BeauBelles quest for mortgage freedom!

BeauBelle

Well, next quick update.

OH got paid today and we have successfully paid another £100 off the mortgage! Yippee!

I received my cheque from the NCT sale which has added another £54 to the pot.

I have also been proactive and have listed loads of unwanted bits and bobs on ebay and have so far sold another £60 worth of stuff and have 38 items ending Sunday!

Every little bit helps I guess. I am going to put this money in a seperate account and pay it off as an additional sum after I have got the remaining Christmas presents on my list.

I have set myself another little challenge, our mortgage with our overpayments as of today stands at £132,460.71.

My challenge to myself is to get it sub £130,000 by the end of next year!!.

We shall see

Take Care and thanks for reading

BB
xx

BeauBelle

Right, some (hopefully) good news.

We have been attempting to move to Norfolk for the last 6-8 months. DH parents moved there from Essex about 5 years ago and every time we go visit we say how lovely and peaceful it is etc.

We live currently in a mid terrace 3 storey town house in the middle of a very busy town that is going to be rapidly expanding in the next few years and not in a way we like.

DD will be 4 next August and will be starting school:eek: Our catchment school is dire, only 40% of the kids can read and write when they leave etc etc. Hideous. So we really want out.

DH is a high speed train driver and commutes into London and around the underground, takes him about 1hr 30 mins if there is no trouble. He has been doing this for 9 years and has had enough (claims hes getting too old!!) So the plan has been to try and get to Norfolk where the property is cheaper, there is more space to breathe and the schools are so much better with a community feel.

Anyway, in the current climate HST jobs are few and far between but we heard today that DH has an interview!! So pleased for him and what it could mean for our family. Really exited at the prospect of a move to a different house.

We could afford a much bigger, character filled house with a big garden for about £20k more than our mortgage is now. Its the dream home, somewhere we could live forever!!

We would have to extend the term, but once I go back to work could seriously overpay it.

I also heard back from a tempoary job that I applied for. I am a keen family historian and want to set up my own business when I eventually want to go back to work (am a SAHM) and its a 2011 census job. Only for 4 months but the money is great, didn't think I stood a chance as I haven't worked for 4 years, but I got through to the next stage and have a telephone interview next week!!

Money would come in very handy if I got it and we are moving.

Anyway, I am on target for this months overpayment. So thats all good. Not sure if I should continue to overpay or put some in a savings account just in case? Opinions please!!

If you got this far, Thanks!!!

BB
xx

BeauBelle

Forgot to say I switched energy providers this month which should save some money. Got the £100 welcome bonus and an extra £80 via Quidco!! Really Pleased with that!!

House Insurance and Contents are due in January so will shop around for that too and hopefully make a saving.

BeauBelle

DH has been very MSE today. He is into slot car racing and the plan is to build a big track with a lap counter. He had seen one for £100 :eek: that he wanted to get for Christmas! but after the shocked look he got when it was suggested has been looking on the internet and has found some software that is free to download and his dad has said he can have an old computer of his to run it through! So will cost us nothing :money:

Spiggle

Good luck on your journey BeauBelle!

You are doing fantastically well, amazing results with ebay etc. And also with your DH's interview.

All the best,
Spigs

BeauBelle

Well, December overpayment made £100!

Very pleased as its normally an expensive month what with Christmas!!

Will update my siggy now!!

BB

BeauBelle

Have also joined in with Cakes 2011 MFW target setters and have upped what I planned on overpaying to £1800 by Dec 2011.

Looking forward to 2011, this year has been very tough mentally. I lost my wonderful Auntie Kim in June at 44. She loved Christmas and her birthday is at the end of January so am feeling a bit emotional today. Its going to be hard, but am trying to focus on positive things.

Hope everyone is getting on well with their MFW journey

BB
xx

BeauBelle

Have just updated siggy with our outstanding balance :j

The mortgage at the start of Jan was £132,004.89! and I have just made an overpayment of £150 which I am thrilled with as Christmas is sooo expensive! So next month the balance will be sub £132,000!! Getting down under that threashold and into a (slightly) smaller number is such a psycological boost and makes me even more determind to get down to the £129,000's by the end of the year!

Have convinced DH to have a month where we really watch what we are spending and think about what we are doing with all our money. I was horrified at the amount that we spent on eating out with the kids last month when we have food in the house that just gets wasted.

I have decided enough is enough and have meal planned for this week (DH got paid today so will do Friday to Friday) worked out that the food and household stuff needed for the whole week would come to £64 if I shop at Asda like normal. Have set myself a challenge to undercut Mr A by shopping around and today went to Lidl, Farmfoods and Tesco and got everything on my shopping list for £45.72!! so have already saved £18.28 on what I would have spent!

Am only allowing myself £200 for all food items this month and £50 for household things so not done too bad already.

However both DH and I need new trainers this month as ours were ruined by the snow, but will be looking for the best value around as neither of us are brand slaves!! So will spend a little on these on Sunday.

Will let you know how things go!

needtopaymydebts

hiya, well done on the progress that you've made so far. We have been paying our mortgage and making regular overpayments but i'm about to start maternity leave and i think it's really got to me that i want to pay off as much as possible before the interest starts going back up again so i'm looking for some inspiration. I noticed that you'd sold some things via an NCT sale. Could you let me know how you go about selling things in these sales? i know i've bought at them before and thought about selling but never really got around to it and now i have myself convinced that it is loads of hard work?
Thannks

BeauBelle

Hi NTPMD
Thanks for your comments.

With the NCT sale I just got in touch with my local branch (I'm not a member) and asked when their next sale was. I had to register about 6 weeks beforehand and they sent out a pack with my seller number printed on the labels. I will say that it was hard work and took a lot of time to get everything ready cleaned and labeled in time.

The one I was selling at was massive with lots of competition from other sellers. Some people are there just to get rid of all their baby stuff and will price things really low just to sell it and others (me!) went to see if I could make more there than I could on ebay. Lots of my clothes and bits had hardly been used, so I priced what I thought accordingly. I didn't think that £4 for a worn once Next dungaree set with matching vest was unresonable but I couldn't compete with people pricing items at 50p! I brought most of my clothes home which I wasn't sad about and I put them on ebay where I made double what I had them up for at the NCT!

The NCT take 25% of whatever you sell and then an extra £5 for labels etc. I ended up with about £55 at the end of the day. I would do another but only if I was selling a small amount. I think with the effort that I put in, its just as easy to sell on ebay but more hassle with the postage etc. I would probably stick to selling clothes on ebay and maybe toys that are bulky and pricy to post at the NCT.

Although the NCT was a captive audience, everyone was there for baby things, ebay has a wider viewing audience and the fees work out about the same. If you could get a small NCT sale with only a few sellers then that might be better. There were 84 sellers at the one I did which was far too many, there was so much stuff for people to look at!


Hope that helps you and good luck with your mortgage challenge :T

BB