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

I_want_a_baby

Evening All!

I have decided that I need to revisit my 13 goals in 2013 as a lot has changed since November! At the moment I feel they are slightly unachievable therefore I 'won't bother', so it is much better that I amend them to something that is a target!

Here are the slightly amended goals:

#1 - DateNights
Valentines(Feb) & Anniversary (Aug) date nights out paid out of their own budgets. Date nights May & November would make them 3-monthly.
Goal - To have 4 'date nights out' this year.

#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 getting a dog fund (aim to get a dog in 2015)
Goal -Achieve a balance of £50 by saving £2's.

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

#8 -January goal to focus mind in 2013
Goal -Spend only £13pw on food (£13 x 5 = £65), use vouchers/loyalty cards to stick to 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
Goal - To use only house DIY savings to fund the garden patio/path work & DO NOT dip into the mortgage OP fund.

#13 - Goal - Keep updating MSE!

Other goals I have are:

• Pay the Mortgage OP's saved so far into the actual mortgage account once the online banking facility becomes available.
• Save all the pennies & pounds up until reach £50 and then OP to the mortgage account after the above.
  
• Try to increase the mortgage payment DD from £618 to £650 an increase of £32pm. As long as it doesn't significantly impact on day to day living.

So lots to stay focused on. I do need to draw the cash budgets out of the bank in the next couple of days and have it ready for the coming month which will also help keep me focused.


Stacey x

I_want_a_baby

Feeling a little bit unfocused as well because we cannot see the mortgage balance, it feels a little like we are saving 'for nothing' as you cannot immediately see the result of your hard work.
Roll on March when we should have the online banking facility!
Stacey x

I_want_a_baby

Just a quick update this morning.

I have sorted the cash out for the purses.

Currently have £14.78 in purse for food this week (£10 x 3 put aside for rest of month to stay within budget of £44.78).

Dug all the vouchers I have out, I have £18 luncheon vouchers, a £10 M&S gift voucher and a few tesco money off coupons - aiming to use these first and come in below the January frugal budget of £65 for food!

This could leave me £100 of my normal food budget to OP :-)

Have £10 in fritter envelope (£10 x 3 put aside for each of next three weeks as above). Aiming so save the majority of this budget to increase bucket list fund!

When I was sorting out the cash I put £1 into the OP tin and 70p into the date fund too so all in all a good day so far!

Stacey x

I_want_a_baby

Decided to have a quick bill account tidy up and was suprised to be able to OP:

36.12 Quidco
0.76 Save the Change
12.98 Council Tax budget leftover
4.88 Interest Received
0.64 Water Bill Leftover
3.56 Days Out Account Rounded down to nearest £5
58.94 TRF'd into OP Account

Also this months mortgage payment has been taken along with the standard OP of £104.72.

Therefore new mortgage OP figure is £2450.94.
Actually OP'd to account - £209.44

Very happy with the progress especially considering the £58.94 above I am not actually going to 'miss' as such!

Off to update my signature...

Stacey x

linz

Blimey, I bet your hubby will be over the moon when he sees how much of a difference your OP'ing is making - is he fully aware or are you going to surprise him ?

I_want_a_baby

Hi Linz,

Sorry only just replied, I would say hubby is 'mostly aware'.

For example he thinks it is a great idea that we have saved the £2kish to OP on the mortgage however as it hasn't officially been OP'd he keeps finding reasons why we might need to spend it so far I have managed to change his mind and I did speak to him about actually OP'ing it properly soon to which he agreed.

But I don't tell him about all the monthly saving I do as I know he would prefer to just spend this money. He was always on board as long as it didn't impact on the quality of life we are trying to achieve. So I try to make sure I stick to our agreement, have the odd takeaway, day out, drinks and nice food and yet still put as much as I can away

So had another good day today, DS has gone to nursery for whole day (9-3) for first time. Walked him to nursery and then walked into town therefore no car costs/parking costs.

I went into town to do a little food shop getting milk, bread, cereal, veg, pasta, passata etc only treat/not on list item was two cinnamon buns for £1.
Sainsburys bill was £9.29 paid with £9 luncheon vouchers and 29p cash.
Greengrocers vegetables bill was £3.32
Morrisons bill was £3.96 paid with £3 luncheon vouchers and 96p.
Therefore total cash spends today were : £4.57 for £16.57 worth of groceries.

So £24.79/£65.00 budget = £40.21 food budget to last rest of month. :T

Lots to try and get done this afternoon, will do the bulk of it when DD has a nap **must remember to pick up DS at 3pm!**

Also had another NSD yesterday too no 5?

Anyway better go and entertain the little one!

Stacey x

I_want_a_baby

Eek!!

I have been having a little play about with the budget and I 'think' we can afford to up the mortgage payment from £618 to £650 per month - £32pm increase. Also up our personal spends each by £10pm.

I am not confident enough to phone the mortgage company just yet, I will wait 2 paydays so I can check that we don't need the extra money else where and then maybe phone them after that to increase it. In the mean time for the next budget I will trf the extra £32 into the OP account once the month has ended.

Yey

Stacey

I_want_a_baby

Well it seems that I was very wise to not get too excited about increasing the mortgage DD.

Realised the water company had not been in contact about the house move so contacted them and despite me being sure our bill would go down I got told:
Credit on account for previous address £70ish - to be calculated and confirmed in writing and refunded by DD.
Bill to 31st March 2013 for this address £250ish to be collected in full by DD in Feb.
New monthly DD will rise from £36pm at old house to £53pm here. Not metered and estimated metered bill would be £75pm so no other options than to suck it up and pay £17 per month more than last house.

Contacted old energy supplier as we hadn't received final bill for old house and was told that their estimated final bill left us £76 in credit but the final meter readings I gave them were less than the estimated ones so the credit will be more than that. Again this will calculated and confirmed in writing and cheque sent for refund.

Contacted current energy supplier at this house, submitted up to date meter readings and increased DD from their estimated £26pm (I wish!), to our average £100pm.

Then did an energy comparison online and switched our standard B Gas tariff to a Scotish power fixed until Sept 2014 tariff which should save us £100pa compared to current usage, protect us against price rises and earn us £42.12 in cashback from TCB!

Phew!

So all in all a good productive day although still a lot of loose ends to tie up!

Have slightly over estimated the energy usage too and know a daily/monthly usage figure that the cost is based on so I can challenge myself to use less and reduce the bill.

Anyway must go as DD has woken from her nap!

Stacey x

B-J-D

all i can say is wow!!!!

iv just spent my daughters nap time reading your diary (well from page 6) and i cant believe how little money you spend/how much you save!! how do you manage to spend so little on food? i went to ***** for my weekly shop yesterday and it was £100!!
i love all the little pots you have, putting random small amounts in and seein it adding up! i do do a date pot for me and hubby to go out on our wedding anniversary then at xmas by saving our 50ps, it is suprising how it adds up! might have to dig out a couple of the kids money boxes to use....

i hope you get the water and electric sorted out soon.

happy home making and good luck with all your plans for 2013 xxx

linz

Hi Stacey.

It might be worth you looking online to see if your water company offer any freebies to conserve water. I've had the little plastic things to put on shower heads and some hippo bag things to put in the toilet cistern from mine.