MFW Diary - Take 1!

Watty1

Was about to say I gave up selling books and explain why but sidetracked by the need to research toilets in Japan ??????

Calfuray

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Toilets in Japan

What were you going to say Watty?

Karmacat

I was wondering what was going on there :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: now I get it

edinburgher

Haha - I had heard of the devices intended to cover bathroom noises before, but never seen such detail :rotfl:

in_need_of_direction

It's like making a car wash selection. The alternative though can be using the traditional facilities. It explains why the Japanese are generally a fit race.

HelenDaveKids

Best toilet I ever went in was the Icelandic airport ones.

Calfuray

Last year's post:

Calfuray wrote: »

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

Our OPs this year: I did indeed pay the £100 every month without fail, even while gallivanting around the US :cool:
Our total for the year was £3081.92, beating my higher target of 3k. Up on last year also.
MFiT - this doesn't end until next year, and I've already met this target Mortgage is now a few hundred under 50k!
Pending getting my spreadsheet back up and running, we would have been sitting at around 56k with no OPs, so :T:T:T

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

Well, the money shuffle is still set up, but wedding, car and that loan came out of it so reduced, but still plenty for an emergency fund.

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

Think I will copy and paste for this year!! :rotfl:

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.

2014 so far: Not bad at all :beer: Internship accomplished, savings bubbling away, investment ISA opened (thanks Ed and SSS!), pension research done, graduate job lined up! Giving myself the ultimate seal of approval: :money:
________________________

Finally, stats:

Year / Opening / Closing / Capital Reduction / OP / OP % of CR / DI / LTV
2014 / £53852.13 / £49700.51 / 4151.63 / 3081.92 / 74.23% / ?? / 76.5%
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

Lost some stats cause of lost spreadsheet Have done half of it tonight with paperwork, but can't do rest since internet banking is down. Why take it down on Hogmanay when I want to do my spreadsheet? :cool::D
A wee 6% increase in LTV in a year will do nicely, ta :beer:

Going to sleep now, but big post planned for tomorrow/later today.

Happy 2015 all

in_need_of_direction

Very impressive progress to date.

edinburgher

Happy new year!

I think I'm going to start putting actual S&S values in my posts/sig, otherwise nobody can see the contrast vs. OPs?

Calfuray

So. Last night when I was looking for last year's update, I ended up reading through this year's posts, and realised I never updated you guys on everything that's happened since May!

So here goes:

May: got married! Was brilliant, just me, OH, my sister and brother. I think I would have cried (and they were betting on it), but my brother made me laugh and laugh when he was running around the room acting as 'photographer' and getting over excited. Got some lovely pictures, and actually the first pic of me and OH together! He even made the effort not to grimace too much (he hates photos) :rotfl:
We went home, got changed, and all went out for a meal.

Then after the wedding, I had exams and coursework and visas and paperwork, so no time for honeymoon or relaxation, but was in post-wedding bliss, which I can find no logical reason for :j

_____________________

Then in June, less than 4 weeks after being married, jetted off to Florida! THE HEAT. Not even the heat, but the mugginess. Was not prepared.

The people were so friendly and welcoming, it was ridiculous. We made a really good friend out there, who literally lived with us while we were over there and took us out to places and looked after us etc, it was brilliant. One guy and his family invited us to their house one day in the weekend which included taking their boat out to an island (well, more a sandbar really) and picnicking, swimming in the ocean, and going on the jetski back at theirs. Anything in or near the water, I'm in heaven. It was a great day.

The food! Man, guys, I was not prepared for that. My work team took me out to lunch every day at a different place so I could experience it all, bad on the pocket and the waistline, but I loved it. We tried authetic barbeque, authentic Mexican, Tijuana Flats, everything. I miss Taco Tuesday so much.

Turns out I didn't need to worry about the apartments. Normally, the intermediate company sorted it out and it was student accommodation, but at this place the company put us up. We were in a private rental flat, gorgeous, with a gym and pool onsite. I got up every day (ok, most days) at 5.30am and went for a swim or to the gym, so I didn't actually gain weight from all the food!

