Sayuri's MFW Journey

Sayuri

:eek: I'm going to do it!

I've read some amazing success stories on this forum, very inspiring! So much so that I've decided that I will aspire to become mortgage-free. :j

I have a long journey ahead of me. While some find satisfaction in going full-on and tightening every belt there is, I still want to reserve some luxuries, we only live once after all!

It will be slow progress, my husband and I have a low joint income (for now), and two children under four years old. We already have a mortgage on our current home which is very comfortable, and with enough space (only just!), but would like to buy a "forever home" now.

So the plan is:
1. Save an emergency fund
2. Save enough to cover expenses of moving/buying/selling
3. Sell up and buy the Forever-Home
4. Start overpaying that mortgage
5. Morgage FREE!

I know all the areas I need to brush up on to get the cash flowing in the right direction, but thought I'd like a little diary to keep me motivated and document my progress

muddywhitechicken

Hello Sayuri - welcome to MFW :wave:

juststuff123

Good Luck!:j

skint_spice

Good luck on your journey!

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Welcome to the MFW madhouse . Great bunch of massively supportive people who have loads of advice.

Good luck with your plans.

Best wishes Tilly x x x x

Watty1

Welcome to the journey ... diaries really do seem to help with the motivation to hang on in there.

Sayuri

Thanks all for the encouragement and welcome :T

I've had a bit of a think and seeing as I'm starting off at zero, £500 seems like a good place to start for an "emergency fund". At the moment all spare pennies are going towards petrol/spending/food for a family holiday in a couple of weeks which has already been booked and paid for. So the real saving will start when everything is all tied up with that. I'd like to say I'd scrimp and save but we don't get to go on holiday all the time so there will be a few treats of icecream and buckets & spades :rotfl:

Off to a good MFW start though. My biggest downfall is takeaway food and I resisted the urge to get one last night. Tuesdays are our equivalent of Saturday nights, as we work through the traditional weekend.

Our car breakdown cover was due for renewal soon, at a whopping £200, so we switched to the competition with a reduction of £81, and then £37.50 cashback on top of that :beer: although a bit annoyed that the cashback won't be paid til October (!)

edinburgher

Welcome aboard

As a gentle start to cutting the takeaways, going cold turkey may not work. I've found that the big supermarkets can usually manage a couple of close approximations for takeaway food. These are a good bit cheaper and might be a way to cut back a bit without missing out entirely?

As an example, we can get some Chinese starters, crispy beef, rice and pop from Asda for about £6-7, vs. the £14-16 we'd pay our local Chinese :money:

We all like a treat from time to time.

Sayuri

That's a really good idea, thank you.

I'm intending on trying to learn how to cook some dishes myself too, so possibly batch cook and pop things in the freezer. It is nice to be able to just stick something in the microwave though

Sayuri

I've done some number crunching and set out some budgets:

• Clothing for the kids. They're very young so get through a lot. I'm too used to just buying things "because they look cute" and need to be more realistic about what they actually need.
• Spending money for myself. Less of the guilt to have a weekly allowance, and become more mindful of what I buy for myself.
• "Entertainment" budget. We don't do enough as a family but if I have a budget for it quality of life will improve but we won't go overboard.
• Holiday fund. It's always optional to actually go on holiday but I'd like less of the last minute scrimping that I'm doing right now. If we decide not to go, the money can go into whatever is being saved towards.
• Christmas. I never save for it and it always creeps up on me.

I'll be setting up some e-savings accounts attached to my main account so it'll be easy to shuffle the money around as and when it's needed.

I've worked out it leaves me with around £100 (in theory) at the end of the month, which will be what goes towards my goals. It's not a lot, but it's a start

Sayuri

MOT and service was done today. £99 for both, I'm not sure if that's good or not. DH was adamant he wanted to use a particular garage so I found a voucher for £49 off, so at least we saved that much. Still, it had already been budgeted and saved for throughout the year.

Also got some free "samples" of toddler pullups in the post for my eldest who still uses them at bedtime. They came with some vouchers for £1 off, so have three of those to use next time I need to stock up.