Mortgage freedom..Shala_moo's attempt at a diary..

shala_moo

Afternoon all...

It's a day off for me today so i've had a whizz round the house tidying, cleaning and putting washing in. Now I shall be mostly sitting on my backside - apart from getting the washing dry and putting it away - no ironing in this house :rotfl::j

I've finally managed to get round to renewing my car insurance this morning.. I went through TCB to see if I could get any cashback, but it's a bit odd. You basically get the cashback from going through their own comparison site not from the insurer, so i answered all the questions and the quote it gave me from Adm1ral was £40 dearer than the previous quote I'd got

I clicked through anyway and decided to check the details on the Adm1ral website, increased my NCB to the full 15 years I've got instead of the 9 that TCB had entered and the quote came back down to what i expected. Bad un's! I could have easily been £40 out of pocket for that little trick. Hopefully I'll get £25 cashback tracked too.. :T renewal from existing provider was £253 so potentially £58 saved (i'd budgeted £300 for it so £80 for definite into the savings pot:j)

shala_moo

shala_moo wrote: »

Need to get this stuff before xmas, i can keep on top of it here..

• put up curtains in dining room - we can really feel the chill as it's a huge window
• make a winter meal plan
• get hair cut - it's been a while
• get xmas decs out - check if we need any extra (think we definitely need lights for the tree)
• finish xmas shopping for Dad, Aunty, Nan and cousins - hoping to go halves with my sister on these - got some bits from Avon for my Aunty, Magners crate for my dad (with £5 off from Tesc0 coupon) and spoke to my sister about going halves :j
• make onion chutney, chilli jam and whiskey marmalade - will make a start this weekend - final ingredients bought anyway
• marzipan and ice xmas cakes for us and MIL
• make gingerbread house - very excited for this!:rotfl:
• get car insurance/make sure old one cancelled - done
• clean out spare room for the sister to stay over xmas
• go to a christmas lights switch on (i'm in the process of persuading OH), Christmas markets in Birmingham and the Good Food show
• lose 5lbs - 1lb down this week
• try to reach onep0ll threshold - at £33.40 at the moment - £34.80
• don't buy any xmas magazines - so far, so good

Just updating...

shala_moo

Well it's a pleasure/pain day today i think..

Pleasure - OH has just reminded me that his work buy them all meat for Xmas, old fashioned I know but a lovely gesture, so I have ordered a nice piece of lamb :j Now just trying to decide whether to get some more meat for the table (our tradition to have 2) or just stick with the lamb! There's only 4 of us this year so I don't want to go overboard but sometimes it hard to break a tradition isn't it!

Pain - just took my car to be looked at as the heating blower thingies aren't working properly..it needed the filter changing and whilst there they changed the fuel filter too costing £72 but it should make it more fuel efficient

I'm consoling myself with homemade cookies and milk :jand remembering that i saved £80 yesterday on my insurance so that'll cover it!

Happy Saturday xx

shala_moo

Nov Monthly figures
Outstanding Mortgage £161,558.92
Family Loan £10,860.00
Daily interest £17.71
Emergency Savings £10,000

Total Debt as present moment £162,418.92(-1,013.64:j)

Weight target 42lbs/5.5lbs (steadily losing 1lb a week now)

Total debt isn't as low as it could be but i've had to use a little bit of savings to cover some Xmas presents as I've got no overtime payment this month I should be able to put it back into savings by the time OH pays me over his half of the bills though.

MSE activities this week..

• 10p off petrol voucher
• free shower gel to try
• meal plan done for the week and I will stick to it
• Ha1ifax reward shuffle
• £6 off £40 shop at Sainsburys to use
• tried to do adpoints but the site won't load
• Surveys done (onepoll £35.10:T)

ammonite

adpoints can be a right pest! well done for onepoll..that is quite close to payout! I am still waiting for my £40 to be deposited in the bank account! I don't miss the surveys at all

That £6 off £40 is good for Sains too - I haven't had any for ages which is why I've been shopping in Aldi

shala_moo

Well i've managed to get on Adpoints now but i've only got 23 points and no more ads to watch I've just checked my Nect*r card statement to make sure the points are being put on to my card and i've made £8.15 so far, pretty good.. :T

Onepoll = £35.30.. nearly nearly..:D

shala_moo

I've not read anyone's diaries for a few days so don't know if this has already been mentioned, but, if you link your nectar card up to your ebay account and log in every day(until 28th Nov) then you are entered into a competition to win 1m nectar points(£5k)...

Yes please Mr Nectar man! :T

shala_moo

Long weekend off work..

We are under threat of redundancy at work at the moment so it's nice to have a break from the atmosphere:( We won't know anything much until after Xmas so at least we have some time to get prepared for the worst. Glad i kept my emergency savings now!



MSE activities today..

• stopped myself from "popping" into Waitr0se for bread - it would have cost me a fortune with random other items:D
• used my petrol voucher - saved £4
• made a shopping list for Sains next wk, £60 spend will give me £6 off with voucher and 10p voucher for petrol - i'll use it to stock up on freezer bits for xmas and the JD is on offer for OH's present
• took curtains up in bedroom - they're no longer covering the radiator and wasting heat
• received free shower gel to test
• filled in a survey to get free diet coke to try
• been into town, so check ins on Quidc0 done
• tried to file a cashback claim with TCB, i have to wait 60 days! :mad:

shala_moo

What a miserable weather day, hope everyone is safe and warm xx

Luckily we got home from shopping before the rain started but it hasn't stopped since





Today i've mainly :

• ordered some new glasses - optician tweaked the prescription so i've only had to pay the extra it cost to have more expensive frames - but work will reimburse me £56
• making chicken and bacon hotpot for tea to warm us up
• was meant to be going out for dinner on Tuesday but i now have a cake to make so i'll have to cancel - money saving though!
• bought some little tupperware boxes (6 for 97p) to make my own "graze" treats.. just need to get a bag of nuts and chocolate drops.. yummy!

shala_moo wrote: »

Need to get this stuff before xmas, i can keep on top of it here..

• clean out spare room for the sister to stay over xmas - she's now coming up on Thursday so need to do this tomorrow
• go to a christmas lights switch on (i'm in the process of persuading OH), Christmas markets in Birmingham and the Good Food show - going next Thursday to local lights switch on if it's not raining :j
• lose 5lbs - lost 1-2 lbs
• try to reach onep0ll threshold - at £36.00
• don't buy any xmas magazines - still not bought any!:j

ammonite

Yeah I agree adpoints might be a pest but they do add up nicely for Nectar points I have linked my eBay account, thank you! Now here's to winning those million points

Work sounds stressful, redundancy is not what you need looming around a workplace just before Christmas Hope it all works out OK for you.

Well done on the weight loss