MFW Diary - Take 1!

nattypants

I've been missing Lois also Cal:( I think she may have been absent for the last two holiday terms now .....

I hope your chocolate plans worked out well

Calfuray

If OH does not stop snoring, I will not be held accountable for my actions. I can hear him through my earplugs.

edinburgher

Calfuray wrote: »

If OH does not stop snoring, I will not be held accountable for my actions. I can hear him through my earplugs.

As a fellow snorey man, I can only apologise to all the wives, girlfriends and partners out there

Hope you got off to sleep.

Calfuray

It's okay Ed I know he doesn't do it on purpose, and he's working today and I'm not, so I have to deal with it. Eventually got to sleep about 6am.

On the other hand, found a good link for a mattress website, really interesting and informative. Determined to have a choice to be approved by OH tonight.

I need to post year recap etc, may do that later, too tired now :rotfl:

Calfuray

nattypants wrote: »

I've been missing Lois also Cal:( I think she may have been absent for the last two holiday terms now .....

I hope your chocolate plans worked out well

Not to be too big a stalker, but it says she was last logged in September. I just hope she's okay even if she doesn't want to come on here/have time for it etc.

Chocolate plans - might be going well depending on your definition of 'well'! Sooooo much left still :eek:

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Now last year this was my round-up:

Calfuray wrote: »

Since there won't be any more OPs until January, thought I'd do end of year round up:

OPs made in 2012: £402

I always knew I wanted to OP, but hadn't done it before. After playing around with Martin's calculator, I saw how much difference even £50 a month would make. Fell in love with the effects of a £200pm OP, but since that's over 20% of my wage I can't really stretch to that
Don't know why, but lightbulb moment when I actually started to pay was in Oct this year. Aiming for a conservative target of £100 pm, so £300, and got £402, not bad.

2013: Have signed up to MFW 2013, with target of £1200 OPs. Again, £100 a month, so should be a realistic (but still challenging enough!) target.

For future: Looking ahead, I'm going to be getting inheritance money this year. Since I didn't plan for it, I'm kind of at a loss what to do with it. I've signed up for MFiT-T3, with aim to have mortgage below £50,000 after it, so looking at possibility of signing up to an offset mortgage, since inheritance and emergency fund money would make up 40% of mortgage, this should really reduce interest? Need to research more. Also, no idea what to do with investing etc, let it sit in high-interest account.. or ???

Challenges: Currently I am still saving £250 a month for emergency savings fund, with over a year to go to make up the amount I would feel comfortable with.
Past few years, I saved my !!! off to get a new bathroom done. I bought all the parts month by month, so all I would have at the end would be labour. Then a cowboy did it, to the point where there were leaking pipes, tiles falling off wall etc. It had to be fixed urgently, and I ended up having to take out a loan to get it redone. It's now beautiful, but the sooner I pay the loan off the better, that would be more money freed up to OP.
So, at the end of 2013, I will have the last few months of loan/emergency fund to build up, unless I use inheritance to finish those early. Assuming I don't, I'll be able to start serious OPs in 2014.

2012 so far: Can't complain Holiday to Norway in May, got engaged in May, finalised degree I am doing, got prize for best grades in 1st year of uni, good grades (so far! next results on 8th Jan!), bought parts and built my computer, bought new laptop, bought loads of new furniture(!) and new bathroom of course. No excuses to not save/OP next year, we can obviously still have fun and be moneysaving.
Feel a bit guilty reading everything we did, but it all came out of saving, scrimping and hard work!

Hope 2013 is as good, this is where the serious work start, at uni and money-wise!

and these were stats I worked out, thanks to pavlov:

Calfuray wrote: »

Here are my stats then:

Year / Opening / Closing / Capital Reduction / OP / OP % of CR / DI / LTV

2012 / 58219.00 / 56944.13 / 1274.87 / 725.36 / 56.9 / 8.91 / 87.6
2011 / 58800.85 / 58219.00 / 581.80 / 41.65 / 7.16 / 9.53 / 89.6

Wow. 2011 was when we were on our fixed rate and before we made any significant OPs. 581.80 was our reduction when we paid 335.03 a month? :eek:

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So, for this year:

OPs made in 2013: £2400.55
Stormed our original target of £1200, doubled it, plus 55p (thanks OH!) Very happy with this

2014: Signed up to MFW 2014 thread, and obviously still on MFiT thread. My initial target is £1500 for MFW but this is way too low, will need to sit down and do the maths, because:
I have convinced OH to set the monthly amount as £400, and since our basic payment is £251.85, we are automatically overpaying £148.15 a month, x 12 = £1777.80! I'm hoping to OP another £100 on top, so that would be £2977.80! Perhaps my target should be a nice round £3000! That sounds nice

For future: Inheritance money is in, and just going through the money shuffle to (barely) keep it above inflation Used some already to pay off the dreaded bathroom loan, so that monthly payment (£150) is going back into savings.
With wedding and (possibly) honeymoon this year, I need to keep the savings up. On the other hand, I need to actually start planning wedding stuff (oops!) and see if we have time for honeymoon. If I get an internship this summer (which I really, really hope I do) then the summer will be busy, and things might not be able to be booked until last minute - or at all! Which I think could get quite expensive
Internship - list of companies comes through on 17th, with cover letters to be written by 24th. If I do get one from this current place, it will be fully paid, which would make up for no SAAS money over summer, and massively help towards more OPs or house decorating stuff etc

Challenges: Money money money. And my laziness/procrastination. Will need to budget carefully and stop being wasteful.

