Attempting to pay off our mortgage for a bigger house! :)

glitterjunkie

Oh dear, spendy few days... work shoes falling apart so replacements bought, new bedding for DS's move into a 'big boy' bed and also a Tablet for DH as our laptop really is on its last legs. Oh and some greetings cards on the offer on Grabbit at Whistlefish Gallery, 24 cards for £15.40 We are still within budget this month but only about £50 left to last until payday which is 11 days away, so I've done exactly the same as I did last month in terms of spending all the 'treat' money very quickly. Next month I vow to buy treats at the END of the month, not the beginning, as it's pretty depressing knowing you have had all your fun for the month already and can't buy anything else! Going to try for 7 NSD's out of the next 11 and just allow myself 3 days for getting milk, fruit bread etc.

I did have a good idea to start a card box with the cards I bought on the Grabbit offer. Too many times I've been caught out having to pop to Mr T for a card at last minute and spending £1.50-2.00 plus all the other little impulse buys while there. We have a cheapo Card Factory in town but if I just need 1 card then it's not worth the parking to go there. So if I keep a box of cards for every occasion in the house it will save a fortune in the long run!

I've listed 8 items on eBay but only making £3 so far... I used to do well on eBay but finding since RM increased their prices its almost impossible :-/

£5 Aldi voucher in the Daily Mirror tomorrow everyone! x

glitterjunkie

Feels like ages since I updated (to say I have been busy at work would not even be half of it!) so definitely time for an update !

I have analysed last month's spending and am v. embarrassed to say we have completely overspent again and dipped into money that should have been savings to do so :0 It is an eyewatering £1,035 (budget £700)!and goes as follows -!

* Groceries £375.40 - ouch, not good at all! Made up of £49 in Aldi, £148 in Asda, £93 in Tesco, £42 in Co-op, £17 Home Bargains, £18 Poundstretcher, £8.40 at the local butcher. Far too!high for 2 people and a toddler.!I think the reason its so high is because I've been so busy this month, I've mostly done!online shops from!the big supermarkets rather than my new friend Aldi. I only spent £248 on groceries last month so it really shows what a difference Aldi makes! I'm!hoping this month will be a lot lower, aiming for £220
* Toiletries £35 - again ouch! Stocked up quite a lot on half-price moisturiser for OH and nappy cream on offer for DS so hopefully will save in the long run.
* Spending on DS including new changing bag, footmuff for his pram and accessories to do his room out - £200 - v. extravagant. I can't help spoiling him :0
* Soft play centre visits with DS £2 - been much better weather so been taking him to the park which he enjoys just as much and its free!
* Petrol £50 - quite usual for us
* Cash for socialising £100 - again quite usual
* Hotel for stag do for OH - £40 (don't begrudge him this, just wish there wasn't this trend for mega expensive stag and hen parties these days! The total cost for one weekend is going to be over £300 I reckon... why cant people just have a good old fashioned night out in their local area? :-/ )
* Paying off family holiday £70
* Hairdressers £28
* Cards/presents £44 - £30 of which was!stocking up on cheap cards which were on good offers at the Book People and Whistlefish, quite a lot but!I shouldn't have to buy a birthday card for about!3 years now!
* Clothes for me £15
* Meals out/takeaways - £38 - much lower than last month so we have done well here
* Tablet computer for OH to watch films on when he's on night shift £37!- a lot cheaper than the one we were looking at originally.!

It has been a real eye opener for me to record spending like this. Me and OH very rarely buy new clothes for ourselves and haven't had a holiday for 4 years so for the last couple of years I have been merrily going along thinking we were pretty frugal!!BUT in doing this, while I have realised our spending on clothes and holidays is indeed quite low, we are always socialising, buying things for the house and DS, which makes us big spenders in those areas.

I am pleased to say the shock of!seeing it all written down!seems to have reined me in a lot, and!I am doing much better this month, so far being 9 days into our 'pay month' I've spent fairly little. I have read the 'great ways to stop spending' hunt and taken it all on board, so hopefully it will pay off There biggest thing we spent on last month apart from groceries was!DS's bedroom - !this is all!finished now so that should save a bit next!month, BUT it's the Next sale this weekend!which I'll probably spend a bit at, as!DS is growing so fast he needs new clothes!every!few months.!I am going to try and get grocery spending as low as possible this month to make up!for it !

On another plus side the mortgage is now in the £51,000's - it was in the £53,000's when I started this challenge 4 months ago so I can see real progress with that.!I also attempted putting tin foil!down the back of the radiators to reduce heating bills a few weeks ago which does actually seem to have made the house warmer, and the heating is now off for summer anyway

Pearla*Merle

Stag & hen "nights" are getting completely ridiculous, add in what it costs you to go to the wedding & buy a gift you could practically take a fancy holiday abroad somewhere for two weeks on the cost!

