Evs' MFW diary

evab_2

Hi all, it has been good reading all the posts in this part of the forum I'm sorry mine turned a bit pants.:doh:

DH has spent loads of money over the last few weeks; beer, snooker, games, books. So most of the money from my ebay sales has gone and more from the bank account. I mean he doesn't buy loads of stuff normally but just the wrong time to do it. Then his computer decided to pack up so had to replace it as both of us use it constantly, so had to use some of our overdraft.

So now instead of a nice big overpayment I'm just going to pay the budgeted £100 and pay off the overdraft as quickly as possible. I'm expecting some vouchers to come through so that will help with the shopping budget.

I did talk to him about his spending and we agreed that he could have £15 a week to spend on anything he likes including beer, books, games, lunches if he hasn't made any for work....and thats it!!

So will start again this month, and going to sit down with him every week when we write the food menu and shopping list and show him exactly what we've got. I do have to say that he turned down a holiday because we can't afford to go at the moment:T

Kaz2904

Maybe you would be able to afford to go on holiday if the spending was reigned in?!
I do think it is important to still have a life and many of us on the MFW board do still have holidays. I think you said you have just finished being a DFW?
MFW and DFW are not quite the same. To a certain extent we are all aware that we would have to pay living costs anywhere, we just don't want to be paying them forever.
It is important that you still have a life. Use your DFW principles in order to live beneath your means and be inventive about holidays and such like. Get the best deals and continue to make the overpayments. It would make for a very sad life if you only ever paid bills!

Allow yourself to look around for next year and plan/budget for it maybe? Set yourself a challenge?
We haven't been for 2 years and are going this year but not the following year. We are also saving up our deals vouchers to pay for the holidays!
Cheerio!

evab_2

Exactly Kaz2904, we would love to go on hols but if OH still overspends then we can't save for it! :-). So now we both have a common goal of paying off the mortgage but know that we also need time and money to enjoy ourselves along the way

evab_2

After DH spending far too much, this week hasn't been too bad he has stuck to his spending money allowance and we haven't gone over our food budget. Had a bit of good news that we are getting a refund of £86 from BT as final bill now we have moved to Tiscali, and saving £22 a month as well!

Overdraft needs paying off (currently -£500!!!) so most of the money will sit in the account but will still pay off £100 over payment on mortgage. So another fresh start and waiting for some more vouchers so that will help with the budget.

DH hasn't sorted out the promotion, the bloke didn't turn up in time so they are meeting next week instead - fingers crossed.:)

Oh and also waiting for a refund from our last broadband provider as they were still taking money from our account even though we changed ages ago.

Ups and downs - never mind we plod on!

evab_2

Hi everyone, I been reading all the fantastic posts in the 'mortgage free in three' and 'get yourself ....pig' threads which have been completely inspiring to my own wish to bring down my mortgage.

So I have literally this minute just decided to alter the way I put aside money for a regular overpayment:

1) Put aside the £22 saved from changing phone providers
2) Do the same with any earnings from Quidco and the value of any vouchers that count towards the weekly shopping budget
3) I will do a car boot - i will promise, there have been good reasons as to why I haven't done this (mainly rain type spoilers)
4) Put aside any petrol money reclaimed from work.
5) follow the wise words of others and put away any pennies when I fancy a take away or drink from the shop.

Any further suggestions gratefully received.

I have also budgeted to save for the car tax each month and a holiday fund.
Still no updated statement from the mortgage company but must be due as the last one was January and is every quarter.

Will let you know how I get on!

evab_2

Ooh I think the unsecured part of the mortgage will be just over £11,000 so will aim to get under that figure this month.

evab_2

Well this MFW thing is hard when there is so much else that needs your money.

We have severely used our overdraft and have only had £20 to live on for a few days including needing petrol to get to work to earn pennies! So there will be no overpayment this month whilst we try to get back into the black.

Have just been away over the weekend for a charity run and am going back to my home town for a few days in July so more expense there.

Had mortgage statement today - unsecured bit is now down to 11,255.84 but doesn't show a £100 overpayment from this month. Next plan is to get this under £11,000 next month. Showed my DH and he was pleased to see the progress.

We have also sat down and revised our budget again as we blindly believed that we didn't need to included costings for things such as presents (b/day or Xmas), clothes, etc as we didn't spend that much. So now everything is included even if it's just putting aside £3.50 for a few months for when the house insurance is renewed.

So LBM number 2 or maybe it's 3!

Glad to see everyone on the MF in 3 thread is doing well :T

Ev

Redbedhead

I think you just have to remember you are in this for the long term and remember that bad months will be balanced out by good months!

We have had a good month this month - some e Bay sales and some Quidco money that I wasn't expecting increased the overpayment so we have nearly hit our limit of £500 this month:T

Dithering_Dad

Hi evab, I've just read through your thread and thought I'd "stick my oar in". You seem to have just finished being a DFW (Yayy for that!!) and have moved straight onto being a MFW with mixed success. I hope you don't mind me saying this, but I think that before you start paying down your mortgage you should strengthen your DFW status by having emergency savings so that you don't require an overdraft/credit cards for any unexpected bills/costs. You could do this via an offset account or by investing in a cash ISA. The general rule of thumb is to save 3 - 6 month's of your monthly income.

I know that this will be a pain and that you are keen to start paying down your mortgage immediately, but having a decent pot of easy to access savings is as good a feeling as seeing your mortgage go down.

I speak from experience here because although I am also desperate to dump money onto my mortgage, I've taken my own advice and I'm saving 6 month's worth of our monthly outgoings into my offset account. As this amount increases, my comfort factor also increases, plus it has turned me into a better saver because of the effort it has taken to build it, I'm less likely to blow it all again!

evab_2

Thanks DD, we were DF but have overspent however your right about needing to build up our savings pot. We don't have any credit cards and the overdraft is 0% until November .

Was opening an ISA with Barclays but they messed it up so will open one with Egg when I get paid tomorrow, I have been so focused on wanting to reduce the mortgage that I hadn't thought that savings would be more beneficial at this time.

Thanks for your post, appreciate it!