The BIG Plan...

MummyEm

I haven't managed to post for a couple of months. It's been a pretty busy time for us and our extension is now well under way. Not due to be finished until October though so still a long slog ahead.

Funds wise, all looking pretty healthy. We managed to fill a cash ISA before the April deadline so we have £5640 in that. Other savings are still building up nice through savings made against our budget. I will check the figures and updated this later.

The holiday fund is also building nicely. Sold a freezer yesterday so that's another £215 to be banked into that (it would have been a little more but we treated ourselves to curry after a hard day in the garden £15.00).

DH is taking kids to clubs this morning so the plan for me is bathroom cleaning and washing/ironing.

I_want_a_baby

Just read through your diary and really impressed! Well done on your progress and staying focused! Keep going!! You will be OP'ing in no time! x

MummyEm

I_want_a_baby wrote: »

Just read through your diary and really impressed! Well done on your progress and staying focused! Keep going!! You will be OP'ing in no time! x

Thanks I want a baby. I have been struggling to stay on track recently if I'm honest. But this month I've really tried to get a handle on things. Food budget is looking much better this month.

Our whole budget is completely messed up at the moment. The budget I started in January has changed dramatically over the last few months, but I've not really got a hold on it. I have a busy week coming up with the kids off school and have sons birthday to plan too. I am setting myself a goal to sit down in the first week of June and review/amend our budget so that it reflects the changes we've made. I'm hoping that this will help get us back on track.

MummyEm

Reading my last post back has depressed my slightly, so to cheer myself up I will remind myself of what I have achieved today;

-packed lunches x3
-did a menu plan and used bits from freezer where possible
-shopping done and under budget
-booked table for dinner with kids at Pizza Hut tomorrow using 'kids eat free' voucher. Will cheer me up without spending a fortune and remind me that the kids really aren't missing out on anything with us trying to save money

MummyEm

Had a great time at pizza hut. Used kids eat free voucher so spent well under £30 including a couple of sneaky friday night drinkies :beer:

Been thinking about longer term savings on mortgage. DH and I both would like to investigate the possibility of an off-set mortgage. We had one years back but when we moved it was cheaper not to have one as savings went on doing up the house/moving.

We both want to pay off the mortgage early, but feel much more secure having access to the money 'just in case'.

I remember looking a couple of years ago and working out that we would need approx £50k in savings (based on how much the mortgage was then and interest rates) but I have no idea how much we would need now as a minimum to make it worthwhile.

Does anyone know how I can calculate this?

Lois_E

MummyEm wrote: »

Had a great time at pizza hut. Used kids eat free voucher so spent well under £30 including a couple of sneaky friday night drinkies :beer:

Been thinking about longer term savings on mortgage. DH and I both would like to investigate the possibility of an off-set mortgage. We had one years back but when we moved it was cheaper not to have one as savings went on doing up the house/moving.

We both want to pay off the mortgage early, but feel much more secure having access to the money 'just in case'.

I remember looking a couple of years ago and working out that we would need approx £50k in savings (based on how much the mortgage was then and interest rates) but I have no idea how much we would need now as a minimum to make it worthwhile.

Does anyone know how I can calculate this?

I think the formula for working out the minimum savings to make it worth switching is

min savings = (mortgage amount) * (offset rate - mortgage rate) / (offset rate - savings rate)

where "offset rate" = rate you'd have to pay on the offset mortgage
"mortgage rate" = the rate you're paying now
"savings rate" = your savings rate after tax

But it's more complicated if you've got savings in different places earning different rates. If that's your situation, post your numbers and I'll have a go at doing the calculation for you.

MummyEm

Thank you Lois.

Based on the current offset mortgages available to us at the moment, it looks as though this would be the best way for us to go. Our current fixed rate doesn't run out until next year, but we will definitely be looking at this for the next re-mortgage deal.

Inspired by other diaries on here, I have logged in to some old survey sites that I hadn't used in a while. I've done all the available surveys on 1poll and swag$s for the last two days. I will try to keep this up! The aim will be to use this money for Christmas fund, then I can use the Christmas budget for savings.

MummyEm

Thing are still busy, busy, busy here with all the building work.
Good MSE things for the last few days

-£12 off sainbury's online shop as they sent me a voucher as I'd not used them before
-Joined Martin's cheap energy club
-swapped energy suppliers for a saving of approx £150 a year plus this is after paying £60 to get out of our current fixed deal
-Did another local baby and child nearly new sale. Sold lots to clear two boxes of clothes and toys. Made £120 after fees and 30% donation to charity
-Got back into ebaying. I've been a bit slack for the last couple of months. I listed 10 items at the weekend and another 3 today. 1 has a bid on already. I'm hoping that some of the larger items sell quite well to make some space and bump up the savings funds.
-Got paid today. Transferred £260 to the emergency fund
-arranged to borrow a small fridge. We are having a new integrated one in the new kitchen. We need to sell out big fridge/freezer as should be worth a few ££s. We were thinking buying a cheap small counter top fridge to keep in the garage to tide us over between selling the old one and having the new one up and running. Found a cheap one for sale £20 but were are now borrowing one so that's another saving.

I will also update my signature in a moment!

MummyEm

A busy few days working but day off tomorrow and have a long list to get through. DH is away for a few nights with work so I will make a start on the to-do tonight so it's not quite so busy tomorrow.

-mealplan for the next week (shouldn't be too much as I am in process of emptying freezer in preparation for selling it)
-order online shop delivery if I can get a good deal
-wrap ebay parcel x3
-put wash on for timer for the morning
-make and print sign for pre-school (why do I always offer to do these things?!)
-post extra info that someone has requested for ebay item
-wash up/clear kitchen
-HHI (the pile is huge so will limit it to an hour while I watch holby city later)
-empty the dishwasher before bed as this is my least favorite job in the mornings

On the MS side of things. I paid the balance on our holiday yesterday so that was :eek: Put it on CC but will pay off from savings when we get the bill through.

Off to get kids to bed so I can crack on with my list.

MummyEm

Still going strong with a my long list of jobs to get done whilst DH is away this week. Plan for tonight is grocery shop delivery to put away, some more ironing (got back to within the confines of the basket after 2 hours ironing yesterday!), and a soak in the bath as a nice treat.

On the MS front

1) Used 6 different coupons towards food shop and ended up with approx £8 off & extra points too

2) Had a really yummy meal with all store cupboard ingredients yesterday and enough leftover for tonight too. Was yummy and kids like it too. A sort of bean chili thing with some chopped up LO burgers from freezer. Will definitely make it again in future as super cheap and pretty healthy too.

3)Posted three ebay parcels

4)Found new job to apply for. Would be great as good hours/terms & better money but not sure whether they will think I'm qualified enough. I am putting an application together and will keep fingers crossed.

5)I've set up separate online savings account so I can keep money separate for things I put on the CC so I can easily see what we have.

Really looking forward to the end of the month now so I can total up what savings we've made this month.