And what a difference the sun makes to your mood btw.

The job itself: I was terrified, as normal, but it was amazing. The job itself combined the three areas of CS I love the most, and gave me a nice mix of things. I had a lot of independence (a bit too much for my liking) and I had a really well-defined set of projects that had real worth, not just typical intern things. I did 3 projects and managed to have time to do the 4th optional one.
One thing that I'm bad at (and I know I am) is working from a clean slate. I get myself in a royal state on ifs and buts and scenarios (as I did with S&S ISA) and just never get to make a start 'cause I'm still 'stuck' in my mind. It's part of the reason I accepted the job I got, because they are in a team environment where you can bounce off people, which is crucial for me until I develop I think.
Anyway, point of story. I got myself in a right mess for a few weeks but got sorted out, ended up using a completely new language to write some code in, so it was good. There was one other intern in my bit who was lovely, he took me out for Cuban food, and I helped him on his code :rotfl:
In the end, it was brilliant, the team took us all out for food and presented us with a goodbye card and some money. I can't explain how good the job was. And casual dress!

In terms of the people who came on the internship with me, well that was interesting. One girl in particular was the embodiment of all my negative traits in one person, and it made me think a lot. Obviously when you are in your mind, your actions make sense to you, but you never know how it will appear to people around you. Watching her and the way she interacted with people and what happened was like a slap in the face for me, and made me realise the things I do and how they affect others; for example, when I'm stressed and I'm freaking out, in my head I'm thinking about me, but when this girl did the things I would do, I could feel the shift in the mood of the room and well, it gave me a lot to think about, and cheesily enough, I'd like to say I've grown from the experience and learned how to be more laid-back and not so high-strung etc. The guys we had in the group said they thought I'd had the biggest change

_________________

Got back from Florida as the palest, freckliest person in existence. OH was over an hour late to pick me up 'cause he slept in, must have missed me!

Spent the next few weeks chilling, going to gym, and just enjoying being home until uni returned.

__________________

Then it's all been downhill from there. Money spending has been ridiculous, with me buying breakfast and lunches every day. Gym - haven't gone in weeks.
I have never been more stressed by university ever. Same problems with being frozen have happened with dissertation. I chose the 'good' of the supervisors I was contemplating over back in February, and turns out we are not a good match. I've only cried in his office once though Project I'm doing is for an external client who really have a need for it, and I feel like I'm letting everyone down. I'm just finding it extremely hard to wrap my head around it, and what I've produced so far is abysmal. I have a website, and I think it looks pretty enough, but I don't have a clue how to implement the functionality that's needed, in this language completely new to me. I am not good at working alone, I'll spend weeks and weeks tangling myself in knots about a problem to have it solved in two minutes in such a *simple* way I can never seem to see.

________________

So next semester starts in less than 2 weeks _pale_

I know I say this every year, but I had a shocking exam. I have never, ever had that experience. I just *didn't* know the answers, a 8 mark question I wrote a few sentences. It was terrible!!

It's done though. My job offer is only dependent on my graduating with a degree, so I don't need a specific grade, yet, I'm too stubborn.

Need to get back to the gym and healthy eating, I lost 67 pounds, and have slowly put some back on since September... haven't dared to weigh myself yet! I know it's at least 10 pounds though

So goals for this year:
- declutter the house, properly. It is a state. Ebay or chuck.
- go back to the gym 2x a week minimum
- back onto eating properly
- finish degree
- devote proper amount of time to dissertation, remember it's only for another 14 weeks roughly. You can do it!
- ebay and save, no more daily coffees and lunches if you want to go to Japan!

Already I'm kind of balking at the cost, but I need to be strong :rotfl:

Hope everyone has had a productive start to 2015. £248.58 OPed so far, another £50 to the S&S ISA.