Finally concentrating on becoming MF

hoglet121

Hi everyone

We continue on in our small frugal ways, nothing particularly exciting but it squirrels away little bits of cash. the fridges and freezers we all off in our usual supermarket yesterday so most of the shop was done there and then topped up at another place. found a couple of marked down goods there too (we don't get the wonderful yellow stickers here, with the exception of bread products which we're trying not to eat!) including some washing powder almost 50% off for having a slightly damaged box and a huge box of chocolates left over from valetines day which were 75% off. To aid the diet but to feel like we still have a little treat every so often we buy bags of miniature slabs of chocolate and have 1 as pudding a couple of times a week, so the box of chocolates will be used for this. We never have any other form of pudding so it does work

a few more tilly tidies (i find it addictive and do it almost after every spend) and the savings account has finally jumped to the next $100.

our household has grown by another cat too...... we were adopted by a kitten last weekend and have had no luck finding any owners. he just turned up in our garden. he's a dear little thing and has got us wrapped round his little paw very quickly

H x

hoglet121

Hi all,

we're still here honest, just having some internet troubles. more batch cooking this weekend, got chicken gumbo and chicken and cowboy beans in the freezer, also more corn chowder, spicy miso soup and mexican tomato soup all packed up ready for the week.

electricity bill is $40 cheaper than last month too!

hoglet121

Morning :-)

A gorgeous day here, trying to cling onto summer for a s long as possible.

NSD have been going well, I find once I put my mind to it they're easy to do. The best bit is checking the bank balance and seeing that it hasn't gone down at all.

more homemade soups for lunch, and a chicken curry defrosting in the fridge for dinner. batch cooking's pretty addictive now I've got into it (and managed to get round to labeling things so dinner is less of a potluck experience).

Have to confess that the saving is not going that well - it's definitely going better than it was in the past, but still $150 a week, when I'd like to be putting in $400. I know that's still good progress but I'm sure there are more savings to be made. I've been an avid reader of the sneaky ways to save the pennies thread... and consequently all soaps and washing up liquids have been diluted. Surprise surprise, everything is still getting clean! Will be getting some soda crystals at the weekend, but they're over $4 here so not quite the bargain they are in the UK.

We have been adopted by a little kitten so had some extra vet bills recently. He's an absolutely dear little thing tho, and has had a bit of a rough start to life as the end of his tail is broken. The other cats are slowly coming round to his presence.

Hoglet x

hoglet121

Hello :-)

Have been very bad on the diet this week - failed yesterday entirely, but today is a new day :-) Despite some new rugby boots for DH, we were able to put $150 into savings again this week, on top of all the Tilly Tidies. The weather is predicted to be disgusting this weekend (catching the end of an ex-cyclone) so it will keep us indoors at least. Weekly shop was reasonable but I do have an extra butcher trip planned...

The rubber chicken is doing very well each week. A colleague yesterday told me what he paid for 2 chicken breasts that fed his family for 1 meal. When I said I paid the same for a whole chook which fed us for 3 meals and 3 lunches each, in addition to extra pickings from the carcass, he was a bit surprised.

Work bonus due soon which will swell the savings a little extra. Interest rates have just gone up here so putting extra cash into the mortgage at renewal in October is an absolute necessity now, not a nice to have. We were expecting the rate rise so it's not a shock, but definitely concentrates the mind on the savings. I have a little note stuck in my purse that says 'mortgage free' so every time I open it I'm reminded of our goal and I think it helps curb unnecessary spending.

hoglet121

Weekend has gone too fast. Freezer is full so no batch cooking required - will get back to it next weekend. Was going to write a full update but having more spam posted on the thread hasn't really put me in the mood to.

Habibiboo

hoglet121 wrote: »

Hello :-)

Have been very bad on the diet this week - failed yesterday entirely, but today is a new day :-) Despite some new rugby boots for DH, we were able to put $150 into savings again this week, on top of all the Tilly Tidies. The weather is predicted to be disgusting this weekend (catching the end of an ex-cyclone)

I have a little note stuck in my purse that says 'mortgage free' so every time I open it I'm reminded of our goal and I think it helps curb unnecessary spending.

:wave:

Hope the weather wasn't too grot and didn't ruin your harvest in the garden!

Great idea about the note, certainly keeps your focus on the main goal! Sounds like you're doing fine though!

hoglet121

thanks Habibiboo :-) thats made me feel better

hoglet121

Just a very quick update to say I'm still really pushing to blitz the mortgage - current goal has come forward dramatically to having it gone in 6 years. Serious saving going on here, but cannot wait until we're MF!

hoglet121

Another update from us....

Apologies for not keeping up with this diary - I hang out on the OS board everyday, so I am keeping up with my goal, just dont have a huge amount to report as it all becomes rather monotinous...

First fixed term for the mortgage is up in just under 2 weeks. Called into the bank to discuss re-fixing it, and when they sent through the repayment details I was sure I wasn't getting what I'd intended.

Made another call this morning and restructured the home loan - I've set up a regular overpayment within the terms of the loan as well as paying in a contribution.

Mortgage calculator indicates that I've saved us just under $100K in interest payments and the mortgage will be paid off 6 years sooner. Still a long way to go to get me anywhere close to my 6 year target but I'll take a $100K saving anyday.

hoglet121

Hi

Finally completed the mortgage restructure this morning - it was fairly painful in the end - usual story of being told one thing by one person in the call centre and then the complete opposite by someone else

We've changed our repayment structure to fortnightly and built in overpayments of approx $200 per month. Not huge but has had a big impact on our predicted MF date

Now to keep saving to add in more cash when this fixed term is due up (1 year)

Onwards and upwards :-)