MF by age 40! Then I am buying a Mercedes SLK

diamondsonly

Turtle - a few people have suggested the same. I just need to open a few new saving accounts I think to accommodate for these new pots of money I plan to have.

streethack - When I checked yesterday the 5 year fix with FD had gone up to 2.39% annoying!!

diamondsonly

So yesterday was another NSD which is great. I have trimmed down the budget as much as I can I think. It now only contains essential spending and bills. Don't think I can cut back anywhere else. Missing meals out and take away. Maybe MFW will help the waistline too.

List of things to do:
Set up saving accounts
Move from monthly mobile contract to sim-free monthly contract- Saving £20 a month and hope mobile phone doesn't break (its about 4 years old and getting slower by the day
Keep taking lunch from home


Next week away to Europe with work so minimal Diesel expenditure- It will go in OP pot
Can't give up my sparkling water.. I love it too much and I just don't seem to drink normal water enough... definitely not a necessity I know

diamondsonly

Morning all,

I am getting impatient for payday. I want to put the plans into action now, Is this what I am going to be like every month for the foreseeable future. Waiting for salary so I can shuffle money about?
Having re-trimmed the budget we now have £330 for spends between DH I a month. So £115 each. Which is alot I think but has to cover all personal spends like lunches/days and diners out plus hair cuts and beauty products etc.

Eating out whether is a KFC or a nice family meal is my downfall mainly for convenience. I love cooking but find when coursework is due I spend all my time at the library or starbucks so its down to DH to get a takeaway or throw something in the oven with some boiled veg. DH is not the chef in the house!
I may ask mum to prep some meals for us or maybe batch cook and freeze. I will post my aims for 2015 and beyond shortly as I need to break the goal into manageable chunks.

atypicalblonde

Hello Diamonds,

I have just read through your diary and wanted to say a huge well done for all you have achieved so far FWIW, I went to private school from age 3 right until I left secondary school and I adored it

We too wil be having very low cost holidays until the mortgage has been obliterated. Our kids (nearly 3 & 16 months) are just as happy with a seaside holiday in the UK and we are happier because we will appreciate our Caribbean trip once MF all the more for having to wait for it!

I will follow your progress and cheer you on xx

diamondsonly

Thanks ATB. you are the reason I have changed my goal from 7 year MFW to 5 years. I have read your diary and we have a similar size mortgage and target so I am hoping we can support each other through this. Especially when I feel like I will fall off the wagon.

Great to know about schools..its been the the toughest decision we have ever made.

So my targets are:

OP by £15000 in 2015- £10000 OP made using savings so need to find £5000 by 31 Dec 15
OP by £1000 minimum a month
Open regular savers for savings
Invest in S&S isas using savings
Get savings to £5000 -Unlikely to achieve this until May/June 2016

atypicalblonde

You will have smashed that mortgage to smithereens in 5 years time I'm sure of it - make sure you update your signature to show your new goal


I find everyone on this forum so supportive and I love it when people pop into my diary it makes me feel like I have friends cheering me on


DH and I haven't told anyone in real life about our goal - we tend to find people can be a bit "judgey-pants" when it comes to our views on money and we are surrounded by a lot of keeping up with the joneses folk. It's not for us at all, we like a simpler way of life and can't wait to be mortgage-free so we can enjoy the most precious thing - time - and lots of it. Right, bathtime for tiddlers now then rose cava time - well I am on holiday xx

diamondsonly

So I have been reading a few more diaries - Creamtea, ATB and few others and I am wondering if we should be saving some cash on the side for "future" and investing it. Not sure where this savings cash would come from as our budget already includes £100 a month for each DC and another £100 for house expenses like new carpet or radiators.

I got my payslip yesterday first one in new job. £25 less than I had calculated and when discussing salary with DH he checks his payslips and actually earns £1488 after tax not the £1500 he told me. I need to update my spreadsheets but looks like we are down by £37 a month in terms of income which means £37 less in the OP unless me cut back further.

So total income is:
£1488+£375=£4863
Outgoings:
3500

OP:
£4863-£3500= £1363

The above figure £1363 won't apply for Aug and Sept as I need £250 each month for our spending money.

diamondsonly

OP of £2.64 made to bring balance to a nice round figure of £146,300.00

The £2.64 was really bugging me. This is getting obsessive lol

atypicalblonde

Hi diamonds,

I know many on here are big fans of emergency savings, and it makes complete sense. However, if we tried to save as well as OP I would tie myself in knots I think, so we just concentrate on overpaying. It would be too much for us to even consider investing in things like S&S isas at this time, our focus is investing in our secure future as a family by owning our home.

That said, we are very fortunate that both our sets of parents could help us with funds if the !!!!!! hit the fan - if we didn't have that my view may be different.

For me, the MF journey has made me focus on simplifying our finances. We now have just one joint bank account, we paid off our CC and closed it so we live off the cash in our joint account. That's it, works for us grandparents pay £25 each pcm into each child's account - we don't save anything for the children yet - neither of us had any money saved for us in an account when we left home at 18 & we did just fine
Xx

diamondsonly

Thanks for your message ATB, you are right. I think I am trying to achieve too many things and it's not feasible for us. We luckily have some savings in ISA's ..not a massive out but enough to get us by for a few months if we needed. Like you we have both sets of parents that could help us out financially if we needed.
I think I am putting alot of pressure on myself and I think I need to look at the other way. By knowing where are finances are spent it means I can ensure we have got money allocated for the big annual spends like car/life/home insurances. SO this process should in theory help me take the pressure off and enjoy my mortgage balance go down.
Coursework due soon so much not loose sight of that as a major priority and invest in our future.

Payday today so the salaries have hit the joint account. We will do the shuffle of money tonight.

I haven't heard from my accountant about closing my limited company and dispersing of the funds. I will chase them early next week.