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

beanielou

I hate buying bras.

shala_moo

Its awful isn't it Beanie.. if you find the right size then the style doesn't fit and then you find the right style, you can't find the right size on the rack! Nightmare

I ended up trying on 16 different ones until I found the right one, I was so embarrassed going in the changing room with 8 to try.. :rotfl:

Checked my credit card balance today and i've have one refund back for a body shaper that I also returned on Friday (i'd forgotten about it) so £28 back to me.. already have one in the cupboard I can use...

I sound a right state.. baggy bras and body shapers :rotfl:

shala_moo

Afternoon,

Had a bit of a shuffle around moneywise today and have Op'd some extra just so the mortgage is under 130k on the 1st Sept :T

Next goal is to get my total debt under £100k (mortgage less offset) but that's unlikely to happen this side of Xmas as i'd have to find an extra £3k. Shame really but my savings don't seem to be as plentiful at the moment.

Money stuff done this week :
have decided to swap hairdressers, new one looks quite expensive but i'm a bit stuck on choices as hair extensions I have are quite specialist
gym membership cancelled, not going enough to justify the money and this can go towards hair instead
dentist form submitted so fees should be paid back - will OP when received - £18
refund of £250 received on all underwear purchases that didn't fit - usually these would have ended up in the bottom of my wardrobe
watching my Buffy/Angel DVD's bought for me as presents many years ago and still in the cellophane stops me going out spending money
£15 amazon voucher ordered from VO surveys

Need to pull my socks up again in the money saving stakes, work have terminated a number of temp staff this week which has started the redundancy rumours up again. They are also a number of staff who have "disappeared" in the last few weeks, so none of us know from one week to the next if we still have jobs for the foreseeable future

I hope we'd be in a position to cope if redundancy did happen but I guess you never know until it happens.

Ohh what a negative note to end on, sorry. Better to end with some cliches - things happen for a reason so what will be, will be and we'll deal with the consequences as and when

xx

Moneyfordreams

Hi Shala_moo, have loved reading your diary from the start... erm I have to with each

you have made fantastic progress with finances... I'm near the start of my journey but hope to be finished at the latest 2025 or could even blitz to 2023.

Can't believe how much effort you put into surveys,,,,, i'm poop at them and find OT easier to complete (shame on me).... loving learning the MSE ways off you all....

keeping my fingers crossed that you get what you want work wise

xx

shala_moo

Thanks Moneyfordreams.. i have to read all diaries from the beginning too, so completely understand, it's like an obsession :rotfl: hope it wasn't too dull for you. [STRIKE]Do you have a diary? i'll have to pop in[/STRIKE]. Found it... off to read

It's an exciting journey to start with but now everything just plods along so i never have much to update it's a nice position to be in though, knowing that even without touching anything the mortgage is getting overpaid and we'll finish early.

shala_moo

Pay day happened yesterday :T money shuffling was done.

So money stuff this week

• Overtime paid into savings - had quite a bit this month
• credit cards paid off
• hairdressers booked for consultation next week - free appt, but will have to pay deposit if I decide to have my hair done there
• £4 voucher used for Tesco - so free ham this week
  

Carrying on from my post last week, we've had a new big boss start at work this week. He is basically a trouble shooter by the sound of it, therefore, our company must be underperforming.. big changes ahead I think

And... still haven't got round to trying and reducing the shopping bills keep getting distracted by other stuff on the internet! Pinterest mainly.. one day i'll manage it :rotfl:

x

shala_moo

Happy Bank Holiday weekend everyone, it's the usual weather here - sunshine, then a monsoon, then sunshine again!:D

Bit naughty with the spends this weekend

• New hairdresser visited and he seems nicer than my old ones - so new hair extensions bought, having them fitted next week plus colour and cut - £200 plus :eek: It's very much a want not a need but it's something I don't want to live without for the moment as it helps with my confidence.
• new clothes purchased - £92 - used vouchers so it should have been a lot more. Fed up of walking round in clothes that are too big for me and are probably 4 years old.

Good spends/non-spends this weekend

• went to a local food festival, didn't sample any products (on a diet) and didn't buy anything (on a financial diet after the above) so worthwhile trip, no? :rotfl: we were in town anyway so didn't cost any extra to get there.
• spent the morning decluttering the drawers of pj's, socks with holes and underwear that no longer fits so no money spent
• cheque received back for the dentist fees, it was a bit more than expected at £19.70, once I get round to banking it i'll OP it

Going for a fiscal fast on food this month, although the freezer is looking very bare at the moment so I may have to do a trip to the butchers. Oh has gone off out to the gym so I may go and spend a few hours in the kitchen and concoct some meal plans from what I've already got in

xx

shala_moo

Aug Monthly figures
Outstanding Mortgage = £129,978.62
Mortgage Offset % = 19.45%
Approx. Monthly interest saved and OP'd £31.58
Mortgage Neutral Date = Feb 2028

Total Debt as present moment £104,694.21 -1,888.23

Three goals met this month..:j

• mortgage under £130k
• total owed debt under £105k
• total daily interest saved >£1.00 - managed to get this up to 2.71 last year so still a way to go to beat this

Really pleased with meeting targets, I did do a sneaky OP from next month's money just to get under the 130k though :rotfl:

OH and I had a chat about how much money we've been spending on groceries. I realised that we've been adding his whiskey into the shopping which has upped it by about £25-40 a month :eek: at least I know some of the reason why it's been so high but even without the cost of whiskey we're still spending too much.

The plus side to the chat is that we are having an austerity month! He seems really into it (although we are only 3 days in) and has been refusing to go up the shop for extras and trying to make tea from what's in the cupboards.

I also got around to visiting the OS board, the "Sneaky ways to save the pennies" thread is brilliant. So far I've done the following

• Filled the fridge up with bottles - we usually keep all pop and water in the downstairs toilet but filling up the fridge apparently saves electricity so that's where it will now live
• ordered the shopping 2 days later than normal so we'll have to stretch out what we have for a few more days(probably need milk though)
• cashed in a £2 winning lottery scratch card we had in March(this will pay for milk)
• counted out the change in our whiskey bottle - £23 - £5 of 5p are paying for OH's slimming world class as they're always short of change, the rest will pay for bits of groceries or be took to the bank on Saturday. We got some bread earlier(YS of course) and paid for it at the self service with our change, took ages :rotfl: OH wanted to go the coinst*r machine but i'm not giving them commission when we can just stick it in the self serve ones.
• stocktake of the cupboards done and we have a large amount of cous cous, spelt, bulghar wheat, orzo, rice, pasta and quinoa that need using up and weetabix for some reason!

To do

• Overtime tomorrow and likely a bit on Friday
• Meal plan for next week so we only buy what's needed
• Start looking for car insurance at an acceptable price
• watch out for the MSE energy club swap - our contract with E*n ends in mid Sept so we need a new supplier

So a good start, off to carry on reading the threads and watch GBBO.

xx

beanielou

Blimey, you are on a roll

Pearla*Merle

Great pennysaving tips :T