Stepping to the simpler MF life...

tootoo

TT of £1.50 today.

Bit of a spendy weekend. Ordered a new bed frame (On offer so a brill price) last year we brought a lovely memory foam mattress from the money we were given at christmas. So now this mean the whole bed will new to us as the one we have takes up so much room as it has wood running around the edge (its a futon type bed if that makes sense!).
I also ordered some new bedding, all on offer again so a good price.
We are trying to put some love back into our house after it has been some what neglected the last few years due to having babies!
i have a huge list, but today I have cut it into some chunks that we hope to do over the course of this year as I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with what was needed to be done.
Money-wise, all paid for and not had to borrow from anywhere either.
Our savings pot for our next holiday (aim is to pay for the villa) is going up nicely. DH is very into this idea which is helping immensely.
Not more to report, I think I've rambled enough!
NSD today though.

mouche

Sounds like all is going very well tootoo. Congratulations on reaching the sub £70K mark as well.

Where did you get your new bedding from? We need to get some proper sheets for our massive upstairs bedroom mattress. It is a lot deeper than our current flat sheets can cope with. Love the idea of putting love back into the house.

tootoo

Thanks mouche

I got our bedding from BHS. They had an extra 25% off all sale and free delivery so a bargain.

tootoo

£5.23 op tt today.
Slowly slowly.

Can I ask for those with little people, do you save for those as well as OP?
I currently save for when they will be able to buy a house or similar. However, part of me thinks if I put that towards the mortgage, it would be paid well in time to save up for when they get that stage....I got £1000 towards a deposit and I was so grateful. My aim is £10,000 each (may seem small amount to some, but to me its a lot!). Any opinions please?

some of last nights pie made (home made from mum) so that will be lunch for me today small spend at a playgroup this afternoon and that should be all.

tootoo

I should add that they also have a little account each which they can have when 16/18 which we also pay into.

BlueMoo

Small TT op of £1.15 today - balance is approx. £69,490.00

Yay! :T:T:T:T:T:T

I do not have littlies, but if I did I imagine I would prob save a certain amount, say £2k, then put the rest towards OP considering saving rates.
It would also depend on how old they are - if they are 21+ I would probably just save, but if younger, would put towards OP'ing.

edinburgher

£10,000 is still a fortune tootoo - Mrs E's Mum gave us that and it sped up our house purchase by 2 years :T

When we have littlies I'm planning to give them a fairly generous amount of pocket money (not silly), but will expect them to save their own nest egg (with lots of encouragement and tips from their nerdy Dad!)

mouche

tootoo - we often joke in our house that LO has more money than either OH or me! We save for him in three pots:

1) Due to the lack of any decent schools anywhere near our house, we are saving very hard to make private school an option for LO when the time comes. So a big chunk of savings goes there though technically LO won't actually ever get it to spend. If we don't send him to private school, it will all go on OPs.

2) I allocate him some 'pocket money' every month (more than OH and I get put together!) which we use to pay for toys, football and dance classes, nappies and any other LO-specific expenses. Of late, we are also letting LO 'treat' us to days out that are focused on him having fun (like his birthday day trip). This is classed as spending money not savings but because it is a decent amount, it is building up over time.

3) Child Benefit - This is completely saved for LO and will go to him for a house deposit or something. By my calculations, this should be about 15K by the time the government stops paying it.

We are lucky to be in a position to do this for him but I intend to drill it into him how lucky he is when he gets older. My parents were always well-off but they used pocket money very effectively to teach us the value of money and of saving. I remember saving up for 30 weeks to buy a $30 toy when I was about 5. When I went into the shop to buy it, I realised I didn't want to spend all my hard-saved money on one toy. A valuable lesson was learned by little-mouche that day. I hope to do the same for LO.

I too often think that paying these savings towards the mortgage will make quite a difference and I am seriously considering OPing with his child benefit because if all goes to plan, we will be able to replace it by the time he buys a house. But with the way our income has gone up and down in the past few years, another part of me wants to make it untouchable so I know he will at least get 'something' when he grows up.

tootoo

thank you for the replies

They are young (4 and nearly 2) so lots of (hopefully) saving years ahead.
Like you mouche, they often have more money than me!
They have three pots :-
Long term savings - in my name so they can have it when I deem fit (ie house purchase)

ISA's - intended for uni/driving lessonsetc

Daily pot - nappies, clothes, shoes, clubs etc.

I've just added it up and they act get around 40% of my annual salary a year in those pots! It seems a lot written down.

In mortgage news, had a letter to chat about a renewal which is booked for saturday am - will see what that brings.

tootoo

maybe I should aim for a certain amount a year or by the time they x old?!