A quest of happiness, new adventures and mortgage freedom!

porgiegeorgie

So, after sitting on it for a few weeks I'm committing my thoughts to paper (screen), and joining all you lovely MSE MFW diarists and readers.

Currently life feels like it's in a state of flux, imminent changes are afoot and this has lead me to feel quite overwhelmed by what needs to be done. This diary is an attempt to address this feeling, I hope by writing things down it will become easier to organise what needs to be done and what has been achieved. One thing that has really struck me while reading other diaries is the community vibe that comes through on this little enclave of the forum and I hope that this will help on this journey.

The main things I plan to focus on are:

MFW
Making as big a dent in the mortgage as possible!

Our regular monthly mortgage payment is £928, alongside this we've made regular overpayments. A few figures to date:

Mortgage Feb 16: £142,480 @ 2.89% on a five year fix, over an initial 16 year term.

Current balance: £113,914

Average monthly OPs: £961

Total overpayments: £17,300

Daily Interest: £11.28 Feb 16 to £9.01 Aug 17

Time off total term: 2 years and 3 months

Approx interest saved: £8000!


These savings in interest have been my main motivation for overpaying, eventually freeing up the money we currently put into the mortgage for other things will be nice too and if we continued overpaying at this rate we could clear the mortgage in another six years,

however...

Baby
We are expecting our first child in October! This is what really got me thinking that I need some sort of financial plan of action. I have no idea what to expect yet but I want to try and plan for it (I'm wondering if this is my version of nesting?)

The main baby-related considerations on my mind at the moment are how things are going to have to change financially; and in practical terms, what needs to be done and acquired in preparation for their arrival. My head is literally overspilling with baby-related things, so apologies if this diary gets hijacked by that sometimes.

House
Mr G and I bought our house at the start of 2016. An 1850's terraced weavers cottage, it has character and I am completely smitten with it.

The whole thing needed updating inside and the roof needed replacing. I inherited some money from my grandparents which allowed us to get the roof done at the start of this year and still leave us with some savings which was useful because shortly after moving into the house we discovered a potential structural defect in the property which has taken quite some time (and expense) to sort out. Sorting this problem involved going back to the surveyor who missed the problem in the (full structural) building survey, and while he reluctantly footed the bill for the repair work the work done to put the walls back to their original condition wasn't done very well and to be honest, the whole thing has been a bit of a nightmare. I could write a tomb about the experience, but, while it isn't quite over yet, I really want to try and put the whole thing behind us.

These structural repairs required stripping the walls back to stone and lifting floors so we've only JUST started tackling updating the decor in the past couple of months. We're having to knuckle down to try and get as much done as possible to make those areas most affected by the work livable before Little Bean arrives (this includes the room we've earmarked as the nursery!). What really isn't helping is that I have zero energy and DH has been working abroad quite a lot making up for trips he didn't go on earlier in the year (he didn't want to leave me to deal with the house-situation, or fend for myself, while I was being sick several times a day) and trips he's said he won't be going on later in the year (so he doesn't risk missing the birth!) So it's a slow chipping away process to get everything done.

Financial
Paying off the mortgage has been my main focus this past eighteen months, however, the imminent arrival of Little Bean has made me take stock of our financial situation which will have to change. We will have a drop in income when I finish work, I will get maternity allowance for 39 weeks but at the moment plan to be off work for longer than this. I've also realised that I've been neglecting things like a pension. So a look at pensions, savings and general budgeting is needed.

Work
I am planning to finish work for maternity leave in late September. I do not have any firm plans yet about when I intend to go back to work but would like some time with the baby, and given the cost of childcare (a full time place at our local nursery is almost £16k a year!) I figure it might make sense if I wait until they're a few years old before going back.

What I do know is that I haven't been happy in my own job recently and would like a change. I'm kind of wishing I'd realised this a bit earlier than this year, hindsight eh? My main concern is that once the baby is here I will feel pressured into going back into my current job just because it's the easiest thing to do, I really don't want to do this so have got this one on the back burner for now, looking out for things I might want to do instead.

Mr G. has worked for the same company since leaving university seven years ago. It's quite a high pressure role and he hasn't really been happy there for quite a while. He has discussed his unhappiness at work with them but the main problems just aren't being sorted so lately he has become quite jaded by the whole company. He came very close to handing in his notice a few weeks ago and I think the only thing that stopped him was the fact that the baby is due so soon. I wouldn't be surprised if he was looking for a new job at some point in the very near future though. He shouldn't struggle to find another job, his main concern about leaving his current current company is that they pay better than equivalent roles in other companies (to account for the high pressure nature of it I think) but, this is increasingly not enough to hold him there. I'll support him when/if he decides to leave, his happiness is the most important thing. But this could be more changes on the horizon.

