The MFW Diary of McGuern

coxj2901

Hi McGuern, I just wanted to wish you luck with your challenges. You have also reminded me to speak to Virgin once my contract runs out as my monthly package keeps creeping up!

Kittenkirst

Hello :wave:

You sound very organized and set up for success! You've also reminded me to call EE to go sim only from end of April as my contract ends! Thanks 😊

clippy_girl

Hi Mcguern,

With regards to your budgeting I do the following-

Pay all bills over 12 months where I can eg council tax and water (instead of 10 months)

For everything else, work out the annual cost and divide by 12 and then have pots (I have different saving accounts)

I have a car pot where I put money for tax, mot and extra £50 for maintenance/repairs (it's only 3.5 yrs old)

I did a rough present budget for each person I buy for and added a lump sum for baby, christening and wedding pressies

I then added up my home insurance, self employed tax bill, parking permits and line rental on home phone and save that together

i then just transfer money out the pot when I spend it. Much easier to budget by spreading through the year. If you are good at keeping track you could have all the money together to get a better interest account and just keep track of the budgets but I prefer my different pots to keep it simple!

Re your 4% sainsburys card, sounds like you have a similar scheme to me. Look at the easysaver card. You can use it in most high street stores and you get 7.5% off. It only takes 30 mins to load a top up so you can just load it on shopping days. You can get more savings by buying individual shop cards but then it's more complicated and you have tonnes of cards!

McGuern

Feeling very proud of myself and very MSE at the moment! My mum and I went shoe shopping yesterday for the wedding. I am the WORST person to go shoe shopping with, my feet are a little odd and I'm very fussy about what they look like, plus I have to be in the mood for it.

We toured the regular high street shops, department stores and a couple of bridal ones and tried on many unsuitable pairs for 4 hours :eek: I was starting to lose hope but we had a look in New L00k just before heading home. My mum rounded up all the size 4's in the store that were white/cream and I found a pair with 25% off. So only £15! Easily the best bargain in this whole £££wedding£££ shenanigans.

I then spent twice as much on a bikini for the honeymoon, but as my last one has lost all elastic and started to go see through it really was a "necessity" At least that had 20% off too :j

McGuern

Thanks clippygirl, I think I will end up doing something similar, good ideas having similar things grouped together too! I'm not sure I want to have lots of savings accounts, but we don't have a joint savings account at the moment, just our own individual ones, so that is something we need to do.

Oooo the easysaver card sounds interesting. I will head off to have a look for that now!

McGuern

coxj and kittenkirst thanks for the posts. I think most of the time i spend on here these days serves as a reminder to do something. And all these contracts have a habit of creeping up on you don't they!