Janey's Journey to Becoming a MFW

smallholdingsister

"I can call you Betty, and Betty when you call me you can caaaaalll meeee Al"!

The paperwork is a whole nother job.

ljaneyr

Hello everyone :wave:

It's about time for an end of year update! DH was paid last week and so I've got all our savings sorted and new spreadsheets started for 2016.

In general it's been a bit of a roller coaster of a year: we got married in May, had an amazing honeymoon but lost my father-in-law very suddenly last month. It's fair to say we are looking forward to 2016 and a fresh start.

In terms of finances:

• Our wedding cost less than £6500 and was all paid before before the day
• Our honeymoon was all carefully budgeted and paid for before we left
• We finished saving for our house renovation, got all the relevent planning and started work on the house in August :eek:
• Our emergency fund is now at £7000 :T
• We are saving £200 per month for a new-to-us car which we plan to buy in 2017 or 2018 (DH almost bought a new car when he went to pick ours up from the garage last week )
• All our savings are now going towards the 'future' and whatever that holds...

We were able to save 42% of what we earned this year

Unfortunately our 'future' looks like it's going to involve a referral to the fertility clinic in January which is why I'm not setting any goals or plans for our savings. If only my crystal ball was working... I hate uncertainty and things definitely feel as if they're on hold at the moment.

However, 2016 is a whole new year and who knows what might happen? :rotfl:

slowlyfading

Lovely to "see" you, so to speak! I'm sorry to hear you need a referral to a fertility clinic; I hope you get things sorted sooner rather than later. 42% savings rate is great!

ljaneyr

Thanks SF, I have to admit to feeling very fed up about the whole thing. It's not good for a control freak!

Watty1

Sorry about the referral bit too... that has to be hard and uncertain.

slowlyfading

ljaneyr wrote: »

Thanks SF, I have to admit to feeling very fed up about the whole thing. It's not good for a control freak!

Keep plodding, will keep everything crossed for you xx

ljaneyr

Thanks watty and sf

I wasn't sure whether to write about it on here but it's been horrible keeping it a secret when it's all I can think about at times!


Anyway, payday for me today and the last of the money shuffles done

Money transferred to our holiday pot, new car pot and the Future fund. We are trying to spend as little as possible for the time being, I always save well in January.

I'm currently snuggled up with the dogs on the sofa and feeling quite rough. I think I've got a cold on the way but it's taking it's time!

Going to have a little read of some diaries and maybe another chocolate

Goldiegirl

ljaneyr wrote: »

Thanks SF, I have to admit to feeling very fed up about the whole thing. It's not good for a control freak!

As a fellow control freak, it's hell, when something can't be planned and happen when you want it to happen


Sounds like it's been a mixed year, but you've achieved an awful lot.


All the very best for 2016

ljaneyr

_party_:hello: Happy New Year :hello:_party_

I spent New Years Eve watching DH's band and chatting with a good friend - had an excellent night

We just attempted a walk on the beach but it was so unbearably windy and raining sideways that we gave up. I'm now drinking hot choc in my PJs and settling in for the evening

ljaneyr

I have been thinking over some goals for the new year. I'm not a fan of resolutions but it's nice to have goals to focus on and look back over. Hmmm...I wonder if I made any last year? Better check!


I've decided to focus on three areas: health, happiness and the future.

Health
This has been a focus for a while so:

• I want to continue with my pilates and yoga.
• I would like to carry on walking as much as possible.
• My main focus for this year is food. I want to get to grips with menu planning again and eating more home cooked food. Key to this is the fact that I'm having an extra day off this year so I'll have more time. DH does most of our cooking but I do all the planning.
• Cycling - our Christmas present to ourselves this year was a bike carrier so we can get out and use our bikes more. It's still in the box as the weather is :eek:

Happiness
I've always been a real worrier and I can be a bit 'glass half empty' at times so I want to make an effort to focus on and highlight the good things in my life.

• I'm going to try to keep a gratitude diary and update on here from time to time.
• Try to maintain a more positive outlook as much as possible. It can happen for us!
• I'd also like to investigate mindfulness.
• Experiences - we have a couple of long weekends booked in which I would like to keep doing despite the building work taking up all of our time.

Future
DH and I have discussed our longer term plans for the future and know where we would like to be in 10 and/or 20 years time. However, for now we feel quite uncertain about what will happen for us, so we are simply focusing on building up our savings to put us in the best possible position for whatever happens.

• I will be earning an average of £96 less per month but would still like to aim to save as much as in 2015. This should be possible for one reason - we don't have a wedding and honeymoon to pay for this year!
• Our first step will be to open a FD regular saver each and carry on keeping the rest of our savings in our 123 current account.
• DH also promises to try to reign in his spending a bit...