10 Year MF Mission

Newme2014

Hi, can't help with the pic but just wanted to say congrats on all the OPs, looks like it's going really well!

helmetbetty

Well, I've tried and tried to get a photo up of our chickens - but I just cannot get it to work, so here's a direct link to my flickr stream - if you look through it there are a couple of photos of the chickens on there:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/120942726@N06/

While I'm here, there will be £500 OP going across on monday or tuesday - only just managed it this month - car needed new glow plugs and quite a bit of christmas shopping too, so very pleased we still managed our full target amount! Phew!

helmetbetty

Phew! That's Christmas gone for another year. Went really well, and none of us went without, the kids all got a nice selection and we both got some lovely things too. Food was good and although we had been more conservative with the food shopping, we didn't miss the bits we didn't get. Who needs tons of chocolate anyway!!

Back to the task in hand, OP of £500 sent over to the mortgage yesterday, haven't yet worked out our remaining balance, but seeing as we're on target, it can't be bad!

Was a bit tight for a while, the car needed a new starter motor, Christmas shopping etc but we stuck to our budget in other areas and all was well!

Only worry for next month is the car tax is due end of January, but I think that's the only non-standard outgoing, so we should be ok!

Hope everyone else had a good Christmas - now it's just the new year to get out of the way and then it's time to start getting the garden ready for the new growing season. (Although I have already sown the onions & leeks today, but they need starting early)

That's about it for now, Thanks for reading.

HB

Debtfreefreedom

Hi Helmetbetty, you sound very focused. Good luck for 2015 in reaching your MF goals.

helmetbetty

Thanks, Debtfreefreedom, I think it's more of an obsession! However, it's actually quite good fun aswell, as quite often there is a cheaper solution to a problem or need, it just needs hunting out! Charity shops are fantastic also, there's some really good stuff in some of them!

My favourite has to be growing our own food, and our own free range eggs too! The nice thing is that if I grow a few extra plants, they sell easily and have then paid for my seeds & compost, so other than our time & effort, it's cost us nothing! And its very relaxing & rewarding too - I recommend it to anyone!

helmetbetty

Well, another month has gone by, and we managed £500 again, which is excellent. However, our 35 year old back boiler finally gave up big style this month (spilled itself everywhere!!) and was declared to be an ex-boiler by our plumber - so we've had to have a whole new combi boiler installed (why do boilers always break when its freezing cold?!)

On the plus side, it should save us money on our gas bill, but it was about £2.5k plus VAT (still waiting for the final price) so that will eat into our emergency savings. It is my hope to slowly replenish the savings whilst still keeping our target OP each month, but we'll have to see how it goes, and if anything else drastic happens we may have to cut back the OPs for a few months. Will have to just see how things pan out.

Also, sadly, hit a deer on the way to work this week, was pretty nasty and it has cracked my bumper and smashed one of the foglights, but the bumper can stay cracked and a used foglight is only about £15 on ebay and can fit that myself, so luckily not an expensive repair.

Thats about it now (oh, wait - I did win £25 on the premium bonds - Yay!!)

See you next month

HB

PopcootMFW

Oooh, ouch! That was an expense you could have done without! Well done on it lasting 35yrs. Sounds like you had your monies worth there. Well do e on still managing the OP

helmetbetty

Sorry I missed a months update, things got rather busy. My Mum got rushed into hospital and we were back and forth to visit her and sort things out. Wasn't good news unfortunately but she is at least back home now, and she lives nice and local to us so much easier to pop and see her each day.

Februarys OP was £450, so a bit lower than ideal, but it was my fault, as I managed to drop a whole 2.5l can of red emulsion over our carpet (and myself!) It actually washed out of my clothes pretty well, but the carpet was completely ruined, so we had to get a new one! Luckily we managed to get an end of roll for about half its original price, so still got a bargain. Still, could have done without it!

March's OP was much better, sent it off today and we managed £550 so have effectively got back onto target. Nothing went wrong this month, and it was lovely after our past few months run of bad luck!

Lets see what April brings. I get stamps for doing the Royal Mail surveys, and I have loads saved up, so they're going on ebay soon, must be about £100 worth, at face value, so hopefully they will go for a fair amount, which will help. Plus, no birthdays this month either, though eldest needs new school shirts and shoes.

Think that's it.

HB

helmetbetty

Seems I forgot last month again - Sorry to whoever may read this, if anybody!

Had a good couple of months, no unexpected expenses, and things have just been rolling along as normal. Been busy in the garden, most plants are now raging along and getting bigger (as are the weeds), had our first lot of radishes and looks like we'll have a tomato or two soon, aswell as a cucumber that's getting fatter by the day. All saves us a bit of money.

As for the mortgage OP - managed the full target amount both in april and may, so we're still on target over 1 year in (only 8 years and 11 months left!)

Not much more to say - time flies by but things seem to stay pretty constant, which if fine by me.

Off to read a good book now.

Till next time.

HB