Mountainlioness' diary: the MFi3 journey

jobbingmusician

OK, looking at your list of appliances, the ones which eat the most power are the fridge, freezer, washing machine and dw. (My rule of thumb is that it's anything which heats stuff up or cools it down!)

Also, DH says have you got energy saving lightbulbs? Lightbulbs do mount up if you leave them on all the time - replace the ones on the stairs, and any rooms where they are on a lot, with the energy saving type.

FLC_3

Was your last electricity bill estimated? If so, did you check that the estimate was correct? I'm sure you did but I thought I'd post just in case, as our supplier used to wildly overestimate our usage and it took quite a few bills before they got it down to a more reasonable amount.

I believe you can buy a gadget that measures the amount of electricity each appliance is using but think they're circa £20 so possibly not very MFW!

JillD_2

Hi ML,
Good luck with reducing your mortgage, ours is a similar size to yours (ie scarily big) and I will be following your thread with interest.

In one of your posts you asked how to boost the money you can put aside and that you dont have much time.
Well, I am a 38 week pregnant mother of two who worked part time til recently, and over the past year or so we've managed to save almost £6k in a savings account for what was to be a holiday find but is now my maternity leave fund.
Admittedly there were a couple of big payments to the account totalling £2400 which came from some money that was due to us as refunds from nursery fees and a share thing at work. I also paid in about £1400 over 7 months instead of paying into a share scheme at work as it had expired.but the other £2.2k was literally dribs and drabs here and there.

- I inititally got £50 in the account for opening an A&L account
- about £400 was for mystery shopping and market research
- we got tax credits which were some hundred and 41 pounds every 4 weeks, I put the £41 in this accout each month
- I always use cashback credit cards and have earned almost £200 this year on cashback just on food and petrol shopping, the cashback goes in this account too
- OH and I have just opened ING Direct accounts which will each pay £75 when we deposit £2.5k for a week. This money will go in too.
- I also sold a few bits on Ebay - only about £30 worth, and any refunds from the likes of BT etc go in here.

So I suppose what I am trying to say is that by siphoning off what would otherwise be lost in the noise, and doing some savvy surfing in the evening I am amazed how quickly this has mounted up. Like you I have no spare time.

One other thing we did which I am not sure if you have considered - when our mortgage deal ran out back in April we switched to a new fixed rate of 4.99 and we were able to reduce our term by 2 years but only pay about a tenner more per month. We've decided that we are going to reduce the term by 2 years every time we set up a new mortgage when the old one runs out. Hopefully we will be mortgage free before we are 50, and before our oldest child leaves school.

Hope this helps and best of luck!
Jill

mountainlioness

Dear All

First of all thanks for all your messages - will reply to those in a mo, but first my holiday report...

Well, in short, WE DID IT! :j 180 miles in about 4 full days of cycling (though we did split the last 40 miles into 2 or we'd have got to the end too quickly!) It was tough in places, there was sweat, chafing, slight strops and the odd wrong turn (as well as a distinct downturn in interest in marital relations )but there were also some brilliant moments of the most utterly fantastically wild scenery with no-one for miles, the excuse to have a full English every morning and something with chips every evening and the sense of achievement. Lugging yourself, your bike and your panniers up impossible-looking hills aint easy!

But nuff of that... how did we do money-wise? Well, here's the SOA:

Transport:
£81.30
Verdict: Best achievement here. £20 each single from home in herts to Newcastle and £14 each back from Whitehaven by booking well in advance was a bargain. We also spent a bit going back early to Carlisle but given we camped we saved overall.

Accommodation:
£212.40
Verdict: ouch! This was 3 nights' camping, 1 Youth Hostel and 3 in B&Bs, which at the time we felt we deserved (hot bath, aching bits!) It was quite a shock how B&B prices have gone up but worse how much the youth hostel was. Gone are the days of a bargain night's sleep! Both Kielder and Carlisle were as much or more than a cheap B&B. Admittedly also gone are the days of freezing showers and having to share a room with 16 other people but it's a shame that a real budget option is confined to a few lower rated hostels.

