Mortgage Reduction Beginner to Novice - The Show Begins

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

Thanks for the dodgy hug GG... those always make me giggle!

We had a half day of home admin at the weekend - of course our research for each aspect began by reading the MSE advice!

• We're moving from TalkTalk to BT for our phone and internet - switch over will occur towards the end of November (with cashback hopefully).
• We received a letter from Sainsbury's Energy explaining that our tracker deal was being forcibly switched to a fixed term deal. I do get annoyed when companies change the terms of a contract and expect me to just go along with it. I investigated alternatives but it looks like we're better off staying until January when the fixed rate ends.
• We broke through the 5 years no claims on our buildings and contents insurance which meant our cheapest ever quotes for this insurance.
• We retrieved our log in details for new kitchen fund and we were both surprised how much we'd saved! Not enough yet but still looking healthy. To celebrate we both increased our standing orders by £10.
• Our Dummies guide to stocks and shares arrived (but I spent more time reading up online about community lending instead!).

So what's not to be chirpy about? Well there's still a list but I'm putting more effort into fixing the problems than feeling down about them now.

Did I mention that I'm still taking packed lunches every day? I can distinctly remember my last non-packed lunch day... it was a Friday, I got terribly ill from canteen fish and chips!

misscousinitt

Hi MRN

Nice to 'see' you.

Hoping your chirpyness starts to retun soon.

MCI

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

misscousinitt wrote: »

Hi MRN

Nice to 'see' you.

Hoping your chirpyness starts to retun soon.

MCI

And I thought that post was a lot chirpier!:easter:

misscousinitt

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice wrote: »

And I thought that post was a lot chirpier!:easter:

Love it :rotfl:

edinburgher

Hi MRN :j

That was a great post, jammed full with positive stuff, frugality and good news. That's as much as I get done in a month :rotfl:

Long may it continue!

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

And something else positive enough to change my signature over.... from £141k owing to £137k. It's still a big number but coming down slowly as our monthly £16.76 OPs chip away... I'm likening it to digging out of jail with a tea spoon.

edinburgher

I like it - better to be digging at all than sitting doing nothing

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

Delighted to report a NSWknd! Yes, no spending.

How did I do it?

Well I got up really early on Friday morning, surprised the man that sells fruit and veg on the market as I'm normally a Saturday morning customer! This meant no essential purchases were required for the weekend.

I did make some purchases though using Boots points and a Love 2 Shop voucher I won in a competition. I made full use of my gym membership too (with gossiping with the other gym bunnies). Some batch cooking, baking, an Autumnal garden tidy and hobby time the weekend was over before I knew it.

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

We officially switched phone and internet provider on Wednesday (probably why I missed sweet and sour chicken at the Tilly household). Hubby will probably be surprised that his techno-phoebe wife hooked up the new router and got online!

We had to have the roof fixed so that's made us take a small step back from our already slow progress on the kitchen fund. But the problem was caught early so not a huge bill/insurance job.

Got 4 people to dinner on Saturday evening... three courses (plus nibbles and cheese/biscuits) for 6 people for £32 (admittedly we had a fair amount of ingredients already in stock) so just some wine to purchase now.

Checked my CP balance and I'm over £100. I just need to sensibly choose vouchers that can help with the Christmas shopping.

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

So you know that saying about buses? "You wait ages for a bus and two come along at once?" Well how about job offers?! If you've read the dregs of my MFW thread you'll know that I've been trying to leave an awful job and hellish commute for the last two years. I have accepted one of the offers and I'm now working a shortened notice period.

So how is this MFW related? Well, firstly there's the £500 annual salary increase, then an annual bonus, flexi and overtime pay, savings on fuel approx £220 per month, savings in car servicing approx £400 per year (and I may be able to get involved in a car share too). The shorter commute will free up more time in the evening (or early morning - heck I'm used to a 5:30am wake up now!) for mystery shopping. Extra money will be ploughed into the mortgage and completing house renovations.

And of course for my career, this is a great job.