Finally I have a mortgage I can start to pay off!

kirtsypoos

I love the try it free bits, a few weeks ago they had sandwich thins, cheese, cat food, yoghurt and tea - excellent haul (didn't get the cat food as we don't have a cat though :rotfl:)

I'm a bit naughty with Sainsburys online orders - it recognises email addresses rather than names/addresses so I regularly (every 6-8 weeks, not every time!) set up a new email address and get the new customer discount.

We bought our first house last November but we are doing it up and I am paying off what used to feel like a mountain of debt, so we are overpaying but by very small amounts each month, as soon as my debt is paid off we will be going at the mortgage. Well, until (hopefully) little feet come along anyway

themadvix

Thanks for the heads-up about the voucher Kirsty - £20 duly saved. The freebies weren't of any use, but will see how it goes and maybe bear in mind for next time. Good luck with the paying down the debt - you look like you're making great progress!

Have also transferred £co money and interest from TSB account into OP fund as I've already lined up £250 for the TSB RS.

Have done the little work I had to do this morning, and want to pop out, but not really sure on the etiquette with workmen in (not a matter of trust, I know one of the guys, more whether they mind really). I need to pop to PO, but really would like to pop around to my mum's first (which is a 20 drive away) and possibly buy some work shoes (they're falling apart). I'm not sure I can really leave the cats on their own that long!

About to cash out on SBs again

themadvix

Workmen have gone, shiny new, super efficient boiler in place and a very hot house (why do they have to turn the thermostat up to max to test in the middle of summer?!). Even better, a power flush wasn't needed, so saved £350 At least £300 of this is going straight off the mortgage (come the 15th). I'll see how I'm doing by then as to whether I need the extra £50 - I had left things a bit tight to pay for it all.

£5 on it's way from SBs and OP fund (emptied of £500, which is sitting awaiting OP) is already back at £30 Off to PO now to post an Ebay parcel.

Busy_Mee1

Good news on the boiler, normally things end up costing more than you are quoted for not less. You are doing really well on the overpayments too.

themadvix

Thanks Busy Mee. We'd had a good quote from the company, with various options, so had already got the price down from £2600 by cutting a few optional extras. I'd asked about just having a hot water flush on the system, but as I'd not had a reply had forgotten about it. So it was really lovely to save that money yesterday - it made my day!

Spent a lot of the night thinking about whether I should really be overpaying rather than saving as I could open a joint TSB a/c for DH and me and get 5% on the balance, which is more than our mortgage rate (2.99%). I don't think it would take too long to get to the £2000 limit there though and I'm not sure about another regular saver. As it would be accessible it might be a good way to save for the trip to the States we want to do (but that's OP money!).... I don't know. Maybe we should open the account and save a fixed amount per month into it for the States (ringfenced) and OP the rest. I don't want to switch my current account so the other RS available aren't really options. Please don't mind my waffling on...

It's really dark and gloomy here this morning, think it'll probably tip it down at some point... Going to go out first thing though and do all the jobs I failed to do yesterday because of the plumbers. This might mean it's an expensive day, as I need a work top and some shoes, but having seen M&S has a sale on, I'll do my best to get both there (will check charity shops for a top too).

Have done a couple of surveys this morning. Have been selected for GFK special media survey, so if I do that all week I'll get a £10 voucher. Owed £3 from PC, YG at £22.50, YSP at £11.50, Viewsbank at £2.52, Maximiles at 1550, NewVista at 4050. Keeping up with surveys can be tedious, but once you've got a few on the go with varying amounts, I find it keeps me interested, as I'll always be near pay out on one. Had a terrible time with Swagbucks yesterday - kept answering half the survey questions and then getting screened out. Not impressed.

No work as yet - partly because it was US Independence Day yesterday and partly because the academics over here seem to be on holiday.... ho hum... Will have to bake some bread and make cake later instead!

Busy_Mee1

I don't know whether it helps but you can have 3 TSB accounts, one each and then also a joint one = £6000 @5% and 3 x £250 regular savers @5 %. It does make more financial sense for you to save (but only up to your personal savings allowance tax limit) rather than overpay but it depends on whether you can stop yourself spending the savings. I try and view savings as untouchable as they are to pay the mortgage off.

themadvix

Thanks Busy Mee, that confirms what I thought. I'll have to revisit it tonight with DH. We have various 'pots' in accounts that aren't earning much/anything either, so perhaps we should at least be putting them somewhere more profitable (I like the idea of our treat fund earning interest!).

Also saw a Nationwide offer to introduce a friend and get £100 each. DH has several current accounts with NatWest so I think he might be persuaded to switch one of them for £200!

