Two years off and finish in 7.5 years !

LilacPixie

Good Luck PP. Like you i need Jan to slip by incredibly quickly due to nil funds

Pennypincher2

The best thing I did last year was a sealed piggy bank. I wanted it for a Christmas outfit cos I never have any money and always have to go out with work or what ever and I thought some money just for this would be lovely. Anyway I decided I didn't need anything for Christmas (I already had a lovely skirt from 2 christmas's ago) so I opened it thinking maybe I had £60 quid in it - I had £170 in it and I have used £60 to buy birthday pressies for in the year and what is more I am going to charge myself £10 or £20 at the time I use the pressie and put it back into old piggy!!!
I am hoping this will generate about £100....My next piggy challenge is to go to New York in September 2012 with my girl friends...
The worse MSE thing I did last year was get an allotment - it cost me money to rent and then when I handed in my notice they charged me for this year as well!!!, money for plants, money for sticks and I hired a rotivator for a day (£55) and then gave up cos I don't have enough time and it was a burden... My husband has never moaned or complained about me wasting this money to his credit but it was a complete and utter waste of money and very disappointing for me personally to fail so spectacularly. Oh well I shall not try that again not for a while anyway....
Food budget is looking OK so far - Jan is usually grim.

gallygirl

Pennypincher2 wrote: »

My next piggy challenge is to go to New York in September 2012 with my girl friends...

Good luck with this PP. I went to NY 2 years ago and managed to fund it entirely from mystery shopping and other bits n pieces. I entered comps and sold the prizes on ebay. I used lots of money off coupons and squirreled away the value of the coupon. Then I found I was ending up with out of date coupons so I started to account for the money when I GOT the coupon, not when I used it - that focused me on using them! I used quidco and saved what I got from that (I go away with work so get cashback from hotel bookings so probably got more than average).

Have you looked at Approved Foods? They sell food approaching or just after its' 'best before' date - e.g. packs of rice etc. These are all 100% fine, I've just had my 1st order & it's great, especially if your family eat savoury rice, bulgar wheat & cous cous.

Good luck!

stedwell

Hi Pennypincher
Just wanted to wish you luck with your challenge.
My situation is very similar to you although my children are older and my interest rates higher.
I shall follow your journey and will be on the lookout for tips.
I am trying to pay off our mortgage early but can't quite bring myself to start a diary as putting figures onto paper is too scarey for me at present.
PS Sorry I am a teacher!!!! (But originate from Essex!):o

Pennypincher2

Hello Stedwell,

Thank you. I love that you are a teacher, I think it is really fantastic that there are so many teachers on this site trying to pay off their mortgages and have more freedom i.e. can choose to remain teaching or not!!! Or pick what they do.

I am a nurse and I am happy to have seen that Cath T qualified as a nurse in the last couple of years ago and perhaps a few others. I considered doing a PGTC but frankly I couldn't do your job cos I would be rubbish at it. My sister has been a primary school teacher for the last 25 years and it is hard and I a nurse for 18 years (I think I am better supported than her, more team and less work in the evenings but I get the night shifts and Christmas working!!!). Although we both laugh it is because it is dreadful the conditions we work in and that this recent government change is going to make such radical cuts and make our already almost impossible (and at times hateful) work load even bigger. Not forgetting tamper with our pensions and not give us a pay rise. Yep I get it that teachers and nurses might want choice and freedom of work.

So please don't say sorry for being a teacher I think you lot are enlightened in the ways of MFW and I sit at your knee and learn. I don't think we are that different actually.

Your kids are probably older because you got a move on with it, but my husband and I got stuck with so much negative equity we had to sort ourselves out financially on very small salaries before we had a family. We did this by waiting for house prices to return to what they were (10 years!) and using this time to train to do professional jobs to improve our earning potential. My husband wanted to do teaching but we couldn't afford the three year degree so he trained to be a nurse too as we had a bursary of £4500 p a and no university fees.

Please do do a diary if nothing else I like to see what people are eating for dinner as it gives me ideas for what to cook! Sorry but it is true. One lady I asked if she could post her dinners every week - and she hasn't returned to her thread since!! (She obviously thought full nutter will avoid for a while, hope she goes away).

I do come from Essex and I work in Essex in the community and I see all life and if I didn't really enjoy the richness of people and appreciate the differences in each individual I couldn't nurse, but I do. I rarely find a dislikeable and even then, they always have some thing that I love however odd. I see you originated from Essex but escaped does the call of the Badlands not whisper you back?

