Hurdler's Race to be Mortgage-Free

Hurdler

Right - new month, new motivation and new tax year equals a much more serious year of austerity for Hurdler!

On Easter Monday - I batch-cooked two lots of soup (4 portions each) and batch cooked a half-kilo of mince into Spag Bol and Chilli Con Carne (again 4 portions each).

I have a few more sheckles to put towards my mortgage this month - I think enough to pay off an extra month... I need to pay myself again this month and sort out a few renewals so will do all that tomorrow and see what's left in the company coffers.

Time to really get serious about saving money - hopefully my water meter will ACTUALLY get fitted tomorrow - (so doing one last blast in the washing machine before they come!)

Hurdler

Hurdler wrote: »

Grrr Thames Water were supposed to be fitting my water meter today, but they just phoned up to cancel.

Next available date (as I am NOT giving up an evening to accommodate them) is 3rd April.

They had better back date it, as I was all set to be working off a meter today.

Useless toads... they really are clueless that it means re-arranging a lot of things to accommodate them.

Grrr.

Well - a very nice young man turned up to do my meter (thankfully just as I had finished a workout...) and could do it outside, and did it in 10 mins... which makes me a bit annoyed that I had to wait for an extra month for a 10 min job - if I had known it would be 10 mins I would have gone for the evening after all!

AND have to actually call them to make sure it's backdated to February otherwise I will have to pay almost £40 a month until they do the first reading in 3 months time.

BUT... he reckoned (as did someone at my local gym) I could be looking at between £15-20 a month (seeing as I work at home, so double the washing up!)

So that's the first thing in Hurdler's Tax Year of Austerity!

My other plans:

• Be MUCH BETTER about receipts and logging business-claimable expenses - a £1 here for parking and a £2.25 journey there have slipped through the net a lot and I need to be much more stringent in the next tax year
• Really stay on top of the company finances - no more leaving it for a month at a time to catch up... weekly, EVERY week.
• Much more cooking from scratch - getting into the swing of these Lakeland bags which keep your veggies fresh for a good two weeks between shops so no excuse
• As and when I can - make sure I build back up my reserves that got a battering when work dried up. Hmm... between that and throwing money at the mortgage might take some work

Hurdler

Interesting - Just saw an email from Qu1dc0 saying that they have no done away with their fee!
Took them a while - but to be honest all their issues with tracking put me off and I have been so impressed with the speed that TCB get back to you with information.

Now - Am I the only person that searches randomly for any/all companies that *might* stock what I am looking for on TCB first before having to resort to Amaz0n and using a cashback credit card?

Hurdler

Not sure if any MFWers use cashback sites, but following on from Qu1dc0 scrubbing their fee - they have managed to snag a deal with amazon for cash back!

I wonder how long before TCB manage the same (if they do)?

I spent all yesterday sorting out March's finances and I think I have enough for a full month's overpayment.

But some potential good news (not journalism though)... I have been approached to do a workshop for a company with a view to being used as one of their "associates"... it isn't much - initially just this one day deal, but (and I do take this with a pinch of salt) I came to mind to this guy because of some skills I picked up in my last gainfully employed job (with the horrid company!)

If it goes well, there may be small pockets of work to supplement the writing - which would be good.
And if nothing else, it will keep my technical skills up which is important credibility when you are writing about IT!!!

Hurdler

Wow - it has been a while - but a litlle review before some news:

• Two years ago, I had taken voluntary redundancy, and was enjoying the last few days before walking into a much higher paid job, but what would ultimately turn out to be an even hotter fire of unhappiness than the fryng pan I'd jumped out of
• Then at the end of March, the very lovely Sepa74 lined me up with someone looking for an IT writer, although work sadly dried up around September but it gave me a bit of a time-out - (not to mention FINALLLLY passing shorthand)
• Work has been a bit feast or famine, and there have been quite a few ups and downs - natural if you have NEVER contracted before

Now... I have been scratching away for a while, and had the amazing opportunity to be accredited for the French Open Tennis, and have made HUGE DENTS in my redundancy money, I've been a summariser on BBC 5 Live for a tennis final...

I have had a little bit more confidence to pitch a few ideas and had some luck with a few other contracts...

But the big news is... from the start of August, I have a paid contract as a tennis writer.
Of course much like buses, a squillion enquiries have come flying at me for more IT writing... but better to have more work coming in now ...

I do have some money to push towards my mortgage and I'll do my house and Vernon the Virtual MFW mortgage pig tomorrow when I come back and with this one contract I have enough to actually cover my bills and push a little more money at the mortgage.

I have spent a lot of time sorting out all my expenses, all my company accounts and finally think I am up to date.

Good to be back... kinda!

Hurdler

Wow - I had totally forgotten how to even get an image in imageshack!
I am gettin old!

Anyhoo....

The House...



Vernon, the Virtual Mortgage Money Pig...



Hopefully this contract will truly be a longer term deal, and supplemented with extra IT writing pocket money so I will be getting firmly BACK on the MFW bike!

nattypants

I thought I'd check your last post first Hurdler (being the crazy chick I am).

I wanna vernon virtual money pig. That is SO COOL:T

Right off I pop back in the mists of time to page 1....

Hurdler

nattypants wrote: »

I thought I'd check your last post first Hurdler (being the crazy chick I am).

I wanna vernon virtual money pig. That is SO COOL:T

Right off I pop back in the mists of time to page 1....

Let me know if you want the JPG file - I open him in Paint and then write all over him!!!

gallygirl

Hurdler wrote: »

Let me know if you want the JPG file - I open him in Paint and then write all over him!!!

Does it come in pink ?

Hurdler

gallygirl wrote: »

Does it come in pink ?

My skills in Paint are woeful... but by all means have a go at changing him :rotfl: