Biting the Bullet - Shortie's MFW Diary

Shortie

Hello:wave:

I've umm'd and ahh'd quite a while now about starting a MFW diary but something just feels like the 'right' time to start it now. I read other people MFW and DFW diaries as I find them very inspiring, but I don't want to gatecrash someone else's diary with my own waffle so I'll give my own a shot in the hope that it will help to keep me on track.

About our situation..

We bought our current house nearly 2 years ago now. We knew it was a do-er up-er and we knew it would take a while to get in a position to do her up. At the tail end of last year we became debt free which was a fantastic feeling, however we have had some big spends this year which have stopped me from so far overpaying the mortgage. These were things like a cruise (we do these very rarely as they are sooo expenive), replaced the aged boiler (what a god send that has been), had a large one-off medical bill.

When we first viewed this house, we knew we would need to do something with an area that we call the 'annex'. It's attached to the main house, is single brick (so freezing in winter) and a very awkward layout. We can't take internal walls out of it though as they are supporting the concrete roof. That'll be the concrete roof that we realised in our first winter has a bad leak :eek:. We also have a tiny kitchen (with about half a meter of work top space) and had planned to try and incorporate that into the annex space until we realised we couldn't change the layout of it

So, fast forwarding to now - we are in the process of pre-planning with plans to knock down the annex, and build an extenionsion from front to back and a little bit into the garden. We've also planned for a bedroom in the roof of the extension. It will give us a 4th double bedroom in the roof space, a lovely big kitchen, a utility room in what is now our kitchen, and a play room / 5th double bedroom / guest room down downstairs.

We don't have the savings for the extension work but we should have enough equity to pay for the building work with a remortgage. I then want to overpay the increased mortgage. I also want to take the opportunity to knock the term of the mortgage down from 28 to 25 years at the point of the remortgage

At the moment I have the following plans: Save the rest of the plans / planning money, then save up the fees for the remortgage, then save up as much as possible as I'm hoping to hit the next mortgage at 85% LTV rather than nearer 90% LTV
There are things I can do to help save, but I can sometimes wander off the budget and I'm hoping that keeping a diary will help keep me on track and also to track my progress. I have the electricity and house insurance due for renewal in October (ie timed to when we moved in to the house). I know I can get these cheaper as I've already checked, and I seem to have slipped back into buying food at work so that needs to stop as it's outstanding how much of a dent that can make on your pocket!

So, current saving goals are:

Building plans fees: £800
Remortgage fees: £1,500 (estimated, and not actually needed until some point in 2015)

Then onto saving up to overpay the current mortgage before we remortgage

Take a deep breath Shortie and bring.. it.. on..

muddywhitechicken

Welcome to MFW Shortie :wave:

Shortie wrote: »

...I seem to have slipped back into buying food at work so that needs to stop as it's outstanding how much of a dent that can make on your pocket!

I'm with you on this one!

MWCx

Shortie

I love your username MWC xx - did that come from a muddy white chook? We have chooks, though they are varying shades of brown. You can still see clearly that they get muddy when it's damp though :rotfl:

muddywhitechicken

Shortie wrote: »

- did that come from a muddy white chook?

Yes! I was trying to think of a username and I looked out of the window and saw Miss Betty

She did like to dust bathe and then stand out in the rain...

BookWorm

Hi Shortie

Welcome to MFW and best of luck with your plans

BW

catshark88

:beer: Best of luck in your MFW journey!

Shortie

Thanks for the good luck BookWorm and catshark88 :-)


Awww, bless Miss Betty MWC. I see on your diary that your chooks are still laying eggs - ours have not done very well so far (a new batch of ex-batts earlier this year). Fingers crossed they'll perk up at some point and give us some more eggs..!




OOohh I'm going to feel this late night tomorrow. A busy weekend seems to have left me unable to switch off. And I don't see to be able to use the smilies in my post for some reason


So, a little bit of progress - following pay day on Friday, I have moved some money across to the savings for the architect fees. There was already a bit in there but it's now been rounded off to £300


It was my birthday over the weekend and I was spoilt with some lovely bits: some money from my folks that mostly paid for a Kindle (I've downloaded my first free book to read on the train) I only needed to pay £10 towards the Kindle, plus Mr Shortie spotted a reduced cover in a gorgeous cover for £1.85 - woo hoo! Mr Shortie paid for a one off local drawing class for me on Saturday for £5, and he got me a couple of books (a British Bake Off one, and a Jamie Oliver book). The children ordered me the Jack Monroe book out of some money they hadn't spent out of some online vouchers which should be here in a few days - very frugal of them!


I picked, prepped, blanched and froze lots of runner beans today, and swapped a couple of big handfuls with a friend for one of their butternut squashes


Made some cookies and rock cakes for lunches and snacks. Mmmm


Ooohh, and I made a tomato and lentil soup for work tomorrow - hope it tastes okay! I bought in some el cheapo soup for my drawer at work in not thought, lol. I also made up a tub of 'instant' porridge for breakfasts at work.


Here's to hoping I can keep the discipline up :-)


This weekend summary:
Total of £300 in savings account
Free Pride & Prejudice downloaded to the Kindle
Tomato & lentil soup made up for work this week
Instant porridge mixed up ready for breakfasts at work

TimmySaver

Happy Birthday for the other day. I hope you had a good one.

I like your summary, I might try to do something similar on my diary.

Shortie

Thanks TimmySaver

Regarding the summary, I'm hoping that if I can sumarise occasionally (maybe once a week?) then it's a good way if I read back to see the key things amoungst the rest of the post

While I'm here though, Im currently having my lunch of the cheap tomato and lentil soup (recipe here: http://www.cheaprecipeblog.com/2013/01/the-10-food-day-tomato-and-lentil-soup-recipe/) and I'm really surprised at how nice it is. I didn't blend it so it's a very chunky lumpy soup, and I added LOTS more water than it suggested (unless I misread the recipe that is) but it's a lovely thick rib-sticking soup. I'm hoping it'll keep the 3-4pm hunger pangs at bay as it has a good amount of protein in it from the lentils And if I get the severe munchies, I have a rock cake with me. Mmmm

Greying_Pilgrim

Ay up shortie - found ya

Just coming to

:j:j:j:j:j:j:j up and down a little and wish you well on your journey

Greying

Gingerfell

Shortie wrote: »

replaced the aged boiler (what a god send that has been)

How old was the old boiler and how much was it to replace (if you don't mind me asking) - was it a combi, or hot water tank job?

Our boiler is a 14 yr old combi and i'm wondering if it's getting to that time.. BGas still keeps servicing it tho. However, I wonder if there's some savings to be had.