Money saving/frugal/money making
We haven't had to be super frugal recently so haven't really been! There was a time I had a rigid budget and we planned meals and tracked everything we spent, but as our income has increased and we achieved our goal of buying our house we've let most of that slip and started enjoying a more spendy lifestyle. It's probably time to return to the budgety ways again!

I've also been reading about matched betting and would like to give it a try. I just need to take the plunge and go for it. I figure if I start now and get to know the ropes I can continue and do some after the baby arrives (if I have time!).

Fun and happiness
Something we highly value is having fun and being happy.

Mr G will always take extra holiday over extra pay when offered. Being able to spend time together is what really makes us happy. We have quite a few frugal days out, mainly exploring the countryside with a packed lunch, but, we also have several fairly non-MSE hobbies we enjoy doing together.

Obviously, what we do for fun as a family will have to change a bit to accommodate Little Bean, at least for a few years, but we also really want to get them into the things we love doing, Mr G can't wait to get them sailing and I would love to get them into snow-sports with a view of having family ski-holidays in the future! Not the most MSE pursuits but they're part of the fabric that bring happiness into our lives and that we'd like to share with our Little Bean as they get older


So, here goes!

Things to do in the next week:

MFW
Make a house chart to colour in for each 1k knocked off the mortgage (I don't know whose idea this was originally but have seen it mentioned in several diaries and love it!)

Baby
Nappy research.

Finance
Work out a SOA.

House
Finish painting over the peach artex in the sitting room.

Work
Start August invoices.

Money making
Re-read through the matched betting guides, make accounts.

Fun
Go for a swim tomorrow.


Thanks for sticking with this if you've read through this far. Hoping that I'll stick with this and it'll be the first post of many on our journey towards mortgage freedom!

Georgie

porgiegeorgie

Just realised I didn't change the title of my diary before submitting it and only called it that so I could preview post! Hadn't decided on a title but it wasn't that! I guess that's what it is called now though, for better or worse :rotfl:

bexster1975

I've seen worse thread titles

Hello and welcome. Nancy congratulations on your imminent arrival.

I'm sorry to hear of all the house problems you have had. It can rather take the shine off a dream property. I will confess to not being a nappy expert upfront. However I understand some of the own brand nappies are very good, including Aldi. Some young mums will likely be on here soon to support or refute my claim. You have made an excellent start on overpaying already. Was that a regular OP or one off payments? I'd say put up a SOA but now may not be an ideal time to do so as things will be quite different within three months.
I'm sure you do already but general advice is to meal plan, shop around for insurance, energy, phone and broadband etc. I would say, it is very clear that babies do not need anything like the amount of stuff people try to sell you. Because we are all very nosy here it might be nice to consider some of your decorating pics for the thread.

I would also add, charity shops are great for children's things from clothes to toys and, if you are lucky, furniture. Also often eBay and Facebook selling pages.

All the best of luck to you

Bexster

Silence101

Hello!
We use value nappies with our toddler. They don't do newborn sizes though, so we just used to use the cheapest we could find. With our eldest we bought washable nappies, which are great, but then we had a problem with the washing machine (not linked to the nappies) so got out of the habit of using them. Some children react to different nappy brands, so we decided to wait until the baby was here before buying. What we did do to prepare for our first baby was batch cook lots of meals, I think I made enough for a month, and muffins too. That helped lots the first month or two. We weren't quite so organised with the second one, but lived really close to a Express so used to buy things there. A more expensive option,but needs musts.

Poorlittletightgirl

Hi Georgie,

I've just started my MF quest too and will follow your thread with interest. It looks like you've already got off to an amazing start. So we'll done!

I feel I have a few baby related tips for you being about a year and a half in front of you and also expecting number 2 in October. Depending on how frugal you are, you may not like some of the things I do - I know a lot of my friends would never buy second hand, but it has worked so well for us:

Charity shops/nearly new sales/eb@y/FB local selling sites - these are my go to places for everything baby related. I don't tend to buy any piece of clothing for over 50p now and find so many things unworn. Nearly new sales have been the best - go at the end when a couple just don't want to take anything home and you get amazing deals.

I got lots of bits second hand from a friend, so was very lucky. But bought a second pram for the car from FB (and also now a double one) both for £30 and in great condition. The first was similar to a friends who spent £600 on hers - I just couldn't justify that!

I combifed to save money, which I know isn't suitable for everyone, but money saving was a great motivator to keep me going for 10 months! Then when weaning, I made most of my own food and purses. Batch cooking, meal planning and giving the baby similar to us helped. I kept emergency baby jars in my change bag - these were all bought with vouchers - sign up to all the baby clubs like C@G, Hip* Org@nic etc and you get loads. I've just got 8 for free from new baby from collecting booklets from nursery!

