Hurdler's Race to be Mortgage-Free

sweetdaisy

Hurdler wrote: »

Ahhh the Christmas money dilemma - do I ... spend some on some stuff I want and save/use the rest to OP... or do I splurge on a load of DVDs etc and then be relatively happy in the knowledge I can save a lot next year having bought what I want on my wish list!

Always bearing in mind that they will be bought ONLINE, using a cash back site AND a loyalty CC that will give me points to get a voucher to be able to buy them more cheaply.

This actually kept me up last night - trying to figure out if I was better putting it towards the netbook I bought ... although I had squirrelled away the money to actually pay that off in full in this month's bill.

You know what - it was a Christmas gift by mum to go buy what I want (as she's long since given up trying to guess what I might like!)...
So... [/scampers off to play.com]

Definitely treat youself, as the money was a gift (and you can put your cashback earnings as an OP if it makes you feel better ).

Hope you have had a good Christmas.

Hurdler

Lois_E wrote: »

Hope you've been having a great Christmas, Hurdler.

I had a great time with the extended family - but I confess I am happy to be home now! I feel a bit guilty at not doing much work today - but I did too solid days of Public Affairs revision and shorthand - and I might put together my vocab list while I am watching my Xmas Blurays so that I don't feel quite so bad!

sweetdaisy wrote: »

Definitely treat youself, as the money was a gift (and you can put your cashback earnings as an OP if it makes you feel better ).

Hope you have had a good Christmas.

I was actually mulling this over with mum and I decided I will put all of it in my Treat account and transfer it to the savings account I have linked to it.
Then as and when I decide to have a Bluray/DVD box set splurge - I can more than cover it with the money and treat myself.

I will probably spend the additional money I got from family in the play.com sales (via cash back and play.com Visa, of COURSE, like the expert money-saver that I am!)... and then the rest - maybe once a month as a treat.

Work is going to be very tough and long hours in the new year so I think I will reward myself once a month at least with films/series and try and make some time for me in amongst all the planned studying!

Peonie

Hi Hurdler,
I've stopped by to say I have subscribed to your thread and I look forward to reading your posts.
P.

Hurdler

Peonie wrote: »

Hi Hurdler,
I've stopped by to say I have subscribed to your thread and I look forward to reading your posts.
P.

Thank you and I hope you had a great Christmas.
I will be checking on your progress too and wish us both a great MFW 2012 :beer:

Hurdler

I got home from mum's around lunchtime - had a bit of a doze and then settled down in front of the TV with my Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Pt 1 first which was good because I saw a pivotal bit in there that made perfect sense in the end film).

On the side - I was carrying on with constructing Vocab crib/testing sheets for shorthand - but when I got to about 6pm I had to give up - my head was hurting (and I think I am getting a bit sniffly too).

I was sent back with some food from mum's so my plans to seriously limit my takeaways are starting well.

My plan tomorrow is to get up early and hit Tesco early to replenish the cupboards and then hit the books - I think I will do all Public Affairs during the day tomorrow and carry on with the shorthand vocab in the evening while lounging in front of the TV - I can also practice writing stuff down while watching!

I am going to scuttle into town tomorrow at lunchtime and pay in all my Christmas money to the treat account and then transfer it to the linked savings account - then filled with noble-ness and missionary zeal I will order Doctor Who Series 6 (so that I can send a thank you card to two friends who's 2x£20 will cover the cost) to tell them what I bought. Ordering from play with play.com visa - and I am going to start giving Top CashBack a bit of a go - I think they offer a fractionally (and I do mean fractionally) more than Quidco for Play.com purchases.

I did have to renew my Norton subs - I THINK I covered my old PC that my cousin has, my current PC and my mum's laptop - so I had to do that renewal before I left - £75, ouch!


Loads of laundry to get done and some ironing too, sigh! That might have to be in front of the next Xmas Bluray on the list!

I suppose I could bash through some ironing now while catching up with Sky Plus... night all!

Hurdler

Slept badly and was up at 6am so busied myself with sorting out Christmas money to pay in.
Whizzed round the supermarket at 7am and got the staples because I just couldn't be bothered with a list - £51 and that will last me 2 weeks (and I forgot cereal but did buy a brioche loaf for bread and butter pudding so that may have to suffice as breakfast!)

Sorted out my finances and whizzed around town (well I whizzed until I got to Natwest where a squillion businesses were paying in takings or taking out float money).
Came home - some eejits in the road have now got a mobile home parked outside (hopefully visitors) but I live down the world's narrowest cul-de-sac so that was pleasant, negotiating my car past it!
Pleasantly surprised to see that the bin men did actually empty the bin, even though I forgot to move it nearer to the gate.

And I am starting my 2012 money campaign by ... no longer buying magazines after I found one of my faves is longer being printed - then I took a look at how much I was spending on the 3 others I used to get - I still subscribe to the Radio Times, but that will now be it.
I also decided to make my first purchase on TCB as they were sending me endless emails encouraging me to start using the service.
ETA: Just checked and it looks to have tracked.

