Baby steps to being mortgage free

Baby_steps_2

Hi all,

Well I've been enjoying a nice relaxing xmas break, I have mangaed to pick up some sales bargains. But for once in my life I managed to stop myself buying to much and also managed to get a couple of presents for next year in the boots sale. I'm normally not this organised so quite chuffed with myself and will save some money in the long run:j:j

While I've been off I've been thinking about my targets for the next year and have come up with.

- Reduce the amount I owe by £7,500 (This may be a bit of challenge if I don't get a lodger in)
- Make an extra £200 from cash back sites
- Make £75 from survey sites

So thats the 2011 targets, this time next year I can see how I've done:D

newgirly

Goodluck for next year babysteps, spending in the sales for next years xmas presents does'nt count anyway!

Catslovelycats

Hi Babysteps
Thanks for your thread
I too am going to overpay my mortgage by £100 for a year starting Feb. In 2012 my mortgage rate goes up anyway (bought house last Feb) so not sure what I can overpay by then, not least because I have a pay freeze...! ANyway, it's nice to see on here that other people are in the same boat as me - doing a little bit but not able to commit to repaying/clearing thousands in a relatively short time-span - I took out a 23 year mortgage!

Baby_steps_2

catslovelycats wrote: »

Hi Babysteps
I took out a 23 year mortgage!

Thank you for taking the time to read my random thoughts, I know my story isn't as inspirational as some of the others. But I find writting stuff down makes me think twice about all my spending. Good luck with your journey, I always find it helps to think its a marathon and not a sprint and therefore I still want to enjoy life on the way. If it makes you fell any better mine is still 32 1/2 years, although it was 35 at the start:eek::eek: so i'm here for the long haul, unless I find a millionaire to marry:D

Well all I have a confession to make, I spent £110 on a pair of jeans:eek::eek:

I blame my mother:p, she wanted to buy a pair of designer jeans (due to her shape she finds they are the only ones that fit properly) and well i found a pair I fell in love with. They were reduced from £220 (who pays that for a pair of jeans???) so I do feel I got a bargain and I know that I will wear them to death, I did have an expensive pair previously and wore them pretty much every day for 2/12 years until they went into holes:D

I am a little disappointed in myself as have been doing so well at resisting the sales. Oh well its stuffed my financial situation for this month, especially with New Years eve and a friends birthday still to come in January. However if I don't eat in February and have no shopping budget in February and don't eat!! I should be able to sort things out.

In other news I have booked a trip for April for the grand old cost of £60. A friend invited me up to Scotland to stay with her family in the middle of nowhere for the week. So even with petrol to and from the airport (its 2 hours) it should cost me hardly anything for a nice break away for a week. So thats one trip booked to look forward to.

I think I am going to have to get a lodger in. I have been thinking about it and I really want to do some travelling on my own this year, like go to Paris and Rome on some short breaks. I'm planning on doing this on my own and staying in hostels, but without someone in the house helping me out I don't think I will be able to afford to do it. Having someone else in the house may make me feel a little weird but I think I just need to look at the things it will enable me to do to make me realise its worth it. So Januarys job will be looking for someone else to move in.

Baby_steps_2

Happy New Year to everyone, well I have been good in some ways and had some unexpected spends in others.

So lets get the not so good financial news out the way. When the ex moved out I said he could transfer the TV licence and take it with him as I was keep the insurance premiums we had nought at the same time. He said he wouldn't bother and all was fine. Anyway the other day he text saying that he had transferred it to his new place so now I need to get a TV licence. This wasn't due until June so now I will have to get a new one. I'm waiting for the letter to come through from the TV licence people as I'm hoping I can put off getting it until the end of Jan and take it out of next months pay, I've been putting by £35 a month for the last few months to cover things like this so that will be those savings gone But on the plus side this time last year I would never have had any money ready.

So the other mini financial issue this month was due to me having to hold an unexpected family gathering. We were due to go to my Nans on yesterday but my Granddad has been ill so I offered to have the family here. However that meant a dash to Tesco and £50 being spent on food and drink for the occasion (some of which is left over) but the most annoying thing was my final £4 off the spend did not start until today, so not only could I not get the discount but it also means I will have to do another food shop next weekend to make the most of the vouchers which will mean that I will about £50 over on the grocery spends this month again, although I am aiming to get the grocery bill down by the same amount next month as my cupboards and freezer are full to the brim.

In other interesting news, I learnt an interesting point about myself this week. When I was checking my reciept from MR T's the other day I noticed that some of the cat food I had bought did not scan on a 2 for £5 offer so cost me nearly £8. So i returned them!!! That is something I would never have done a year ago.

