Finally saw the light and now scrabbling towards it, one OP at a time!

fothers365

Thank you Thistle. At least we have started doing something about it- no point in beating ourselves up about something we can't undo I suppose!



£1300 paid to RBS, balance now £4000, 38.88% paid:j

We will see if there is any more spare nearer the end of the month:)

fothers365

We have worked out we can pay off another £400 so now at £3600 and 44.99% paid off.

:j

Lois_E

Hi fothers. Just noticed you posting on other people's diaries so thought I'd have a look and see if you had one of your own, only to realise that I've already read part of it and thanked it!!
Anyway, a belated welcome to MFW to you from me, and sorry for not saying Hi earlier. I'm generally on here reasonably often in the evenings and during school holidays, with gaps (like the last several days) around ends of terms and report times etc when it all gets too busy and I don't find time to get on here. My diary is here, BTW). So, it looks as though you've got off to a great start and will have this mortgage visibly shrinking in no time (once you've got rid of the RBS thing at the higher rate, of course - I agree with the others about that).
Good luck for the journey, and it's good for the rest of us to have you beavering away alongside.

if_at_first...

Just wanted to say Hi and it looks like you have gotten yourself off to a great start. Will be keeping an eye on your diary for motivation and tips. Congrats on being able to do this with three little ones :T:T:T

fothers365

Thank you Lois (good name- one we chose too:)) and if at first. Lois I have got your diary up now so will read through that soon. I am almost finished FinancialBliss's- just a couple of pages to go.

I am day shift today and night shift the next couple of days so if we are quiet during the night I could get a lot of diary reading done!

Have a great Easter everyone:)

fothers365

I have not been on the computer recently but hope everyone had a great Easter.

DP has taken a days holiday today and when DD3 wakes up we are hopefully going to visit a fairly local country park we haven't been to before for a walk. I think we will take flasks and chocolate and try and avoid the visitor centre so w just need to pay for parking.

£300 stuck on RBS this morning so now 49.6% paid, £3300 to go. Things could be tight later this month though if we don't keep ourselves in check.

I get paid for overtime every 3 months (we have awful annualised hour system) and this is due in April's pay. I seem to have done loads of shifts recently so hopefully that will be a nice amount:cool:

Off to look out multiple sets of hats and gloves- when will the weather improve?:eek:

fothers365

No overpayments or anything done lately, we will need to wait until the end of the month to see if there is anything left over.

We have lived very cheaply though and not spent much money at all. I have started tidying and sorting out the back garden ready for summer. DD3 is able to play out happily in it now which makes life a lot easier. We planted lots of little shake and rake seeds from the pound shop the other day in all our containers rather than trying veg as we normally do. The veg are always a lot of work for not a lot of produce and I would rather just have pretty flowers this year and get our veg from the local market. I have ordered a new blade for the lawnmower rather than a whole new lawnmower like DP wanted and gave the grass its first cut.

I have also discovered a big pot of masonary paint at the back of the shed so am going to paint the outhouse. I started yesterday chipping the loose and flakey paint off whilst the girls were playing.

We are off to a nephews birtday party today so NSD apart from petrol and possibly the carpark.

Also, I am on an awful annualised hours system whereby you only get paid for your extra hours every 3 months. However, that 3 month block is April and I have put in a lot of hours lately so hoping for a nice bit extra if the paypacket at the end of the month:T

I am really hoping that this is the start of Spring and the nice weather will last. I love reading the meter for our solar panels after a sunny day:D

fothers365

We had a great time today and ended up with a NSD:)

Tomorrow I need to get some paint brushes from Wilko and make a start on the outbuildings, weather and sprogs permitting.

fothers365

A very quiet and frugal few days here! I painted the outhouse the other day when the weather was better, I have just the strip to do where it joins onto our neighbour's. I need to use some edging/masking tape and have less children running round the base of the ladders for that bit. He is an absolute perfectionist and I don't want to do a wobbly line or have a big splat of paint land on his side!

I read on someone's diary about a book called 'The Millionaire Next Door' which I have got from the library and have been reading. I am really enjoying it and it is keeping my resolve up which is great. DP is also still very enthusiastic which is great as he is much more of a consumerist and a spender than I am.

Today I did my first 'Tilly Tidy' on the bank accounts but now the balance on the RBS is uneven, before I had evened it out to a round number, better uneven there than the bank account I suppose:rotfl:

I have also been thinking we are going to fully start doing the pay yourself first thing properly, I need to look at figures at the weekend for that.

With regard to spending/budgeting diaries, we have been doing one for about 6 months now but I think we need to alter our categories some what. What categories do you expert people here have on yours?

Gosh, I am obsessed. It is a good job there are plenty of things to browse online to feed the habit as I am sure DP would ring my neck if I kept going on to him about it. Getting things paid off is constantly on my mind at the moment.:o:rotfl:

CathT

Hi Fothers, just found your diary. I feel like I can identify with you a bit, I also have two small children (having no more!!)

Financial Bliss's diary was the very first one I read too - he had me hooked

We really got hit with the recent snow but it meant a few NSD's which always helps! We have National Trust membership which is always good for days out with the little ones, we had a good deal when we got ours and I would recommend it.

Will be following your journey