So let's see how that works out - as they were offering 0.2% more than Quidco for Play.com (plus I should get double points for using my play.com visa as well).

I splurged on 2 boxsets, however... but they are covered by Christmas money ... so that makes it ok!

And now - I am going for a snooze!

JoeyGrey

Hi Hurdler. Enjoyed reading your diary so far, and love the house spreadsheet.

I presume it's Teeline you are learning? I did the course a few years ago and still use it now despite no longer being a PA. I got stuck at 40wpm for ages but something suddenly clicked and I ended up getting my 100wpm certs before calling it a day. I used to practise by listening to the news as they tend to speak at an even pace. I'm probably back down to 50 or 60 now but you inspiring me to get the books back out again

Good luck with the course and your mortgage paying - I've subscribed :T

Hurdler

Hi Joey and thanks for subscribing.
I abandoned Shorthand (and yes indeed it's Teeline) today to really crack on with Public Affairs as the exam is on 24th Jan... but I found myself occasionally tracing outlines in the air! In fact we do that A LOT on the course!!!

In MFW related news - I have FINALLLLLLLY gone through a decent cycle of expenses claimed and going in - so have siphoned off the incoming ready to sling it back on 6th Jan to cover some of my credit card bills. It's taken a while - and maybe it's because I was able to nudge my manager to approve them!
ETA: The bad news is... Vernon is looking a bit leaner now that I have made a note of what has to go back in (a staggering £510.90 of expenses!)

I am trying to get all the finances done - tomorrow I really want to finish Local Government and really break the back of the Central Govt notes and then I think tomorrow evening, I will HAVE to really attack the shorthand crib sheets.

Hurdler

Thought it might be worth jotting down my monthly milestones that get me through a working month, when things get me down,

• 1st of the month: Sweep of salary (paid at end of month) into Vernon the virtual mortgage pig
• First Monday of the new month - expenses from the last month done, and manager nagged to approve as the cycle is long and tedious (on average 6-8 weeks)
• Typically around 6th of the month, I do my budget - Filofax bank account sheets, MS Money and a portable spreadsheet which summarises everything for me and can live on my iPhone while I am out and about - it means I know what is in all my accounts when I am out shopping
• At the same time, I transfer back in any expense money owing on the credit cards, and go through my piggy bank accounts moving stuff into savings or back to current to cover credit card spend if needed
• 16th of the month - Mortgage goes out - it should be coming down regularly if I pay OVER 3 times the contracted amount (which I am hoping to do) so I check to see what went out, round that up and pay that out of Vernon
• Sometime in the month, expenses go in, so swoosh those out to a savings account and keep them for next month to go towards paying the cards off
• Around the 28th - Salary comes in and there it stays until the whole cycle starts again on the 1st

Most of my DDs were set up to go out around the 6th which was when I used to get paid.
Now I have the sweep set up to keep a huge amount in the bank to cover the DDs and then bolstered up by expenses paid at some stage during the month... in the hope that the sweep and expenses have me breaking even until pay day.

That's going to be my routine going forward.

Hurdler

Great gawd almighty! Are y'all sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin!
I printed out the details to change the name on my US shares holding from a shortened version of my name, to my full (and somewhat more embarrassing) name - so I called my premier bank service (having previously been told all I needed to do was nonchalantly stroll into a local branch to get this faffy Medallion Signature Guarantee stamp.
I got put through to International Banking and guy was quite frankly a muppet - telling me that they would NOT pay unless the IBAN, Address and account numbers were correct.
Except... da da dahhhhhh - they paid me a dividend on 12th Dec to: My IBAN, My Address, My shortened name and proper spelt (and equally "furrin") surname!

With me so far?

So troubled by this, I couldn't really concentrate on revision - and was contemplating walking to the local branch of the bank to get this stamp - and if they couldn't do it, scooting into the main town centre. But I thought I'd just ask again because I was all discombobulated now.
And got a much more pragmatic guy who said that the IBAN HAS to be correct, then the SURNAME most importantly, as people generally have all manner of combinations of their name, The INITIAL needs to match at least SOMETHING in your account... and finally the address.
His advice was: Go for it and do an internet sell transaction, because what is the worst that will happen? They will trip over a missing middle initial and the full spelling of my name.

He also said that they would normally look to resolve an issue if money was being withdrawn from an account, but if someone is wiring money IN and the details largely match, it wouldn't have triggered any alarm bells that my account name was missing 3 letters!

Still there?
OK - so I have now put in a sell order for 225 IBM shares that should allow me to start the year with at least a £20K overpayment (which I will have to do via BACS for that amount). I will be able to top up all my piggy banks.

It would be outstanding if I could kickstart the year with dropping below £100K and would make my dream of going into journalism a little bit more practical - which would be a huge weight off my mind!