Sundaysgirl's MFW journey - better late than never!

Sundaysgirl

After a few months of lurking, (which has given me a huge amount of inspiration and motivation to become MF!) I’ve decided to start my own diary – eek!

A bit about me…living with fianc! but we keep separate finances, no children, the house is mine so all OPs are down to me. Good job, good salary, no debts other than my mortgage – student loan cleared and credit cards repaid in full each month. I have about 6 months’ net pay in savings, mostly in an ISA.

Bought my house in 2007 - £125,000 mortgage with a 30 year term on a 2 year fix, good LTV ratio.

I’m currently on a 4.69% 18 year term, 5 year fix which ends in September 2014. Whilst I have made some ad hoc OPs since I started the current fix a few years ago, I have only recently (March) started making regular monthly OPs, having had my light bulb moment after reading the MFW board. I should by now be down to 14 years 2 months remaining, but IIRC I have so far shaved around 2 years off this– need to check the latest OP statement tonight!

My mortgage currently stands at £93,018.85 by my calculations. My current deal allows me to overpay 10% of the January balance each year. My aim isto be MF by Christmas 2022 – I think this is achievable provided I keep up my motivation and manage to maintain the current level of OPs. The plan will probably be to buy a large “forever”home with OH once I am MF.

I am actually hopingto be able to ramp up the OPs next Autumn after my fix ends, I want to ensure that my next mortgage doesn’t restrict me on OPs so much, as whilst it’s not a problem this year, it will be next year when I hopefully will have much more free cash (once our wedding is paid for – currently taking up a big chunk of my salary each month in saving for this!) and a smaller January mortgage balance.

The thing I’m finding a bit tough is wiping out my “spare” cash at the start of each month on mortgage OPs – especially since OH is not in the same boat. I want to be frugal as I’m determined to get my mortgage cleared ASAP, but at the same time I don’t want to become a tight-@%$3 who won’t do anything that involves spending as don’t feel that’s fair on OH!

Sorry for waffling…hope I’ve remembered to include everything… and thanks for reading!

All suggestions on ways to help me become MF as I go along are welcome J

ixia

Hi, Just wanting to wish you good luck on your journey

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Good luck. Keep out of those shops and you will be there in no time!

Squirrel

resilie

I'm in a similar boat in the way that I live with my OH but house is mine and he pays me rent while I pay mortgage and bills. Makes for one sided frugalness... it's quite difficult and I haven't worked out how best to play this... let me know if you do

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Good luck with your plans

Tilly

Sundaysgirl

Thanks for the welcome everyone!

Great advice SSS - I have recently become much more careful with my spends, and genereally trying to avoid shops and therefore temptation - it's working!

ixia - will be keeping an eye on your thread too

resilie - nice to know I'm not alone - feels that way sometimes... Do you have a diary? My OH has almost exactly the same salary as me = lots more free cash, despite saving lots too. Makes me feel even more frugal. What do you do if you need to buy something for the house, e.g. furniture, or need to decorate? This can sometimes be a bit awkward, I find!

I don't get paid until next week, so no more OPs yet (I make these once a month as I think there is a £500 threshold with Santander?). I have, however, taken some small steps this week:

- Opened a separate savings account. Plan is that I can move any small savings, Tilly Tidies etc to this account immediately, rather than trying to ring-fence them in my current account. Means I can see the progress I'm making, and I will then add this to the amount to be OP'd at the end of each month. In the past few days I have TT'd £2.75.

- Recently switched to the Santander 123 current account. Costs £2 per month but since my mortgage is with them it's a no-brainer. So far I have cashback of £8.05 in excess of the fee - this has gone straight to the OP account.

- Finally got around to adding payment details to my £co account, I have £1.90 in check-ins to be paid to me, hoping to get this up to £2 before the payment run happens. I have another £15ish tracked so think that will come next month and will OP then.

- Had a huge sort out of ALL my wardrobes, drawers etc. Big pile of clothes for charity bag (not really saleable but they can sell the fabric), but also a decent pile of clothes and shoes which I think will be best sold on eBay. Never used eBay before but going to give it a shot :eek: Think I will start writing descriptions and do a folder for pics then wait to add when there's a FLW. Any tips for this hugely appreciated as feeling a bit out of my depth!

- I have sorted some books and nik naks too, think a car boot sale might be best for getting rid of these. Something to think about for later in the year or even next year as don't think we have enough to do one yet.

