MFW Baby steps

thewalrussaid

Hi Petal,

Really glad you decided to start a diary! Do you feel like it has made a difference?

I shall subscribe and read with interest

Petal88

thewalrussaid wrote: »

Hi Petal,

Really glad you decided to start a diary! Do you feel like it has made a difference?

I shall subscribe and read with interest

Ha thanks walrus but I'm not sure! It's definitely made me evaluate my budget, change providers accordingly and try and find little additional sources of income, so that's certainly been a positive change! However I must say that although I'm much more aware where my pennies go, I can't say that I've been particularly good at stemming the flow? As in, I'm still not motivated enough to organise my packed lunches, walk instead of taking the tube or to not get take away once every week or two!

Hey ho, in other words - there's not been much MSE worthy to report on my side, other than the fact that I've been keeping a close eye on my accounts and been eating mostly what's already in my cupboards + made another little OP of £33.55 to hit that £100 monthly OP mark.

Petal88

Got my free case of wine today for switching energy providers through MSE that really came in handy as this week has been really stressful...

Found a new free way to spend my time - by listening to the award winning podcast Serial. Unbelievably good and makes my commute into work almost a delight.

Another week until pay day yet I find myself being dangerously close to running out of money for the month. Those car repairs and unexpected service charges really made a dent in my wallet

Petal88

Started to move across select DD's to my new Spanish account - a lot more work than I anticipated though as nearly no one will let me do it online but make me phone them up. €on will let me do it online, but not without making me accept a DD change from £38/month to 71! Apparently this has been recalculated based on my usage - which I highly doubt seeing as I've been with them for all of a week if not less. Sigh

Got another airbnb request through but decided to decline it as they wanted to come on boxing day and there's no way the OH will schlep halfway down the country from where he'll be staying, just to clean, drop off keys and drive all the way back up again. Shame though cause we could use that extra £107 it would have given us!

Bought a chicken yesterday which I'm planning on roasting and eating in various guises until the OH arrives on Friday - should be both delicious and frugal :T

Only just realised today that if I pay my monthly T@lkt@alk bill early they give a 10% discount! I'll try and remember doing that in the future and transfer the saved 10% into the mortgage instead

Monie

Hi petal

Subscribing to follow your journey

Petal88

Hi Monie - hope I won't bore you too much!

Today is my first day off work on study/exam leave until the 11th. Although it will be tough it is SUCH a welcome change from being in the office. This year I've really grown to dislike my current job, so I can't wait until the new year where I will start looking for a new one. Hopefully with a promotion and a 30k raise! One can dream, right?

Another perk of study leave is that today should be nsd Got lunch prepped already and dinner will be my mother's recipe for Polish tomato soup.

OP'd another £3.54 in TTs this week and have manage to move across all relevant DDs to my new account other than t@lkt@lk and €on. The former requires the OH and he's been away all month and the latter insists that I can't do it until next month. Still pleased with my progress though, as I hate this kind of admin.

CANNOT wait for payday on Friday by the way! :j

thewalrussaid

H Petal,

Rome wasn't built in a day, I know what you mean re not having the motivation to do X or Y but I think that to start with just getting to grips with what you spend is helpful (well that's what I tell myself). But seriously having some kind of goal really is at least half the battle, without it I would be frittering like mad!

I have been through the same process with the DDs and the Spanish bank, i had to call my electricity provider too. Once I had changed the details I cancelled the DD from my original bank acct and then €DF told me this had wiped all the details (:mad:) and that I should log on and change the DD details online! I wish they had told me that in the first place!

Good luck with the exams, I hope the chicken is tasty too

Petal88

Walrus - the chicken was delicious but my studying was abysmal.

I think you're right about the goals and I think I would benefit from some shorter term ones to keep me interested/motivated. I was doing some calcs earlier today and if the flat goes up in value a bit more in the next 18 months, we should be at 80 or 75% LTV (incl OPs) at the end of our 2 year fixed rate term. I'd want to get a 25 year mortgage in that case, which could save us 300k in interest :eek: Now that's one heck of a motivator!

Hollyboll

Hi Petal
Hope you are enjoying the study leave or at least the not being in the office part of it.
As your title rightly says, it's all about baby steps. One of the best things I read on here was every OP you make is money on which you'll never pay interest again. You've made some already, and lots of other steps - just because you aren't doing packed lunches every day (Yet ) doesn't mean you've not saved on those days you have ... So keep on keeping on with the baby steps, and in the meantime good luck with the exam
Did you ever explore the M3tro cash counter thingy?
xx

Petal88

Hi Hollyboll - thank you for the encouraging words I never did explore the m3tro cash counter but to be honest I haven't needed it just yet.

Today I got all excited about the prospect of checking the mortgage account to see how much interest has been slapped on, but as per usual, these things are slow to update and I probably won't see it until tomorrow .

Confirmed the reception venue today for the wedding, so that's a 2k deposit sized hole in my savings account now...