We've had a few ridiculous wedding requests over the last couple of years and then when you can't go or be involved it just ends up leaving you feeling a bit awkward and damages the relationship a bit

glitterjunkie

Well I haven't posted on here for a while but I'm pleased to report that doesn't mean we have fallen off the MFW wagon! We have been extremely busy and moved house 3 months ago to our forever home! It has a big garden for DS and 2 spare bedrooms so everything we wanted I think our old mortgage was £47, 500 when we paid it off so we managed to clear over £6k in 9 months which helped us afford the deposit for the new house, so I owe this forum a big thanks!

The journey is really starting again now though as our new mortgage is HUGE (well maybe not huge to some but feels huge to us) £169, 000. More than 3 times the old one! It's also 3.8 times our joint income which slightly terrifies me so I have a massive incentive to reduce it as quickly as possible. The term is 30 years but I aim to pay it off in 10 (mortgage calculator says 12 but I want to beat that! )

We have already set up a standing order for a monthly overpayment of £410. We have paid this for the last 2 months already so the mortgage has already been reduced by £820 which is a good feeling! We are also saving £400/month into an ISA to replace our savings/emergency fund which was wiped out in the move and is looking very sorry for itself! But when that's replaced in a years time then that £400 ideally will also go towards OP's.

We will be hopefully trying for another baby this year so maternity leave will throw a spanner in the works for a good few months and of course I'm sure there may be job changes; redundancies etc over the next 10 years so my plan may not go as smoothly as I would like! But I hope with the help of MSE we will get through whatever comes up!

Now my challenge is really as always to keep within the spending money budget, reduce food and household spending as much as possible so that the savings remain intact and we don't have to dip into them! Which is always an area I struggle with.

I will post an updated SOA in a bit as had a pay rise (small!) Since I last posted one and bills have obviously increased in new house too xx

glitterjunkie

Hi all, seems like a long time since i posted so thought I would do a quick update to keep myself on track more than anything! I had a bit of a surprise a couple of weeks after I posted last time and found out I was pregnant, our second child is due next month! We had intended to try for a baby at the end of this year so it was a bit earlier than planned but a lovely surprise

I got a mortgage balance last month showing our balance to be about 164, 500 so we have reduced it by 3.5k in the 9 months we have lived here, it would have been more but we have cut back the overpayment from 400 to 100 a month in order to save for maternity leave. While I'm on maternity leave the overpayment will have to reduce further to 50 a month, but when I return to work in may 2016 we can hopefully increase this to 735 a month which will be amazing! I feel a bit worried that we aren't going to be really reducing the mortgage until then as I'm really not comfortable with the level it is at the moment, but at least have a plan originally I had wanted to get it down to 150k by September 2016 (from 169k in September 2014), because of maternity leave this is now looking more like it will be 156k but we are plodding along.

I really need to set up online banking so I can see the mortgage online, used to have this before we moved house and it was a huge incentive to see the balance reducing, haven't got round to setting it up for new mortgage yer so really need to do so!

We kept a lot of baby stuff from DS1 so have hardly had to buy anything for the new baby which is great!

I am still a dedicated Aldi shopper so the grocery budget is pretty well under control, although I have to admit with me being pregnant and tired we haven't been anywhere near as good as we should have been with meal planning and being organised enough to make sandwiches for work etc, so a few takeaways and shop bought sandwiches have crept in over the last few months. Really need to work on this as it is something I struggle with finding the time to shop and cook properly with working full time and me and OH doing opposite shifts plus having a toddler. I'm sure it will only get more difficult with a new baby too so it's something I'm going to have to really try hard with.

We have also cancelled our credit card because we had got into the habit of spending all one months spending money then running up an extra 2-300 on the credit card, which then had to be paid from the following months spending money. So each month we were starting what less than we should have, hence more CC borrowing, a vicious circle! Feels loads better now we have no CC and are just starting with a clean slate each month

Our emergency fund has finally been replaced after using it all to pay for our house move, so that's a good feeling!

Anyway I've rambled on but it's nice to get it all down and look back in future months to see what's changed! Xxx

Pearla*Merle

Lovely to see you back, glitterjunkie! And with such exciting baby and house news! Congratulations! :T

Don't fret about the mortgage taking a slightly different route than planned over the next couple of years - looking at it another way you'll be able to start OPing big style sooner than you thought

Looking forward to hearing the next instalment