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

I_want_a_baby

Focusing on the small things:

• Made spicy parsnip soup last night to use up the bag of parsnips and sad looking onion left in the fridge. Will have this for lunch tomorrow (weather looking awful) and another batch in freezer for another day.
• Made broccoli & cauliflower cheese to go with butchers sausages and wedges for tea last night. Was a lovely filling tea and used the veg up before it went bad.
• Having a portion of chilli with half a bag of will soon go stale wraps to make enchiladas to serve with salad for tea tonight.
• NSD#1 today (probably had more but first one I have counted).
• Feeling good at using up the food that was bought with good intentions yet would have probably ended up in the bin.
• Swept the path in the back garden - something which makes me feel really homely and good lol.
• Swiped £21 leftover in the fuel account into the mortgage OP account. Overall total is £547.23 now.
• Have some food items to get but will do this tomorrow so I can keep today as a NSD.
• Need to do lots of cleaning and tidying tonight (and avoid the TV). I want to feel good about my lovely new home and give it some love and watching tv doesn't give me the same satisfaction as seeing a lovely clean welcoming home.

All in all a good but grey day here!

Stacey x

I_want_a_baby

What awful weather! Staying in and sorting the house and washing pile today, we are bringing the last of the stuff over from the old house tonight so need to get current stuff under control.

Money update -

£25.42 spend on food shopping yesterday. Sent husband as I had had a hard day with the kids and couldn't face going out. Husband bought some treats (adding about £8 to the bill) as he wanted to cheer me up. He did put a few £'s in the purse to compensate. Food money left is £4.43 - to last until new budget on sat.

£10 fritter money is untouched.

Sold a car seat base for £25 to a friend. £8 (4 x £2 coins) put into the newly created dog fund and £17 put into the mortgage sealed tin.

New mortgage OP savings (bank+tin) = £564.23 :T
Nothing actually OP'd officially yet though.
Does anyone know how Halifax works? I don't want to OP until I know how I can view the account to ensure the OP is going in sucessfully also I would like to know the new mortgage balance every couple of months. I have tried to register for online banking but it wouldn't account the account number.

I have decided on my 2013 goals and will post them in a minute.

Hope everyone reading is staying dry and warm today - happy OP'ing!

Stacey x

I_want_a_baby

#1 - DateNights
Valentines(Feb) & Anniversary (Aug) date nights out paid out of their own budgets.
Datenight May & November would make them 3-monthly - this will be paid out ofthe sealed tin
Goal -Save enough 20p's, 10p's & 5p's in tin to achieve May & Nov date nightsin addition to budgeted ones.

#2 -Bucket List
Goal -Complete 20 of the 200 items on the family memories bucket list.

#3 -MFiT-T3
Goal -Achieve the £1850 target OP by 12.12.13 – could I do £2013 in 2013?

#4 -Emergency Fund
Goal -Achieve a balance of £5000

#5 -House Account (Emergency fund for house repairs/maintenance)
Goal -Achieve a balance of £250

#6 – The gettinga dog fund (aim to get a dog in 2015)
Goal -Achieve a balance of £50 by saving £2's & £50 from other sources.

#7 -Fritter Fund
Aim - Usefritter fund for weekly family fun spends - enjoy the now!
Goal -Save leftover fritter funds into sealed tin to use for bucket list goals aimfor £200.

#8 -January goal to focus mind in 2013
Goal -Spend only £13pw on food (£13 x 5 = £65), use vouchers/loyalty cards to stickto it & use up Christmas food stores!

#9 -Clothing purchases
Goal -Spend only birthday or Christmas money on clothes/shoes

#10 -Toiletries/Make Up/Hair Products
Goal -Spend only £13 in 2013 on the above - use what I have!

#11 -Cleaning Products
Goal -Spend only £13 in 2013 on the above - use what I have!

