Hope is not an Effective Financial Strategy

shangaijimmy

Diamonds, OCC and ATB - ive PM'd you a spreadsheet template to download. Hopefully its worked, if not just holler (i've had some problems with the site today).

Enjoy the permutations you can generate and good luck.

SJ

atypicalblonde

Thank you SJ x

shangaijimmy

Back with a bang into work today with a nice 11hr day!! At least it resulted in a NSD :beer:

Managed to get our post hols banking done and pleased to say that we came in £67 under budget. Despite the temptation to send it to the mortgage i reshuffled it to savings for our next trip. To ease the pain of resistance i tilly tidied £2.63 to mortgage instead :rotfl:!

I did spend 5mins on my own spreadsheet at lunch whilst i was playing around with a template for OCC, ATB & Diamonds and was pleasantly impressed with our progress. After Friday's end of month accounts we'll have overpaid more that £2.5k in just 5 months with a net reduction of £4.9k. :j

Importantly we're averaging out now at a monthly reduction of £930 which i know will start to climb steadily as with every month we're reducing daily interest by 5p. The 'snowball' effect is becoming evident.

Mrs SJ's pay rise is due this month which is all going against the mortgage and will be approximately £15 per month. Despite baby number 3 on the horizon we're continuing to work on our same budgets. Mrs SJ will also get a bonus this month of about £300 which will comfortably cover a pram, new car seat and decorating for the nursery (this is all we need to buy).

So i'm eager for the weekend to post our monthly accounts and once the exact figure of pay rise is confirmed (Friday) I can amend my spreadsheet forecasts

debtfreeoneday

All sounding good and highly organised in here as usual! Boo to the 11 hr day though

shangaijimmy

Thanks debtfree, glad it sounds organised as it sometimes seems like i'm teetering on chaos! The good thing about my 11hr Monday is that i sleep like the dead, then i have a day off on Tuesday (day to myself and mini schnauzer, other than school hols period) :j

I do confess i have absolutely no plans today to occupy the kids :eek:. I'm usually very much a dad that does outside on bikes, then the park, then the garden, then exploring in the woods, followed by bikes/scooters/go karts. But with a forecast for heavy rain, possible thunder and the odd spot of Sun i'm definitely at a loss! So i'm typing this having a brew whilst DS2 is eating breakfast and DS1 is playing on his Wii U, hoping for inspiration :search:

Whatever we decide i'm aiming for another NSD though.

Mrs SJ has left me with a long list of jobs

• Finish off unpacking and washing
• Try to get stuff dried
• Defrost the freezer
• Put clean clothes away
• "Anything else you think needs doing" - now thats a loaded question...

So if anyone has anything inspirational to do with the kids in the pouring rain that gives me a valid reason to avoid doing any jobs, please don't be shy in volunteering your thoughts...

Last thing - OCC, ATB and Diamonds how have you found the spreadsheet? Any suggestions for additions to it?

atypicalblonde

I would crack on with that list if I were you SJ - if Mrs SJ is anything like me hell hath no fury like a woman who comes home to an unfinished job list


Rainy days are such a pain with kids. We mainly do baking, crafting and watch Disney films when its chucking it down. Will be playing around with the spreadsheet this afternoon, i'll report back x

shangaijimmy

Washing done. Drying happening but the heavens aren't helping!! Freezer cleared switched off, time itself is now in charge of that job. A decent start I'd say!!

[Deleted User]

shangaijimmy wrote: »

Washing done. Drying happening but the heavens aren't helping!! Freezer cleared switched off, time itself is now in charge of that job. A decent start I'd say!!

Got a few jobs needing done here too

NewGirl

Hi All

I've been dipping in and out of this thread for a week or two now and it has given me the motivation to make overpayments on my mortgage where I can - and as much as I can before my low fixed rate comes to an end.

Ideas so far are
- Pay rise which is due next month (might be £60 ish)
- Bank interest / rewards / Top Cash Back
- Reimbursement of expenses at work (I think I can easily absorb these)
- I've also applied for a new bank account with free money (£100ish?)

Hope you've come up with some ideas for today - I think the films idea is a good one. Looks like a duvet day out there.

I was also hoping you wouldnt mind sharing your spreadsheet with me? I think it would be good motivation and I do love a spreadsheet lol.

shangaijimmy

NewGirl - thanks for popping in. Whenever i get that email pop that someone has replied to my diary it really does motivate me to keep going, So whilst you get motivation from reading i certainly get it from people popping in.

My best advice is to work your budget and then allocate a certain percentage to mortgage, savings, everyday spends and treats. Then stick to it. We work on 1/3 of income goes to mortgage, therefore any payrises we then split it 1/3 etc...

Anyway I've PM's you the link, so play around with it and see what you think and if it works. I've also got another template for making targets, which i'll send over as well.

Enjoy, and thanks again for visiting.

SJ