2013 so far: Not so bad No holiday this year, but got to travel to Belfast with uni, I love travelling so much even a day in a relatively nearby town makes me giddy with excitement! Loan paid off. OH has been happily spending his spare money on gadgets. A lot less buying things on my ends as seen by the OPs this year, but obviously you always have initial outlays for new houses etc. Got good grades for second year and second year prize, but anxiously waiting for this semester's results as all previous results did not count towards degree classification. I don't feel that I will do as well as I want to, so a little worried.

________________________

Goals:

• Short-term:
  Over break, read up about: possible projects, investing, how to write cover letters to secure internship and internship companies.
  Get birth certificate, decide on place to get married and book it!!
  Finish paper to be published. Finish PHP course before Feb. GUT house out.
• Medium term:
  Eat healthier, utilise Tilly's meal planning to max potential. Study more at uni.
• Long term:
  Build up savings to allow safe buffer for emergency fund and then use rest for investing etc. Get 1st degree! Explore PhD options. Build funds for redecorate.

________________________________________

Finally, stats:

Year / Opening / Closing / Capital Reduction / OP / OP % of CR / DI / LTV
2013 / £56944.13 / £53852.13 / £3092 / £2400.55 / 77.6% / £5.84 / 82.8%
2012 / 58219.00 / 56944.13 / 1274.87 / 725.36 / 56.9 / 8.91 / 87.6
2011 / 58800.85 / 58219.00 / 581.80 / 41.65 / 7.16 / 9.53 / 89.6

You know what? Even though this is swiftly becoming a contender for the longest post of the year award, I'm going to take a moment of unbridled glee:

Look!!! We have gained 5% equity this year alone! 5%! Our daily interest has dropped by over £3! This is because we came off the high fixed rate, but still!
And it's all because of this board and you guys Over three quarters of the progress made this year has been from OPs, otherwise the mortgage would still be over £56k according to Mr Spreadsheet.

Also, having put our new £400 monthly payments into a spreadsheet, and adding my additional target of £100 means that our forecasted MF date is 2025, when I would be 35, and OH 39. I am so excited! :j:j:j Since these are all projections based on current income, fingers crossed that I get a good job after uni, I may even be able to cut it shorter. Right now though, the forecast is from 35 years down to around 16 :T:j:beer:

Can't wait 'til OH comes home so I can tell him

Happy New Year everyone! Hope 2014 treats you well

pavlovs_dog

never thought of adding LTV to the list of geeky stat joy, genius

after a very of very ad hoc presence on the board, I feel quite out of the loop with lots of diaries I used to follow. Made myself a cuppa and am going to go back and read from start to finish

Onwards and downwards in 2014 :beer:

edinburgher

Oh no - STATOVERLOAD!

Well done on your wonderful accomplishments for 2013.

Wishing you both a happy and successful 2014 :beer:

Pearla*Merle

Loved the epic & inspiring post Calfuray, you've done great this year, well done! Can't wait to see you blast that end date to smithereens

Calfuray

pavlovs_dog wrote: »

never thought of adding LTV to the list of geeky stat joy, genius

after a very of very ad hoc presence on the board, I feel quite out of the loop with lots of diaries I used to follow. Made myself a cuppa and am going to go back and read from start to finish

Onwards and downwards in 2014 :beer:

Thanks Pavlov I think you were telling me stats I could work out, one was LTV so I just stuck it on the end

Hope you have a good 2014 and a good diary catch-up :j

edinburgher wrote: »

Oh no - STATOVERLOAD!

Well done on your wonderful accomplishments for 2013.

Wishing you both a happy and successful 2014 :beer:

You love the stats really Ed
Thank you, hope 2014 is good to you and yours too :beer:

Pearla*Merle wrote: »

Loved the epic & inspiring post Calfuray, you've done great this year, well done! Can't wait to see you blast that end date to smithereens

Thanks Pearla I hope I do blast it, we'll see!

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Thanks for all the encouragement everyone. Hope everyone had a good 2014 and aren't feeling too delicate

Calfuray

Made my first of the bigger OPs - £248.15, and amended target to £3000 for the year. So excited! Off to update sig