#12 -Garden Re-design
Currentbudget is £1000 to create new patio, new paved path, vegetable bed, flower bedscomplete with flowers, trellis up the shed and fence, bird bath, decked area,re-turf and two lean toos. Garden is only 5m x 8m but we know what we want todo already. However I would like to embrace recycling as there are some patioslabs already as well as some pea shingle gravel which we may be able toincorporate to save cost. Doing the garden is a necessity as we really want toget back into growing our own and currently the rear garden is mud and weedsand is completely unusable for the children to play in.
Goal -Come in under budget for garden redesign

#13 - Update MSE diary monthly with current spends/target spends so cankeep track of progress.
Stacey x

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

Some great focused points there... some fun some just for the satisfaction of doing it!

I_want_a_baby

PPI cheque has now cleared so I can announce the following...

£625.00 Added to Mortgage OP Account
£500.00 Added to Emergency Account

Also
£0.14 Interest Received into Mortgage OP Account.
£1.50 Refund received TRF'd into Mortage OP Account
£20.00 Added To mortgage op sealed tin from sale of a table.

So new Totals are -
Mortgage OP Account + Sealed Tin = £1210.87 :j:D
Emergency Fund = £4380.62 :T

Very happy with todays additions - certainly a one off occurrance though!

Cousin coming round tonight to help husband move final bits out of the house. We need to be out by the 30th.
Going to treat him (and us) to a chippy tea to say thanks (budgeted).
***May*** have some good news with regard to old house but not sure yet so please all keep your fingers and toes crossed and I will update you further when I know more

Off to update my signature :beer:
Stacey x

I_want_a_baby

Very quick update as a lot to get done today but...

**THANK YOU** to all those who kept their fingers and toes crossed for us because...

...there are new tennants lined up for the old house who want to move in the day after we give the keys back on 30th Nov.

This means we will save £1200 on two months rental notice!!!!!

I am now off to work out how much will go into each pot etc. :j

Stacey x

I_want_a_baby

Update for this week:

£2 added to sealed mortgage OP tin - leftover food budget.
£43 added to sealed mortgage OP tin - sale of furniture.
Mortgage OP acc + sealed tin = £1255.87

£10 added to family bucket list fund leftover fritter money.
Balance £10

£2 coin added to dog fund
Balance £10

Just off to trf the saved rent money will report back shortly.

Stacey x

I_want_a_baby

1222.95 - 1200 rent now not due + 22.95 last month mortgage budget less mortgage payment.

How it has been divided:
£900.00 mortgage op account :j:):j
£119.38 Emergency Account
£153.57 budget for the items I want from next (bedding, mirror for loo, clock for my bedside etc)
£50.00 Techie spends that my hubby wants.
£1222.95

NEW BALANCES:
£2155.87 Mortgage OP Account
£4750.00 Emergency Account

Very pleased to be getting a few things that I really *want* and still being sensible with the majority of the money.

Happy days

Also put the money into the cash purses for the last week of November:
£40 food
£10 fritter

Night all!

Stacey x

TwinnyD

Great news about saving the rent money :T

I_want_a_baby

Afternoon All.

Had a good day today - went into the local Halifax branch and enquired about how to OP our mortgage.

The couldn't help me as the mortgage was taken out online/over phone so when I got home I phoned them up and raised our monthly DD from £513.28 to £618.00.

Amount of £618 was calculated as this was the amount of rent £600 paid comfortably at the old house plus £18 which was the previous council tax amount less the current council tax amount. Therefore we feel as comfortable financially as we were in our last house doing this.

According to my spreadsheet if we keep this payment until the end of the mortgage (with no other OPs) we will reduce the term from 25 years to 18 years & 8 months (6 years and 4 months off the term!) and it will save us £15889 in interest over the whole term of the mortgage! :D:D

The lady I spoke to also gave me the sort code and account number so that I can make ad hoc payments.

Apparently the system doesn't support online banking for mortgages at the moment but this will change from Mar2013. So I will need to phone and request a statement when I would like to know the balance after making an OP.

Also returned a pair of trainers I had for 3 weeks and both shoes had developed holes so got a £19.99 refund. I really thought I would have to put up a fight and had printed out the MSE consumer goods guide but they were fine thankfully and didn't quibble at all.

So a very good day today!

Stacey x