Thank you for mentioning approved foods Gallygal, I had read this term somewhere on someones thread but did not understand what the term meant. I shall investigate. The rest of the money from piggy I have put £100 away for a holiday and I (brace yourself) frittered £10 away in superdrug on a hair colour and poundland for stocking bits - mad I know.

This website is not supposed to make me want to spend money but so far since Christmas I now fancy a steam mop and a ramouska cooker - all thanks to MSE!!!

No I shall not be buying anything big without the cash saved, I really need a new freezer as mine is small and over 20 years old so I worry it will conk out at any moment. I know VAT is going up but that is not a reason for me sticking it on my already battered credit card (it is cooling off since Christmas and I hope it will remain cold this year, unused and unloved).

I shall post what I over payed on mortgage for 2010 on my signature and update balance figures when I know. I think I over payed about £600 but aiming to £2500 this year.

Sorry for the long rant. This will have to stop in the coming weeks as I have college work to do and I need to pull out my finger between now and April.

Bye for now PP (in training)

stedwell

Hello Pennypincher,

Sorry about the poor spelling on my post - scary not scarey - will give teachers a bad name!
Thank you for your reply. I think I am very lucky doing what I do (even though us teachers always grumble!) It was a bit of a shock returning to school today. However each time I visit someone in hospital I always look at the staff and think how on earth do they do their job? Surely there is nothing more scary than being responsible for other people's lives! I take my hat off to anyone who works for the NHS.

Anyway back to being mortgage free. I chuckled when I read your post. We have many shared experiences. We bought in 1988 and watched as interest rates soared and house prices dived. Luckily our house only lost 20% of its value and my mum and dad bailed us out with a loan which we then added to our next mortgage. (We had to move as we were burgled three times!)

Then came the underachieving endowment which we finally ditched about 3 years ago but which meant we had still a considerable amount to pay off.

So here we are, also with a 100k mortgage and husband retires in 10 years. (or he would like to!) Trying to overpay as eldest goes to uni in 2 years so it would be nice to have it lower by then. It is just good to read of someone in similar circumstances still paying off a mortgage. So many of the posts here seem to be from much younger people who owe less than we do! I just wish I had never had an endowment mortgage and had bought a few years later on. Oh well, no point looking backwards.

Pennypincher2

Hello Stedwell,

I like all the scary stuff and you get very good at it with practice. Back to work too today but boy am I tired, I am ready for bed literally in my pjs. Had a nsd (did take money for lunch but didn't get a break to eat or drink all day!!!! then you know your back to work with a bang, ha ha ha). Half term to look forward to.

Have I said we had a lemon of an endowment.

100k mortgage and hubby 55 years old. I'm a bit younger. Our mortgage is planned to finish in 10 years but a little earlier would be good. We wont be rich but a bit earlier gives us a little time to do some nice things and save a bit.

I think you get into good habits so in two years time you will have loads of money making ideas and you can get your son to do some of them.

I am really scared of 15% interest rates again under the Tories and loads and loads of bankrupsies (not sure about the spelling Miss) that is what makes me want off this merry go round. I can remember it all before.

Right I'm off to find you

Byeee PP (in training)

Pennypincher2

Not so good this month and confusing so shall try to explain
£40 taken from food account for emergency
£135 child benefit calculated twice !!
£200 paid in for another bill but eaten but by miscalculations and misadventure
Actual in account £117.
Expected in account about £300

Spent last week on food £70 - still need extra milk and pet food

Bill coming in this month so far but will have to wait till Pay day - 5 days to go..
music lesions £25
Brownies £50
Drain man £200
extra money swallowed up and joint account debt to me personally £230
Food shopping £85 on visa (yes terrible I know) this week!
Total : £590 owed before we even do anything gulp.

Oh well. Sarnies for the week and soup.
Bye have a nice weekend from Penny P 2 A New Beginning.

Catslovelycats

Good luck with it all PP2. Even if things sometimes go awry, be proud of the fact that you're making inroads. It's an exciting journey (says she who's been a member for a grand total of about 2 weeks!)

stedwell

Remember Pennypincher 2 it's only the month after Christmas so January is always a rocky ride. As for miscalculating, I forgot to budget for my daughter's 12th birthday tommorrow! That means I am a fair amount out this month. Trying to keep the groceries budget down but very tricky.