Evs' MFW diary

slowlyfading

you're doing great for this month!
sf x

Redbedhead

Congratulations, I think a diary is a fab idea and I may even nick it when we move to our new house.

The mortgage on the new house will stretch us a bit more than we would want so we are going to make some major efforts to get it down a bit at the start of the mortgage term.

ThankYouAndEnjoy!

evab wrote:

A great start and I still haven't done a car boot sale or added my pennies

Congratualtions evab! Fantastic Start

Remember, whilst those items reamin unsold - not only is it not 'cash in your pocket' but you are also in effect being charged interest on them (if you sold them and paid off the monies onto a debt, your interest p/month charged would reduce!!)

I've just started to realise little things like this. Im in the process of Ebay'ing all unwanted items to pay onto our credit card/mortgage. Better cash in my pocket than someone elses!!

Keep up the good work!

evab_2

Redbedhead - I hope your house move goes well, writing down my spending in a daily accounts book has helped us to really see where our money goes each month even with a budget so the mortgage diary is just an extension to that but the other way round. I've found that I'm constantly thinking about what I can do to reduce the money (read the post about that too!)

ThankYouAndEnjoy! - Car boot hasn't been possible due to 3 Sundays of rain and last week when it was nice I was doing the Race for Life! I can feel them sitting up there though saying 'Sell me, sell me'!

I've totally changed my spending habits too, now when I look at items e.g. food, clothes, toiletries etc I think right do I need to buy it today or will it last for a few more days, or can it wait until pay day (hence my signature).

My dh has also agreed to sell his snooker table, will put on ebay for collection only but I don't know how that'll go!

Redbedhead

We do most of our spending on a cashback credit card and then pay it off at the end of the month. I already work out where that money is going, but I am planning to start it on the cash in the bank account as well, although tbh we probably spend hardly any of that at the moment.

I spent yesterday getting things on eBay. Made more sense to do it now than to move house and then do it:T

md_14uk

Good luck, will keep a watch with interest

My MFW story is here the overpayment calclator is a great confidence booster, try it some time!

evab_2

Thanks md_14uk,

I read your thread and thought omg what have you let yourself in for :-) but good luck to you, I wish we had been more money savvy earlier in life (I'm 31 and dh is 34). Having our daughter really kicked us into gear to sort ourselves out and it was only the fact that our old house doubled in value during the five years we were there, that we sorted out over 30k of debt by moving 250 miles away. Still we didn't learn and racked up 7K of debt in a year and then sorted ourselves out good and proper.

I couldn't keep track of so many properties, I just want my house and that's it. I did the overpayment calculator on just our budgeted £100 over payment and was staggered to see how much we could save.

In our family nobody owns their house, not even our parents, so it will be nice to have that comfort.

Ev

evab_2

Well this months overpayment gets bigger, Quidco is now at £39.10 as a few extra items have cleared in time for this month. I also won £10 on the lottery but as I need to buy a new pair of boots I will probably be using this (water seeping through holes in the bottom!!).

Did the lottery for first time in months so not bad.

I'll probably make a round payment of £300, ISA details still not arrived so could have had an extra £100 but forgot about car tax tomorrow. I will definately put that money aside from now on :-)

I stopped myself from buying lunch whilst I was out in the middle of nowhere for work, came home instead. I need to be that strict everyday and does anyone have any suggestions as to how to make my dh see the light a bit clearer? He knows that we have a budget to stick to and can see the savings we can make on the mortgage and the need to save for house repairs but still he spends (mainly on alcohol over the weekend) at least a fiver every day.

I feel like I'm constantly nagging or talking about money, he is better than he used to be at least he now knows what bills are going out but it's the odd pounds during the week that add up all the time.

Shineyhappy

To try and get my OH to be a MFW (we have seperate properties) I pointed out that if he paid off his mortgage he could work part time and if/when any kids came along he could either save loads for them or holidays or he could work fewer hours. After having a quick think and then working out what he had spent on interest he now is a complete MFW.

This is great for me as now I dont have to feel I am too tight when it comes to money and he is now skint as he is paying off an extra 500 pounds a month and maxing out his ISA allowance, so when we go shopping I dont feel skanky for buying a perfectly good loaf of bread reduced to 30pence instead of one that is full price. Thankfully he now says lets go home for lunch! :T

If only I could get him reading these boards :mad:

evab_2

OH proudly told me that a lady in the off license told him about a special offer where he could have 4 more beers for a pound and he said no thanks. Never mind the £4 he spent already, plus yesterday, the day before etc.!!

Anyway some potential good news, he may get a promotion next week which would incorporate a pay rise, a new company vehicle and studies for 4 years so fingers crossed for that. If it sorts out OK I might shout him a bottle of Cava.