Apple muncher's number crunching

A question about : Apple muncher's number crunching

Time for me to start a diary .

I work 2 days a week, dd is at school and dh was made redundant in the summer. We are living carefully, although the redundancy money is being nibbled away at of course. We are fortunate to have no debts other than the mortgage, so I would like to get rid of it! We'd also like to have a savings buffer - about 6 months' worth seems to be the rule of thumb.

So, to the numbers:
Mortgage Ј77, 051.99
Offset savings Ј13,768.73 (Ј10,000 belongs to my mum and will be used to extend her lease in about 12 months' time)
Interest therefore charged on Ј63,283.26
Interest pcm about Ј78 (shame on me, not knowing the %!)

At the moment we are only paying Ј100 to the mortgage, and any leftovers at then end of the month are going into the savings.

I joined the 52 week money saving thread where you put away Ј1 on week 1, Ј2 in week 2, etc. But I started the other end with Ј52 first and have been paying it off the capital, so that's having tiny nibbles taken out of it.

Where would I like to be in 12 months' time? Oooh, tricky! Realistically, I reckon we could maybe, hopefully, possible save Ј4000. I'd like to get our part of the savings up to Ј6000, so save Ј2,232. And I'd also like to knock some off the capital, so Ј1,768. Hmm, not v much then! Hey ho, every little helps...!

There is a vague possibility that I may have 4 days work for 2 terms. This won't double my income, as I've used up all my tax benefits already, but it's not to be sneezed at! And if dh is able to find a job, than all the better! And I'll definitely have to revise my goal! But I'll not be complaining at that!

However, if dh cannot find employment and I don't get extra work, then we will have to seriously batten down the hatches, as the mortgage has 9 years and 9 months to run.

I've joined the NOvember challenge with Ninjasavingkat, which is super helpful, useful, motivating and challenging. Love it!

Best answers:

