Irish MFW Girl

Fancynancy77

Hello
I'm a long time lurker on these threads. I've decided to journal my journey to becoming MFW

Story so far.
I have an apt in Dublin that I bought in 2003 when I was 25.
Mortgage at highest was Euro 229K.
I've had varying life experiences since then. Married 2007, Child (DD) 2008, Seperated 2010 divorced 2015 Now I'm with my new partner since late 2011 and we are expecting a baby together.

My marriage (to a closet high end compulsive gambler) left me on the bones of my backside financially but I've gotten back on my feet and have managed to make some OP's on my mortgage.

In 2010 I moved back to the countryside where I'm from and got a decent job (easier doing single parent thing with family support)
I pay low rent on property I'm in. My apt is rented out and finally washing it's own face. Rental income is declared to Revenue.


So my mortgage today stands at €131, 216 and I'm paying 3.99 SVR which is lowest SVR rate in Ireland at moment.

I have an emergency 8 months salary in a 7 day deposit account.


I have broken my payments up into 1000 payments of Euro130. I got the idea from here. It's a visible chart on my wall.
Euro130 is a very realistic amount to me. I can make it mean something e.g. today I was looking at a pair of shoes for 99euro and I thought to myself that's nearly a brick gone off my mortgage chart.
I'm motivated by small wins.

Op'ing is a palavar. I have to send a cheque and a letter everytime. So I tend to save and then OP a lump.

I'm currently on a self catering holiday with my DD age 6 and my partner. We have had lots of fun but not eating out really. So very MSE.

I've wanted to start this for months and have been inspired by Gallygirl, Newgirly etc.

Now as I stay out of the heat in the holiday home I have finally addressed the matter.

Those are my ramblings so far.

Oh should mention that I will get paid for 26 week of my Mat leave but will have 26 weeks unpaid also from March to Sept of next year so a challenge to juggle with MFWness.

My partner and I do share costs but after my previous marriage I'm reluctant to be "in for a penny in for a pound" with anybody ever again.

So we run a joint a/c where we contribute 1000euro each month to and I budget all our expenses. He pays for other extras too though :j

that's where I am to date

Nancy

muddywhitechicken

Welcome to MFW and good luck!

newgirly

Hi fancy Nancy, welcome to the mfw board. That sounds like a tough few years, I hope things are much more settled now for you, congratulations on the bump

StrawberryJam132

Hi Irish MFW Girl!

You obviously have your head screwed on financially. I like your idea of a visible wall chart, is it something you made yourself?

I'll be following your MF journey!

SJ x

Fancynancy77

hi Thanks. I will post a SOA when I get back home. I'm hammering out a budget this past year. I basically run an old fashioned envelope system for things like car insurance, back to school, vet bills etc. I only started in January and so far it's working well.

Strawberry Jam - yes i just printed out an A3 page with 1000 bricks on it, each with a value of 130 euro .

My partners laptop doesn't have the Euro sign. Drives me cuckoo.

MSE/Old style things today:
Use up the remainder of food we brought on holidays (we go home tomorrow)
Do a wash tonight and have dry before packing tomorrow.
Try harder to convince partner to let me sell his old windsurfing board before he buys a new one. Ebay not really a big thing over but I use a local selling site called Adverts.ie. It's a bidding site also.

That's it. I am on holiday.

Non-MSE.
I'm thinking of having a pedi done today. I had one done years ago. I'm 28 weeks and can't reach my toes.
I'll report back

Nancy

PrincessLou

Love the idea of dividing the mortgage into bricks...ShanghaiJimmy has a diary on this board and does a very similar thing - you should check his diary out.

Best of luck! :j

melanzana

Hi Nancy, best of luck in your venture to be MF, and congratulations on the impending baby.

You can type the € symbol (where there is none on the keyboard) by hitting Ctrl Alt and the $ symbol all together. I have the same problem!

Fancynancy77

Ah just made a long post disappear!!!

So we are home from holiday and all a bit crabby. My partner wanted to get take away but I reheated curry from freezer and boiled fresh rice. Was yummy.

Feeling a bit dejected on whole mortgage thing already. I got a letter saying I was being audited by Revenue for 2013 and 2014 for rental income. I've nothing to hide. It's just I feel like a criminal now. And I got a pension statement. It's pretty paltry.

I'm just a tired third trimester pregnant woman.

I've been reading diaries here and I see that I'm not the only one with a reluctant OH. As we were driving home today I said to OH I'd give him a hand cleaning out car. It's got lots of sand in it after holiday. He then picked up phone and booked it in for a €90 valet :eek:

Spends today included:
€12.60 at Subway
€26 on two tracksuits for DD
€15 case of beer for neighbour who looked after my precious moggies while we were away.


An expensive day by my standards.
Still I have a €10 off a €50 spend in Aldi that I will use tomorrow. Tesco also honour these vouchers.


I'm going on an overnight with my four sisters on Sunday night. It's €99 for one night dinner B & B. Rip off but we've not been away together in a year so we try to get around to it.

I am selling some matured shares at work and plan to use the proceeds as an overpayment.
My last OP was in July of 2014 when I OP'd 18,000. This July I want to OP €19,686. That's an OP of 15%.

