Just wanting to say hi!

atypicalblonde

Afternoon everyone :hello:

I hope that you are all having a fabulous bank holiday weekend. Back at work tomorrow, and my god what a crash back to reality it will be . Aaah well, it stops me spending money I suppose :cool:;).

Right, numbers duly crunched and this is where I am at. My main dilemma is savings money versus OP money, so any advice would be appreciated...

• Now that my payrise has taken effect, I take home just over £2k per month :T:j.
• The standing order amount that leaves my account as soon as I get paid is £970. This covers my half of all of the bills and £20 into our 'car savings' account, which we both put money into so that when the tax, service etc is due we can pay these upfront. This figure includes the mortgage overpayment of £450, which I will now refer to as my 'standard OP'. With me so far?:rolleyes::p:rotfl:
• Which leaves, cue my super maths, £1030 left over :shocked:.
• My initial plan had been to increase the standard OP by £300, put £500 in my savings and use the remaining £230 as my 'living off' money, which shouldn't (theoretically ) be too hard. I have been very inspired by the wonderful Hypno over on DFW who regularly challenges herself to make £20 last as long as she can, so if I can do that sort of a challenge, and continue to take lunch to work everyday, I can, on paper, have NSDs 5 days a week.
• Now I am thinking though that maybe I should drop the savings to £400, and increase the standard OP by £400. As I have mentioned before on this thread though, my savings are very important to me and therefore I am torn as to what to do.

If you have got this far, wowzers! Please can anyone advise me? (*ATB runs off hoping Stuart, setmefree, Hypno, smlsave, gallygirl et al quickly come along and help!)

ATB xx

Edited to add: Once FD send me my free £100, I will hit the £4k mark x

hypno06

How much do you see as being a "comfortable" amount in savings? Eg is it 3 months wages, 6 months bills money, £x000? If you think that there may be a chance that one or other of you will lose a job, or have reduced income in the next 12 months or so, this might influence your "comfort zone" for your savings.......

Once you know what your savings aim is, then you can start working out how long you have until you get there at, say £500 a month. If you are already "there", then you can drop your savings amount and increase your OP, if you are not "there" yet then keep the savings amount at £500 and the lower amout at the mortgage.

This is not all about what pays the most interest, what saves you the most pennies, but also about what level you feel comfortable at, remembering that once paid to the mortgage it cannot easily be reclaimed in an emergency (by which I mean a real emergency ie car blowing up/unemployment, not a handbag shopping/fancy a holiday emergency).

atypicalblonde

Thanks Hypno x

£10k is my goal which, as you can see, I am nowhere near yet. This is my "oh crap I've lost my job and need a buffer" amount. OH and I are very fortunate, my industry thrives on bad times so I am doing well and OH is very specialist engineer, so his industry is okay.

I think that I am going to pay the £500 into my savings until I reach my target, then re-assess and see where I stand. I hope to get to £10k by March payday. Thanks hun xx

mel19632

Keep up good work atypicalblonde - it looks like you are doing so well!
I have been reading your diary for a while and am very envious of how well you are doing with your goals. I can't wait until I can be a MFW - as you can see by my signature, I have quite a way to go! Until then, I will read your diary (and other MFWs!) for inspiration!

atypicalblonde

Hi Mel, thanks for popping in. Your signature is very impressive hon, you should be proud! You'll be over here before you know it! x

Lynn11

We make a nominal amount of overpayment to the mortgage and more to the savings each month, since I want to be able to put more of a deposit down on hopefully our next house in 2yrs. We have enough savings if hubbie was to lose his job but I prefer it this way. You will find your way you wish to go with savings or overpayment. Good luck.

setmefree2

Hypno & Mel - fantastic signatures. Well Done :T:T:T

atypicalblonde

Mortgage OP for October increased to £700 xxx

SmlSave

Mortgage OP for October increased to £700

Ohhhh, well done :T

hypno06

Excellent :T:D