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

shala_moo

Pearla*Merle wrote: »

What's the powerfood one? (& is it still available? ), was just thinking I'd like to get my mitts on some cacao

it's from the Orchard at Tesco - like bzzagent but direct with Tesco - it may still be open if you join now as it doesn't start for another week

Link here https://orchard.tesco.com/index.jsp

I love freebies, especially when they're food related :rotfl:

shala_moo

July Monthly figures
Outstanding Mortgage £140,726.62
Family Loan £530 (OH's)
Offset pot - £15,830.13
Approx. Monthly interest saved and OP'd £71.76
New end date - Nov 2028

Total Debt as present moment £125,426.49
-£1,666.04:T

not far to go now until the mortgage is under £140k :j:j

We have spent a lot of money this month :eek: but we'd saved up for the holiday so my part went out of the offset pot and OH had saved his separately.

We did, however, forget to save up for the cash we needed to go on hols:( so this will have to come out of this month's wages... We are quite good on holiday and usually come back with cash so fingers crossed that will happen and Canada is half price at the moment with the brilliant exchange rate so we hoping everything looks really cheap

Some other money savings stuff

• requested £14.80 payout from P*nelbase - i got £7.50 pymt for the free moisturiser trial, very impressed with that
• TCB pay out £15.51 to come
• saved £13 on some purchases today in town by joining up to the stores credit card. Plus a £5 voucher on the way too. I won't be using the card unless I shop at that certain shop and always pay it off straight away

shala_moo

Morning all..

I've been very bad at updating here lately there's not much to update once you've hit all the big changes to being MSE.. everything kind of ticks along at a steady pace..

I have been keeping up with everyone's diaries though :T there are some big changes going on in some which are inspiring so it definitely gives me a goal of doing all these changes now to get a better future secured - having choices, rather than having to continue in jobs we don't like etc..

Anyway.. what money saving have we been up to?

None :eek: I am off work for a long weekend so I ordered our currency to be delivered for Canada. It's the first time I've done it on the net so i'm pleased that it was a really good service and one of the best rates I could find. :T

4 week countdown! :T:j

Have had a few minor money savings
- won 68p in the Searchlotto syndicate - will pay it off the mortgage
- £20 redeemed from ROpinions - will pay off mortgage
- keeping up to date with all surveys (but gosh some are boring!) and entering competition (no wins since the first one)

Hope everyone is well x

shala_moo

Aug Monthly figures
Outstanding Mortgage £139,994.80
Family Loan £380 (OH's)
Offset pot - £16,075.27
Approx. Monthly interest saved and OP'd £80.11
New end date - Aug 2028

Total Debt as present moment £124,299.53 -1,179.54
:T

Mortgage is below £140k :j and total owed is under £125k :j

I had to redo my mortgage spreadsheet as it wasn't working properly, it was only about £80 out but I can't be doing with that So I've updated it and refined it a little and it shows I've been underestimating the interest savings we've being making each month so that's jumped up a little from last month. :T

Hope everyone is well xx

shala_moo

:wave:

I didn't get to see my mortgage on the website under £140k as they'd already added the few days daily interest on to the balance before the payment for the month was added never mind, I know my spreadsheet is reliable now so I trust that i'd just scraped under :T

Some money saving done this week always cheers me up!

• £6 survey invite accepted on VO
• swapped elec/gas to the MSE collective thing off the weekly email - I should hopefully save £100, £30 cashback and £30 discount for dual fuel :T and I get to leave the C00p who are just beyond hopeless since they swapped systems
• bought a UV lamp to do my nails - it was the same price as going to have them done professionally so I thought why not.. (I did buy some additional polishes that weren't strictly necessary though :whistle:)
• mysupermarket offered £5 cashback for grocery shopping through them a while back, so I did, received the cashback today - paid it off the mortgage
• £6.12 interest from T$B paid off mortgage
• Am*x offered me £20 for doing a morrisons shop this week, so I did as it was a first shop I also had a £7 voucher (I spent £57 and got £27 back :T and half price PG tips so I stocked up!)
• many bendy carrots have been used today, made a cottage pie and cut up and froze the rest for a stew next week

