Our MFW Adventure!

savingholmes

You are motoring along. Good luck with ebay!

Needhelpsaving

Weekly shop came in at £75.70 after needing to replenish various household consumables (loo roll, DW tablets, washing up liquid, nappies and wipes) - £25.70 over my target 

Other than that, there were no other spends. 2 of my ebay items have watchers, but not yet bought ... hopefully this will change in time. I have £8.12 to cash out on Quidco and have been clocking up some surveys to be cashed out later in the month. Slower progress, but progress all the same 

Needhelpsaving

Lots going on behind the scenes this week, a combination of getting bits ready for baby arrival (decluttering continues/decorating continues etc) and discussing future plans for our little family. 

Money wins this week have been;
1. I have hit my £100 premium bonds target; I got over the line with an ebay sale and the Quidco money. 
2. DD2 was gifted a pair of trainers by a family friend that don't fit her DD. 
3. I have been offered an unopened box of breast pads and a tens machine for baby arrival, which I have accepted. 

Money changes; 
We haven't necessarily had any money fails this week, but we have finally accepted that my 3 door car is not working with a baby bump and soon to be 2 car seats. DD1 is now tall enough to come out of a car seat so that has been stored for future use with other LO's, but I am having to climb into the car to clip DD2 into her seat which is not practical at all. We are planning to get rid of my car at some point this year, I will have OH's car and he will get a 7 seater for when all of us are travelling together. So at the moment, we are likely to stop OPing the mortgage to set aside some more money to buy a car outright (the idea of finance/leasing is not appealing to us and is not fitting with out long term goals). 

Main goal for the remainder of this month is to clear the CC - currently at £75.76 using additional earnings I make. 1 bulky item listed for sale this week, and I will keep an eye out for anything else that can be listed. 

savingholmes

Sounds a sensible decision. I have never been a fan of 3 door cars.

Needhelpsaving

Oops...sneaks back in after weeks of not posting 
First off, I hope everyone is okay and surviving the heat x

We've being getting on with some bits and pieces behind the scenes;
- New (to us) car bought using savings, part exchange and about £1700 put on credit card (pending part of OH sharesave being cashed out as it had reached the 3 year holding period). The car will now allow be able to meet our needs for a good few years yet, so we were pleased that we were able to get what we needed and be able to buy outright. 

- Emergency savings now stands at £6.50 so we need to start rebuilding this asap. The remainder of the sharesave money will go into it once it is paid out in August and then we will need to start rebuilding this initially back to 3 months worth of expenses and then back up to 6 months worth of expenses. 

- No further mortgage OP's made given the car purchase, it is unlikely that we will make any significant OP's now until 2021, but we may chip away by adding a few tilly tidies along the way. 

-Hall, stairs and landing have been redecorated.

- Sold a couple of bits and pieces totalling £60 additional income (cash used for everyday spends so that we can pay off the CC quicker).

Next Steps;
- Continue with house related jobs on the run up to baby arriving. 
- Continue to add to savings by sticking to budget and earning additional income. 
- Speak to family about cutting back xmas going forward, as we are just exchanging cash in envelopes these days. 
- Get back to reading diaries for inspiration 

savingholmes

Hoping you are ok. Congratulations on the car

Needhelpsaving

Hi 
I've been away for a couple of months as lots of things have been happening, and I needed to take some space. 
I'll not go into the drama, as I'd rather not think about it myself (plus bits are still going on). The good bits are that we've welcomed our third child into the world, a beautiful baby boy who we love to bits (and he's being spoiled by his sisters  ). 

We've also decided to sell our current home and move onto somewhere that we foresee as our forever home. Hopefully somewhere more semi-rural. Mortgage in Principle in place, next steps are photos and listing for our home, then hitting the viewings for our next home. We've stopped OPing the mortgage at the moment and are stashing cash in a bank account for moving costs. 

I'll try to get back into a routine of posting more regularly to keep myself motivated.

savingholmes

Congrats on your new baby. Good luck with the house move - we are in a similar position of wanting to move. Will be interesting to see what happens next. 

Mrs_Money_Penny

Congratulations on your new baby. Good luck with the house move. X

Needhelpsaving

Thanks for dropping in SH and MrsMP! 

The house move aspiration is moving along, our chosen estate agent is coming out this week to finalise some paperwork and then we're ready for photos and listing stage. We've seen a house that looks really interesting, have been to see the area (as we've seen lovely houses, but the area wasn't quite semi rural we were looking for), we've spoken with the Estate Agents of that home and they're happy that we are serious viewers given our home being listed and having the MIP, so we will view that house on Saturday and see whether it is somewhere we can see ourselves long term. Fingers crossed. 

I'm just getting back into the swing of comping and need to pick up the surveys again to keep some additional income coming in.