Baby steps towards mortgage freedom

Moominmamma89

Just a quick update as things here are manic - have exchanged and will complete Tuesday. Have spent the last week moving things into new place and building Ikea furniture - we had inbuilt cupboards at the old house but none here so needed storage!

I have also managed to catch a cold and have felt awful whilst moving and I don't think just eating junk has helped but I couldn't face proper cooking in the middle of all this muddle. Will be back next work hopefully with news of completion having taken place and a proper update.

Hope everyone has a good week ahead x

ch4rly2002

Sounds like you've had a lot on! Hope all goes well with the move and look forward to hearing an update when it's all behind you

Moominmamma89

Sneaking back in having been very neglectful of my diary these last few weeks! Moving house and getting ready for Xmas is my excuse and not an experience I would recommend or repeat again anytime soon!

I have been popping in to keep up to date with other people’s diaries but as soon as I tried to sit down and update my own something cropped up and I never managed it. I did join the MFW 2018 challenge with a target of £10,000 as I want to add to the equity we go out of our last house which is sitting in Mr Moomin’s premium bonds. After the sale we have just over £46,000 which we split:

- 35,000: Into PBs for when we come to buy again
- 10,000: New furniture
- 1,000: Splitting between me and Mr Moomin as we both need new clothes

Remaining couple of hundred we are unsure about but hoping I can stick straight into PBs and count towards 2018’s target.

The £ 10,000 on furniture looks very excessive but we were still using a lot of furniture we had when we first moved in together in 2009 plus Munchkin needed a new bed and we wanted to get him a desk for his room. We also got a new sofa as the old one we inherited when we moved into our old place and it had seen better days even then and as mentioned before we needed wardrobes as no inbuilt storage.

It’s hard to not try and justify it all the time but I knew if we didn’t upgrade our stuff now when we had a chunk of money we never would as anytime we save it always is needed for elsewhere if that makes sense? There is still roughly £4,000 left in the furniture fund we haven’t spent and we don’t think we need to but there is something I would personally like to use the money for instead so we will see what happens.

Anyhoo that means if I reach my 2018 target of £10,000 we should have £45,000 in PBs by the end of the year.

I will probably start a new diary (which I can hopefully put a link in here for) in the new year as it is a new start. I am planning to put in a complete S of A to see where any savings can be made and hopefully reach my target.

Hope everyone is well and enjoying the run up to Christmas - I am planing on posting again soon xx

ch4rly2002

I'm glad everything went well with the sale, and what a great amount to put away and spend on things you wouldn't normally have the opportunity, or personal justification, to buy. I totally agree with your approach, save the majority but spend on what you have neglected
I'll be interested in seeing if you win much on the premium bonds. DH and I have £8.5k between us and have won two £25 prizes this year. I'm hoping you'll win more with having much more in the PBs than us, so please do update if you win!
Hope you have a good Christmas and New Year in your new home x

Moominmamma89

Thanks ch4rly - until now Mr Moomin has only had about £280 in his PB and has not won anything (unsurprising) but we use mine to save for Munchkin's school fees which we pay annually. I started the year with about £14k and I'm now sitting with about £24k and if memory is correct I have won just over £400 in prizes this year which I'm more than happy with as I wouldn't get that in interest.

We have our options set to reinvest any prizes won so mine get added to the school fee savings but Mr Moomin's will get added to the deposit fund.

I have been redoing our budget now we are in the new house and think we have room to save about £6,500 towards our 2018 target so will need to try and find another £3,500. So will be getting my thinking cap on as to how to achieve that.

Hope everyone is well x

Moominmamma89

Spent this morning collecting meat from the butcher and last bits of Xmas prep. Have some baking left to do tonight and tomorrow but all in all pretty much ready for Xmas now.

Happy Xmas Eve Eve everyone x

Moominmamma89

Evening All - hope everyone has had a lovely Christmas

I have eaten far too much and moved way too little - this is not good for an aspiring personal trainer . My Fitbit is charging and I'm feeling motivated to getting back on track (starting January 1st)!!!

I am hoping to set up my new diary on Monday so will have a little while to decided on my final resolutions.

Hope everyone has a nice time tomorrow night x

ch4rly2002

Thought I'd drop in and say Hi. You haven't posted anything in a while so just wanted to say I'm thinking of you and hope everything is going well