Mountainlioness' diary: the MFi3 journey

mountainlioness

Hey SMF! We certainly are we're not really doing MSE/MFW full-on like some on here and am sure if we did we could clear the mortgage a lot faster but it's a balance for us. MSE for us is minimising the spending on what we have to have, saying no to things that aren't a priority or we don't need then splitting the proceeds on our big plans... and that's about it! Bit of quidco, bit of old style on the grocery front and we've rented a room on a temporary basis but nothing more adventurous on the money-making or saving front.

Anyway, hope our mortgage shrinks as fast as yours - how much were you overpaying?

chickadee

Hello M-L,

I just thought I would pop in to keep you company. I smiled when I read about how you had 'fallen off the wagon'. I have just had some pay arrears come through for a long-awaited pay award and I was wondering how much I would be getting. I really want (not need) a new tv. We have a TV that is older than my son (and he is 12!). It is black, huge, (but deep, not wide!) and isn't widescreen so the edges of the film or whatever get chopped off. I may still be tempted, but I am also tempted to see the mortgage balance falling. ....although boots sounds like a good idea too.....!

MUST STAY FOCUSED.....MUST STAY FOCUSED....MUST STAY FOCUSED......

The African trip sounds fantastic though. I'm sure it will be brilliant.

mountainlioness

Hey Chicadee - and welcome!!

Not that I want to lead you into temptation but there are some stonking deals on TVs around at the mo... we got our Panasonic down from over a grand to £650 online (it was DH's bonus so I had little influence bar saying that 37" was plenty ) but we were also impressed with some of the supermarket deals, decent sets for a couple of hundred quid...

Maybe you can do a deal with yourself and split the back pay into a mortgage and a TV fund... polish your halo and get a decent viewing experience :cool:

The boots have been a real hit so no regrets on that little extravagance... though sometimes I think some of the guys in meetings are 'talking to the boots'

Can't wait for Africa -we've also just booked to go skiing in January but have sourced all the bits ourselves - flights to Germany (£90), train to the resort (€60) and dealing directly with the owner for our apartment (€280). We'll have to hire equipment, buy ski passes and lessons and do the whole apres ski thang nce we're there but it should all come out a lot cheaper.

setmefree2

Hi

Chickadee I wld probably get a new TV:eek:, though black TVs are coming back into fashion I think:cool:....that's me looking fashionable..

...ML. Trying to overpay our mortgage by £1k per month. I really havn't bought myself any clothes for 3 years - though we havn't skimped on hols (had 3 wks in California in summer)...it's all a balance on what you are prepared to give up isn't it?

mountainlioness

Hi everyone :hello: it's been a while! am going to catch up with all you guys in a mo but here's my update...

The MFW thang is going to plan... we paid off £495 rather than the target £300 this month thanks to our temporary lodger, which is great, though he's now gone so it's back to normal service.

Have to say we've been a lot more careless recently - it starts small, the odd sarnie out because we haven't planned ahead, but it's then a takeaway here and there when we can't be bothered to cook or and buying bits for ourselves that we want but don't need when out xmas shopping! TBH I think this is probably about me rather than DH - I do have a tendency to go all out on things and be super-committed and motivated for a few months then fall off the wagon whereas he's a bit more steady (and probably takes a bit of lead from me so when I start loosening the spending reins he goes along with it :rolleyes: )

Anyway - am determined to get a bit of a tighter grip! Especially as we've just bought a new car for DH's work... we drove a really hard bargain (DH is a salesman, which really comes into its own in these situations!) and even managed to beat the What Car target price :beer: . He gets a monthly car allowance so we set a budget so we'd be able to make the monthly payments from that and got a loan (MSE recommended of course!) We take delivery in a couple of weeks... but I will need to factor in paying for his insurance, car tax and servicing now that I didn't need to before, hence the need for getting firmly back on the wagon

Hopefully we won't even need to wait until after xmas as have stashed £20/month for the last 3 months which should cover the big shop, and we've been buying gifts on 3 for 2s for our present cupboard so there isn't a big hit there either.

So - has anyone got any ideas for motivating us to get the focus back - any pithy sayings or words of encouragement?

cazmanian_minx

mountainlioness wrote: »

So - has anyone got any ideas for motivating us to get the focus back - any pithy sayings or words of encouragement?

Hey, you still paid off £495 this month :T :T :T that's not totally unfocussed!

Can you work out how much interest paying off £1 saves you over the remaining length of your mortgage? Then write, in big black letters on a piece of paper about the size of a tenner, £1 = £2.50 (or whatever) and stick it in your wallet so you see it every time you take out your purse to pay for a sarnie or a coffee. Suddenly being hit with the fact that your £3 sandwich is costing you £7.50 generally makes you change your mind...

Caz

mountainlioness

ooh thanx CM - that's a great idea! Presumably the snowball calculator can do that?? Or is there an easier way? The mortgage we're overpaying on is currently at 6.09%

(we did £495 as that was our usual £300 plus the rent money so I can't claim any credit really!)

mountainlioness

Hi all and a Happy New Year!

Am feeling all excited and optimistic about this year... we've got our humungous mortgage well under £260k, managing to trigger a letter from the bank to say they were reducing our payments - oh no you don't said I! Have had to call them twice now to say reduce the term.

It's gonna be a massive year for us -

Project A: Finish the house... We're doing some minor building work on the house to 'future-proof it' for Project E, just dividing a room really but should add value to the house and there's no way we can even think about moving with stamp duty hitting almost every property in this area. I love the house anyway but a bit of anticipatory action now will mean it will work as well for us in the longer term... Also includes building a shed for DH and installing the Sonos system.

Project B: Start my doctorate... it's being paid for by my employer, which is a massive help. It's gonna be tough time-wise but will pay off long term for my career options.

Project C: Go on our holiday of a lifetime, the safari I've mentioned before. We've paid the deposit and the flights and should reach our target to pay off the balance by April (due July so am really chuffed! The £300 a month we aren't used to seeing will go towards saving for Project E)

Project Blitz bodies and lifestyle! Love sports but love food too... I know what needs to be done so now just need to get the hell on with it. Project E is added incentive!

Project E: Start a family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :j

It all means having a major MSE year :money: but we're up for the challenge. I get a guaranteed increment and hopefully DH will get a rise (he deserves it, he really does -I so admire his dedication) - any increases go straight in the pot. We'll probably take another short-term lodger as well as a serious look at our non-essential spending.

We aiming to have a pot of £8-10k aside to supplement our income during maternity leave, which is a big target for 18 months alongside £1600/month in regular mortgage payments let alone overpayments :eek:

Wish us luck!!!!!!!

Hope 2008 is great for all fellow questers

setmefree2

Good Luck and Happy New Year:beer::money:

mountainlioness

Thanks SMF2!

We're off on our 2nd (attempted) MSE holiday... with skiing it aint easy but here's the spend so far:

£90 - flights
£52 - trains in Germany (got a bargain ticket where up to 5 ppl can travel any distance on the local train system - car hire was a lot more)
£224 - studio appartment for one week SC
£31 - ski insurance
£46 - parking via quidco (Stansted is SO expensive!! unfortunately the timings of the flights make public transport impossible)

On top of this we'll need to pay for ski passes and lessons, food and of course the apres ski... I've ordered £300 in Euros (via quidco natch) so hoping to keep within this as far as possible. This would give a total of £743, which sounds a lot but when you think about all the costs that packages don't include isn't so bad (well that's what I'm telling myself anyway!) It is amazing how the costs add up even when you're doing all the legwork yourself and applying MSE principles...

Will post with an actual spend when we get back...