Mennies Bid for Freedom

mennie

Hey all.

Have decided to keep a diary to try and keep my motivated - shamed -into keeping going

IN this post I will out line our circumstances and then I will use the diary to post regularly my progress

Bit about us.....

We bought our house for £150,00 in sept 2007. We had some inheritance so took out a mortgage of £72,000. in last 2008 we added £4,000 to it to clear some debt. :eek: I know, not very MSE.

Our Halifax mortgage now stands at £74,522.55. It is fixed term for 3 years at 5.590% The fixed term period ends next month. Our payments will drop by £85 per month after next month, although we will keep overpaying this amount. We are looking at changing to a Offset account in the new year, from reading this board this seems to be the way forward.

At the minute we only overpay £30 - £70 per month, this will increase next month to at least £110 - £150.

The reason its low at the minute is, we are saving for a new bathroom and I am beginning the preparations for Wintger and Xmas. Once we have put the new bathroom in, in Feb I can concentrate on the mortgage some more.

We have 22 years to pay on the mortgage. I am 30 and DH is 34, We have no kids and a little [STRIKE]terror[/STRIKE] terrier.

I would love the mortage paid off by the time I am 40, but I think that is a tall order. So I am going to say before I am 45, but the sooner the better. That will still be shaving 7 years off.

I think you are all fab and reading your posts has been great motivation!!:money:

mennie

My MFW activities today.........

• Have received £5 in Head and Shoulders Vouchers and a £5 Tesco gift card following a complaints
• Did all my daily clicks - only 16p. Is it me, or have they seriously declined????
• Withdrew 41p from R Points into my bank account
• applied for some freebies on the board
• Doing a £8 mystery shop this pm
• Making some HM soup to take for lunches next week.

This months ovepayment looks like it will only be £20 so far as I seem to have come £97.77 under budget for the month so far and will pay £75 per month into my bathroom account.

poppyoscar_3

Welcome Mennie and good luck with your quest.
Seems like you're doing all the right things.
Will follow your diary with interest!
PO xx

*Jellie*

Hi mennie! Welcome and good luck with your quest.

mummyofonechild

Hi

Good Luck with your challenge. I too will be just under 45 when my mortgage is paid off. Wish I had started overpaying earlier.

MOOC

gallygirl

mennie wrote: »

My MFW activities today.........

• Have received £5 in Head and Shoulders Vouchers and a £5 Tesco gift card following a complaints

Every time I use a voucher I transfer the value into my mortgage account. All small steps, but they do add up

Good luck, will watch your progress :T

newgirly

Hi Mennie, welcome and good luck with your new challenge. There are lots of great ideas on some of the threads on here and it is easy to get a bit obsessed!

mennie

Thanks everyone:j

Well yesterday was a nice cheap day, didnt even have to get anything out the freezer for dinner as OH just wanted cheese on toast so I had a bowl of rice and stirfried (bendy:p) veg. Always think that dinner is free if I dont need to get meat or one out the batched cooked meals out the freezer.

Today will be a NSD. I am popping over to parents for breakfast. OH is out all day. I will spend the day doing the following

• Making the soup I never made yesterday
• making chicken pie filling and chicken curry for the freezer
• researching cheaper home and pet insurance
• researching cheaper gas and leccy suppliers
• doing my daily clicks
• applying for more freebies

Does anyone else do the clicks? I only seem to earn about 16p a day and not all of that even tracks. The sites I use are

• Archerfish
• Freefivers
• R Points
• Top Cashback
• My Shopping Rewards
• Pigsback
• Maximiles
• Quidco
• One poll
• Pure profile
• HT Mail
• You Gov

Are there any that I am missing that people are being paid for?

I applied to taste radar yesterday so i hope I am accepted to that.

Well heres to a productive Sunday:beer:

gallygirl

On the Up Your Income board there is a thread with them all, I think it's longer than yours, worth a try?

mennie

Thanks GG! Will have a butchers. An MSEer is going to send me a guide to clearing over £3 a day. I managed 19p today. £3.00 would be fab and an extra £1k per year to chuck at the mortgage.

I am doing ok with the mystery shops and have had 3 this week totalling £26. Had one that paid £45 last month too.

Doing quite well with the freebies. Its amazing what companies will give you if you just ask.

I have been trying to really plan for Winter and Xmas this year so far for Xmas I have

Bought 4 Presents - 3 of them are wrapped, Total cost £5.40
I have written my Xmas card list and worked out I only need another 20 cards this year
Worked out how many stamps I will need and have started saving the unfranked ones
Found crackers and napkins in the loft that will do for this year
Have saved £17 in M stamps so far.

For Winter I have

Made 2 draught excluders
Made lists of provisions I can hoard
Bought all my cold and flu remedies
Bought loads of matches and candles
Make sure I always have 3 weeks of meals in the freezer

I am going to ikea next week for fleeces and will be lining all my curtains with fleeces and bubble wrapping the bathroom and front door window.

Last year we were really caught out with all the snow, stuck in for 1 week, then we could only get to the local, extortionate shop, the heating bills were horrendous too. OH is self employed and couldnt get to work for 3 weeks so no money coming in. This year I will be prepared, Bring it on Jack Frost

JoeyGrey

Hi Mennie. I've been lurking around watching people's diaries and getting lots of motivation. I've subscribed to yours as your figures are not too different from mine, and will watch with interest.

Taste Radar is really good if you get accepted - it just takes a bit of patience putting all the receipts in and describing the fruit and veg.

Good luck with it all