HappyCamel's MFW while SAHM journey

happycamel_2

I'm starting a diary to keep us on track while I go through my second lot of maternity leave in 18 months and then become a stay at home mum.

To summarise our current situation:
We have 2 houses
One we let out for £30 less than the mortgage cost. The mortgage is on a 10 yr fix with 8 yrs to run so we can more or less forget about it. We let privately to a friend who shows no interest in moving.

The other we live in, we have £267k left on it and it's worth about £400k. We currently pay £1320 a month. I have two mortgages on it (ported one when we moved and then topped up with a second). The first comes off fix in March and I intend to make it a Santander offset as we have £50k in savings to balance against it.

DH can (just) cover our outgoings but I'm going to have to be careful and stop my Waitrose habit. We've saved a lot while I've been working full time since March and we've had free childcare. I even managed a promotion and pay rise in that time. Maternity leave starts again in a month and I'm on full salary until March 13 and then down to SMP then nothing. We'll lose child benefit in January but intend to claim and then repay when DH does his tax return, keeping the money in the offset account in the meantime.

There's loads of ways we could cut back if we needed to but I'm trying to balance our fairly modest natural standard of living with financial prudence. Basically, I want to cut where we won't notice it too much! Our only other debt is my student loan which is £4.5k and I will pay that off when I stop getting paid so it doesn't sit there accumulating interest.

We don't want to overpay right now because I don't want to lose liquidity we might need later when I'm not earning. I'm happy to take advice on that viewpoint though, I tend to be a bit ultra cautious about these things.

happycamel_2

Just wanted to add my goals:
1) budget an amount to go in to the offset when it starts each month and stick to it

2) find sensible ways of saving money in our day to day budget to achieve point 1 and also to ensure that we live within DH's income so that when mine stops we don't just start eating savings

happycamel_2

I've spoken with our mortgage company and confirmed the rates on the loans:
Loan 1) 3.39% ending March 2013 - this will go on to their offset
Loan 2) 4.99% :eek: ending June 2014. I can over pay this by 10% a calendar year, this year we have £10,815.43.

So the plan is to pay £5000 this month off Loan 2. We've recently sold a car for £3500 and my husband's expenses reclaim was £1600 and we don't need that money so it's going in to an overpayment once it clears.

Once we get loan 1 in the offset I'll use the interest savings to overpay mortgage 2. The aim being to get mortgage 2 as low as possible before it comes off fix. I'll see what else I can scrape together to see if we can do some more overpaying without impacting savings and liquidity too much because my income will drop to nothing and I don't want to be struggling then.

happycamel_2

So in my first post I said we wouldn't be overpaying for now but once I realised how high the rate was on one part of our mortgage and how big a difference even small overpayments would make I decided I needed to change my strategy.

I spoke to DH about it last night who initially wasn't keen to lose the liquidity (even though I pointed out that we're paying Santander 4.99% for the privilege of having £5000 sat in an account paying 0.1%) but I went through just how much of a difference it will make (£14k in interest and more than two years off the life of the loan) and he could see that overpaying this loan needs to be done when we can.

He has dreams of moving abroad and doesn't want us to tie up equity in the house when we may need it for moving but there's no way we're moving soon, I'm having our second baby in 2 months, and frankly 4.99% is a lot to pay on the off chance that at some point we'd need to spend all our savings on moving. We've agreed that we'll keep 40k in the offset but where I make or save money or he gets share payments from work we'll put some of that to overpaying.

Now I just need to call Santander and make sure they allocate the payment to the correct loan. I can see how this is going to be addictive already

Rainbow_Bridge

Welcome to the diaries, it sounds like you have got a really good financial head on you, so I am sure you will achieve your financial objectives.

But ....... giving up a Waitrose habit, now that's what I call a real challenge.

This week I managed half Waitrose and half Lidl, a compromise xx.

happycamel_2

Absolutely, Waitrose is my weakness but in my defence I cook everything from scratch so I pay very little VAT. The Tesco near us is enormous and I just don't have the energy and time to trog round it at the moment, the Waitrose is about a quarter of the size but has more choice. There's less non-food stuff too so I don't come home with £30 worth of new outfits for DD and (another) fitness DVD or whatever.

But once I'm not working I'll have to either switch to Tesco properly or mix in some Lidl/Aldi shopping. I'm planning to fully employ my slow cooker and walk to the butcher in the village too.

I need to join the weight loss challenge too once little one is born. I feed so I won't be doing much exercise for the first six months but I'm being a bridesmaid next June so I'm going to have to lose a load of weight. I guess reducing my home baking will save money too!

icklehelen

Hi

Sorry to hijack but noticed your post on museumworker's thread asking about reusable nappies.

A good place to start is thenappylady.com where you can fill in a questionnaire and she'll get back to you with advice and an idea of the best nappies for your requirements.

I've tried lots of reusables and have ended up using different ones for day to night but it all depends on what you feel best for you and your lo.

HTH

ickle

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi HappyCamel, you have an exciting few years ahead of you and your plan to OP will make a big difference. Having lived abroad a couple of times, I've shopped for years in L!dl and Ald! as these were the closest supermarkets and a carrot, potato, or broccoli floret looks the same on a plate regardless of where it's purchased. I still do most of my shopping in one of these stores each week, then top up with the few things I feel the need to buy from elsewhere. It does make a big difference to the budget

Good luck and have fun on the way.

Tilly x

happycamel_2

Lidl and Aldi are in walking distance too, whereas I have to drive my big X5 to Waitrose so it costs be a fortune in petrol too. For now I need to be time efficient though because I'm still working full time for another month.

I need some more maternity clothes, there's no way my current ones will last another two months with the rate I'm putting on weight . I'm going to look at ebay though rather than buying brand new ones for just 8 weeks. It's a pain but I still need smart stuff for work.

happycamel_2

I'll take a look at the nappylady this weekend and see if I can sort some trial packs for little one. I'm washing all the time anyway with DD so throwing in some reusable nappies with the wash won't be any more expensive and disposables work out a fortune when you work it out over the long term.

museumworker

Hi HC, and thanks for posting on my thread. DS in the bath (with OH of course!) so I only have a couple of minutes to post. I was completely new to reusables too and it did seem like a completely different language at first! I must admit I just jumped in and bought some half decent sounding ones off ebay! I have since bought most of mine from gumtree.

There is a list here: http://www.fill-your-pants.com/councilnappyincentives.html of incentives councils offer, I (still) need to send mine off so will get £54 back - meaning I'll probably have spent a total of £60 of my own money on nappies and wraps for DS in his whole life (if I stick with it) - and I can sell them on after and hopefully make that back too!

The nappy lady is a good place to start, and watch her videos too. Ask around and see if any friends have any they can give you to try, and also might be worth posting on freecycle? Another idea is to look at which types you would like to drop and buy small bundles of them off ebay or gumtree. Also google to see if you have any 'nappuccino' events happening near you, or real nappy meet ups. That way you can go and see them in action!

My favourite type is the tots bots bamboozle $tretch, the only downside is the drying time but they are super absorbant and feel so soft on baby's skin! I use with motherease wraps - and I must say the ones with buttons on the side, which whilst they look dorky as hell, are fantastic at containing poos - and I have a heavy wetter who leaks through every type of disposable I tried in the first few weeks! Even if you just use this combo at night it is worth doing due to absorbancy.

YOu'll need a bucket with a lid to chuck them in when dirty, and a few wet bags to take out with you. Put them on the line to dry as often as you can to help bleach out any stains.

Anyway, welcome to the boards and if you have any more questions please just ask!