Nappies - we've gone down the cloth route for environmental and money reasons. We've spent £300 and these will last 2 babies and I can sell them on after. You can hire a trial pack from a local nappy library when baby arrives if you want to give it a go. If not reusable wipes are great either for bums and hands or just hands. £land do baby flannels £1 for 6 and old flannels are great. They are so much better than disposable wipes for cleaning - we just have in Tupperware with cooled, boiled water. We must save a fortune just there! We also buy @ldi disposables for morning and nursery use, as we have produced a poo monster.

Our local council run sure start centres run great baby groups for £1. They are great and you can use the sensory rooms. The health visitors also run free baby massage sessions. There are loads of free/cheap activities around if you look. We love the council swimming lessons - so cheap. Some baby activities are such a rip off.

Sorry for such a long post - let me know if you need more info. Also don't worry about maternity pay - we earn next to nothing and still can OP. You can enjoy time with your baby for so little - they can cost as much or as little as you want to spend!

Good luck, PLTG x

Poorlittletightgirl

Oh I forgot, I was very interested in your thread because of your holiday talk! Remember infants costs very little to take away. I'm gutted mine is nearly 2 and will soon cost more! He's the most well travelled baby I know, already he's been to Mexico, Ireland several times, skiing in Italy, various places in England. Lol. We do have to holiday differently now, and the big trips probably won't be repeated for another couple of years (I've heard it's harder with 2 kids). But I look for special deals - The S☀️n £9.50 holidays have been great.

porgiegeorgie

Hey all, thanks for dropping in and thanks for all the tips!

Bexter, the OPs were regular (but variable!), every month or two. I usually wait until we've both been paid and overpay whatever was left at the end of last month. There isn't any sort of real order to the amount or anything! Even though it'll change I'm going to tackle our SOA later this week, realised I haven't done one at all while we've lived in this house
Once we've got the rooms looking nice I'll work out how to get some before and after pictures linked here

Silence and PLTG, we're planning the cloth-nappy route too. I've also heard that not all nappies suit all babies so plan on getting a small selection of each type and seeing what works when they're here. I signed up to the real nappy incentive scheme run by my council and they've sent me two different types of nappy already so that's a start! I've been advised to start baby off in disposables anyway until the meconium has passed through.

We're hoping to do some batch cooking before baby but currently have limited freezer space due to owning two fridge/freezers (with tiny freezer compartments!); a rubbish undercounter one in the kitchen that we inherited with the house and a better one we moved in with but which doesn't fit anywhere in the kitchen so is currently in the cellar. The ultimate plan is to get rid of both and replace with an undercounter fridge (the freezer takes up valuable fridge space and doesn't work properly anyway) and a separate freezer for the cellar.

However, getting the fridge/freezer into the cellar was pretty hairy and I'm not entirely sure if it's ever coming out again :eek: I'll probably advertise it on gumtree, free to anyone who can remove it (we originally bought it off gumtree for £40 about five years ago so it's had some good innings.) This is something we really, probably, should have sorted out sooner.


I'll add nearly new sales to things to check out this week! We hope to get as much as possible second hand and so far have bought a few clothes bundles, some gro-bags and a co-sleeping crib on the Bay of E. Holding off on getting too many things before they're here though on the advice of everyone who has had a baby ever :rotfl:

PLTG, wow! He does sound like a very well travelled baby! When you were skiing did you put him into a creche or take turns skiing/being with him?
Also, congratulations on your second!

Mr G's brother is off to New Zealand this autumn to start a PhD. He should be there for at least three years so our tentative plan is to save and go visit him in a year or two. The thought of flying long haul with a baby does make me nervous though!

bexster1975

Already spammed

Bexster

Poorlittletightgirl

Hi Georgie,

We put him into the crèche when we were skiing, I felt a bit guilty and it was about £300 but well worth it. He loved it and skiing is so expensive, that I didn't want to waste the money we'd paid for us by not being able to ski half the time and also not be able to go out together. Plus I figured we won't be going again for a couple more years. Our friends had booked to go before us and booked an all inclusive place in Italy with Cryst@l, would highly recommend, great for kids, really quiet skiing and having everything included was so much easier. Usually we do DIY cheap as chips, lol!

In regards to NZ - We did 10 hours to Mexico when little one was 10 months and almost walking, its was harder to keep him entertained than flying when he was smaller. It wasn't a nightmare like I was expecting, but easier younger when they just sleep and eat. I do have a few friends living in Oz though, who do the trip every year with tinies, so it can't be too bad! Plus the trip would be well worth it, I love NZ.

Back to the baby stuff - I bought a lot of cloth nappies on the FB group pre-loved cloth nappies and accessories. Got some great deals, but don't be swayed by the big cheap bundles, I ended up with lots that didn't suit and found hard to sell on. Just buy 1 or 2 of each, and buy more later. @ldi do good deals on Mio Nappies, that I stocked up on during their baby events and we only use these during the day now.

