is very :eek:!)

They asked us to pay for a structural steel survey to see whether the insulation had caused any damp and caused any problems with the steels.

Luck was on our side however as last week we decided to book a steel survey off our own back for our own piece of minds. This too was carried out yesterday and after a quick phone call they said that their report would cover the request from the mortgage co.

Hubby walked over to the new house on his lunch break on the off chance that the surveyor would be there & he was along with the vendor! Apparently the steels look fine on the front (he was just about to do the back of the house after) & he could see no problems :T.

So now we just have to be patient and wait for the report to come through (up to 8 days) & forward it onto Halifax for their decision.

I must say that Halifax have been very quick & helpful so far I would definately recommend them.

MSE to dos -
SP Daily Clicks
SB Surveys
Take bin bags of unsellable clothes to the clothes recycling company & get a few £'s.
Deliver baby clothes on saturday when we get the car back - should get £25.
Go through coupons/check dates/decide which to use.
**step away from the overpayment spreadsheet - at least until we have a mortgage :rotfl:**
Write out a meal plan - keep using up stores.
Write down the amount of points/vouchers to use up during moving period.

Think thats all for now xx

I_want_a_baby

Just a quick post as I wanted to jot some figures down:

When/If we get the mortgage we need to start saving to get our emergency account to an acceptable level.
Yes it seems a bit backwards to do this after we get the mortgage but given the high rate of rent we pay and the lower mortgage figure it really is the only option.

Emergency Savings Target £5500 - Current Balance £700ish
(this would keep the essential bills/food/fuel paid for a good few months).

SHTF emergency cash to keep in the house - £50 Target - Current £0
(in case we ever get a really broke week where we run out of money for food/essentials to save us ruining one of our online bill budgets/savings)

Moving Costs to upsize in future - I figure given the timescale (7-10 years) and amount we want to save about £50pm. I will start this when I start my new job. (Induction next week )

We have written a budget of all the money coming in/going out over the next few months and we are confident that we will have enough to up the emergency account to £1.5k which would be a good starter fund just in case anything should happen on day 1!!

We also want to allow some funds to decorate & eventually do a bit to the garden. Not a lot of money but if we are going to own our own house we want the benefits of doing so and to be honest magnolia walls are not really me! We have decided to categorise into needs & wants & set budgets per room/item. We will definately be doing it MSE style though so trying to get things as cheap as possible.

Just my thoughts for now.

Stacey x

I_want_a_baby

Time for the financial update for the month -

£124.58 TRF'd to ISA this month (£58 underbudget with food!)
£123.70 Saved Into Cash Tin (£90 from things sold rest from coming in underbudget).
£248.28 Total Saved in August 2012

£374.43 Total saved since July 2012! VERY pleased with this!

CURRENT CASH PURSE BALANCES -
£6.55 to last until payday on 31st.
£10.00 in SHTF Envelope - Target £50
£5.00 in Nursery Extras Envelope - Target £10.00
£5.00 in Giving (Charities/Sponsorship) Envelope - Target £10.00
£5.00 in Random Act of Kindness Envelope - Target £10.00

Emergency Account Balance -£726.94/£5500.00

Card/Points/Cashback Sites Balances -
£9.00 Pinecone Vouchers
£23.00 Clubcard Vouchers
£18.90 Nectar Points
£12.43 Boots Points
£7.50 Opinuim Research (Need £25)
£7.25 Valued Opinions (Need £10)
£58.89 Quidco Account Tracked (26p on next payment run!)
£4.31 Topcashback
3363SB (5250 = £25 Amazon Voucher/1887SB to go)
741SP (1200 = £5 Amazon Voucher/459SP to go)

Think thats all the updating for today!

Night all!

Stacey x

I_want_a_baby

£6.80 put in cash tin this morning.

Written a list of cash to get out for envelopes this month.

Need to:
Do a meal plan.
Check vouchers for next shop.
Take Clothes to Recycling (today?) for a few £'s
Organise delivery of baby clothes sold for £25
Ring mortgage co and see if we have a full offer yet.

Stacey x

I_want_a_baby

Did our banks & budgets yesterday & managed to transfer £20.02 into the ISA.

Took the (unsellable) clothes to the recycling company and got £9.

Delivered the baby clothes & sold them for £25!

Total added to the cash tin = £9 + £25 = £34.

Total Saved in September so far =
£ 6.80 Cash in tin yesterday.
£34.00 Cash in tin today
£20.02 Transfered to ISA.
£60.80 TOTAL

£435.25 New total saved since July 2012!
I am AMAZED with this!! It just shows how it all adds up, I never would of thought we could save this month in just over 2 months on one income!

Going to the local carnival tonight. Going to take the weeks fritter money (£10) as spends for the fair and also taking my money bag of 1p's to throw on the floats. Hoping only to spend £5. Also bought a yummy pizza on offer for £1.25 this morning which means we are not allowed to be tempted by the overpriced hot food stands!
(I collect 1p's all year specifically for carnivals & christmas light charity boxes, 2p's I collect all year for the arcade machines when we go on holiday!).

Tomorrow we need to deliver the christening invites, whilst we are in the local town we will get fuel as it is a few pennies cheaper per litre.

Going to have the inlaws over for a roast dinner tomorrow but we will be having new potatoes & freezer veg instead of the usual as if we are moving we need to reduce our food stock!

Feeling quite positive at the moment. Still not getting excited yet though - we should hear from the mortgage company on Monday to see what their mortgage offer is and how much they value the property at - really hoping that this is straight forward & causes no problems!

Need to have a think about what food to do for the christening & see if I can come in under the £100 I have saved to pay for it!

Stacey x

ETA:
Cash drawn out for following
£80 Food (£20pw - still have very full cupboards/freezer)
£20 takeaway fund - will try to not spend this!
£40 Fritter money (£10pw - for postage/parking/kids treats/coffee out etc)
£20 Hair - husband & son will need a hair cut - will put change in tin.
£160.00 total drawn out.

icklehelen

Earlier this year I managed to feed 25 people a Christening buffet for around £50 (including soft drinks) and this was during a not very MSE time! My budget was also £100 but this included alcohol, daughter's outfit and the cake (although this was a tier of our wedding cake re-iced)

I'm sure from reading your diary that you'll manage it quite easily (unless you're inviting 100s of guests!!)

Keeping my fingers crossed for you with the house and thanks for your diary - it's helping keep me motivated esp with the SB!

ickle

linz

You're doing great, once you get your mortgage I can see you putting a real dent in it pretty sharpish. Good going