Starting From Now MF Diary

startingfromnow

I have lurked on these boards for many years, started and stopped our MF dreams. But now we are out of excuses and I need a place to record and be accountable.

We have 2 children, 5 and 1. They are the reason we want to be MF, and also why we have found it tricky over the last 2 years.

Our current mortgage position is £74,551.53. We have a One Account and offset our savings against our mortgage. My husband earns a salary, and I am building up a new business so the rewards aren't quite showing themselves just yet :rotfl:

This month we will be going back to basics, and using cash to manage our spending. I have withdrawn the spending for this month and divided it by 4 weeks into envelopes. I have put £24 in my purse, and will try and make it last as long as possible! My daughter is off school poorly today, but if she is better tomorrow I will take DS to music group (£5 plus parking), but other than that I don't have any spending planned (only a cuppa during dancing on saturday morning - 50p or £1 if I have a teacake too :rotfl:)

lulabelle1

Welcome to the forum, best of luck with your journey

SueP19

Welcome and love your light bulb moment, mine was 14th May 2009 and second LB 7th December 2015

It might help to fill in one of these, often things can jump out at you
http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php

Good luck

startingfromnow

Thank you for the welcome! SueP19 I have had more than one light bulb moment in my time, but this is the most recent one :rotfl:

Well no sooner had I posted the other day, my phone went off with a text from a mum at school to say she had an Avon order for me :mad: I completely forgot I had ordered it a few weeks back (and probably didn't need it all). But never mind. I paid her the £23.66 out of the cash in my purse, so now only have about 50p in there!! I'm not topping it up though as I don't really need it until the weekend. Both the children have been ill this week so no playgroup, Rainbows or toddler music which has saved me some money!

I thought about popping into Tesco this morning as we are out of bread, but realised we have crumpets and muffins in the cupboard so am holding off. I've made sure to write down things as we use them up, so when I do go I will know exactly what we need. I do need to stock up on medicines for the children though, so will need to do that today or tomorrow.

I have had a couple of child free hours this morning, and have used them well I think I listed a load of bits on eBay (if it all sells at the list price it will be about £50 less fees). Will also be a large crate of stuff gone from my boys bedroom which would be great. I have taken a bit of a risk in listing with a 3 day auction to end on Sunday. I usually list for longer, but 10 days felt such a long time and I like to end them on a Sunday.

I also discovered (and I hang my head in shame!!) is that our fixed rate on our gas/elec has expired and we have been on a standard rate for a while. I have sorted it out and moved to a 1yr fixed rate which will be a lot cheaper. I added meter readings to the account too while I was on the website.

I like to post here, but also have started a FB page where I can share bits and pieces each day. Would love it if anyone wants to come and say hi over there My page name is the same as my user name (with spaces).

shangaijimmy

Welcome and good luck. If you're anything like me the diary is a major help. I set myself a mini challenge of posting every day as it helps for focus, no matter how trivial the info.

What's you mortgage details; amount, interest rate, payment, term remaining etc...?

This time last year we remortgaged away from oneaccount (it was very good for us in the first 8 years) , and it made a massive difference more than halving our daily interest rate immediately.

Gen_Y_Saver

Good luck!

startingfromnow

I've just been reminded that I used to do a £10 per day challenge - to make/earn and extra £10 per day from various sources. I'm going to do similar for 2016, except I will treat it as one challenge - make £3660 through 2016 - quidco, surveys, ebay, car boots etc. I have a shiny new spreadsheet and everything! I've got some cash to move over from my ebay sales last month, approx £40 I think, so will do that later. I'm a month behind so need to crack on and catch up!

startingfromnow

shangaijimmy wrote: »

Welcome and good luck. If you're anything like me the diary is a major help. I set myself a mini challenge of posting every day as it helps for focus, no matter how trivial the info.

What's you mortgage details; amount, interest rate, payment, term remaining etc...?

This time last year we remortgaged away from oneaccount (it was very good for us in the first 8 years) , and it made a massive difference more than halving our daily interest rate immediately.

Thanks Jimmy, I like the idea of daily posting - not sure I will manage it but will aim for as many as possible! A few things have crossed my mind over the last few days and I have thought "Oh but I would have to post it on MSE" and its stopped me spending!! :rotfl:

Another eBay item has sold - I had a couple of bits listed on BIN and one sold last night. After postage and fees I think it should be about £10 into the pot. My other eBay listings are going well too. 4 out of 6 have bids and the other two have plenty of watchers so I am hopeful! 2 of them have multiple bids and are about £6 above my starting point :j Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings when the auctions end.

I also just got a refund for £17.50 into my Paypal account from a pair of shoes I ordered in the sale and returned. This was pre lightbulb moment, and the original cost has been dealt with, so I am treating this as a bonus, off to the mortgage it goes!

startingfromnow

Spending a rainy afternoon sorting out our bedroom and tackling the leaning tower of dirty washing! Just found £5 on the floor, and about £3 in change laying around so its moneysaving as well as housework!!

startingfromnow

The children are all better this week which is very good news. Although it does mean I need to pay for all their activities this week! :rotfl: Toddler group yesterday (£1.50 including tea and toast for me, and snack for the children) which doesn't exactly break the bank. And toddler music tomorrow which is £5 plus parking, but we love it so its worth it. I may have to investigate some cheaper parking though as the car park next to it is pretty pricey!

We did well with our spends last week. We had a £20 note left over in the spending envelope for week 1, so that has been added to a pot where we will save for days out etc when the weather is nicer. :T

I called into the shops down the road today and picked up some veg. Its much cheaper at the greengrocers, and nicer too. Plus I can buy exactly what we need, rather than buying by the bag. I also discovered that the eggs they sell are great value. Extra Large eggs are £1.90 per dozen. I have only glanced at the sign before and I think I read it as per half dozen. I have been paying £2.25 for a dozen large eggs in Tesco, so this is a pretty good saving as we buy a box a week!