My MF Mission 2015

shangaijimmy

We've had artificial for 5yrs now and i have to say its one of the best things we've done. I've had a few months away but its great to see you're still progressing nicely...and always ahead of me!

lippy1923

Yeh I am adamant that artificial grass is the way to go. We had normal grass when we first moved in but it always looked like an overgrown jungle scene out of Jumanji!

We dug it up ourselves and replaced with some free patio slabs so its always been easy and never have to think about it. We now need the grass back for our boy to play in the garden a bit more safely. Not exactly cheap but DH is friends with the contractor doing it for us, so got a decent deal.

Don't worry SJ, we have the same timescales so at some point your figures will match mine and we will be neck and neck in this rather long MF race

lippy1923

Expensive month for me. Garden done, home insurance done, Iwatch and surprise dentist trip!

Really pleased with the garden. Astroturf looks fab and my son loves it. Had a nice bbq yesterday eve to celebrate the new look.
House insurance I am also really pleased with. Current insurer thought £200 was a good deal with apparently 42% discount for my number of NCB. Compare the market had other ideas and found me a policy for £124 with much better cover, less excess and generally a lot less admin fees if I ever needed to make an amendment. I cant actually see anything my old insurer offered that was cheaper or better!

Dentist wasn't much fun, a filling cracked so had to have that patched. £50 for a 5 min job Can't complain about their customer service though, had me booked in for the repair in under 24 hours and did a good job.

Been running the figures through the spreadsheet and I THINK I can just about manage to pay it all off and not dive into my savings too much. Hoping to still have £23k left so only spending £300 of my savings. This is due to a combination of work bonus for me and our mortgage lender finally paying us our £100 cashback for staying with them during the switch.

I have already paid for the watch and the dentist. Put the house insurance on the 0% CC, so wont have to worry about that until the end of the year.

Will see the damage done next week when all the normal bills come out.


ANYWAY- New month. £500 OP paid into my regular saver.
I also got news from my mortgage lender about OPing in future. As suspected, each OP year is from the date of the deal, so Jul-Jul. What I didn't expect was the amount I am allowed to OP. I thought it was 10% of the balance left, but its 10% of the original mortgage balance each year, so £14k! Will see what rates a like after my regular saver finishes so see if its worth physically overpaying or to stick it somewhere better.

hiddenshadow

Nice surprise to learn about the increased OP allowance. Sounds like a productive month, even with the dentist.

shangaijimmy

The best thing about the new OP allowance is all the spreadsheet permutations you can now generate!! Decisions, decisions, decisions... Lucky you!

lippy1923

You are correct SJ. Lots of spreadsheet madness to come.

DD's have been taken today including the mortgage

Another brick coloured in on the little house on the fridge.


Now to do some studying for my exam in a few weeks!

shangaijimmy

Any particular colour of colouring in?? I use black but then go on my spreadsheet and enter the month and year to the brick. I then have the same colour for the year, before changing each January. I then reprint the house! How geeky! You can only imagine the stick I get off Mrs SJ!

lippy1923

I was using black, but now its any random colour that can be found. Might remember me saying a while ago I let DH have a go at colouring it in, to include him in my geekyness and he completely ruined it for a laugh

I do have a graph on my spreadsheet which is colourful and he cannot access it so I am content.

Done the figures and paid for the garden. Somehow I came out on top, with a nice new back garden and £200 extra added to the savings pot. I cant figure it out, but will roll with it...... at least until I realise I have overlooked something lol

lippy1923

Another £100 added to the savings pot. Not sure how long it will stay there, but determined to keep it there until I can recoup my spending pot on payday. Only 18 days to go lol


Really need some motivation for revising. I have 1 week till my exam but every time I sit down to revise it never goes well. I keep worrying there is not enough time and after a revision session thinking I havnt done enough. Nothing is sinking in either which is annoying. I keep testing myself on things I have learnt, but can never remember key bits! Now I'm sitting on here instead of revising!


Any tips for exam revision? I am writing flash cards, but don't feel like its sinking in.

hiddenshadow

Good luck with the studying! No real tips from me, I only found things sunk in after I wrote them down several times, so I would essentially re-write my notes over and over until they stuck.