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

LauraJo

Hi there
Just having a sneaky look through your diary! On the subject of charity shops I have some good advice... We live close to a posh town so I go to the charity shop there! Have got some lovely things for only a couple of quid... It's from shops I wouldn't be able to afford to shop in even if I wasn't on a mf mission!!

sahararose

only just found your diary, and it's very inspiring :-).

For your trousers it's worth looking in Sainsburys. I work there, and every now and again they have a 25% off sale. Most customers who buy clothes there say that the quality is excellent so you wouldn't be sacrificing quality for price.

xx

I_want_a_baby

Hi Laurajo - There is a posh town not too far from us (about 25 mins drive), a bit too far to go for a browse but will pop in for a look if I am passing. Would be great if I could continue to buy quality for only a few £'s.

SaharaRose - I tend to get things for the kids to wear from Sainsburys as I think it is good quality. Again the nearest sainsburys that does clothing is a 20 minute drive away (different town to above), but something to bear in mind .

Been reading the post that popped up pondering the effects of an interest rate rise. I really think we have become so used to the BoE keeping the rates the same that if they went up a lot of people would be really shocked and unprepared.

It has really made me think and consider the impact. We are currently on a 5 year fix at 3.99%. We plan to OP everything we can before this fix is up, mainly to increase equity and increase our chances of being able to buy our forever home but also to increase LTV% if we wanted to remortgage and also to ensure that our debt is as low as possible at all times.

Should interest rates rocket then we would most certainly stay put longer than the 5 years we were hoping, pay off the mortgage entirely (within 10 years if posssible) and save like mad until we were as sure as we could be that any new mortgage we took out would remain affordable come what may.

We ensured that we could afford the mortgage in this home on one salary and with a £100 buffer on one salary alone. With my income I am pretty sure we could pay off £900pm if we really had too yet our actual mortgage payment is £513 so we have breathing space.

Back to the now and not a huge amount of progress to report.

• Fuel tank just under 1/2 a tank remaining - 21 days left this month & £40 left in fuel budget - will need to keep an eye on this but should stay within budget.
• My ambitious target took a hit as the £70 rebate I thought I should be due from previous energy company turned out to be a £1.43 debit balance :mad:. Seems very convinient that I used just enough energy to use up the rebate but never mind.
• BT bill came out of account and there was £5.51 left in the column so I trf'd £1.43 to energy account and the other £4.08 to pending savings bringing the pending savings balance to £112.78 (£129.43 including the cash tin).
• Need to do a meal plan and start using up lots of food we have in.
• Tonight I am going to tackle the 'paperwork mountain' that is the computer unit, it seems to have erupted and spread accross the dresser, shoe unit, kitchen table etc and needs to be sorted!
• Off to have a look if there are any SB I can earn or surveys to do before I cook tea.

Stacey x

I_want_a_baby

Had a really productive day so far. Managed to get lots of paperwork sorted out and organised.

Phoned up the company we have booked for our caravan holiday with to add my sister as we have invited her for a few nights. I have been putting this job off for ages but to my delight it was very easy and what gobsmacked me more was that it was free! I was sure that I was going to have to pay for her to come or for her entertainment pass! :j:D

Shouldn't have a spendy day today - may send OH to the shop for milk tonight but other than that nothing needed.

Friend coming for tea tonight but lots of food in so will have something from the freezer.

Discovered I had underbudgeted by £5pm for council tax which was a bit annoying but no huge drama.

Found a hole in husbands trousers and in my new charity shop cardigan - I'll repair these when I get time. Found a few unrepairable holes in a lovely next top (I think this is from cleaning products), I will give the top to my mum to see if it is suitable for any of her crafting.

Been doing really well in making sure I turn lights/electric items off when not in use. Our average energy usage over the last month is 10 units/day which is under my target of 11 units/day.

During the great paperwork sort I discovered a bag of christmas cards from last year. I need to write down who they were from to remind me who I need to write to this year, then I will make tags with the kids. I had a read through a couple of them and discovered one which a family friend had given us, mentioning we could have a free 3 day stay in her seaside chalet! I had totally forgotten about this! So I will get hubhy to phone her and ask about it and then he can book the days off. So exciting!

Not masses more to report. This month seems to be going really slowly lol only 1/3 of the way through the month seems so long until payday. Definately the time to do all the little things and make them count!

I am also going to write a list of my wants so I can keep any eye out for them at car boots/charity shops etc.

