Mrs Ninja's Secret Plan

Miss_Moneysaver

Hi,


My husband has no idea what money we have, what bills we pay. He would be totally lost if something happened to me one day!
I like to meal plan as it helps to keep things organised. I usually pin my meal plan to the inside of the kitchen cupboard so hubby knows what to do for tea if he is in first. If I have a freezer/fridge full of food he still has no idea what to do...hence why the 'meal plan' first appeared in our house (although, I find it a brilliant way to cut down the food bill).

mrsninja

I've brought a big scribble diary and I'm keeping all account numbers etc in that so that my husband can find things easily if he ever needs too. Not that I want to tempt fate!

My DH can cook so we usually plan meals for the week and then whoever gets home first just picks something to cook off the plan. I agree it saves lots of money and also stops us wasting food.

mrsninja

Weekly update and not much doing really!

All our payments come out of the bank on the 1st, but that won't be till tomorrow as it's a Sunday so got to wait till then to get a better idea of what overpayment I can aim for this month. All meals planned as usual and used up vouchers in A!di and L!DL to stock up the freezer. DH is happy as I got him some steak and it also means he doesn't think I'm being too frugal.

My car MOT is due in two weeks, but that comes out of my own account. Hoping it will go though with not much expense, but probably needing a new one this year and already planned and saved for it. It's older than my sixth form students so it's doing well.

mrsninja

Long time no post. Car broke and it is now officially dead and off to the car park in the big sky! It's meant lots of money in bus fare etc and now a new car. My car was 19 years old though so can't complain too much! :T

Still on track for an overpayment this month though and grocery challenge going well.

lavinia21

sorry to hear about the car hope a new one hasn't cost you too much.

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

What did you decide to do about the finance, ninja?

pollyanna24

mrsninja wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. In answer to your posts: Yep, I'm aiming to put another £100 a month in- more on good months. Our overpayments are limited to £8660 a year, but I don't think we'll get near that.

We had a 35 year term to start off with as we were first time buyers so it's just carried on from there. I was going to shorten it to 25 years but the advice I read was that it was easier to shorten mortgage terms, but harder to lengthen them again?

I'm glad I'm not the only one with a '1950's housewife' husband! :rotfl:I always feel like I'm badmouthing him when I say he doesn't do anything with the finances, but he doesn't really(!) We both have individual accounts and pay the same into a joint account each month. Out of the joint comes all of the bills and food. Then whatever we have in our individual accounts is our own.

Good luck with all the overpaying. Just wondered if anyone could clarify if it is harder to lengthen a mortgage term than it is to shorten it?

mrsninja

Hi,


As I said my car was 19 years old (older than most of my students!), that said I was hoping it would make it to 20. It was left to me in a relatives will and that is the most upsetting part as I feel like I have lost my last connection to him. The scrap dealers were very nice about it and said to view it as 'organ donation' and let me keep a number plate.


I had been saving up in anticipation of it, but it just came a bit too early. I have 8k in savings and found a car I wanted at 7.5k. I know it is the upper end of my budget and maybe I should have waited, but having only half term to sort it out (otherwise 30 mile round trip each day to work and £10 a day in bus fares) it seems the best thing to do. The car itself is 5 year old and has only done 6k miles, so I'm expecting it to last as long as this one has.


Moneywise, I went slightly against peoples advice... :embarasse


DH and I talked about what we need this year- damp proofing is number one on our list- and added up a total budget with some contingency. With that I looked back through finances and spent most of the night fretting over it and figuring it out.


In the end I have gone for spending 5k out of my savings, leaving me with 3k and a bank loan for 2.5k. I went to the bank and checked it all out, so I can pay it off as quick as I want with only 30 days interest penalty on what is owed when I make the final payment. So, the task is now to clear it by Christmas and I feel confident in doing this.


I have never had a loan in my life, and it was a scary prospect and it is not going to be a slippery slope. Everyone around me just treats credit as acceptable, whereas I'm worried! I'm pretty sure I asked every question going in the bank. I know I have borrowed money and it will cost me more that I will earn on my savings, but it leaves me with more wiggle room and I feel better having some money left in my savings. I have already started the ball rolling to claim my car tax back, I emptied the pennies jar today and I found a grand total of £3.21 when clearing out my old car!


Sorry for the long post, but hope that explains it all and I am still determined to be mortgage free!

Luckyinlife

Great stuff you had the car so long what was the milage when you got rid of it ?
Im in the same situation myself actually sold a car to free up funds not trying to find one i like for a fixed budget :]

Nice blog/diary

mrsninja

Hi


luckyinlife- It has still only done 71k when I got rid of it. It was just too much welding to be done and it was going to need new brakes within 6 months too. It was deemed better to plough the money into a new one than keep paying for this. Also as it was so old that it was hard to get parts for and so it meant I was off the road for days while the garage sourced them. My DH also pointed out it wasn't exactly full of safety features and he was worried if I had a crash in it. I think he was just worried as he wouldn't have a clue about the banking...;)


pollyanna24- I don't know about how easy/hard it is, but that was what I read (can't remember where!) This is the first time I have had to re-mortgage after our fix ended, so I went with that advice for now. I can always shorten the term later on when I fix again in a few years time.


Mortgage free wise I have just made this month's sneaky overpayment. I hope that as I have a loan now though, that I am not banished from the mortgage free board!