MFW Diary - Take 1!

HelenDaveKids

Welcome to MFW's

I think most of us use lots of different methods to save money which then goes in the OP pot. From selling stuff on ebay, to cash back sites and ensuring getting the best deals on insurance / purchasers etc. Its fun and challenging too. Good luck on your journey.

Calfuray

Oops, been away for a wee while!

Last half of the week is always busy, I've got work, uni and trying to fit in cleaning and cooking on my day off. I'm failing miserably at this batch cooking thing, I'll cook the food, put it in the freezer then forget to take it out to defrost.

On the other hand, paid £200 OPs in October, and £50 so far. Considering October's alone is over 20% of my wage, I think that's okay. Wish I could pay more.

Getting more income from tutoring Maths at uni. Need to put some things up on fleabay this week.

Moneysaving side not so good, cannot break my coffee habit. I have downgraded the size of my coffee though? :A

Off to work on my coding and catch up on the diaries

And thanks HDK!

Sepa74

Hi Calfuray, welcome to MSE.

You weren't stupid at all getting a 35 year mortgage... when I was looking at buying a very experienced friend said to get the longest possible mortgage I could as it gave me maximum flexibility to make lower payments if I needed to. He was absolutely right.

What it means is that at the moment when you're not earning much, your payments are low, but then as you get a job you can OP a lot more, but then if / when you decide to have kids you can easily pay less again.

That's great that you can take payment holidays, but don't forget that you will still need money to live on, so make sure your emergency fund is 6 months of living expenses (assuming you have OP'd 6 months worth of mortgage payments).

Good luck... I'm looking forward to reading your diary.

BookWorm

Good luck with your MFW journey

BW

sarahevie

We have struggled over the past few years to reduce our mortgage from 30 years to 15 years, but have decided to increase term back up to 25 years and overpay - to allow the flexibility Sepa mentions if we are without income for whatever reason.

Calfuray

Sepa74 - I like that you said if I won't be. And yeah, I think 6 months of everything is best, gives me a little bit extra and means I won't have to use my payment holidays unless something really catastrophic happens.

BookWorm - thanks, love the name!

sarahevie - thank you, and yes, it does sound like a good idea


Made another payment of £32 today, from the change in the coin jar.

It's a bit demoralising, when I wrote this thread the mortgage was sitting as £57,282.32 and now that we have paid £282 OPs and the monthly payment, we owe £57,264.85.

So a grand total of not even 20 quid

I know we're reducing the interest etc but it's hard to visualise.

Calfuray

Well, I put what we had paid into the calculator, and so far it says we've saved over 700 in interest, and we have reduced term by 5 months.

Not shabby for under £300

In mean time, I am doing some surveys online, made £10 amazon voucher already.

Need to list some items over the weekend. Procrastinators unite!

Calfuray

Not updated in a couple of weeks but I've been lurking away, reading threads, just not had much to post.

I'm finding it hard to be moneysaving just now, after a long day of studying I can't be bothered cooking etc.

Have OPed another £20, which means I've met my target for this year, I gave myself 3 months and I've done it in 1.5, as well as continuing to save for my emergency fund. Still wish I could pay more, but every little helps I guess!

Off to read a bit, then get on with the studying

Calfuray

Again, not had much to post, just been reading when I'm procrastinating

I have now exceeded my target for the year, I'm aiming for ~100 per month, and I don't think I'm going to be able to pay any more off this year.

Had to spend a bit on interview clothes, which turned out to be a waste of time, the job he wanted was not what was advertised. Gr!

I'm a bit woolen headed and choked up with the cold, all the snow today pretty much solidified into ice, and I was wearing stupid shoes.

Had one of my exams today went okay Having the night off and then back to it tomorrow for my next exam, which is a week on Saturday! How mean is a Saturday exam? And work wouldn't give me it off, so I've got to go straight in after it!

As sad is it is, I'm off to bed, 'cause I am not feeling good. Hope everyone is well

Calfuray

Annoyed now. Partner's been locked out online banking for a wee while, and got set back up yesterday. He doesn't really check his account, as he always has a healthy balance. So, I usually check the joint DDs that come out of his bank, such as the gas, and it's too awkward to cancel it in his name to set it up in joint names.

Anyway, checked it today, and the electric dd has gone up by 71% and gas by 16%. I know there has been increases, but ooft. Stupidly, the electricity is pretty accurate, we used to have nothing and pay low, now we have multiple computers and gadgets running. Will need to wait a few months to see if the new amount is accurate.

Raging at myself, usually I am so on top of those things.

Next exam on Saturday, back to work, really, really, really dreading it. Christmas night out on Thursday - yay, more money.

And when I see people's sigs and they have paid OPs in the double digits...