A blissful home - mortgage_girl's MF diary

mortgage_girl

So half term is almost over - the week seems to have flown by! I have had a very productive time though. I've listed lots of 'treasures' on eBay, deep cleaned the kitchen, defrosted the freezer, cleaned out the freezer, and have spent some time in the garden. I've also tried to spend time doing some lovely things - we had a day out at Scarborough where we spent most of our time visiting the charity shops and buying bargain books (and eating huge slices of lemon meringue!), I've had a new tattoo done (not very mse but it's beautiful) and I've spent a few cozy afternoons in front of the fire with a good book. So it's been a lovely break.

I've had time to play with my spreadsheets and I'm still on course for being mortgage neutral by December next year. I'd really like to reduce that though and be mortgage neutral by August so I'll need to look at ways of finding some extra pounds to go towards the mortgage each month. In preparation, I'm trying to do Xmas on a budget by using vouchers I've saved through the year to purchase gifts as well as survey cash outs / eBay sales. I feel I'm getting back into the MSE swing of things after a year of taking my eye off the ball, although it has given me a new perspective on letting myself enjoy a few more luxuries along the way.

Finances are quite tight this month but I'm going to set myself a target of op-ing an extra £100 off the mortgage (so £400 in total) - wish me luck!

Right, time to light the fire and get cozy.

MGx

MGx

mortgage_girl

I've been on a few money saving missions this week. Firstly I've closed my ISA with C0ventry BS as it was only getting me 1.05% and I've transferred the money into my new FlexD!rect account - which has an interest rate of 5% for 12 months. The account also gives me the option of opening up a 5% regular saver which may be useful once xmas is out of the way.

I've also switched my gas and electric as my 12 month fix with SPower was coming to an end. I used the comparison tool on here and found 'bulb' to be one of the cheapest providers. It saves me about £50 over the year and I managed to find a £50 referral link from the referrals board which gives me and the referrer £50 each, so combined with the reduced cost I'll hopefully be £100 better off. The gas and electric rates aren't fixed but there's no fee for switching so I thought I'd give it a try and see how it goes - plus it feels good to be supporting a smaller company rather than one of 'fat cats'. I've added my link to the referrals area if anyone wants to give them a try. I'll give it a few months and pop an update on here too as there don't seem to be many reviews for the company (although most of what I've read is good, which is hopefully a good sign).

SB's have reduced the price of their £5 Am@zon vouchers, so I snagged one and have added it to the xmas stash. I have a few pressies I want to get from there so long may the sale continue! :rotfl:

In other MSE news I managed to get some washing hung out today and it only needed a half hour blast in the tumble drier to finish it off, so I'm happy with that.

Have a good weekend.

MGx

CathT

Good to see you posting MG, have missed your updates. I hadn't realised you were so close to being mortgage neutral, that's amazing!

mortgage_girl

Aww thanks Cath :) Life has been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster recently so I'm trying to get my mojo back. I can't quite believe I'm so close to being mortgage neutral either. I'll still be doing what I can to try and squeeze those few extra months off...

Nearly talked myself into getting a new satnav today as mine keeps dsconnecting from the windscreen connector - but I remembered that my Dad had said I can use his whenever I need to so that's £100 saved if mine does decide to break beyond repair.

MGx

mortgage_girl

Happy New Year everyone...I've finally managed to get around to posting this year! Things have been quite stressful in my life for a while now and although I've not mentioned it on here previously, I've had to take some time off work, but I'm going back tomorrow and hoping to get things back on track.

Whilst being pretty much absent from the forum I've been busy really looking after myself through plenty of running, yoga and reading, as well as making sure that I eat properly and get plenty of rest. I have still been working on my MF goals in the background but they've not had my complete focus. However, I've worked out that there's just an extra £9,300 to find by the end of the year to reach my goal of being mortgage neutral. I have budgeted for some of it already with my monthly savings but there will still be a bit extra to make from surveys, eb@ying etc. Although that calculation is for the end of the year, my real goal is to reach my target before my birthday at the end of August, it's not a big deal if I don't but it would be amazing so I'm going to give it a shot.

Wish me luck!

MGx

Lynplatinum

Wow you are doing so well - I am mortgage free after a similar struggle but the knowledge that own my own house and no one can get me out of it is such a feeling of security!! Its brilliant !! Keep going

Am going to take inspiration from you for the daily yoga and walking (too heavy and arthritic to do running) and will let you know how I get on!!! Better habits all round heh?

Good luck!

mortgage_girl

Thanks so much for your post Lynplatinum. It's lovely to hear from someone who has already completed the 'journey'. My momentum seems to be growing a bit more as each month passes and I'm still very much trying to work towards my August goal. I hope you're managing to get in some daily yoga and walking? It makes me feel so much better and I can really notice the difference in my mindset on the days that I don't do it.

I've managed to cash out £40 from 0nepoll this month and have just received £50 from my bank account for sticking with them for a year, so they will both have gone in the offset pot. I've also sold a few bits and pieces on eb@y and have redeemed an Am@zon voucher from sw@gbucks so things are ticking along nicely. I've got quite a few other things to list which I plan to do at the weekend.

I've started listening to the Minimalists podcast again and have decided to kick-start my decluttering efforts by playing the 30 Day Minimalism Game where you get rid of one item on day 1, two items on day 2 etc so by the end of the 30 days you've got rid of 465 items. :eek: I'm going to play it slightly differently though and aim for a total of 465 items over 30 days rather than a specific number of items on each day. It's going to be a quite a challenge but I do think it will really help to keep me focussed on de-cluttering - as well as making me think more carefully about what I choose to bring into my home. I'm going to add a separate post on here to help keep me accountable.

Happy Friday!

MGx

mortgage_girl

30 day minimalism game:
So here's my attempt at completing the 30 day minimalism game. By 17th March I aim to get rid of 465 items, either by donating, selling, recycling or giving them away. I'm also going to count any items that I use up in the total as I've got lots of half used / miniature bottles of shampoo, body lotions etc that are taking up space but I'd rather use them up rather than throwing them away. For them item to count, it's got to be out of the house so I'm not counting any items that I've listed on eb@y but haven't actually sold.

Below is my running total - I know that if I put it online then I'm more likely to stick to it. Hopefully 30 days from now my home will be much more clutter free!

MGx

1-4 Gardening books
5. Bag
6. Gloves
7. Mask
8. Coat hangers
9-41. Seed packets
42. Incense sticks
43. Perfume
45-62. Books

mortgage_girl

Psst...I forgot to say that I've hit another milestone - my mortgage is now under £20k! :j:j:j

MGx

cookie9

Yay! Well done on getting below £20k. I can but dream of that for the moment! Love the idea of the 30 day minimalism challenge. Quite tempted to try it myself as need to clear out a few of wee mans things and my own! My local Tesco has a book table where you can drop off books which I do quite regularly but often I end up picking a book up too which does defeat the purpose.
Hope you are having a good weekend.