Failed on the shoe shopping front - I hate buying shoes! Will venture to a Timpsons and see if I can get an insole for the time being. Don't want to spend a lot as they have had it really (have done 7 years of functions and other office work days), but I'm not sure I'll find anything before Friday when I'll need to wear them again and be on my feet all day. Did manage to find a couple of smart officey tops made of cotton though (avoiding plastic is tricky when buying clothes!) and only £21. Even checked vouchercloud before going to the till, but nothing doing for DP today (and of course, the things I wanted weren't in the sale!).

Picked up some bits in Waitrose and used Maximiles JL voucher, so have transferred money across to OP fund. (I know I have a Sainsbury's delivery tonight, but buy fresh fish, cheese and ham from deli counter to avoid plastic - I take my own containers - yes, I know I'm a crazy woman!). Sadly this means no bargains, but everyone has to find a balance and this is mine. (I did opt for the non-organic salmon though because it was more than £1 cheaper!).

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi, just stopping by to wish you well with your mortgage OPs. Great news about Santander and not needing to stick to £500 min OPs. I appreciate that's a lot of money anyway but knowing that anything counts as a capital reduction is :T

Looks like you're doing really well on surveys - do you do PC? Do you also do Sh@p and Sc@n? Both of those are quick to do and beneficial.

Good luck with all your plans and this truly is a great supportive forum.

Best wishes Tilly

themadvix

Hi Tilly, thanks for stopping by. I'm still ploughing my way through your diary - although I'll admit to skipping a few pages every now and then. It's truly inspiring (and in a smaller way reminded me to get the wraps out of the freezer for lunch last night!) - am looking forward to catching up to date and see where you're at now!

Yes, we've been doing S&S for years and years now - we both did it separately before we were married, but now do that with the web monitoring and out of home stuff and it makes a nice little income. Afraid we spend it on Leisure Vouchers usually though - they're our treat! Do PC too, that's more recent but I love the virtually instant gratification! We both started with surveys when we were students and must have made well over £1000 by now - I won a Gfk Radio draw and got £500 in one go, that was really good! Surveys paid for the bridesmaid dresses at our wedding too.

Long day at events venue today, doing prep for an event on Friday. Worked till 6pm and I'm on an hourly rate, so quite pleased to get the extra. Car shared with my friend, so minimised fuel costs. Have done a couple of surveys this evening, used up leftovers for dinner and am just 'using up' the last of a bottle of champagne!:rotfl:

DH off work today as he's not been well - which meant he didn't get his fancy meal tonight, but I don't think that has broken the bank!

Have just ordered some dresses to try for our friends' wedding this summer - HoF, with cashback and flying miles CC. Every little helps.... Unfortunately the one I most like the look of is the most expensive... I'll have to see what they look like on. I hate shopping, so ordering online saves the stress!

64p TT transferred and SB cash has arrived - will transfer in the morning.

themadvix

Afternoon all,

£5 from SBs has been transferred to the OP fund. Did a little bit of work this morning, but it's that time of year when things are a bit quieter... so events work is perfect timing - off to do another function tomorrow.

In absence of work I've used up bananas in a cake (in freezer), made lemon drizzle cake (for lunches this/next week), made a double batch of wraps (frozen - they don't stick together so excellent for grabbing a couple to make lunches) and made a rhubarb crumble from garden rhubarb and some from freezer. Have also picked a half a bowl of strawbs - nearly at their end now though. Redcurrants need picking but after the strawbs I had a rash on my hands and couldn't stop sneezing, so have abandoned that for now! Will pick tomorrow before work.

Have decided to open a joint TSB account - will put our 'treat fund' in there (birthday and Xmas money), and use the RS to save for our holiday to the States next year. Not very MFW, but it's something we've wanted to do for a while. Our normal holiday budget is £1300, so we'll need a bit more than that! Intention is to fly upper class out there and premium economy on way back using our CC points - I think we'd both agree that we'd rather not go than fly economy after our last long-haul flight. Will open the account at the weekend.

Have had Santander OP instruction form through, so need to send that back before I OP. This should cut down on paperwork and pointless post.

For my sister's birthday I'm going to sacrifice our S&S leisure vouchers so they can have a meal out. With a baby on the way, they're saving hard, but I think it's important that they get the chance for a couple of meals out before their life is forever disrupted! (Although I'm sure I'm going to be called on for plenty of babysitting duties!) Will transfer the budgeted money across to OP fund.

Tried to do a Maximiles survey and it was broken - raised a ticket about it and they gave me the full points for the survey - am rather pleased about this, as I wasn't expecting it!

That's all for now. I'm out for dinner tonight (at a friends, so FOC), so leaving DH to fend for himself.