The mindful MFW: A healthy, happy journey to a mortgage free life!

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  • museumworker
    museumworker Posts: 2,240
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    edited 20 August 2017 at 3:45PM
    PS I'm very proud of myself. I read a book about what to do with kids in London month by month and wrote a huge list of things to investigate for September. Then I checked my diary, and wrote down the ony free weekend dates next month we are free - and there are currently only two. As I want to make sure we use our free museum pass at least once each month, and take the kids for a walk in the woods near us each month too that is our two days filled. I put a huge cross through my massive list of things to do in September and am feeling very happy with our full enough life. Previously I would have tried to work our a way to squeeze more in.
    MW x
    Mortgage [STRIKE]16/03/2011: £190K 01/01/2017: £107,729.65 [/STRIKE] 01/07/2017: £95,979.89
    OPs 2011-2016 = £45K 2017 OPs = £9250.20
  • themadvix
    themadvix Posts: 7,826
    Mortgage-free Glee! Photogenic First Anniversary Name Dropper
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    Holiday sounds amazing - do you think your swapper would like a stay in Hertfordshire?! ;) Will definitely look into doing this in future.

    Great figures for budgeting!
    Mortgage free 16/06/2023! £132,500 cleared in 11 years, 3 months and 7 days

    'Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.' Ernest Hemingway


  • museumworker
    museumworker Posts: 2,240
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    Come home to some wonderful :money: treats!

    · My NU$ card – yes, am now officially a student!
    · A £3 off £15 shop from Co-0p voucher
    · Free Fanta and goodies (for the teen), with chance to win vouchers for feedback
    · A £50 giftcard for JL bought with 5% off via cardyard, super quick service too
    · Free leftovers from houseswappers – bread, shampoo/condition, milk, pasta, mineral water, herbal tea bags J
    · Free chocs as gift from housewappers and also some from the cleaner (long story, to say sorry for eating some sweets which I really didn’t mind anyway!) Stashed for gifts/thank yous
    · 02 sim – now get priority, topped up £10 with £5 cashback via tcb. Bring on the freebies!
    · BOGOF vouchers on our £1 pizzas for Alt0n T0wers which OH was already planning to take DD1 to in October.
    · Downloaded receipt h0g
    · Free family tickets for museum from competition

    Found my Mr W card, and set up the pyo offers on 10 things. Went in today, and with offers, pyo and discount got a £58 shop for £36, plus free coffee and a paper :j! It’s ridiculous that I haven’t ever combined these offers, but need to look forward not back, this is definitely something I will be doing regularly from now on. Stocked up on a month’s worth of coffee pods for OH work, so he’ll save money on buying coffee each day, as well as dishwasher tablets, bathroom cleaner, fresh OJ, 1.6kg mince for batch cooking, hestons mulled cider to stash for Xmas, super cheap Weetabix, cheese, fruit ryvita for work… had three bags full of things which almost everything was bought with at least 35% off, more including multibuys or reduced prices. Am keen to get our stocks up with discounted things, and am keeping a list of what we are paying for things so I know when there is a really good offer on and what is worth buying in bulk.

    OH made packed lunch for us both today and we have BBQ pulled pork in the slow cooker ready for when we get home.

    MSE things to do today:
    · Carry shop home!
    · Collect toy order from Mr T on way home (made before we went on hols, hope it is still there!)
    · Batch cook mince/onions
    · Check 02 priority for comps/freebies
    · Upload receipts to Receipt H0g
    · Check bank balance / TT
    · Register paper for nectar points
    · Chase blogger on prize voucher

    There’s more, but that’s enough for today!
    Mortgage [STRIKE]16/03/2011: £190K 01/01/2017: £107,729.65 [/STRIKE] 01/07/2017: £95,979.89
    OPs 2011-2016 = £45K 2017 OPs = £9250.20
  • Who's mr W and what is pyo offers, sorry I'm being thick, you are being very productive though.

    I've just started using receipt hog. It's going to take forever to get a £50 payout, but it's free money when I do get it.
    Outstanding mortgage: £23,181 (December 19)
    MFW 2020 Challenge Member #10 0/£2318
  • Hello museumworker
    Holiday sounds peaceful and lovely and well done on all your money saving since being back! Most impressed!! :T
    Have been keeping up with the Headspace challenge , not always everyday but definitely helps!!

    Love the idea of Sweden /Denmark I'm very into the whole concept of hygge and Fika (coffee and cake!) Both right up my street! Haha!;)
    MF planning for the simple life :beer::j
  • themadvix
    themadvix Posts: 7,826
    Mortgage-free Glee! Photogenic First Anniversary Name Dropper
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    Wishing - mr W is Waitr*se and their loyalty scheme allows you to select from a range of their items the ones you use most and get money off of them each time you shop. HTH

    Great money-stuff to come home to MW!
    Mortgage free 16/06/2023! £132,500 cleared in 11 years, 3 months and 7 days

    'Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.' Ernest Hemingway


  • museumworker
    museumworker Posts: 2,240
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    edited 22 August 2017 at 9:09PM
    Apologies for the confusing terminology, I was in a bit of a rush to get my thoughts on paper yesterday. Mr W is Waitr0se, and the ‘pyo’ is their pick your 0wn offers scheme. Savvy Dad wrote a really good intro to it on his blog: https://savvydad.co.uk/waitrose-pick-your-own-trick/

    You can change the PYO offers up to 10 times a month, and change either one or all 10 each time. So if you can shop frequently, just stick to the things on offer, and are willing to switch your PYO offers regularly, you can make some big savings. Plus you get your free coffee (and paper if your shop is over a tenner).

    On top of the pyo offer scheme I am eligible for a further 15% discount as a family member works there, and the 15% discount is again off the full price, not the reduced price. Essentially this discount combined with the PYO offers its 35% off for us, and almost everything we picked was reduced or part of a multibuy so we saved further, as the multibuy discounts come off the full price, rather than the reduced.

    Hope this makes sense!

    DS has had to be taken out of nursery due to behaviour problems yesterday. It’s not a great situation, but I feel I’ve handled it the best I can – I didn’t get stressed and instead looked at alternatives. We now have MIL on the way up so he can stay home for the rest of the week, and I’ve agreed working from home next week for three days/coming in on the Sat to make up time. Work have been great and as a side note we’ll save £280 in childcare in the next few weeks, although this is not our motivation. I think I paid most of the childcare upfront so we’ll cancel our childcare voucher payments next month – DD2 is due to finish there in a few weeks so want to avoid overpaying. I’ll put my flexible working request on hold until after next week, it gives me a bit of breathing space to consider how I’ll manage in future school holidays without childcare for DS.

    MSE things done:
    · Made packed lunches for me, OH, and DD1 from pulled slow cooker pork and snacks for store. We’ve made 7 buns so far and have at least another 8 so the £8 of pork went pretty far.
    · Downloaded Shopmium and claimed my first freebie – a £4 salad which I’ll have for lunch tomorrow J I have a referral code which will get you a box of Cornettos free (and me £4:D) if you want to join: 9h4w3, plus the free salad offer is still on there, as well as 5 other freebies I think we will use.
    · Bought reduced stirfry meat for freezer from Mr W – note to self, 3 for£10 doesn’t take money off yellow stickered items, I wasn’t quite as clever as I thought!
    · Receipt uploaded to Receipt H0g
    · Handed in form to request £100 deposit back from nursery
    · Chased blogger for £50 JL voucher
    · Collected toys from Mr T – all still there thank goodness! One incentive leg0 set for DS, and three to put away for Xmas, plus 1000 Mr T clubcard points, which will be £30 towards our tunnel crossing for a house swap next year J
    · 75p refund from Mr T after I complained that they sent 1.25 kg of flour instead of 1.5kg. God I’m cheap :D

    To do:
    · [STRIKE]Batch cook mince tonight[/STRIKE]
    · Chase Easter house swapper
    · Freezer inventory one drawer sorted, enough space left for leftover bolognese
    · Order goodbye gift for friend leaving nursery
    · Top up Am@zon by £70 to get £5 credit – both me and OH
    · Email NUS re: missing restaurant discount
    · Collect other Shopmium freebies
    · [STRIKE]Check account / TT[/STRIKE] Last few days of spends from hols coming through, no surprises so far.
    · Cancel childcare voucher payments to nursery


    Will reply to you all later, thanks for reading and posting!
    Mortgage [STRIKE]16/03/2011: £190K 01/01/2017: £107,729.65 [/STRIKE] 01/07/2017: £95,979.89
    OPs 2011-2016 = £45K 2017 OPs = £9250.20
  • Museum, thanks for the info, we don't have a Waitrose near us, but it is the only supermarket to stick a particular baking ingredient, so I think I'll look into it for the very odd occasion I make the effort to go to one.

    So sorry to hear about your little one and nursery. That's traumatic, and (as far as I'm concerned) bad practice to request withdrawal from nursery. I don't know if this is the case, but, if the bahaviours are as a result of a suspected or diagnosed additional need then there is a lot they should do before saying they can't meet his needs, and, with the support/advice from the local authority early years team they should support a transition to a more suitable placement.
    If you need any help, feel free to pm me, I've got a lot of experience of this from a local authority point of view.
    Outstanding mortgage: £23,181 (December 19)
    MFW 2020 Challenge Member #10 0/£2318
  • greent
    greent Posts: 10,669
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    Wow - some great freebies and offers!

    I like Zeek. We bought sofas from N*xt last year on a N account (think we got £10 off for opening the acct) We then paid off the acct using vouchers bought through Zeek - and had some freebies where if we bought £100 of vouchers Zeek gave us £10 (we managed that 4 or 5 times) - we saved over £200 in the end, I think - not to be sniffed at! Took a bit of time but the result was worth it :)
    I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul
    Repaid mtge early (orig 11/25) 01/09 £124616 01/11 £89873 01/13 £52546 01/15 £12133 07/15 £NIL
    Net sales 2024: £20
  • museumworker
    museumworker Posts: 2,240
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    Museum, thanks for the info, we don't have a Waitrose near us, but it is the only supermarket to stick a particular baking ingredient, so I think I'll look into it for the very odd occasion I make the effort to go to one.

    So sorry to hear about your little one and nursery. That's traumatic, and (as far as I'm concerned) bad practice to request withdrawal from nursery. I don't know if this is the case, but, if the bahaviours are as a result of a suspected or diagnosed additional need then there is a lot they should do before saying they can't meet his needs, and, with the support/advice from the local authority early years team they should support a transition to a more suitable placement.
    If you need any help, feel free to pm me, I've got a lot of experience of this from a local authority point of view.

    Hi wish, might be worth just checking the Hotukdeals groceries board before you go to see if anyone has listed any decent waitr0se offers, saves working it out yourself!

    I'll DM you tomorrow if that's ok, we jumped before we were pushed but I could really do with your advice on the process.
    greent wrote: »
    Wow - some great freebies and offers!

    I like Zeek. We bought sofas from N*xt last year on a N account (think we got £10 off for opening the acct) We then paid off the acct using vouchers bought through Zeek - and had some freebies where if we bought £100 of vouchers Zeek gave us £10 (we managed that 4 or 5 times) - we saved over £200 in the end, I think - not to be sniffed at! Took a bit of time but the result was worth it :)

    Thanks greent, that's an impressive saving on the sofas, definitely worth it! I wonder if they'll do that extra £10 thing again, that sounds like a great deal!

    Exhausted and just found out DD1 was planning to give herself a stick and poke tattoo, and the MIL is praising her for her rapid weight loss :mad:. Give. Me. Strength. Night all!
    Mortgage [STRIKE]16/03/2011: £190K 01/01/2017: £107,729.65 [/STRIKE] 01/07/2017: £95,979.89
    OPs 2011-2016 = £45K 2017 OPs = £9250.20
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