Mortgage Reduction Beginner to Novice - The Show Begins

Queen-Bee_2

Hello MRN - like your thread - I read a few at the moment to pick up tips, and it certainly seems your on top of clearing out your junk! I'm also interested to see you do Mystery Shops. At the moment, I am officially unemployed. Do you (or anyone else) know if it's possible to do MS without impacting on my (very limited!!!) Job Seekers Allowance benefit? Thanks... QB

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

Queen-Bee wrote: »

Hello MRN - like your thread - I read a few at the moment to pick up tips, and it certainly seems your on top of clearing out your junk! I'm also interested to see you do Mystery Shops. At the moment, I am officially unemployed. Do you (or anyone else) know if it's possible to do MS without impacting on my (very limited!!!) Job Seekers Allowance benefit? Thanks... QB

Yes I think it is. Have you visited the Mystery Shopping sticky on the Up Your Income Board? The first few posts cover this kind of thing as well as the direct.gov website (self-employed and NI contributions pages if I recall correctly). You would have to register as self-employed but due to the low level of earnings I think it is possible to keep under the threshold and retain your JSA. PM me for more info if you'd like.

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

Oh the joys of getting boiler change quotes... so many opinions and they seem to quote for different things so that makes it hard to actually compare them too.

In money making/saving news:

• Sold another book on Green Metropolis. Wish they'd sell a bit faster, I'm already sick of seeing the box of books in my living room.
• Have been investigating wiping the hard drive versus removing it before selling an old laptop of mine. Want to be safe, age of laptop doesn't seem warrant buying a new harddrive to replace before sale.
• Picked up a few more mystery shops... one of them is particularly pleasurable which will make a nice change from fast food - not that I'm complaining, need all the extra pennies I can get at the moment!
• Another job application - online thankfully, I'm running out of envelopes. Although paying for postage online has finally reduced the credit I had on a credit card (long story) so I'll be able to cancel that card now after 18 months of trying (only part of the long story)!
• Finally seeing the bottom of drawers in the freezer. This killing two birds with one stone... using up what we already have instead of buying more and emptying it so that I can defrost it! Still another week to go if my meal plans go accordingly and I don't pick up any more pub/restaurant mystery shops!!!
• £10 tesco voucher arrived today - courtsey of Valued Opinions
• £20 Arcadia vouchers arrive yesterday - courtsey of Consumer Pulse
• 3 new tunes on my ipod - the last of a gift card for last year's birthday
• Went though my purse, filofax and some handbags to find the following (most of which I'd forgotten I had!): £200 Next vouchers (engagement present), Bowl for £1, £20 arcadia vouchers (added to the other £20), £40 M&S vouchers, coupons for spends at Boots, Homebase & Lakeland and money off vouchers for a whole host of stuff I don't need!

I've ditched the money off vouchers as they'll just encourage spending, put the coupons to one side incase I suddenly need anything at these shops and put all the vouchers into an envelope... going to our closest city tomorrow for 3 mystery shopping jobs so my aim is to use some of the vouchers in other shops whilst there, make a little money mystery shopping (and have a nice lunch too) which will off set the train ticket... then come home feeling good about not spending but hopefully have the same high as if I had been on a credit card bender round the highstreet!!!:D

telboyo

milkybars wrote: »

... I was looking at the First Direct £100 bonus and another £100 for switching within a year, i

I have been with FD for at least 16 yrs I joined when they first started after getting a lot of hassle from Lloyds (as was).They have been absolutely brilliant, a few years ago I went through a bad patch and they helped me out. 6 yrs ago i was ready to get back on the housing market, so I rang them for a mortgage quote,45 minutes later sorted. This is the best company I have ever worked with, their call centre is fantastic. (I know I have worked in call centres) If you take their £100 to join do not be greedy and take their £100 to leave because you will regret it later!!!!!!!!!!

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

Hi thanks Telboyo for the tip... I haven't switched yet (due to being unemployed again) but do plan to. I have to agree with you, I usually lack loyalty with companies (particularly banks and car insurance) but I've compeltely had it with Abbey so I probably would stick if I found the other extreme of customer service in banking!!!

OH (and now H2B that we've booked the venue and registrar!) is on holiday with his family, I couldn't go due to lack of funds and an interview next week. However, as I was planning yesterday... I had a fantastic day today... did just as I'd intended (described above). A money neutral/increased day by conducting 3 MS's in the same city, the fees for those more than covered the train fare and a lovely lunch on the riverside will be reimbursed too. Used all the arcadia vouchers up, only manged to use half the M&S vouchers (20% off homeware event) but couldn't spend any of the Next vouchers - everything I liked and needed was either out of stock or not available to order in!