I also got a £20 pay out from quidco due to in the next couple of days, better than nothing and that will go towards the jeans.

Also as I've had some time off work I have configured my free lime switch. This automatically turns everything in that socket off standby and was a freebie. I have put this in behind the TV, so the TV DVD and wii are all connected. So overnight and when I'm out none of these will be left on standby and this should save me some elec hopefully.:A

I also had a very cheap New Year's Eve and was loads of fun. I went to a house party so it only cost me petrol and lunch with my friends. So as I had budgeted some extra money this month to cover the cost of this trip and booze etc I have saved some money and will move this from my spending money towards the cost of my jeans, so I have nearly covered the cost of these.

So all in all an interesting start to the New Year.

Baby_steps_2

Well all another week done and getting ever nearer to pay day to see how I have done this month. I have had a very quite weekend so I am hoping that will help keep things on track this month so all in all I am making up ground for the crazy priced jeans.:p

I have spent all day today cooking up a storm. I have made lamb stew with meat purchased that was whoopsied, carrot and swede mash for the frezzer as managed to get 2 whoopsied swedes for 50p. Parsnip soup for lunches next week as they were on offer in Mr T's some fruit salad for next week to try and keep up the healthy eating and some salmon and cod fishcakes as I had some crusts to use up to make some freezer space so made breadcrumbs and well fishcakes seemed a good idea at the time:eek::eek:

I have finally used my last Tesco voucher that they sent through with the money off. So as of now I am eating frezzer food to try and get rid of it all and reduce the food spend next month. One of the things I'm really pleased about is the vouchers made me buy a load of cat food and that hasn't been on offer since New year so that has saved me some money:A

I am so grateful to this site. It has really made me realise how much money I was wasting before I joined. I can still enjoy my life and have fun but if I make the effort to watch the pennies then in the long run it will make my life much more stable.

I have decided to cut my personal spend money (for treats like clothes, make up, dinners out) in half next month to make up for the sales shopping I did this month as well as cutting my food spend money due to the crazy amount of food in the freezer:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

So I'm hoping next month I can put an extra £100 in the savings account, plus next month is the last council tax payment for the year. So from feb thats an extra £130 into the savings account for the next couple of months. I am thinking of using this to do up the halway with my time off in April, all I need to do is do a bit of painting and I want to put up some pictures and change the light fittings so it will be a time consuming job doing all the painting but shouldn't be to expensive.

Is anyone else finding surveys really light on the ground at the moment? I hardly seem to be getting anythrough and the ones I do get I don't seem to qualify for:mad::mad:

InaPickle

I joined Toluna a few weeks ago, and I've yet to be eligible for a single survey! I'm glad to think that it might not just be me.

Well done on your financial clear-sightedness. I need to get a bit of that - I've lost my head a bit in the sales, alas.

Baby_steps_2

InaPickle wrote: »

I joined Toluna a few weeks ago, and I've yet to be eligible for a single survey! I'm glad to think that it might not just be me.

Well done on your financial clear-sightedness. I need to get a bit of
that - I've lost my head a bit in the sales, alas.

You obviously missed my previous posts, I fell off the wagon big style in them and am now trying to claw back the money!!

Well glad its not just me to on the survey sites!! If it makes you feel any better I did get £30 from toluna in about 6 months last year which I don't conisder that bad as I don't spend to long doing them:p

linz

I think we've had a similar weekend Babysteps - i've been saving up crusts and blitzed them into breadcrumbs too. Also made some cookies using some chopped up fudge i got for xmas and have saved some smarties from my big tube to make more.

Have also made 6 meals (3 x bolognaise, 3 x shepherds pie) from some mince from the freezer. Isn't it great to use up leftovers that you'd chuck otherwise? I also agree we can all still be happy and enjoy life whilst being frugal at the same time. It just takes a bit of imagination at the beginning

re surveys - do you do Topcashback? If so you could try the Its Your View surveys on there (70p per survey). You can do as many as you want although some you will prob be screened out of. I did 3 this weekend but could have done more if i'd had the time.

MortgageFreeWanabe

laurasavon wrote: »

Yes you can overpay Halifax mortgages, they will give you your account number and sort code if you don't already have it. The only account you can't use to overpay a Halifax mortgage is a Halifax account.

I have a Natwest bank account and want to pay overpayments as above by setting up a standing order (flexible). How can I be sure that the overpayments I make will reduce the term and not the monthly payments.

Thanks for reading,