The MF pipe dream

Youthgonewild · 6 August 2018 at 10:16AM

I've tried to give as honest a breakdown of my spending habits as I can. Just realised I've missed off my Netflix subscription (£5.99pm). In total honesty, I always try to build up a nice stockpile of savings money and I use that money to cover things like car/home insurance (I pay yearly) and also other expensive items like road tax (annual) car MOT, servicing, maintenance that kind of thing. At the moment I'm saving £250 per month in 5% savings account, but I always like to have a stockpile of cash for life's 'big things' just in case.

Also I will be changing phone and BB supplier very soon so that should take the total down from £50 per month. My mobile phone contract is also due for renewal end of this year so I'm going to look for a better deal than what I am currently on. £15.50 isn't great for what I get. I much prefer my old PAYG SIM.

Updated signature.

lindez · 15 August 2018 at 5:39PM

Hi thought I would pop in and say hi. You are doing really well with your op's x

zcrat41 · 15 August 2018 at 8:30PM

Wow I think you're doing really really well. Your budget looks pretty darn tight to me too.

Youthgonewild · 17 September 2018 at 10:34AM

Hi all,

Sorry I've not posted in a while.

Sooooo..... I'll fill you in with where I'm up to. Last month after my regular monthly payment, I decided it would be a 'good idea' to make a one-off overpayment of £700 on top of my regular £525 :eek:

Goodness knows why I thought this would be a good idea, with the run up to Christmas and kids back at school/childminders (after school club and childcare fees). In hindsight it wasn't my smartest move. And whilst I'm not completely impoverished I am on an extremely tight budget now. I also got a letter through the post last week - my home insurance is due at the end of this month

I also took it upon myself (before receiving said letter) to up my OPs AGAIN to £600 per month. It means money will be tight, very tight. But I figured if I really am struggling I will drop it back down again to £525.

Alls I can say is it's a good job I like to save money as I will pay my home insurance out of my savings if needs be. So far I should be okay....we will see.

I did eventually switch my BB and phone provider. I'm now paying £9 per month for both rather than the £50+ I was paying previously :T

I looked into my mobile phone contract, I can exit it next month with no exit fees so I will definitely look into getting something cheaper ASAP.

My mortgage payment went out today - all £600 of it. My current mortgage balance stands at £91825.09

Youthgonewild · 25 September 2018 at 10:58AM

Hi one and all,

I've done something not so much drastic but, erm.... unexpected.

Basically I held some money in S&S online account. I made a slight bit of profit on it and I decided to sell all my shares. I held the money in the account for a few weeks and did nothing with it (probably not wise). Anyway today I closed the account.

I have requested to transfer all monies (minus fees) to my bank account, hoping that will be done by close of play today. It's not a great deal of money. I don't know whether to reinvest it (which seems a bit daft now I've just closed the S&S account completely) or whether to just hang on to it in my regular, bog-standard crappy interest rates ISA - with a view to investing £250 per month into my 5% ISA (£250 is the max I can transfer pcm).

In any case, I have the money to hand should I need it. Will definitely have to keep it out of my normal bank account otherwise the temptation will be to spend

or throw the lot at my mortgage, potentially leaving me with a very limited emergency fund in future :eek:

My gut instinct is telling me to stash it in my ISA for 'safe-keeping' until I decide what to do.

Youthgonewild · 27 September 2018 at 1:34PM

Ok, so I had a very spendy day yesterday. The upside is that I have now done the majority of my Christmas shopping :T Just a few more presents to buy and that's it. In fairness I started it in April. Once the last few items are bought that's it, I can breathe a sigh of relief and not have to worry**. I bought a load of stuff (new items) on Eb@y and Am@zon. I have a 30-day free trial on Pr!me too, so I got free delivery. Will cancel that sub at the end of the free trial.

I shopped through a cash back site called Kidstart which I have used since my oldest son was born. I have about £24 stashed up on there and due to get some more added in soon thanks to my online shopping.

My youngest son turns 3 next month - all his presents are now bought. However i didn't buy him a lot as I am fed up with toy all over the house and his birthday is less than two months away from Christmas.

Cant believe how well-organised I am this year. I haven't spent a fortune either. Apologies for the stealth-boast, I'm just so pleased with myself :A

**read panic-buy.

robomomkey · 27 September 2018 at 8:24PM

Hi

Great job so far, keep up the good work.

Given your mortgage rate is 2.27%, if you have an ISA which pays 5%, then in a purely financial sense you would be better off putting overpayments into the ISA as you will realise an additional 2.73% interest on the value of the overpayments.

The downside is that you don’t see the balance reducing as much, and the money is accessible and at risk of being spent.

Youthgonewild · 2 October 2018 at 10:21AM

Thanks robomonkey for the reply.

The limitation of my ISA means I can only put a maximum of £250 per month away. So I've been doing that as well as OPing (by the same amount). If money gets tight, I intend to drop OP's back down. The interest I make on my ISA savings will be spent on the mortgage (it will only amount to around £80 I should imagine).

Thanks for the support

Youthgonewild · 9 October 2018 at 1:26PM

Just thought I'd pop in to say I've managed a cheeky little OP this month

. Can't wait to see what my mortgage balance looks like next week. Hope everyone is slaying this MFW thing, I've been meaning to get round to reading some of the longer diaries. Have subscribed to a few recently - It's exciting to find out how people are getting on and looking back on where they started.

KOKO :money:

Youthgonewild · 10 October 2018 at 9:41AM

Hello one and all.

I am at home with my sons today. I usually have Wednesday off (I work p/t since having children). Oldest should be at school but he has a fever so he spent yesterday at Grandparents house and he is home with me and youngest today. Hope he is better for tomorrow.

I have just called my broadband provider and I have bought a new mobile phone sim from them. At present I am paying £15.50 per month for 1GB of data, 150 minutes and 2000 texts - extortionate but I have been tied into a contract so could not leave.

New mobile sim which I should get in a couple of days is so much better. 1.5GB of data, unlimited minutes and texts all for the bargain price of £6 per month. So I will be making a saving of £9.50 per month which I will probably throw at the mortgage. The data is not a great deal but I use WiFi at home and I have inernet access at work and free WiFi at work too so that is not an issue.

I am hoping I dont get stung with any cancellation charges from the existing provider. The plan says I can upgrade from 14th October. I took that to mean I could also end it from that date too. We shall see. I may get hit with a cancellation fee. Ey well, it will be worth it considering the savings I will make over the long term.

Any road, it is time for me to stop blabbering and go get showered. Have a good day, all.

The MF pipe dream

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