Early MFW

cookiemonsie

Ok so it might seem a bit excessive to start a diary at this point but this is the influence these forums can have on you!

Mr Monsie and I have just got our first mortgage and after being in debt a few years back the thought of owing £88,000 makes me feel a little bit queasy! What made me feel even more queasy was realising the amount of money the bank will get out of me in interest during my mortgage term even though we're on a relatively low interest rate on a 5 year fix! So while doing a bit of research I came across the overpayment calculater on this website and I realised that if I overpay the maximum allowed on my mortgage (10% a year) I would save almost £28,000 in interest (depending on rate) and be mortgage free in 10 years rather than just over 22! :beer:
So I've set myself a goal to achieve the 10% a year so that money stays in my pocket and not in the banks! While I can't make overpayments until after 1st January 2014 (as the 10% is calculated on the balance as of 1st January and as we didn't have the mortgage on 1/1/13 we can't overpay anything ) I can still start saving and with the help of you lovely supportive people I know I can do it.

As background I'm full time employed and hubby is self employed. We have a dog and a cat but no children (and no plans for any either). We don't smoke and rarely drink but we're yet to go on honeymoon which we're planning on doing in September 2014. I'm hoping that we'll be able to overpay and honeymoon in the same year and with some sensible money management and some encouragement from my friends I know it'll be a little bit easier!

So wish me luck and good luck to everyone trying to achieve their dreams whatever they may be :cheesy:

MallyGirl

good luck and welcome onboard

black_taxi_2

main thing is,making the decision to be MF

im glad I did 4 years ago

all the best

cookiemonsie

Just took my first step of moneysaving by switching energy providers which should save us a whopping £66 a month (the downside of renting is that you have to use the mandated energy providers which are always the most expensive:eek:) so that's £792 saved on energy over 12 months which can go straight towards the 10% OP. Plus I'm sure we should be due a refund from our current energy provider as we were overpaying ready for winter so fingers crossed something comes of that

I've also just been told that we're getting the deposit back from the rented house too so that's another £550 going straight into savings ready for January :j

I already make my lunch for work and cook from scratch in the evening every day, plus Iwas shopping at ASDA but changed to Aldi for the majority of things and then bulk buy chicken breast, toilet roll etc from costco every couple of months when I run out so no money saving to be had there. The dog is on a special (aka expensive!) diet but her food is on offer at the moment so I think I'll bulk buy when I get paid to make it a bit cheaper and I have a 10% off voucher so I can use that at the same time to save a bit more. I've just shopped around for my motorbike insurance and my home insurance so saved a bit there and now the mortgage is sorted I'm going to apply for a cashback credit card to replace the one I currently use for petrol, groceries etc and pay off every month. :cool:

The apples on my apple trees are coming along nicely too so hopefully in the next couple of weeks I'll have a shed load of apples to snack on rather than shop bought ones

Let's see what else I can do!

SeriouslySeekingtoSave

A good start says I!

muddywhitechicken

Hello, welcome to MFW and good luck on your quest

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

What a lovely positive attitude, good luck to you!

cookiemonsie

What a lovely warm welcome, thanks everyone

cookiemonsie

Ah, it's a new day and it's Friday so smiles all round

I dug out my pedometer last night and measured my morning walk with the dog; turns out I walk 5000 steps and almost 2 miles before 6am every weekday morning! Who needs a gym eh?

In money news we got the deposit from the rented house refunded yesterday so that's gone straight into the savings pot :T Got a man coming to give us a quote for a new garage door tomorrow so that should be interesting :undecided Hopefully it won't cost a fortune! Hubby isn't quite on the MFW bandwagon yet but I'm working on him - I'm sure he'll come round eventually

My cucumber plants and pepper plants are coming along nicely but I'm starting to think it's a little too late in the year for them to actually produce anything now The pepper plants should come back next year if I can get them through the winter though so it's not all bad.

On the breakfast menu today I have porridge with frozen raspberries - lovely on such a dark rainy morning!

Have a good Friday all :beer:

FloppyDisk

Hi cookie, it's never too early to start! The sooner the money is in the mortgage account the more money you save in the long run.
I'm also on my first house (ok flat...) and started OPing straight away (£500 in the first month and never to be repeated again!) Everything is nearly finished inside so finally there's some spare money again, I'm spending a little on the garden trying to get my own veggies growing too. I tend to do lots of Tilly Tidies at the moment, just rounding down my current account everyday and OPing the pennies to my mortgage. It keeps the OPs going when I'm not able to pay off any lump sums.

Best of luck!

Floppy x

Gillybean

Hi and welcome!

It's never too early to start your MF journey- wish I'd seen the light earlier! Keep us posted on how you're getting on.