Really didn't have anything to save so I put 50p into the tin from the food purse so I felt I had done something which brings the cash tin to £17.15 and total pending savings to £129.93

Oh god what am I coming too :rotfl: - I couldn't report that balance being so close to 130 so I went and found 15p from my personal spends purse and now the tin is at £17.30 and total pending savings is.......£130.08!

Stacey x

I_want_a_baby

Thanks to all who are reading (and lurking) xxx

Just a quick update, went to lidl and got two milks that I needed, ketchup that we had run out of and a nice pack of biscuits to share with my bestie over many brews and lots of chatting tonight :j, let DS pick a pack of biscuits for the tin too. Now have just over £1 to last until saturday but nothing needed as far as I know.

Also to keep me focused on these oh so slow months I have decided that a lovely motivational target for us would be to get the mortgage to £89,999 by the end of the year. I figure I should be able to get it to £91381 so I need to somehow find the balance!

So current balance £95828 less end of 2013 target £89999 leaves a balance to find of £5829.

Stacey x

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi Stacey, that's a great target

X x

I_want_a_baby

Hello all!

Thanks for all your thanking!!

So the most exciting news this week (Thats a sentence I can only say on here!!) - I have finally been able to register for Halifax online banking!!! I have to wait for a username to be sent to me through snail mail and then I will be able to view my mortgage online :j this also signals the start of me actually transferring my OP savings into the actual mortgage. Once the details arrive I will do a £10 test payment and then go from there!

Nothing has been coming out of our bank (which I suppose is good :rotfl:) so I have been really struggling to find pennies to OP so today I did a TT in my online personal spends account of £1.52, bringing the pending savings online to £114.30 and the total pending savings (including cash tin) to £131.60.

I still do have the £1444.59 in the ISA (the above hasn't been paid into an ISA as I am waiting to open a new one). So total savings to be paid to the mortgage is .... *drumroll* .....£1576.19!

Did some calculations with regard to meeting my target of £89,999 and the figures look like this:
£93404.00 Balance at 31/12/2013 with normal regular OP's
£1576.19 Less already saved
£91827.81 Subtotal
£1400.00 less wages of £200 x 7 months (only 7 as April's already allocated for garden project and other bills)
£90427.81 Balance

£90427.81 less £89,999 = £428.81 to find.

This 'should' be doable but that is subject to no unexpected bills and our circumstances staying the same. I have estimated my wage slightly less as they have dropped one of my nights so over 2 weeks I now do 5 nights instead of 6.

So lots to think about and work towards and very exciting times indeed! I still doubt that we will make my target of saving the £319.61 as currently I have saved £131.60 leaving £188.01 to find! Fingers crossed and all that!

Stacey x

CathT

Popped in for some inspiration as I plan to live on cash until payday!! I've heard good things about Halifax online banking which almost makes me want to go back to them for my mortgage. You will not be disappointed!

I_want_a_baby

Hi Cath :wave:

Its as if you read my mind, I have just come on here to say that I have taken the £20 food money and £10 fritter money out of the divider purse and put in in my spending purse, this needs to last 10 days, then there is another £30 which needs to last a further 9 days until payday. There is an extra £20 of 'fun money' should I need it. There is also £40 left in the fuel budget and we are at about 1/3 of a tank.

So to summarize -
Food budget to last until payday £40
Fritter money to last until payday £40
Fuel budget to last until payday £40
Total about to last until payday £120.

How much are you taking out and what is it budgeted for?

Stacey x

P.s. off to work now so you may not get a reply until around 1am

I_want_a_baby

Very quick update:

£0.29 underspend from insurance DD
£1.01 my mobile underspend
£1.30 trf'd to pending savings online

New total £115.60 + £17.30 cash tin = £132.90.

£132.90/£319.61 (£186.71 to go for this months ambitious target!)

This weekend plans:

• Tonight PJ night in front of the TV, write blog posts & chill.
• Sat - Get kids feet measured in clarkes
• Sat - Parents in law buying us a takeaway for tea
• Sun - Go to car boot sale
• Sun - Maybe visit ploughing competition in the village with kids.
• Sun - Try and remember to put things on ebay if it is indeed a FLW. Only hope of reaching this months target I think!
• Sun - Working eve.

Overall aim for a very low spend weekend.

Cash Purse Spends & Aims:
£30.80 current balance to last until Mon 22nd (9 days)
£30.00 In purse for the following week until payday (9 days)
£20.00 in purse back up money - hope to save.
(Fuel money currently in bank - budget £40).

Stacey x