• Good luck with your plans.
  Hope the extra work comes off
  Best wishes Tilly
• Wanted to wish you well on your MFW journey .
  We have similar mortgage balances and I too have an Offset mortgage. I do a combination of paying 50% of extra money directly to the mortgage and 50% goes into the Offset savings.
  I love seeing the monthly interest and mortgage term reduce. It's so addictive.
• A satisfying day all round . A good trawl around some charity shops, after dropping off 2 boxes in one of them. I found lots of Rainbow Magic books, which was my hope.
  Finished making my friend's wedding present and wrapped it up all posh and ribbony for tomorrow.
  Planted up some daffs in pots to give at Christmas; pulled up a few raspberry canes, but wrist injuries have made for pathetically feeble hand grip. Plus the fact that I didn't cut the rasps back last year (supposed to raze to the ground every year) so some of them are strongly rooted in.
  Read another chapter of my latin textbook. I remembered the story in this chapter from when I did it first time around many, many moons ago.
  Tomorrow's looking busy. I'll take dd to tap and ballet while dh gets himself to the church to rebuild the PA for the wedding - pesky electricians disconnected the stage equipment as it was in their way!!!
  Dd and I get home, change, grab some lunch and a ribbony beautifully-wrapped present and head to the church for the wedding. We may have to leave dh there to pack up the kit and come home to make a minion costume for Sunday.
  Dh will appear at some point, then we are all going out for a good friend's 60th. It's only 30-40mins away, but starts at dd's bedtime! And I reckon we may have to leave before it's even begun! Shame as friend is a very good friend of dh, so may try to get him a lift home from someone else.
  Sunday comes and dd is insistant we go to church, as she adores the kids klub they run, hence the need for a minion costume. Dh will be staying at home as he is wiped out and has an interview to prep for early next week.
  Nowt done today to reduce the mortgage, but some things done to save a few pennies in the longer run and a nice day was had. Result!
  Have had a browse on book selling sites and not much of my stuff is saleable! A few dvds and cds will fetch a few pennies off mus1c magp1e, and a few bits may get more pennies using fleabay.
  Aha! Oh yes I did do something mfw-related! Yesterday I set up a paymentof Ј40 as part of the 52 week money saving challenge (can never remember its proper name!). So that needs ferreting away off the mortgage. Yay!
  Off to bed in prep for tomorrow's busyness.
• I've taken my own advice and had a lovely warm bath and hairwash, then wrapped myself in dd's duvet to sit on the floor (she wanted her buildabear bears to have a fight on the bed!) and watch the rugby. Thoroughly enjoyed the match and being all snug and warm.
  The minion costume went down a treat and dd won a prize for it! Only 2 kids had dressed up, so she felt extra special. She also won an invite to a local soft play place, which she's so happy about! Dh will go along too, as a helper and also to be around for the food and reassurance. Will save us money as we were going to take her if she didn't get an invite. But this is so much better!
  I spent church totally wrapped up trying to keep warm - am fighting off a lurgi and just not well. I'm glad I went as, as well as the minion stuff, the service was about CAP and how we can help, which ties in very much with NinjaSavingsKat's November challenge. I can surely spare a few pounds every month!
  Another NSD. No money actually saved or taken off the mortgage, but nowt spent either. Result.
• To do before Saturday:
  go through all my November receipts and highlight the 'unnecessary purchases', total them up and - maybe - pay that amount off the mortgage. Hope it's not too much!
  do dd's prescription. Actually, must do this tonight!
  mark assessments by weds.
  make cakes for fair.
  knit another glove.
  do a final look at Christmas present list and budget up anything I still need to get.
  next month I'll set a separate amount for 'other' spending in charity shops. That's if NSK's December challenge allows it!
  plan next week's meals, keeping off grains and sugar.
• Oops! Or should that be ouch! I reckon I've had Ј43 of unnecessary spends in November. So have already paid that over. If I leave it, I may forget ha ha ha !
  A lovely surprise is that the job I left a few weeks ago (only very very very part-time) have paid me a few pounds for November, as they found a replacement for me on the 3rd. I honestly wasn't expecting this! Dh has said 'don't you dare spend it on the mortgage!' Who am I to argue? I do need some black work shoes, so will put it towards them. And it is a need, not a want! May try Clarkes on Thurs, as that's my next allocated spend day. Woohoo!
  Have also done dd's prescription. It can take 10+ days to all come through, so defo need to plan ahead, especially as regards bread.
  Tomorrow needs to be a paperworky day. Hard to get started, but rather satisfying when done. Fingers crossed to starting! Have promised some students a re-mark of certain pieces of written work, so I'm now accountable to them!
• Hello,