- I stocked up on cheap glitchy toiletries in B00ts at the weekend, but am otherwise doing very well in managing my stash. Each time I use a product I make a note of the RRP if I were to replace it; since I'm shopping from my stash I figure I'm effectively saving this money, so will add the total to OP at the end of the month. Total is currently £75.04 for June!

- Used a few MOCs for the grocery shop, £3.07 saved (my half of the total as split the cost and saving with OH)

My savings plans for this week are:

- bring lunch to work every day - done today, shouldn't be a problem for rest of week
- meal plan - done, will need to top up with low-spend shop for some fresh fruit and veg midweek but will be minimal cost
- have at least 3 NSDs - should be able to do this today, Weds and Sun
- using library rather than buying books - I've ben good lately, just need to remember to return them next week to avoid fines!

Sorry for the long post but feeling quite positive about it all and wanted to share, OH gets a bit bored of this topic!

Sundaysgirl

Just a quick update on my week so far...

Take lunch to work: 2/2 days done, 3 more to go

Meal plan: still on track, 1/1 days done

NSD: managed this yesterday, and low spend today as just need to buy bread - must be disciplined at the supermarket

Have reached the heady heights on £1.95 on £co - up to £2 by this eve hopefully!

One week until pay day (and OP day) :j

norabatty_2

Sundaysgirl wrote: »

resilie - nice to know I'm not alone - feels that way sometimes... Do you have a diary? My OH has almost exactly the same salary as me = lots more free cash, despite saving lots too. Makes me feel even more frugal. What do you do if you need to buy something for the house, e.g. furniture, or need to decorate? This can sometimes be a bit awkward, I find!

Hi Sundaysgirl and best of luck with your MF journey.

Although now married, I was once in your fiance's boots. DH bought an apartment 9 months after we got together and I moved in with him at that stage. I suggested that I make one or two large purchases so that if we split up, we wouldn't end up arguing over who owned the knives and forks! So I paid for the table and chairs and made sure that he paid for all small items that I would never take with me if we ever broke up. I also paid him rent (market rate) and he then paid his mortgage. All household bills and groceries were shared equally. If he wanted to buy a new sofa, he would fund it himself. 3 years later we got married and the way we paid for things completely changed. The day we got back from our honeymoon, I set up a joint bank account and got us a joint credit card. Whenever we were paid, we each kept £250 in our personal accounts to spend as we wished, and the rest was put into the joint account and all bills, mortgages, food etc was paid from this account and the excess was put into savings.

I was always very proactive in this regard and pretty much took charge but I think this is really important (especially if you ever plan on having kids!). When you get married, it is a joint partnership and I don't think it's fair for one person to have more money than the other. While most couples will probably earn similar amounts in their late 20s and early 30s, chances are that over the course of the next 10-30 years, one of you will end up earning significantly more than the other. Joint bank accounts stop this becoming a problem. Also, I had a baby a year ago and as a result, I stopped earning so again, this system has worked well as we still have the same amount of personal spends as we always did.

If I were you, I would certainly talk to your fiance now about how you would both like things to be paid for after you get married and if you will both be paying for everything or not.

Sundaysgirl

So it's been a while since I posted, but I've not fallen off the wagon! Aiming to get back on track this month and post more regularly.

Work has been manic, but rewarded by a recent promotion and pay rise, meaning about an extra £300 per month - all of which I plan to send straight to monthly OP. :j

This month's OP of £850 has taken me very close to the £90k mark, so I'm hoping to OP some more later this month to get under that. New boiler and a fair amount of house works being done this month, needed but I would like to be OPing that money!

Having a thrifty month so far, spent less than £25 on groceries to see us through to the weekend comfortably, trying to eat out of freezer/cupboards as much as possible, and no unnecessary spending on myself yet - hoping to stick to this for the rest of the month.

Started :xmastree: shopping today, I usually like to have this done by early November but feel a little behind this year :eek:

Sorry for rambling, thanks for reading this far...

Miss_Money_Magnet

Wow you are doing really well!

Sundaysgirl

Thanks for stopping by Miss Money Magnet - I'm trying

So yesterday ended up being a NSD, other than the Christmas pressies (budgeted), meaning only two days of spends so far this month. Stuck at home today whilst new boiler is fitted so an enforced NSD!

Dinner taken care of and having a productive day of work.