I'm sat in my living room now... feet in a bowl of bubbly water (DIY pedicure night!), laptop on my lap (MS reports to complete) and a hazelnut and chocolate slice for dinner (well done staff member at one of my MS's upselling me a pastry!!!). Happy Days!

Queen-Bee_2

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice wrote: »

I haven't switched yet (due to being unemployed again) but do plan to... I've compeltely had it with Abbey so I probably would stick if I found the other extreme of customer service in banking!!!

Hello.. You are in exactly the same boat as me MRN - I tried to switch to First Direct a couple of weeks ago, and was turned down. It's the first time I have ever been turned down for anything, and it came as quite a shock to me :rotfl: !!!

One of my existing bank accounts is also with Abbey - and I have to agree with you that their customer service is not good (at the other end of the spectrum to Barclays, who have always been fantastic).

However, as noted in my MFW diary a few days ago, I do seem to have been able to open 3x Halifax Reward accounts and an A&L account, despite my unemployed status. The Halifax Reward account gives you £5 for every month each is credited by £1k (and you can recycle the funds to do this) and if you open the A&L one via Topcashback, you can get £55 for doing so. So potentially, this is £230 over a year...

Hope this helps!
QB

Queen-Bee_2

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice wrote: »

[*]Picked up a few more mystery shops... one of them is particularly pleasurable which will make a nice change from fast food - not that I'm complaining, need all the extra pennies I can get at the moment!

Hi MRN - me again (haven't worked out how to get quotes from 2x different posts into one post when responding yet...)

Previously, you mentioned Mystery Shops, and I asked you about the tax position, but whilst I've been trying to unscramble the tax/benefits position, to date, I've failed miserably!!

Can you help? I am currently claiming contributions based JSA and am not sure if registering as self-employed will complicate things. I don't want to prejudice my benefits and am not sure how long it's going to take for me to find at job!!

Any light you can throw on this would be greatly appreciated - sorry to ask again, but I've searched MSEs threads and am ashamed to admit I'm none the wiser at the moment...
QB

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

Hey QB... I'm no expert (and not elidgible for JSA!). The sensible side of me says run the idea by at your next JSA meeting... but to hazard a guess, I think it'd be okay since you can control the number of hours you would be working as a self-employed mystery shopper (simply by not applying for or accepting assignments) and as I understand it, you can do up to 16 hours paid work per week and still receive JSA. I don't know if this is as an employee though, they may stipulate that. Have you tried posting the question on the Benefits board?


As far as Abbey are concerned I'd be shot of them if the post-graduate account wasn't the best interest-free overdraft around and the string of errors on my credit card account (again the only one I could get as a post grad student)... nearly there with the credit card account (waiting for a zero balance statement) and once I get a job again I'll switch current account and do deficit banking till Abbey take the free overdraft off me then close that account too. Haven't applied for a different account as I know I'm not elidgible!

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

Wow a lot has happened since my last update post:

Starting with the most exciting thing... we're nearly 11 months into our mortgage as first time buyers. As followers will know our mortgage provider calculates interest annually as the best time for us to pay is just before this calculation. We've been saving in a joint savings account with a view to making a bit of interest on our overpayments before making them.

Today was the day we made our first annual overpayment!

Does anyone know of a mortgage calculator that allows you to put in one off payments as we'd very much like to know what a difference this OP has made?

Again followers will know that after a horrendous time at my previous job, I summoned my strength of character and resigned. Not an easy decision with the current state of play, a mortgage and a wedding to plan. I have a new job and start in the next few weeks. It's a step up on the career ladder, the salary is about £2200 more than previous job, commuting costs have halved compared to previous job and I feel reassured having landed this job that I made the right decision leaving the previous one.

Just before resigning I made a huge "Unemployed To Do List" with the kinds of things I keep putting off through lack of time and effort. There were over 150 items on this list but I'm pleased to say that the majority have now been ticked off (I'm aiming to have even more completed before I start working again). It certainly helped me to focus and made the most of my free time over the last two months out of work... but I won't bore you with the content of this list!

I haven't reported on here for a while as we've had two members of our family be diagnosed with not very nice illnesses and MrMRN is shortly going to work abroad for 7 months while I hold the fort here, so family and friend time has been our main priority.

SmlSave

Hi MRN, a busy month there!

Well done on your first OP and new job I am awed by your list of 150 things to do! wow

I hope your family members are going to be ok ((hug))