  Best wishes on your mf journey. Are you a fellow English teacher?
  Squirrel
• Hi Squirrel,
  Nice of you to pop by! (my English teacher loathed the use of the word 'nice', so using it still makes me smirk a little. I'm soooo mature!) Fraid I'm not English, but MFL. Y11s starting to fret about grades, so am trying to ease their pain and give them some reassurance about the next 6 months. And if I remark their assessments tomorrow, then it's done and dusted and ready for submission next year. So it benefits me too. Win win.
  Please keep popping in - I promise to find other adjectives!
• 78528.99
  Grrrrrrrrrr. And double grrrrrrrrr.
  Have just asked dh about some money moving he's done, as it was Ј1600. Turns out he's paid off sd's overdraft to stop her getting charged whilst she's outin NZ. Says he told me he was going to do this. Oh no he didn't! Last time we talked about it, she was going to send money to pay it off over the year. After my idea of getting a CC on 0% transfer to pay for it was not taken up. Do I feel cross? Not really. More let down as dh knows how important it is for me to reduce the mortgage and feel in control. Feel very let down. It seems she'l, send us 500 NZD soon and the rest in the summer. So we are paying interest on it.
  At the moment I'm thinking 'why am I bothering?' but I guess that I'll get over it and feel like it IS worth the effort soon. I'd done my darndest to get it below 77k and all that effort has been wiped out.
  Off to do something nicer and get out my present list to see what I still have to do (quite a lot!) and try to schedule getting it done in the next 4 weeks...!
• So, I've paid Ј43 off the mortgage, the equivalent of my 'unnecessary purchases' in November. And I shall endeavour to split any surplus money between the savings and the mortgage. Next milestone will be getting below Ј78,000. Ј488 to go!
  Sd is very grateful and ensures us she will repay us. Am feeling more sanguine about the whole thing today.
  Dh is still applying for jobs and has had a couple of interviews, which is rather morale boosting. A successful one would be even nicer...!
  My possible extra days at work do seem to be going ahead. Must remember to ask boss to put it in writing. Once have that confirmed then I'll feel freer to find out at which point in the SoW I'll be taking over so I can at least paln a little. This is making me get super focussed on my current workload so that I can easily walk in each day and do that because it is all planned. So if it all falls through, then I'm still ahead of myself.
  Tomorrow is November's last food spendy day, so am looking forward to it! May also try to take another bag to charity shop and meet up with a friend for coffee (in her house of course!)
  As well as the usual household jobs, I must knit a 2nd glove tomorrow, maybe start on some finger puppets and defimitely get a wiggle on with doing the top half of Angelina.
  And make cakes. Or biscuits. And breadsticks. Or all of them!
• I've looked back over my 'jobs to do by saturday' and was pleased to discover that I have done most of them! The only one left is to meal plan for the coming week or so and sew up the gloves. (so long as I conveniently ignore my comment about finger puppets and Angelina...)
  I had a lovely couple of hours today, watching Neil Oliver's history of Ancient Britain and knitting. Was surprised my wrists coped with the knitting action, so I guess the inflamed area doesn't get involved in crafts!
  Today is day5 of eating better: no grains or sugar. I don't always manage it, but am not letting one slip lead to more slips. I plan to have some dark choc every evening, so I know I have that to look forward to.
  Today was also ZCUT 2 workout which was a toughie but a good'un. I found out on Tues that I can still do press ups and burpees with my dodgy wrists, which was a mental breakthrough! So I'm off on my
  Zuzana/ZCUT schedule and coupling it with proper nutrition!
  Must set up my bank accounts so that I can pay money directly to the mortgage instead of going via the joint account. Once done it will make payments sooo much easier.
  Didn't make it to the charity shop today as was worn out, so that's on the cards for tomorrow now, when I'm fresher. I sometimes wonder how I'll manage to fit everything in when I'm working 4 days?! But I'm sure I'll get used to it.
  MFW-wise I need to check my purse for coppers and the receipts too. Will do that this evening.
• Well I got along to thr charity shop with a binbag of bits. The Salvation Army give you a stamp if you spend Ј5 and 10 stamps is worth Ј5 off a shop, and also Ј2 credit for every bag you donate. Obviously it takes a while to fill the card, but today I used Ј7 worth of it and still have Ј4 left. Yippee! I think it's super generous of a charity to offer this service and I fully intend to use it!
  I took dh along and we also trawled round the charity shops, buying very little and in the end we avoided Sbucks and came home. Not bad! Tho I prob would have said 'no' to sbucks as avoiding coffee shops is one of the NOvember stipulations.
  Tried to set up a payment from my bank account to the mortgage and the blooming card reader has died. New batteries didn't work so I've had to order a new one. Could well be a week before I can set up to make payments. Now that I can't do it, I really, really want to!
