Back to basics with pavlovs_dog: the £6k sprint

Alchemilla

Sooo jealous of Amsterdam.
Kansaskitty what are your 5 babysteps?

kansaskitty

Alchemilla wrote: »

Sooo jealous of Amsterdam.
Kansaskitty what are your 5 babysteps?

In Jan 2013 I decided on these, with a view to a rough 3-5 year plan:
Step One: Emergency Fund
Create an Emergency Fund of £500 for car/boiler repairs etc
Completed this Feb 2013

Step Two: Three months expenses
Put three months worth of expenses (bills and mortgage) into a savings account
By Dec 2013 had reached £1800, we were aiming or around £3000 to be safe, then in Dec 2013 our car died and our flue needed lining so we used the full £1800, aargh. Let's start again in 2014!

Step Three: Pay off your home early
Begin making overpayments on the mortgage and calculate how long it will take to pay off
We began mortgage OPs in Feb 2013, and we managed to overpay £2340 during 2013, which made a big contribution to our overall capital reduction and kept me on the MFW path! We are continuing to OP a small amount in 2014, just over £150 p/m as we had to buy a new car this year.

Step Four: Pay off your Student Loans
Make overpayments when possible to cut down the student loan as interest is paid on this
We didn't do this at all, although as I completed a PGCE (teacher training) after 2012 I do have a large chunk of it that is at around 6% interest rather than the <1% interest the rest of mine and hubby's is at, so it is something we seriously need to think about. However my husband looks at this like Martin Lewis calls it a 'tax' rather than a loan, it's just something we pay each month out of our wages otherwise we wouldn't be able to be in the jobs we are now (teachers). Unsure which direction we'll go on this one.

Step Five: Invest in your retirement
Begin extra contributions into the pensions to secure our retirement
Again, we didn't do this in 2013. We really researched it and found the best option for us (there's so many options out there to contribute extra to your pension, it's mind boggling!) however we decided that both being under 26 we would like to improve our house first (we are in dire need of a new kitchen, and I mean quite dire!) and aim for this around 2015, as we're still young to be wanting to add extra to our pension. I think the general aim is to begin making extra contributions into our pensions before we have littluns, so that we get 'used' to that money going out of our wages and we just continue it, because if we had children then tried to make extra contributions it just wouldn't happen! I would say children are between 2-4 years away for us, but as we all know sometimes life doesn't go that way so we'll just keep smiling and see!

I think the 5 baby steps really helped me and hubby to focus our financial goals, we printed and laminated them and put them inside the kitchen cupboard so every time we got a snack or made dinner we saw them! They're still there but after the car/flue/cancelling the kitchen they're just annoying me whenever I see them now, grr!

Can you guys see a way you could make yourself some baby steps? Would love to see them and share ideas!

Alchemilla

Thats excellent. As another teacher, i decided to conribute to AVCs. What did you decide?

DedicatedDFW

Hi all

Pavlovs_dog - fantastic that you have now booked your trip :T We need to book our holiday this month to get the best deal - just awaiting for my Mr having his hols confirmed from work

Hi kansaskitty - love your list of baby steps :T

pavlovs_dog

kansaskitty wrote: »

You lucky bean going to Amsterdam! That's a fantastic price, I take it you must be going school holidays!? I wanted to book somewhere to go away for our first wedding anniversary in July but even cottages in he UK are coming out at over £400 for the week, without petrol to get there!

yep, we book OH's holidays to coincide with my holidays, else we'd be ships in the night all year.

We live in spitting distance from Cardiff airport, but only paper planes seem to take off from there these days :cool:. Bristol airport is an hour and a half away so still manageable. Brum would also probably be viable for us too at a push. We keep an eye out for cheap flights with the budget airlines. We love city breaks and there are plenty of cities for us to explore, so we are still in the fortunate position of having the pick of wherever happens to be cheapest at that particular moment (Amsterdam for example was very nearly a trip to Copenhagen).

If you're in easy reach of an airport which offers budget airlines and you could manage a few days with just hand luggage, there are some great deals to be had, even flying in the school holidays.

pavlovs_dog

went to a!di today to do the weekly shop. I'm pleased to say that there have been no food spends since the 29th December. Whilst we haven't necessarily eaten the meals I posted, all meals over that week have come from things we already had in. Having meal planned around what is already in the stores, we needed little beyond milk, fruit and salad. We managed to stick largely to the plan, spending £16.52 which is a big improvement on the end of 2013 were we were routinely spending £30-40 a week.

Plan is as follows

Tonight - Chicken burgers with sweet and new potato wedges, salad
Sun - Veggie chilli and rice
Mon - Chicken Pad Thai
Tues - Tuna pasta bake
Weds - Chicken curry and rice
Thurs - Tuna pasta bake (Tuesday's leftovers)
Fri - Fish, chips and peas

In an ideal world, I'd like to make it to the end of the week with no further food spends. We may possible end up needing more milk/salad, but I'd rather buy those as an when than buy to much and waste money through throwing spoilt food away.

We are *slowly* getting much better at reducing food wastage, e.g. freezing things in smaller portions so that we can take out what we need as we need it.

Another step... as I collect my receipts, I'm looking to see whether it is feasible for us as a 2 person household to do 2 big £40 shops with the end of the month a!di vouchers. Costing up things we buy regularly and seeing if I can meal plan around them, so that weekly shops would be smaller, top up shops.

Alchemilla

Well done on the meal planning.

kansaskitty

£16.52 weekly shop is good going, fab news.

Alcehmilla, yes we decided AVCs too.

pavlovs_dog

decluttering (read: procrastinating, should be doing back to school stuff) and found an envelope containing £110. I Have absolutely no idea what it was from or how long it had been there, but as we obviously hadn't missed it I've OP'd it to the mortgage.

I agree with the principle of the baby steps in theory, and will be looking at them more closely over the coming weeks. I need to get quotes for work we need done to the house (all boring stuff that will make no cosmetic difference but could cost in the region of £5k). This will make a big dent in the savings. Not necessarily a bad thing, as I have long since lost track of how much was supposed to be in each savings 'pot' so effectively wiping the lot out and starting from scratch would allow for renewed focus and savings vigour.

there is much I ought to being doing but really can't be bothered. Hopefully getting back into a routine will bring some motivation with it. Back to school always feels like the official start of the new year in many ways.

pavlovs_dog

just had an email to say that one of my lessons tomorrow is being hijacked by a careers talk. One less lesson to plan.

lunch partially made.

have joined nectar adpoints and am behind target on swagbucks. suffice to say procrastination is still going well