Matt's mission to be MF!

Matt_The_Chippy

Recycle bin now three quarters full, happy with that.

MSE dinner time now, no expensive Pizza Hut here. I put the bread maker on earlier and now waiting for a large stretched pizza to rise in the oven. Plenty of fresh topping and lashings of hot chilli's makes the pizzas tastier than spending £20+ on one.

I fully recommend a bread maker to people. If you're going to use it often then its awesome for all sorts of breads and rolls etc. If you think its a good idea, buy one and fall out of the habit of using it, then its an expensive mistake. Good ones are £100 ish. Not worth getting a cheapy as its a waste of time. Endth my money saving tip for tonight peeps.

lilyp

Agreed on the breadmaker front. We bought a £50 model for a fiver at a carboot. Its not the best but we use it a lot for making bread and pasta. Never done Pizza dough. Will sugest this to BF for tomorrows supper. :T

Matt_The_Chippy

Yummy dinner if I say so myself! She was impressed anyway. We've made allsorts in the breadmaker, hot cross buns, fruit & nut loaf, gingerbread cake.

Matt_The_Chippy

Woop Woop! Happy Matt saying hello everyone. I'm happy because I've been able to make a mid month OP to go with the regular one.

I sold some old car spares for £90, Santander cashback was £12.83, so rounded it to £15. And my lovely partner donated £300 to the cause! Very pleased with our progress but am feeling skint as I'm putting pretty much everything that's spare into this adventure. It feels like I'm walking a financial tightrope which is exciting and keeps me motivated to work hard! This isn't a good way to operate for everyone, that's for sure. I'm staying busy with work at the moment and needing to push a few jobs to the new year also. That is the traditionally quiet time for construction, so its good I've got bits ready for then. I know loads of carpenters who are struggling for work already, so I never take it for granted. I can see how some people would find it stressful being self employed.

Have a good day all.

Matt_The_Chippy

I nearly missed out on some cashback on a purchase yesterday. I thought I would plan ahead and buy a set of winter tyres for my van. I've now registered on Quidco and got 3% cashback on them. So that's £16 to come back in the future. Pleased with it.

Matt_The_Chippy

Hi guys,

I thought I had better get into this cashback business a lot more to improve my OP opportunities. I have had some success with this about a year ago but lost the habit of using Cashback sites. So I've got my tyres with cashback and now have changed the gas and electric away from British Gas to NPower. This will give £101 cashback and the direct debit is £16 a month cheaper. I guess I could OP that as well!

I'm getting more into this finding ways to save and OP. Why didn't I start this years earlier :doh:!

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

I know just how you feel but thank goodness we have seen the light :T

Matt_The_Chippy

Hi guys

All been a bit quiet around my place for money saving recently except for finding the Christmas bargains for presents.

The monthly payment has gone in now, so that's another £244 OP made. I have a couple of checks to put in this month and a bit of money from selling car parts to go with it.

Have a good MSE day everyone.

Matt_The_Chippy

Hi everybody

I feel like I've fallen off the wagen slightly! I've not been on here so much over the Christmas period and as a result of this, I've not been a MSE! I haven't been frivolous with money as I still have some of my pre Christmas pay left. If you've read some earlier posts of mine, then this is a good achievement as I lead a hand to mouth existence!

My overpayments go into an Offset savings account. Over Christmas I had £4,500 back out of this account. I've now bought another van to use solely for work. Back in March I bought a new VW T5, I spec'd it up quite well and had a conversion done for the back. Well it got to the point that its too nice a van to take to building sites. Also the new van is better on fuel, I could save £20 per week on this. I'm waiting on a good size tax rebate to replenish the offset account, also I'm taking on extra work to help recover that money. So in Feb, I think the money taken out for the van will be all covered again.

I will be around here more now to rediscover my saving and overpaying ability. I put a couple of cheques and and cash in over the hols, only £105 but it all helps.

Please help keep me motivated guys!

edinburgher

Happy new year Matt!

I think now is probably the perfect time to re-focus on why you're on this board. What are the reasons that drove you towards wanting to be MFW?

Write them down and maybe write down some sensible goals for the first 3-6 months of 2013 as to how you can get closer to those goals. Then just do them, even if they're small.

For example, my goals for 2013 won't set the world alight - they're little things, like sticking to making my (small) regular overpayments, and increasing these payments regularly.

Little and often, falling off the wagon doesn't mean you should give up :beer: