More Bangs for my Bucks - MF by 50??

uzubairu

Thriftyknickers wrote: »

I've finished work after a bit of a late one tonight, (whilst listening to the football which I'm sure didn't help me get out of there any quicker) so just need to sort out all the holiday stuff. Its such a fab feeling, walking out from work for a while, knowing that everything you needed to do is done! Portugal here we come!

I felt like that a nearly a fortnight ago before my holiday.
Have good holiday.

Well done on your achievements so far. :beer:

gallygirl

Enjoy your holiday, I'm still in post holiday depression mode

New cossie sounds fab, I'm v lucky to have a Freya factory shop around 3 miles away

setmefree2

Thriftyknickers wrote: »

My 'additional income' has gone over the £1,500 mark thanks to a bit of Ebaying of my kids' old stuff.

well done on that :T:T:T:T

have a great holiday

SmlSave

Well done for finding out all about your life assurance and death in service benefits etc :T

Have a good hols

Thriftyknickers

Well, we're back from our hols and had a brilliant time! Really enjoyed it. Feeling a bit sad that things are back to 'normal' and everything looks all autumny. I know its a lovely time of year but its sad thinking that summer is over!

We had quite a cheap holiday (being an all-inclusive). My only expenditure was 6 postcards and a return trip by taxi into Albufeira - didn't fancy 2 bus changes with children and no knowledge of Portugese! So as a result I've made another £500 overpayment on the mortgage.

However, our house-sitters informed us that our TV has broken.:eek: It does look well and truely dead, so we're using our portable at the moment. I've worked out that it is 9 years old so its done pretty well. DH is investigating models to replace it and then I've got to find the best deal - think it will be around £500 though. Think we're going to have an expensive couple of months as my car is due for a service, we're going to have some work done on the house, (now the house sparrows have flown their nest!), plus we're due an anniversary night away (from the kids!) Plus there's Christmas coming up too. So I'm not certain we'll make my end of year targets - but then I do enjoy a challenge! Better get ebaying!

Also, I want to share this to hopefully motivate me to do something about it. I'm not going to go into specifics but whilst we were away we had a real scare with one of my daughters. (She's fine). Anyway that night, I woke up, couldn't sleep and had what I think is a good business idea. I talked it through with my DH in the morning. DH is the one who always keeps my feet on the ground, very realistic and he thinks its a great idea too. Anyway, by the time I do my next posting, I want to have investigated if there is already something similar on the market or investigate a bit more. Hey, who knows - next stop Dragon's Den??

setmefree2

on the OP. Bad luck on the TV that and on the business venture.....look forward to seeing you on Dragon's Den......

SmlSave

Hey, who knows - next stop Dragon's Den??

Ohhh, tell us more, tell us more!

StuartGMC

Very good to hear the family enjoyed the holiday and agree that on a budgeting basis, the Christmas costs aren't that far away!

Intrigued by the "Eureka" moment and what may arise thereafter.

Thriftyknickers

Ooh I'm a bit behind with my update for September! So here goes!

We managed to make a £500 overpayment - not sure how long its going to be before I can make another one as we've just committed to work on our house costing £2,202! :eek: We need to make overpayments totalling just over £1,000 by the end of the year to acheive our target. I think we'll do it, but its going to be tight. Still gives me something to focus on!

My 'extra income' in September was £48.56 (Quidco, Lightspeed & Ebay) but I should have a better month this month as I've been furiously Ebaying (I've set myself a new target to clear £500 profit on Ebay by the end of the year, currently on £348.71) plus I'm 25p short of a £40 payout on Onepoll.com and I've received £20 for a suggestion on Rpoints.

My 'money saved' this month on MOCs etc was £17.48 - mostly in Tescos and Sainsburys. That's going to take a big hit now that Tesco won't accept a coupon for one item that you don't buy. My kids are normally with me when I'm shopping and the cashiers used to take one from each of them....

As for my 'Dragon's Den' type great idea, I did research patents (and I couldn't find anything similar) and their cost plus switches - looks like mercury switches would be the way to go.... Still a long way to go on that one. Trouble is I don't like gambling my time away on something that might not acheive anything, when I can invest it on a 'sure thing' like Ebay. This isn't the way to become a millionaire though is it?!!

We got our replacement TV at Dixons.com via Quidco at £429.99, so under budget on that one and I was pleased with the deal. Its been in the house almost 2 weeks now and I haven't watched it yet - DH is getting all the value from it!

We made the most of a 50% offer in Pizza Hut and the 4 of us ate 3 courses and drinks (plus spare pizza for the freezer) for £22. I think I'm probably a bit of a food snob - don't like anything too 'mucked about' as my DH would say, but love a good quality meal. However, even though I'm sure Pizza Hut include far too many 'bad things' in their food - it sure did taste nice! And we can all have a treat now and then!

We opened up a Tesco Instant Access Saver for my DH with £1,000 and then closed it again - all to get £20 worth of Tesco deals.

And finally we blew £318 on a night in Cowley Manor to celebrate our wedding anniversary. A huge wadge but it fits in with my 'More Bangs for my Bucks' philosophy - and it was lovely, lounging by the pool, yummy food, child-free for a couple of days, remembering what it was like not to be just 'Mummy' and 'Daddy'. We left it to the last minute to book so got £50 off the price of the room so I didn't totally forget my MSE principles!

I've started thinking about next year's MFW plans. Ideally to be MF by my 50th, we need to clear £20k off the mortgage per year. (My birthday is very conveniently in January and by the end of this year the aim is to get our mortgage down to £120k and, hard to believe I know(!), but I will be 44 next year.) And although this is fairly easy at the moment, I don't suppose interest rates will remain this low throughout - although interesting reading at the weekend suggesting they could stay low until 2014. Its all just speculation though and I think we should be prepared for a rate hike(s). Also, next year may be the year when we may have to replace my car - second hand though. Mine is 52 Reg, 76K on the clock. Have to see how it keeps going I think. Probably famous last words, but its doing really well so far and I love it but I've never been in this position of having something so old before.

Finally, I don't know whether you've done those questionnaires where you look at the various aspects of your life to figure out which ones maybe could do with some improvement? Well I think my 'spiritual' side could do with some improvement. I'm not a particularly religious person but pre-kids I used to do a lot of charity work and I feel like that area of my life needs a bit of a boost - helping others somehow. A lady I knew from the local breast cancer support group died recently and she was truely an amazing woman. She had breast cancer twice and finally succombed to a brain tumour but she started our group to help others and raised an amazing 3/4 million pounds for research. She was such a kind and generous soul and really helped others when they needed it most. Anyway, I guess I'm feeling inspired as I helped out for a couple of hours on a breast cancer stand at an event at the weekend. I also toyed with the idea last year with sponsoring a child - partly I guess because of guilt about how much my own have got, and I'm thinking about it again. Does anyone have any experience of this? I know it would be a long-term commitment (and DH was firmly against the idea last year but then he's not that into 'doing good unto others...') but its not just about having money in the bank is it? I guess this is another manifestation of my philosophy, getting the most value out of your money. I think it would be great for my kids to see how other children live and perhaps send pictures and gifts etc, without it feeling patronising somehow. My previous neighbour's sponsored child died though. I think this one needs a lot of thought.

Until next time....

ILoveSaving

Just wanted to say you are doing so well, but I don't know how you find time to fit everything in? Like you I have 2 girls, though not twins. I am 42, but only for a few more hours as its that day again tomorrow when I'll age another year and I've been thinking it would give me a real reason to actually look forward to being 50 if I could clear my mortgage by then. That would be the best presy ever.

It has been a slow haul, but I finally managed to clear all of our debts off earlier this year, except for the mortgage and I'm now seriously trying to save while making overpayments too. I don't think I earn anything near what you must earn, but my mortgage is smaller. Owing £70,000 I would love to finish this in 7 years. I find I am continually moving from one thing to another trying to make extra cash wherever I can and lately I've felt that I've had so much on my plate my head might explode, but I've calmed down this week.

Luckily our mortgage fixed rate came to an end in September (6.1% is now down to 1.5%) saving us £170 a month now. So we are overpaying the £70 a month as the other £100 is needed for some outstanding jobs that need doing around the house. I have been following the '£1000 in 100 days' challenge where we have to make £10 a day extra from what we would normally bring in and although I havn't signed up with them I have been surprised to have made £800 in the 66 days since I saw the challenge. I didn't join in as I'd missed the start of it, but will look out for the start of the next later this month.

I love setting myself goals and challenges so I might start this from tomorrow, to be 50 and mortgage free!! Good luck with your challenge.