Baby steps to being mortgage free

Baby_steps_2

pammyj74 wrote: »

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

Thanks pammy, though I'm sure your not weak enough to give into temptation (By the way in case you haven't guessed I learnt how to quote!!)

Well good news and bad news today. Bad news first, got declined by LLoyds for the credit card. No ides why as although I have some debt have never missed a payment so not sure what has happened as never been declined before :mad:. I will add getting a copy of my credit report to my list of things to do, just to check everything is Ok.

Good news, now been meaning to look at changing my energy provider and today I have actually got around to doing it :A. Rang EON today to find out my annual consumption (and actually got told they were surprised at low ours was based on a property like ours). Anyway used Uswitch and npowers quote was £200 a year cheaper. Looked on quidco and going through them I can get £80 cash back that has now been tracked. This also takes by direct debit by £22 a month so all in all a very worthwhile hour was spent.

I am going to split the extra £22, £10 to the mortgage and £12 extra food to the food budget always seems to be stretched.

So since I have joined this forum I have made £105 through Quidco for doing nothing, once I have actually received this (still not 100% sure how that works!) I'll pay it off the mortgage.

wantabetterlife

Hi Baby steps, apologies for the belated welcome but i have been reading your diary and wish you loads of luck.:j:j
Like yourself i had a few debts to clear before starting the MFW journey and then i needed to sort out an emergency fund. Now that this has been done i really hope to make some inroads on the mortgage.
At times i am really enthusiastic about the whole thing and then at other times it seems such a long way off, so as your name suggest i am concentrating on "baby steps" . My first big goal was to get under £160k and now i really would love the to get sub 150K asap.
Goodluck and keep posting
WABL xo

Baby_steps_2

wantabetterlife wrote: »

My first big goal was to get under £160k and now i really would love the to get sub 150K asap.
Goodluck and keep posting
WABL xo

Thats exactly how i feel want to get under £160K this year and then see what happens with mortgage rates next year.

So this week have been good on the spending front, way to stressed and busy at work to have anytime to go spending money durring lunch breaks plus to tired most evenings to do anything;)

The one night I did go out had some clubcard voucher for Las iguanus. Went with a friend to use them and as I paid for dinner she paid for drinks - so in total a free night for me:j

Have emptied my purse tongiht to put in the change pot (as Easter weekend) £1.45 done. Plus some change stolen from OH:rotfl:

Now all I have to do is get through Easter weekend without spending to much:eek:

Have great weekends everyone.

Baby_steps_2

Well, another weekend when I spent way to much money:mad: I think I'm begining to see a theme here. mon-fri I'm ok, sat & sun it all goes wrong!!

Hey ho it was a four day weekend and we did have a lovely time so not going to beat myself up over it to much. I am however going to try and have 4NSD to make up for it, 1 down 3 to go.

Had a bit of luck with Toluna today and managed to do quite a few more surveys. Up to 40,000 points now, only 40,000 more to go until I get my Amazon voucher:A

So my list of things to do this week;
- Work out how dooyoo works and see if I can get some points.
- Sort out my paypal account (somehow managed to lock it and no idea how to re-activate it).
- Sort out CDs for music magpie.

Think thats about it.

pammyj74

also look at cex for cds and games, sometimes they have good prices

good luck with your NSDs

dooyoo is ok in stages but then you seem to get bored with it, I tend to do a few reviews and then rate a few others and leave it for a few days. At first I was ok doing one or two a day but it got too much. I did earn £100 already this year but couldnt keep up the pace so every couple of months I'll get £50 hopefully.

Baby_steps_2

Well good news - won £65 on an online bingo site, bad news skint this month so will use it to live off till pay day unless alot of NSD's occur between now and then!!

Bad news - done nothing towards my list so far:eek: Tomorrow night will do better:p

Quick question does anyone know if you can make overpayments to hallifax using on-line banking?

laurasavon

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.

Baby_steps_2

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.

Thanx for that will be contacting Hallifax to find out the details and then start doing that, will be so much easier than me ringing to ammend my payments.

As for my to do list last week, I'll be honest i've done nothing as have been out enjoying the sunshine and working on the garden, as lets face it you never know how long its going to last!!:rotfl:

The npower information has come through, no date yet on when the switch will happen and therefore when our direct debit will reduce. But hopefully in the next month or so.

Hope everyone has had lovely weekends and been enjoying the sunshine.

pammyj74

I am with Halifax as well and pay online and then when normal payments go out after a few days my balance is updated on the halifax website and I can check my spreadsheet is correct and the balances match. I love the 2nd/3rd of the month when I check my mortgage balance

Baby_steps_2

Hi pammy,

Been meaning to pop back over to ur diary to see how your feeling about the studying now. I will phone hallifax tomorrow to get the details, it will mean that making smaller overpayment will be easier. Unfortunatly my spreadsheet isn't accurate enough to agree the balance exactly!!

Full update to come tomorrow when I have more energy.