  Picked up some Christmas shaped cutters the other day and made some holly and tree shortbread, decorated with coloured icing. Dd loves them! And my success with them means they'll go in a couple of 'bundles' of presents. Can't call them hampers as the goodies usually end up in a cardboard box with a label! And maybe a stick on star....
  Another busy day for dd tomorrow. Tap and ballet, followed by school Christmas Fair, followed by a trip into town and the land of pound amongst others. All to be done and dusted and home by 4 so that dh can have the car and go and do PA.
  Am looking forward to DDD. Have nabbed number 3! Kat asked us to list 5 things to achieve in2014. Have done 3 so far:
  - get weight down to 125lbs
  - get mortgage down to Ј70 K
  - sew 14 items in 2014 (start by learning to thread pesky machine!)
  - ?
  - ?
  Enough wittering. Nightie night.
• DD has woken up with a snotfest, poor mite. And I'm not much better! So we shall defo revise today's plans. Tap is deemed too noisy but ballet is acceptable - dh will take her to that; sch fair is still the priority and that's my job; shopping trip to land of pound won't happen either, as she doesn't fancy it. Will enjoy her lack of desire to go to town while I can!
  So I'm hoping we can have a quiet afternoon. I can knit and watch the rugby (think it's tday) and dd can play. Hmmmm. Will see if reality and germs and snot allow my dream world to happen!
  Need to buy balm tissues and milk.
  Dd has just informed me that she does want to go to land of pound. Darn that Ca1po1! May be a more spendy day than anticipated...
• No tap or ballet, but fair and then land of pound. Am shattered, moreso than dd who has far too much energy for a poorly mummy!
  Must get my head around the DDD. 15 NSD should be doable; so should setting a food budget and sticking to it; spend money is trickier, as I usually take everything out of 'food', and should prob include presents, entertainment, dd's stuff; I can drop 1 Christmas outing as I only have one evening one and it's the day I now have to go on a course in London and don't reckon I'll be back in time, nor do I really have the inclination! Simples. Ј5 on local food bank is great - will double it; I can happily batch cook goodies, as dd and I are gf, tho dh always buys the tins of sweets- it's like he can't stop himself! I have a notebook for spends and will add in 5 things to achieve in 2014; choosing a debt free date is a challenge as currently there cannot be one with our work/lack of it. Plucking a date out of the air is my 50th, so 54 months away; no unnecessary spending - noticed I did Ј43 of this in Nov, so am keeping a closer eye on it; lunch from home always happens as can't buy it - only 4 needed in Dec. And finally, no sales - yippee! I dislike shopping for stuff other than food or in ch shops anyway, and this helps me simply decide to NOT even bother!
  So that is my rambling for now. Dd's eating her tea; dh is out til late; dd will have an olbas oil bath to help her cold and I hope to crack on knitting finger puppets when she's in bed. Early night I hope.
• Eight and a half hours intto DDD and I can safely say that I'vr not spent anything yet!
  Dd has slept for 12 hours and is still snoring away. She was adamant that she would be going to Kidz Klub today... Dh got in fairly late and is feeling rather delicate so he just wants to stay in bed.
  Must do the free letter to Santa today, then set up the PNP thingy. Also need to finish marking and knit knit knit! Have doen Goldilocks and three bears but only the body knitting. Now need to sew up, stuff and add details as well as do arms. Then do another 4 sets?!
• Made it to church despite not feeling great. Dd enjoyed kidz klub again and has several little friends there.
  Another target for 2014 might be to make money from knitting...
  Haven't done Santa letter, nor PNP, nor marking! And only a little knitting - the fiddly bits that I don't really like. But have had a lovely day!
  Have set budgets for December in my notebook, separating the 'other' from food for once. I therefore have a HUGE allocation for Dec, but only a scarily SMALL amount left to save. I want to increase the amount to save by Ј150. Somehow don't quite think I'll be able to do it via roadkill!!!Nor is it all claw-backable from not spending. Need to actually make money and sell stuff. In December??!
  Need to research quidco and topcashback to see which is best and which suits me best.
  December requires a haircut; not had one since May! Twould be good to look a little less haggard...
  NSD1 today, and tomorrow is work so should be NSD2.
• 2 NSD under my belt - yippee!
  Mooched around mus1c magp1e and have a box for them. Only worth a little over Ј16, but pennies in the pot. Will only count it when it arrives.
  All pennies needed to make up for the shortfall in my aspirations!
  No knitting tonight, but new shoes ordered - am soooo excited! Used Ј25 that I got in unexpected pay towards them.
  Target #4 for 2014 is to make some pennies from my knitting.
  A magazine subscription is coming to an end as the mag has folded, so should get a few pennies back from them.
  Feeling positive about somehow making up Ј150. For now anyway!