Little by little....to be MF

Retro.Monkey90

So I have been lurking for about a year now and I feel like it's time to start my own diary on my journey to being MF! I'm also seeing it as another step of encouraging progress that keeps me motivated and eager to be frugal.

Our mortgage is at the moment a touch under £128k and it was £134k when we bought our new build house in 2014. We are on the Scottish Help to Buy scheme, therefore our equity is 80% of the value of our house, which is currently £190k (just to put it into perspective). BF and I bought the house as first time buyers, so we are determined to start making a dent in the mortgage as soon as possible. Our OPs at the moment are a meager £75 as a SO, but this is already cutting 4 years and 8 months off the term! So original date was September 2044 :eek: and now we are on January 2040.

BF and I are both on average salaries and are doing everything we can at the moment to cut back as a series of unfortunate events has forced us to be uber-frugal. However, I intend on keeping it going and doing more to save so that we can throw everything (within reason) at the mortgage. Also planning a few big purchases this year and next which we need to save and budget for.

As this is my first post, I'm not sure what else to say other than any help or suggestions would be grand! Also hope this diary will not bore you all to death

Retro.Monkey90

92p TT today which makes the pot £7.18 so far for a bonus OP. Started this month with accumulating TT and cashback from our 123 account into a seperate saver to make a bonus payment each month. Even £10 makes 6 months difference! Just got to keep at it

juststuff123

Good Luck!


A lot of people like to have mini goals to keep the motivation up. 10yrs can be a long slog if you don't have a few mini-celebrations along the way!

Retro.Monkey90

Hi juststuff, thanks for popping in!

Mini-targets are my next task - not sure at the moment which way to go. Suggestions are welcome!

Retro x

Retro.Monkey90

So day 2 of this diary and handily swiped £30 from an energy switch to the mortgage pot! Even more handily it was for a switch that was so marginally more expensive we got money for old rope essentially

£1 TT as we have a nice rounded balance.

Still need to come up with some mini goals and aims, but this week might be busy with business trips so might be one for next week!

Retro x

lippy1923

I love a new shiny diary. Good luck with your mission. Keep posting regularly. I find it so motivating posting and reading other people's posts.

Retro.Monkey90

Thanks Lippy that's the main reason why I have decided to start my own diary. So hopefully I can hold myself accountable and keep up the payments and being frugal! The support from others is also an added bonus

SueP19

:hello::hello: and welcome to the best board


There are lots you can do to generate extra, do you have a craft that you can sell (don't forget self employment registration) Sell old stuff on Fleabay, carboot, meal plan, cashback sites, as well as looking closely at your budget :D

Retro.Monkey90

Hi SueP thanks for stopping by! Already on the cashback. Actually we calculated that we have saved/made almost £1,500 from Topcashback, Quidco and our 123 current account which roughly equates to one months salary! Incredible. Can you suggest any good challenges on the boards for newbies like me? I'm struggling to get mini goals so a challenge would be good!

I'm on survey sites, however I use the vouchers I earn for presents or to buy specific things I want but don't have money for e.g. iPad (one day - still saving up!)

Otherwise, our budget is quite strict, there is very little we can cut back on utilities and bills-wise. Our only downfall is our groceries, random spending (usually on the house stuff like decorations) and buying lunches. All other spending is accounted for. I might post my SOA a bit later on so everyone can comment on it!

TT a whole £1 the last two days as we don't have any DD towards the end of the month, and 82p today meaning our total bonues OP pot is standing at £40! Does it make me a bit sad that my TT pot is a round number?!

Have a good weekend everybody
Retro x

Retro.Monkey90

Not been great on the posting front these days! Long trips with work and preparation for my niece's birthday has got me all tied up! Steadily been TT and so far have £41.86 for a bonus OP which I don't think is too bad considering I thought we were in dire straits not so long ago.

Good news following some of our recent unfortunate events, as we have been informed that the other party involved in our accident has admitted liability:T so only another 5-7 weeks to wait for our £500 excess to be returned :eek:

Honestly sometimes I feel like I have it all on track and everything is looking up, and then things don't turn out as you want/planned and it makes you feel like packing it in!! but now it is slowly (very slowly) turning around. Must be positive about these little things I suppose.

Onwards and upwards from here hopefully
Retro x

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Retro.Monkey90

A whole £1 TT today! Swiped this over to the new Tesco account I opened for TT to hopefully get a little bit extra in the form of interest. Feeling a bit tight as I have paid all my bills (personal and money to joint account) with my pay for December and I only have £18 to last me till Christmas! :eek: So have to be extra frugal and will no doubt have to use the new Amex CC for pressies. But to be fair we have agreed with family a £20 budget per person this year which actually everyone was grateful for, so hopefully it won't be too eye watering this year.

My task for the rest of today is to find some mini-goals and figures to post next week so I can start benchmarking my progress. The idea is to use this as motivation as per suggestions, so I need to be realistic but also ambitious at the same time :rotfl:

Hope you all have a good weekend :beer:
Retro x

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