Mortgage free by 50

Mortgagefreeby50

Thanks Red Cat and Caz!
Caz, we are big fans of Vegas! We got married there a couple of years ago and consider it to be our spiritual home! Apologies for the excessive use of exclamation marks, maybe I should get into the smilies and jazz up my posts a bit

Red Cat, do you put aside the money you have saved by using the above methods? I think it would be good to measure the savings otherwise they would just get swallowed up in the bank account.

gallygirl

I'm useless with money off coupons, great at cutting them out/printing them, but hopeless at using them . Now when I get some I pay the money off the mortgage straight away, so I 'owe' myself the money. Makes sure I use them as I won't let myself get away with owing myself money. IYSWIM :cool:

Mortgagefreeby50

Just paid £50.81 into my overpayments account from my Amazon sales, £34.09 left to find, I'm pretty sure that's in the change pot so looks like I'll hit the December target.

coldcazzie

Well done!

You're right about the money getting lost: I'm making a point this coming year to put aside the op money into the virtual pot, and anything that is being saved for a purpose goes into the other saver. I'm also going to try to raise certain monies separately, so they don't come directly out of the budget (man-wife's bday present will be one of those).

Mortgagefreeby50

I raided the change sorter machine tonight and we had £82 in there! So I have exceeded December's target by £47.91 which I have carried over to Jan 2012. So I have £57.09 to find in January.
We actually had more than £82 but The £2 and 50p coins wouldn't come out of the bottom of my money box! What a design flaw, eh! So I have left them in the box and will have to get the tin opener on it when it is full to the brim! There were other bits of shrapnel which I didn't bag up so they'll go towards January as well. I'm off to update the MFW2012 challenge sheet!

After putting my £255 overpayment into the mortgage calculator, here are the latest figures:

Previous interest over the term of the loan: £215,769.68
Previous finish date: Nov 2041
After overpayments interest saved: £305.42
After overpayments finish date: Nov 2041

So my £255 has turned into £305.42, effectively creating £50!

Mortgagefreeby50

I felt a bit ashamed of myself in the pub the other day- I had ordered a pint of Stella for my mother in law, but it was off. By this time I had already paid for the round on my card. So she opted for a pint of Amstell's instead, which was 25p cheaper. You can guess what's coming next!! I said to the barmaid- 'do you want to put the difference back on my card, or just give me the cash?' She looked a bit cheesed off as she put the 25p refund back onto my card and I felt suitably ashamed! I think the main thing that annoyed me was that she wasn't going to offer me the difference, as I'm sure if she had offered to put the 25p back on my card, I would have told her not to worry. Forgive me!!

Hurdler

i wouldn't have felt ashamed - 25p is 25p ...:beer::rotfl:

Mortgagefreeby50

I'm going to set myself a few challenges for 2012, it is (hopefully) going to be a big year for us so I've got to be organised!

1) Save £6000 for maternity leave. I have already set up a standing order to achieve this. It's vital I do it as we will really miss my salary if I go off to have a baby and the company I work for only offers SMP package. The £6k should cover our monthly essential outgoings. I suppose challenge 1a) is to get pregnant! We're working on that...:kisses3:

2) Get healthy by going to WW and the gym. By get healthy, I would like to lose 4lb a month, which would be 3 stone over the year. This will get my body into shape for pregnancy and stop us eating ridiculous amounts of chocolate and huge portions.

3) Overpay mortgage by £255 a month This will be achieved by the standing order of £150 and finding an extra £105 by mse methods. I think I will save £2 a day at least by not eating chocolate all of the time. So really, I only need to find £45 extra a month!:dance:

I just noticed the difference in the language I used for challenge 2 compared to challenge 1 and 3. I said 'I would like' rather than 'I will'.

Challenge 2 amended: I will lose 4lb a month, which is 3 stone over the year.

You may have noticed I have discovered smilies!

Happy new year to all and good luck in achieving your goals next year! The difference between a dream and a goal is a plan!

_party_

Mortgagefreeby50

Well, we're back! We had a fabulous time in Vegas! Neither of us are party animals, but the sight of the strip on new years eve was an experience!
It was a much needed break from the stress of moving house and we feel recharged.
There was a letter from our solicitor waiting for us with a cheque for £34.25 which was an overpayment of the fees and other costs. So that can go towards the January total, just leaving £22.84 to find before the end of the month. The sig will be updated when the cheque clears.
I bought a fabulous new money box on holiday which I can't wait to use! I might put MOC money in there.
Happy new year!

Mortgagefreeby50

I took 3 bags of clothes to our local cash4clothes drop off, it came to £13.45 in total! Not bad as it has done me a favour by clearing a lot of space. I just checked and a paypal payment has cleared, as well as an amazon payment, so that along with the cash4clothes money, that is £29.16 off the total! If I get round to paying in the cheque from the solicitors then that will mean we have achieved January's target already!
The amazon listings have gone back on and I will sort out a few odds and sods to put on ebay over the next few days.