Confessions of a house hoarder

cazmanian_minx · 21 February 2017 at 8:11PM

Horrible, horrible weather here today, so I was a bit surprised this evening when clearing out the field shelter and topping up the horses' hay to hear what sounded like a digger clanking its way into my top field. I scrambled up the hill and sure enough, a bright yellow JCB was chugging its way slowly down - my fencing team is ready to get started on replacing my two knackered fences! So first job in the morning is to persuade the horses to walk past all the machinery in high winds and down the road into the other field so the guys can work on this one.

Workwise it's been fairly quiet today. I had to edit something that had been sent to Mr RPC for inclusion in a report that's being compiled (half of it had been written in the future tense so it made it sound like they weren't currently following the process being described but intended to, which isn't the case), carried on with NEL's file and listed another 5 lots of beads.

Another source of income for me, and a fairly new one, is matched betting, so I've been sitting here working my way through some of today's opportunities. £20 up already and hopefully some free bets to come if Manchester City wins tonight

EssexHebridean · 22 February 2017 at 4:42PM

Found ya - and subscribed!

Verbatim · 22 February 2017 at 5:20PM

Me too. Looking forward to the next lot of paying it all down. I'm about to do something similar.

CathT · 22 February 2017 at 6:59PM

Just read your blog, it's fab!

PusscatT · 22 February 2017 at 9:01PM

Looking forward to reading more! I 'accidentally' bought a cottage as I wanted some of the garden to make mine bigger (it was tiny) and am now letting it out and frantically paying off the mortgage before the tax changes hit me severely over the next few years.
I'm interested in the income earning on the side as that's not something I currently do, so watching your journey with interest.

mfmaybe · 22 February 2017 at 10:14PM

PusscatT wrote: »

Looking forward to reading more! I 'accidentally' bought a cottage as I wanted some of the garden to make mine bigger (it was tiny) and am now letting it out and frantically paying off the mortgage before the tax changes hit me severely over the next few years.
I'm interested in the income earning on the side as that's not something I currently do, so watching your journey with interest.

Ah yes those tax changes are a real nightmare. At least you seem to know about them, they took me totally by surprise a month or so ago; I'd been merrily refusing to pay off my BTL mortgage due to the tax benefit.

PusscatT · 22 February 2017 at 10:24PM

Oh yes mfmaybe, they're a nightmare. I sold my previous BTL when the changes were announced and had no plans for another. But, the chance of extra land was too good to pass up and the owners wouldn't sell separately to the cottage so it was a done deal. If I was a 20% tax payer it'd make no difference but at 40% you get truly hammered by the taxman, more people need to be aware of it!

cazmanian_minx · 22 February 2017 at 10:58PM

Thanks all - new blog update just posted!

PusscatT, that sounds like a deal that had to be done

One of the reasons I'm doing this as a holiday let is that holiday lets aren't affected by the changes in the rules regarding mortgage interest - albeit I'm not a higher rate tax payer and rents up here are reasonably low, so it would take a few BTLs to push me into that band on gross rental income.

Thanks to Manchester City having a field day, I now have £25-worth of free bets to use and hopefully should be able to convert about £18-£20 into cash. I didn't get much sleep last night thanks to the wind rattling the roof, so gave up around 4.30, got up and did a bingo sign-up offer and a blackjack offer, netting me a grand total of £2.26, and then this evening another £1.10 on a football match. Tiny amounts, I know, but they all add up.

cazmanian_minx · 23 February 2017 at 10:46PM

Before I went to bed last night, I spotted a free £5 offer on a slot that hasn't historically been kind to me, but last night I got through the 20x wagering nearly £50 up - shame winnings were capped at £20! Today's been a very good day on the matched betting front (or technically the casino offers front) and I've added a further £57.35 to the bank I'm building. I've got £961 spread over various accounts now, of which £823 is profit, but I don't want to start withdrawing until I've got at least £1,000 in each exchange, because that will give me the scope to do more offers.

It's been a fairly quiet day - Mr RPC was in meetings all day, so I only did about an hour and a half's work for him, and NEL's file is finished too. I spent some time down the road clearing more stuff out of the living room so that the heating engineers have as clear a space as possible to work in, moved the horses so the fencing team could start work on my big field, took the dogs to the beach and weeded about half the herb bed. One of my goals this year is to sort my garden out as I did absolutely nothing with it last year (I was concentrating on the vegetable patch) and it's chock-full of weeds as a result.

Just finishing baking some homemade hobnobs for the fencing team and the heating engineers tomorrow and then off to bed.

TallGirl · 24 February 2017 at 12:29PM

Just wanted to say hi been following you all the way back to MFi3 which I think was the time you sold up and moved to Scotland. Well done on the crow house looks amazing I'm sure it will be a successful holiday let. Loads to learn about being a landlord but it's also something I've wanted to do for ages and then accidentally I became one. Be careful on the "free" slot offers they reel you in and hook you on it can become costly unless youre sure you'll never be tempted to gamble money. Stick with MB it's fun and can be rewarding.

Anyway will follow you back on MFW

Confessions of a house hoarder

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