Mortgage free by 50

Mortgagefreeby50

I used my Orange cashcard today so I can transfer £5 to the overpayments just as soon as I find my HSBC secure key. I haven't managed to find that book yet, I've got tomorrow and then I'll have to email the buyer and grovel. I hate losing things!! The trouble is that my DH is a compulsive tidier and hides stuff!

Mortgagefreeby50

Today will be an exciting day for the MFW household as we are getting some chickens! DH's birthday today and we are going on a family road trip to pick up six hens. He would like three different varieties so that we get some different coloured eggs We have been collecting egg boxes for a while so hopefully won't need to buy any.

I just filled in my budget tracker for last week and we overspent by £20 on groceries. I will wait to see how it pans out, I think we won't need £200 a month for fuel so I might be able to move that over to the groceries column.

We have friends visiting this weekend which will be lovely! They have promised to bring food so that I don't have to do anything. I just checked the weather and it doesn't look too bad so we could go to a local fete or the park for the afternoon as one of them has a 1 year old who loves going on the swings (and we love watching him!).

Must find time in my busy feeding/burping/sleeping schedule to fill in my expenses for August. There won't be a lot of miles, probably about £100 worth.

The free sims from quidco have tracked, so thank you to stay at home mum for that!

Mortgagefreeby50

Oh, happy day- I have found my HSBC secure key! I have just transferred my £35.50 MOC money and the £5 orange cashcard into the overpayments account.

I have given up looking for the book I sold, so unfortunately I have had to cancel the order. I know it will turn up now I have stopped looking.

I found the other orange cashcard, so that's another £5 of free money! I will transfer that when I spend it.

Just bought some more petrol vouchers off ebay, they don't expire until the end of sept, so should be able to get some money back from them.

The chickens are here but not ventured out of their coop yet, I'm sure they will settle in pretty soon and hopefully we will have delicious fresh eggs for brekkie by the end of the week!

Other MSE activity- we have taken out the Lovefilm free trial (£12 cashback) as we are obviously watching a lot more telly and late night TV is rubbish! We were thinking of buying a couple of DVDs on impulse the other day, so this will work out a lot cheaper, even if we carry on after the free trial.

I checked our fuel tariff after Martin recommended switching in his email. Ours is fixed until April next year so should be ok.

Mortgagefreeby50

Ah, I love my MSE diary, it's like a friend I can write to in the middle of the night! We are sharing the night shift- I go to bed about 9:30pm until 3am, then DH goes to bed from 3-9. She wasn't settling very well at night, but we have discovered a swaddling blanket that someone gave me ages ago, she loves it! She has been fast asleep since 3, so now I have both hands free to type. Maybe in a couple of days if this carries on, we could risk having her in the bedroom with us, and maybe DH and I could both be in bed at the same time!

Anyway, back to MSE. If all goes according to plan, mini-MSE will be 18 by the time we have finished paying off the mortgage. This will be good timing for supporting her (and any future siblings) through uni.

I am getting ahead with my targets again. I toyed with the idea of having 'time off' from MSE once my target was achieved for the year, and then start again in Jan, but I think it would be cool to see how far ahead of myself I can get. I am three months ahead at the moment, and that is with having a few months of not really focussing on MSE. If I can do that every year, then in 19 years time, I could end up 57 months ahead of myself with my MSE overpayments! So, I would put the extra towards the regular overpayments, and this would shorten my overall target by two and three quarter years to 16 years and 3 months left. That is pretty cool. Oh no, I can feel the obsession taking hold! I must calm down as I have made a lot of assumptions in this- we both keep our jobs, our interest rate stays reasonable etc.

I sold another book on Amazon yesterday, and this time I know exactly where it is as I only listed it the other day. One of the items I listed on ebay the other day has 8 watchers and 2 bids, so I'm hoping for a bidding war towards the end! I only have 2 watchers on another item, and the rest have nothing happening. This is good in a way, as DH is convinced a lot of his clutter is worth something and that's why he hangs on to it. At least if nobody even wants to watch it on ebay, I can show him it isn't!

I just filled my expenses in- £133 coming my way in mid Sept.

Quidco have paid me yesterday- £33.93 on it's way! Will transfer when it appears.

Must go, mini-MSE has woken for some milk

Mortgagefreeby50

I'm a little bit later than usual, I had a whole 7 hours sleep last night! Mini-MSE is a little angel, long may it continue.

Quidco money has found it's way to my account, so that's £33.93 off the total, sig updated. I think that puts me into December!

Posted my Amazon book, so I'll request the £5.42 payment for that, should appear in the account sometime next week.

I emailed Avent to say how much I liked their bottles as Mini-MSE didn't get on with the ones we were given at the hospital. They emailed back asking for my address as they would like to send me something! I'll keep you posted!

NSD yesterday!

We had a man from a well respected window company to give us a quote for a new front door and surrounding windows. His opening gambit was £5000!!!! And that was supposed to be with 50% off- yeah, right! We managed to get him down to £3,300 by saying no (and we meant it!). Our best offer was £2.5k. We said we would have to save up for longer if that was the going rate as we didn't want to enter into a finance agreement at 24%. He finally turned a bit nasty and started using the emotional blackmail tactic of 'I bet I'll drive by in a few months and see an inferior door fitted by another company'. DH was happy to finish the discussion there and off he went. So we'll get a couple more quotes, and keep saving if we are way off the mark for how much these things cost.

Looking forward to tomorrow, all of my payments will transfer over to their proper accounts and I can update my MFW 2012 total.

Mortgagefreeby50

I have gone a bit coupon-mad! The Bounty packs that they give to you after the birth are full of discount coupons for nappies, washing stuff etc. We popped into Sainsbury's to get a couple of things for tea and I used a Nectar coupon to get £2 off nappies. They were originally £9.99 a pack, they are on offer at 2 for £15, and then I had a further £2 off. So that's 2 packs for £13, a saving of £3.49 per pack.

I had a coupon for Dettol surface cleanser, £1 off. This was exciting as it is already on offer at £1.50, but when I got to the shelf, they had all gone! I'll have to try popping in earlier in the day.

There were loads of free samples of washing liquid and conditioner, so I reckon I will be able to get a week's washing for free.

At the till I got a £4.50 off a £30 shop. I am tempted to bulk buy the washing powder as it is £10 from £20 at the moment, and it will keep for ages.

Mortgagefreeby50

Just updated my 2012 MFW September total- only £530 to go before I have reached my target of £3060 this year! Having the regular monthly standing order into my savings account really helps, as does this diary.

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

Great news... so close to your target. Keep it up.

coldcazzie

I was going to question what on earth you were doing up at 3.50am.... but then I read from page 2 onwards and now I know!

Congratulations on the birth! 35+4 isn't too bad, and glad to hear she's doing well.

The reason babies often won't sleep unless you're holding them is because they're instinctively driven - they know that the safest place for them is in your arms. The fact that a nearby lion or bear isn't going to eat her because we've moved past that time doesn't factor into it as far as she's concerned, if you put her down, she's at risk of being eaten. So well done for protecting her from local bears! :rotfl: Have you got a sling? If not, a stretchy wrap sling could be really useful - you can buy them second hand on eBay for around £25, or there are often sling libraries which you can borrow from (although I'm not sure how you find out about them...) don't get one of those ones from mothercare/wherever that leaves legs dangling - they're really bad for babies hips.

I have to admit I'm terrible with coupons. I have such good intentions but they always get forgotten, or I just don't know where to get hold of them, or they are for things I wouldn't even dream of buying! :rotfl:

Mortgagefreeby50

Thank you, Cazzie, it is amazing how she can be wriggling away and kicking her little legs if she is laid in her carrycot, but she quietens down straight away if one of us picks her up.

NSD yesterday, our friends came to visit- one of them had made quiches and salad for lunch, and also made us a lasagne for tea! It was huge and there is enough for a meal today as well! I am so lucky

Lots of pressies for mini-MSE, she has loads of lovely clothes for when she is a bit bigger.

I wish HSBC would show weekend activity!

I have 9 auctions ending this evening, one has 8 watchers with bids of £9.50 so far.

No eggs yet...