To do over the weekend :

• cancel my V*ry account - only opened it as they had a good offer on over xmas
• meal plan for next week
• catch up on diaries

shala_moo

Sep Monthly figures
Outstanding Mortgage £139,275.93
Family Loan £230 (OH's)
Offset pot - £16,477.32
Approx. Monthly interest saved and OP'd £78.66
New end date - Jul 2028

Total Debt as present moment £123,028.61 -1,272.61:T

Back off holidays, we came home with $70 so around £35, once I get it changed back we'll use it to get a grocery shop.

Holiday was brilliant, some things were very expensive (the excursions we did weren't cheap :eek:) but the food was very reasonable and our ice hockey tickets were <£20 each.. and we had much fun! OH also bought a t-shirt and beanie for team we went to see, again really reasonable.. :T

Anyway back to reality, back to stinky work and back to a bit of austerity before xmas arrives :eek:

xx

beanielou

Glad you had a good time
Just back too & back to reality too

shala_moo

Hey Beanie :wave:hope you enjoyed your time away x

shala_moo

Evening all...

Very busy few days at work, resulting in 9 hours overtime, some this morning so time and half pay :T I also put a request in to change my hours slightly as I get in quite early, it has been accepted so finish time is 4.15, which means I should beat all the rush hour traffic home :j:j

This may not be factual but it should save money on petrol, shouldn't it? Hercule won't be sitting in traffic as much and there won't be as much stop/starting going on.. hope that theory is correct (although it's not going be £100's in savings but every penny counts)

Tonight I've bitten the bullet and started on Matched Betting :eek: it's very confusing but I found a step by step guide on the t'internet, fingers crossed... 2 bets placed, then waiting for my free bets to come through before I move on to the next step..

Other money savings this week

• house insurance up for renewal - couldn't find much cheaper than my current insurer so sticking with them - easy peasy! £10 less than I budgeted for so that'll be op'd - earned about £5 checking the comparison sites, will also OP this when it arrives
• no big grocery shop this week, £7 spent on fresh fruit, may need a can of beans in the week and some more salad
• meal plan for the week done - 2 veggie days & 2 slow cooker days :T
• £10 voucher requested from CP
• £5 owed from Justthe*nswer but they've run out of Am*zon vouchers :eek: i'll wait a few days and re-request
• TSB interest £6.36 Op'd

Off to bed now, bit of an early one for me, still haven't got my sleeping pattern back.. so blooming tired all the time!

shala_moo

Afternoon all,

Just reconciled all my accounts and got my spreadsheets up to date, looks like not too much money spent so far this month (for once:rotfl:) however, next week I have the hairdressers and dentist booked so that'll make a dent

My foray into matched betting has worked out very well so far.. made a bit of a blunder thinking I could get some free bets to use on matched betting, however, it wouldn't let me use them so put them on normal bets instead.. so 3 bets on the Euro 16 matches yesterday = profit of £78 :T:T (complete fluke and I would never, ever advocate proper gambling!)

Think there's another tiny mistake too, which cost me 5p so I really need to read it all through again and make sure to follow it properly!

£30 of free bets to put on today and one already on which should net me a profit of £14.30 :T

After tonight's matches everything will be withdrawn and put into savings (minus the £5 I used to buy myself a new nail varnish in celebration )

Other money saving stuff :

• OH has food poisoning so he won't be eating today:eek: (I do have sympathy, honest :rotfl::D)
• I have man flu so I won't be going out shopping but :T and also the heating isn't on as i'm so hot with fever :rotfl:
• still need to get the $70 changed back
• £4 orchard voucher received for Tesc0 - has to be spent on exotic fruit

xx