Food, drink and extras:
£284.07
Verdict: shocking. Adding this up almost made me fall off me chair! I thought we had been relatively good, with packed lunches and your average pub dinner in the evening. We were so knackered that for me at least it was one pint and bed by 9!

TOTAL: £577.77

We ended up putting £70 each of our own money in and £70 from the joint account. The rest will have to be paid off on the credit card or absorbed this month (the trains were all paid up in advance). Definitely doable but have started a holiday fund for the next outing...

Off to the enjoy the slightly firmer thighs that I hope to hold on to for at least a week!

mountainlioness

JM - thanks for this. I've just checked the leccy meter and we've used over 150kwh over 2 weeks, one of which we were away :eek: Absolute madness. Am convinced now it's the fridge or freezer as these are the only appliances that are on all the time regardless of whether we are about. So am going to get one of those cheap plug in meters so we can work out the culprit!

JillD - really impressive how you've amassed the money, serious well-done! Husband has a cashback CC which he uses for work expenses so we can siphon that off (I got turned down :mad: - see earlier post!!) I had signed up for various market research things but found them (so far) so frustrating! Getting through a long survey to be told it's closed (but they take all my data anyway?!?!?) or never ever ever being the 'right' demographic. So far haven't made anything at all from these so am considering just giving up

But will definitely take another look at the options with your inspiration! I'm hoping to have a bit more leeway once I get my pay award details in 2 weeks' time, then can do some serious mortgage bashing!

Karmacat

Hi ML

I love the way you've worked out the expenses for the holiday so carefully, and the prospect of getting the thing-ometer that tells you about the leccy an applicance is using. Its one of the things I enjoy most about diaries - possibly because I'm so bad about details myself, tho I try really hard with them.

Enjoy the firmer thighs, you deserve it (the enjoyment)/them (the thighs)!

Snazzy

Hi ML,

Re the electric, if you have an immersion heater have you checked that hasn't been left on? I switched mine on by accident when I moved in and was fiddling with the central heating and it used loads of electric.

Snazzy

mountainlioness

YAY! Our personalised Mortgage Pig has arrived at hubby's work... I ordered it from Muggins pottery and it has our names on the side. I haven't seen it yet but am really excited (how sad is that ) Rules start today!

Thanks Karmacat... it was actually not too difficult to work out the finances as we were so far from anywhere that the only expenses were the evening meal and accomodation. When we got to carlisle it all went mad with a stint on the crazy golf and a trip round the castle BTW am not so much enjoying the thighs today as can now barely walk around normally! I played footy yesterday (first time in, oh, 4 years, and 90 minutes almost killed me. Am in a team of girls half my age. Beginning to think am too old for this lark)

I don't think we have an immersion Snazzy - it's a new house and we have a fancy newfangled supposedly economical boiler (which is on timer) but I may be wrong! I'm thinking given it's racking up while we're away it's most likely to be the fridge or freezer as they're the only appliances on whether or not we're there. Have ordered the meter (through Quidco of course!) so hope to have an answer later on this week. Just so frustrating being someone so careful to be guzzling energy like this and not knowing why.

Edition of Microsoft Money has arrived - anyone use it? Just wondering whether to rip off the celophane wrapper and get started!

Trying_to_be_good

ML

I use Money 2004 (Version 12) and I love it - it tracks as much as you want it too (I enter EVERYTHING) and allows you to predict cash flow, loan amortisations etc - I think it's ideal for MSEs!

Warning, though, if it's the 2007 trial version, it's only a US one that's available as they've not released a UK version, and when the free trial runs out there's nowhere to go - stick to 2005 or 2004.

Love the diary!

GreenNinja

mountainlioness wrote: »

Hey DH and Move to Portugal and thanks for your messages!



Off Freecycle plum-picking shortly - HB has decided that one can indeed have enough crumble so am scouring Delia for an easy plum-based recipe that doesn't involve going to Sainsbury's for extra ingredients :rolleyes: Ah the life of an MFi3!


Hi ML, theres a lovely recipe in the Delia Complete book for plum chutney. I have the opposite problem, have the recipe but no plums! so on the hunt!