So here's the breakdown:
I have €12,000 saved in OP a/c
I hope to get about €5000 from my shares

That leaves me with a shortfall of €2,686 on my 2015 target. So I don't know what will happen.

For anyone who read my previous posts about breaking my mortgage into 1000 bricks - you'll be fascinated to know that €19686 equates to 151 bricks :j

Maybe I'm crazy to put everything at the mortgage when I have 6 months unpaid Mat leave to consider.It's hard to know

Fancynancy77

So I'm going to type out my SOA.

Income Monthly

Salary - €3116
Child benefit - €135
Rental Income - 1250
DP - €1000 (he gives me a thousand and begs me not to ask him to talk about budgets - he just says if i need more just ask. He also pays for DD's swimming, horseriding and fuels up my car every time he gets into it)

Total = €5501

Child maintenance - €350 (this is very sporadic so to be honest i stopped counting this a year or so back - despite my ex-H earning twice what I do and his partner is a doctor)

Outgoings Monthly

Mortgage - €976
Property Maintenance Fee - €141
Tax on Rental Income - 256.41 ( now I can offset some of this but I'm remaining true to figure and will use any rebate as a bonus OP)
Rent - 550
Life assurance - 17.89
Gas - 115
Elec - 97
DD College fund - €100
Groceries - €250
Medication - €200 (this is only for my pregnancy - I have Hyperemesis and these keep me out of hospital - think Kate Middleton)
Property Tax - 15.85
Diesel €100 (average but usually less)

Total 2818.74

Sinking Funds (in Envelopes)
Car Tax - 50
Car Insurance - 50
School Costs - 50
Birthday/Christmas - 50
General Emergency - 50
Apt Emergency - 50
Holidays - 50
Summer Kids Camps - 50
Vet - 20
Water - 10
TV License - 20
DD's First Holy Communion - 15
Car Repair - 50
Car Service - 30
Car New tyres - 30
Clothing - 50

Total - €625

Day to Day

Spending money for DD and I - €172
Work Purse - €28 ( I have a purse for coffees etc. at work)

Total €200

Income = 5501
Outgoings = 3643

Leaves me with €1858 to be sensible with.




Ok so like many I'm not sure what i used to do with my money but the past couple of years I've been focused. Now I'm very focused!!!


Things to consider.
As previously mentioned I'll be 6 months without salary. DP going to support us obviously but OP's will have to stop. That's why I created the €130 value bricks. Even if I can colour in one brick per month from being frugal it will keep me on my journey.


My car is 10 years old and complains a lot. I'm not sure it will pass the National Car Test next march. If it doesn't DP says he will give me his car ( a BMW :eek:) and buy a van through his business.

I really don't want to have to pay for servicing a BMW. I honestly think these cars are a pain in the bum - no offence. Everything is twice the price with them. Sorry I'm rambling. However it is a free car I suppose

I have a baby on the way. So nappies and formula are going to increase my grocery costs. I'll breastfeed for 6 weeks maybe but I'm already so run down after months of being fed through a tube in hospital from Hyperemesis that I failed miserable on my DD. So this time I'm not going to beat myself up about it and miss out on enjoying my baby.
I also looked into reusable nappies. Nope not for me. But Aldi nappies are fine and dandy so we'll use those.
As for baby clothes. I've bought some bits in charity shops. I'll take loaners from friends etc.
I have my pram and all the other [STRIKE]crap[/STRIKE] important baby stuff from my DD.

So I pretty much have my house in order bar the 3 major landmarks I've presented above :rotfl:
Ah well we'll see how we get on.

Fancynancy77

I should mention that Broadband and home phone are paid for my DP's company.
Also my mobile phone is a work one.

I did have childcare costs up until last week but those are gone now for a year while I'm on Mat Leave

Fancynancy77

So have had a pretty miserable time since last posting. Developed a varicose vein somewhere very embarrassing.

I can't walk with it. I've been put on bedrest and steroids so the NSD's are coming very easily. It's hard though. My DP has had to take 3 days off work to help me. He's self employed so won't get paid. Thankfully he's working locally for next few months so will be able to pop home. There is no happy outcome with this I think. I could be on bedrest for my remaining 12 weeks. The pain is like nothing I've ever experienced. Childbirth easier.

So back to my MFWness.

Bad news
I went away with my sisters. That cost €99 for the night and was a complete waste of money because I was in agony.

Good news

I used my €10 off €50 spend in aldi on Saturday so weekly shop was €41. I got another voucher for this week in The Sun on Saturday. I told my mum about it and she said "gosh you're very frugal". Can't understand this mocking attitude. I thnk it's an amazing deal. this is the third week of it.

I got a 10% discount at pet store for my cat food, wormer and flea treatment because they noticed my work badge. So a saving of €9.37 in total. Ive transferred that to my OP savings account.

My shares sold yesterday for a profit plus because they were matured (3 year holding) so I don't have to to pay income tax just some CGT.

It's hard to focus when I'm in so much pain to be honest. But I'm determined to use this diary to keep me on track. Because this is what happens - I go great guns for a couple of months and then the S!!t hits the fan and I lose my MFW momentum.


Nancy signing out