Staying on track to be MF and ready to support my daughter at 18

A NSP yesterday :T which seems much easier if you don't leave the house.
The past couple of weeks have taken the lid off my financial can of worms, in a good way, not a bad way. The MFW challenge makes me realise that personal finances are all tied together and looking at one part really also impacts another part and raises my awareness about the whole bundle :eek:
Reading everyone's threads highlights all the areas that I've neglected to think about completely. I had vague ideas that I would like to retire early but hadn't thought it through at all. This isn't very wise, I know. I like that motto, "Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail." So right now, I have no plan and that's not good enough!!
Where do I start? I registered to find out how many NI contribution years I've made and I am 9 years short of the required amount for a full state pension just now. I missed some years while I was student, and while I worked for a few years in the US, and it says it is too long ago to pay those now (wish I had a tardis). 50 years old now, so 59 is the earliest to stop paying NI contributions. But that said, I could change my career/job (higher stress) for a job/job (lower stress?). I'm also in an occupation pension scheme that was a brilliant final salary scheme until a couple of years ago. I had about 16 years in by that time. Then it was changed to a 1/75th scheme which is woefully less good. The retirement age is 67 at the moment, probably going up again (maybe to 70). Plus they have just changed the bonus 1% with employer 2% match and I don't know whether to stop paying that 1%. In any way, I really don't want to keep going that long, I'll be insane by then. It's a bit of a mess.

Maybe I need to read the pensions threads? Please point me towards any good ones if you know of any

Starting to get the hang of things and seeing the benefits now. This MFW challenge is definitely an art form.:j
I took all the money saved by not eating/drinking at work and topped up the O/P I had earmarked already. The great thing was that by doing so, my spreadsheet showed that I shortened the mortgage payments by one month already and also reduced my daily interest paid each day below £2.:T
When you see all these benefits, it really does show you how even a small extra O/P makes a large difference.
That said, today was payday and I 'blew out' on a cafe lunch - vegan curry pasty. Will get back on track next week. The majority of the week had been either NSD at work or traveling away for work and covered on expenses. I do still feel the tractor beam pull of the cafe food though.

Hope everyone enjoys the weekend

:)Thanks Cheery
Looking at the spreadsheet, it'll be a while before I can achieve another month reduction, but at least I can see now that every little extra speeds it up.
The moggie is fine now too. The vet had to shave the fur off around the wound, so he is currently freezing in that area of his body when he pops out. He is a big fluffy maine-coon-ish type moggie and his fluffiness is an important part of his psyche/street cred.:rotfl:

Thanks Frayed, good suggestion.
Playing with the spreadsheet helps highlight a few smaller goals I could aim for this next few months.
Hitting another big goal would be reliant on me finding more income, so I'm thinking about that too. Had one failed attempt at selling some brand new, unworn hiking boots on Gmtree and there were no takers. I'm not on farsebook. Could ask DH to try on fb I suppose.
Then there are the poll sites that I see some of you mention on threads, maybe could try one of those?:money:

:jMade a few savings over the past week, recalculated the monthly budget, and felt confident enough that I could throw another £100 O/P at the mortgage. In doing so, it brought the total owed below a boundary and instead of being £37K it drops a few pounds into £36K range. I do like these little goals and achievements.
Need to book a few hotels for an easter vacation family road trip though. Might pay for it on my CC and delay having to pay it til april's wages come in. We usually stay at Pr*mier Inn type places, Travelbodge lack of proper breakfast puts me off them. Anyone got any discount codes for P Inn? Whenever I look for them online, the browser /cookies seem to know it's me and that I'm inevitably going to book with a voucher or not.
Have also decided to get a bit more serious about a book I started to write and I keep doing a tiny bit then forgetting about it. Not sure if it'll make any cash? Friends and work colleagues have said they think the stories I have to tell are readworthy?! I keep getting put off though because I know my English writing and grammar is awful - damn that secondary comprehensive school education :eek: Have managed a little over 25000 words so far which is maybe half way towards a whole book:T but I fear I'm starting to run dry on material...
I read a few writing tips websites, they suggest writing a small amount every day at the same time in the same place, so I'm going to get up an hour earlier each work day next week and write a minimum of 300 words and see how that goes...