Baby steps to being mortgage free

elliemoo

Good luck with it all.

Some very sensible and practical steps that you have listed.

I agree it does become addictive.

Have you joined the 2010 Mortgage Free thread, you can set yourself an overpayment target for the year, it is a great source of motivation.

pammyj74

Baby_steps wrote: »

Therefore my list of aims for the next few months are as follows:

Clear the credit cards- This is the main aim, I want to have this done by 31 Dec 2010.
Overpay the mortgage- by at least £1000 (will try to do more than this but this is the minimum I want to achieve this year).
Saving for xmas - starting this month I will put £30 a month away for xmas 2010. This should mean i have £270 saved by December if i start this month which should cover most of the pressies.
Saving my pennies- as you all say the pennies add up to £££'s! Every Friday i will clear out my purse and everything in it below £1 I will put in a virtual whisky bottle (where do you get the real ones??).
Cashback sites/surveys - Following advice on here (notice a theme anyone) I have joined quidco and toluna. Have no idea how much i will get back but anything that I make from survey, cashback sites I will put in a savings account to see how much i can make in the year.

These are the big ones to start as of now. I have written it down so come the end of this year I can review and see exactly how I have done.

The next thing to do is sort out budgets (OH has promised to sit down on wed to discuss with me). If he doesn't then I willsort it out on my own when I have the chance this week.


Well that lists my key aims to start with. Looking forward to getting going properly now.

This is definitely the way to go, see my sig about the threads I am on - virtual change where you put anything under a £10 or £5 mark into another ac, you really dont miss it.
grocery challenge to watch your budget, I am very frugal with my money!
make sure you have the best deal on all your bills/insurance etc and if so go through cashback to change them
do the freebie scratchcards once you have joined bingo sites through cashback,
join dooyoo and do reviews (this year over 2 months I earned £100 which you get sent a cheque)

I am a single parent and doing this on my own and as you can see from my sig I am not doing too bad

wish you lots of luck and welcome to the MFWs group Have you joined the 2010 MFW thread with a target, this motivates me as well as having a diary. I also have a spreadsheet which shows my target going down when I enter my OPs and it gives you the estimated end date and what you have saved. I have looked at it today and if I OP another £200 next month then I will be under £80k :j

I have been able to reduce my term because my fixed rate ended last month and I went onto SVR 3.5% this made me be able to reduce from 19 years to just 12 years. My aim is to pay it off in 9 years when my youngest is 16 but who knows what is around the corner

Sorry for the essay

Welcome and good luck hun x

Baby_steps_2

I haven't joined the 2010 mortgage free thread yet as feel a bit of a fraud while my overpayment target is so far away and i'm only making such small overpayments.:(

Pammy thanx for all the advice, I've had a sneaky read of your diary and it seems like your doing really well with your overpayments, especially with two little ones. I have joined dooyoo, though still not quite sure ow it works. How do you find which products to review or can you do any? Is it hard to bulid up enough reviews to get cashback?

I have had some success with the cashback sites, I've joined sun bingo and got £25 cash back for a ten pound depoist. Plus they matched my £10 depoist, I then won £18 so could with draw my original £10 so I've made £25 for nothing. So when that comes through it will go in the virtual sealed pot.:beer:

I also applied for a new credit card to do a balance transfer to 0%. If i get accepted (stilll watiing to hear I get £10 cash back and 1500 airmiles to put towards the summer holiday flights).:cool:

I also need to look at changing my energy supplier so when I do that will make sure I go through Quidco and get the cashback aswell.


Does anyone know which sites the free scratchcards as I can't find them? Also where are the virtual change pots challenges I can't find this either!!

Sorry for all the questions!!

pammyj74

virtual sealed pot thread

littlewoods, butlins, chit chat, virgin, metro, tombola, jackpotjoy
these all have free scratchcards or free games but you need to deposit to play them first. virgin you need to go into a bingo room to see the free scratchcard in favourites

some are from the same company and you cant join more than one sister site (I think)

ask any questions someone will answer them lol

ajmoney

Baby_steps wrote: »

I haven't joined the 2010 mortgage free thread yet as feel a bit of a fraud while my overpayment target is so far away and i'm only making such small overpayments.:(

Welcome to the thread.

I am on this thread and am only aiming to OP £1200, I think there are some with lower targets that me. It doesn't matter how low your target is, it is alwas good to see how well you are doing with it.

Good luck with your MFW journey.

cheekychappy777

do these calculators take into account the extra charges you may get off the bank if you go over the extra payments you are allowed to pay each year?

pammyj74

ajmoney wrote: »

Welcome to the thread.

I am on this thread and am only aiming to OP £1200, I think there are some with lower targets that me. It doesn't matter how low your target is, it is alwas good to see how well you are doing with it.

Good luck with your MFW journey.

I meant to say that as well, its all about having a personal target and being given the motivation to aim for it and the congratulations from others when you do! also help and advice and 'company' on your journey and sharing your thoughts and troubles.

some can only op £10 a time but it all adds up.

skaps

Baby_steps wrote: »

I haven't joined the 2010 mortgage free thread yet as feel a bit of a fraud while my overpayment target is so far away and i'm only making such small overpayments.:(

I have joined this thread and my target is only £700. I overpay by £60.11 a month and even though its not a huge amount it will save me some money in interest. Every little helps. My mfw target has been cut down from 2039 to 2025

Baby_steps_2

As I haven't worked out how to quote yet here is the long response!!

All of u have encouraged me to join the 2010 mortgage free challenge, as our mortgage is up for renewal in july it's hard to work out how much this is going to be by. Think I will aim for £1500, hopefully I should achieve this. Now all I have to do is wok out how to join, wilmve shuffeling over after this:rotfl:

pammy thanx for the link to the virtual sealed pot challenge, this week 11p (not alot I know) was left in my purse that was below a £1, so this plus some change stolen from the OH has gone in the real sealed pot.:D

The virtual sealed pot has £3.49 taken from my account to roll it down to the nearest £5. So am hoping the pennies add up to pounds.

In other mse news (again sorry for the long post) spent £85 today on the cc that probably won't get paid off, so should really reduce the signature paid off amount to £900:( To be fair £35 was on my mums bday present and £30 on a treat for me ( this gorgeous handbag I had to have). So all in all a small slip in the aim. Will be better next week. Promise!!

pammyj74

the way I see it is that we have to treat ourselves once in a while from all the hard work so occasionally its ok lol