Definitely agree with your friends, don't buy too much for the baby, they don't need most of the stuff out there. Oh and when you get presents, usually outfits size 0-3 months, return them to the shop for a bigger size 9-12 months or 12-18 months. You seem to end up with loads of newborn stuff, which they hardly wear and it's so difficult to put a proper outfit on a newborn instead of a baby grow. We didn't have to buy much for the first year because I did this and I still have money on a N*xt store card from returning bits, that I use in the sales. I sometimes feel bad telling friends that I take stuff back, but it works well for me!

porgiegeorgie

Hey all,

I should have been collecting Mr G from the airport this morning but his flight was delayed for three hours in China so he's still somewhere over the Baltic and has missed his connection from London. Hopefully he'll get put on an afternoon flight from London, but waiting for him to touch down and find out what the plan is. Was looking forward to seeing him this morning so am a little disappointed. Thought I'd do a quick update on this week's progress while I'm here though.

MFW
Not much to report here, I don't get paid until the start of next month. Mr G messaged to say he's had to use the joint account to cover some travel expenses, he'll get these back from work next month. It'll probably mean he won't have anything to overpay this month though.

Baby
Cloth nappy research is going well. Have read reviews, found a couple of websites I like the look of and am watching some Bay of E listings. Plan to order one or two of several different types and see how we get on with them when baby is here before committing to any. It's a whole new world I never knew.

House
Didn't get much house decoration stuff done this week, just a bit of painting. The artex I'm trying to go over is the most awful thing I've ever tried painting. It's so pointy it's practically mountainous and requires a small brush to get into all the nooks and valleys. It's also high up in an exposed roof truss and requires standing on the top step of the ladder which isn't the easiest at seven months pregnant. I've been finding other jobs to do instead; one evening I completely cleaned downstairs and scrubbed out the bins, such was my reluctance to paint :rotfl:

We might be having our heating system replaced soon. After painting the walls upstairs we noticed how shabby the radiators looked in comparison and looked into replacing them. We'd planned on replacing the whole (ancient) system anyway and figured that we have money sitting in savings not doing anything so it made no sense to put it off. Installing the new system is going to require removal of an asbestos flue which has taken some extra organising but the heating company have said they can do the install in September so we're just waiting to hear if the asbestos removal place can do the same dates, and if so we'll have a nice new heating system in time for winter. If it can't be done in September it'll have to wait until next year.

Work
I put off writing invoices this week. It's top of my list for this morning (after writing this!)

I was meant to be going away with one of my clients this week but requested not to. I'm a bit disappointed about missing the work aspect of it but am more happy I'll be at home and won't have to travel. It also means Mr G and I will get to spend the bank holiday together, one of the first we've both managed to be at home for this year!

Money making
I took the plunge and started matched betting and so far so good
This week I've made use of two introductory offers and a reload offer and have made £47 profit, I have a couple of bets on today which should yield another £18 or so. I've been playing it very safe and sticking to win/lose odds on football and cricket. Am reading up on it whenever I get the chance to improve my understanding and have been quite enjoying it

I also applied for a nectar card. I don't usually use store loyalty cards but figured since Sainses is our closest supermarket and we're usually too [STRIKE]lazy[/STRIKE] tired to go further afield it might be a habit worth getting into.

Fun
I went for a swim last weekend, and made it to one of the £2 sessions run by the council (usually £4.90!) which felt very MSE. Between being sick in early pregnancy and feeling rather tired since I haven't been anywhere near as active as I used to be so being able to go swimming semi-regularly has felt amazing.


Things to do this weekend:

MFW
Still need to make a house chart to colour in for each 1k knocked off the mortgage.

Baby
Buy and bid on some nappies.

Finance
Work out a SOA. Work in progress.

House
Continue painting
Ask Mr G to chase up heating, asbestos removal people about dates.

Work
Do invoices.

Money making
Keep eye on current bets. Put together a MB spreadsheet. Sign up to another intro offer.

Fun
Mr G home! See how he feels but try and get out somewhere for the day one day this weekend.
Go for another swim.


This post took longer to write than expected! Going to crack on with work stuff and wait for word on Mr G, flight tracker is showing him over the Netherlands

Have a good weekend all!

porgiegeorgie

Poorlittletightgirl wrote: »

Hi Georgie,

We put him into the crèche when we were skiing, I felt a bit guilty and it was about £300 but well worth it. He loved it and skiing is so expensive, that I didn't want to waste the money we'd paid for us by not being able to ski half the time and also not be able to go out together.

We thought we'd have to wait until they were old enough for ski-school before going out again but this has made me rethink