Secretly squirrelling away to be MF

acl2009

I had my LBM the other day when my husband and I were going through our finances and we realised that over the past few years we have literally wasted several thousands of pounds with nothing really to show for it. We have a not unhealthy amount of money left each month and want to start paying off our mortgage. My goal is have it paid off by the time I'm 40 at the latest. Ok, that's 10 years away but I'd rather be realistic and maybe hit it earlier than I planned.

So a bit about us. I'm 30, Mr2009 is 37 and little 2009 is 15 months. I work 21 hours a week over one day shift and one night shift. He works full time as director of his own company. Little2009 works very hard 7 days a week being cute, playful and a little bit cheeky, however she's not keen on the idea of being sent up chimneys so no income from her We bought our new build 4 bed town house in January 2010 and by being very fortunate with the part exchange deal from the developer along with savings, were able to put £60k deposit down on a £250k house. We took a 30 year mortgage term so are coming up to 27 left. Our mortgage is our only debt.

My plans to start becoming MF:
Reduce grocery shopping from £400 p/m to £200-£250 by meal planning and shopping at Aldi. We will still put the same amount into our food shopping account however I will quickly squirrel the excess away each month.
Cancel my cleaner at £18 per week and start following fly lady instead. This will pain me greatly but at £72-£90 a month it could be going on the mortgage.
Set up childcare vouchers to pay childminder. This should save me aprx £60 per month. I've set this up already and will start from my September pay day.
Deal in cash. It's all too easy to spend a little bit here and there on the debit card. If I'm handing over cold hard cash I'm less likely to spend it.
Budget plan for the month ahead on each payday. Workout how much will be left and transfer 50-75% of this to the mortgage straight away. I'd rather keep some as emergency fund instead of transferring it all. This 50-75% is on top of the savings I will make cancelling cleaner and my grocery shopping.
Will be shopping around for our home and car insurance come renewal time.

Here's the bit that's our little secret. DH is completely on board with OP on the mortgage, and will be setting up a monthly OP of £500 from his account, however I'm not telling him about all the extras I'm doing. I'm keeping it as a surprise. I want to show him just how much we can pay off by making very few sacrifices.!

We currently have aprx £1300 left after bills and allowing social money each month. As crazy as it sounds though, we want to keep building our savings as well as paying off the mortgage. As my husband runs his own company, and due to a recent issue him having a non paying client meaning he can't pay himself his dividends for a few months, we want to have a good safety net in place.

Wow, that's long! So, wish me luck and here goes.

resilie

Hi 2009- sounds like you have your head screwed on! Good luck!!

muddywhitechicken

Welcome & good luck!

acl2009

Well tonight I am earning an OP for the mortgage. Im on night shift tonight, and as tomorrow is a bank holiday I will earn double time from 0000-0900

After tax that should give me aprx £80 extra in September's salary. I will pay that straight to the mortgage account on pay day :j

sweetdaisy

Wishing you well on your MFW journey .

acl2009

Thanks all.

I've not even made any actual OP's yet but i bloomin excited!

Muser1

Good luck! I'm jealous of all that cash left over. Loving the secret twist. Will subscribe. X

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Another squirrel! Welcome and good luck,

Squirrel x

acl2009

Thanks Secret Squirrel! Good luck to you too :beer:

I've got a little bit more I can add to the pot for this months OP, had a hair appointment today and had budgeted a certain amount. It came in £25 under that so will pay that into the mortgage account.

I still need to double check whether I can do little bits several times a month or need to do just one payment. I know can OP 10% of the remaining balance a year but want to check the small print.

Is is sad that I'm getting very excited by all this money saving? :rotfl:

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Not sad at all. I love it!

acl2009

Well I'm not a happy MFW today. As tomorrow is payday my payslip should have arrived in the post but it didn't :mad: It will be my first full month on my part time salary so don't know exactly what I would be taking home, so I wanted to plan and make a spreadsheet and now I can't

I'll have to wait until tomorrow when I check online banking.

Stupid work