My journey to Mortgage-freedom

misscousinitt

Good luck from me too to your DS2 - its a stressful time - hope he does well.

MCI
xxx

unhappy_shopper

Thanks MCI for your good wishes too. He is quite confident that he'll score well in his exams, it is only the parental anxiety that is the issue here. :eek:

On the MFW front, we are thinking whether to take in a lodger during the week, similar to what Tilly has done. We have a spare bedroom and the kitchen is spacious enough for us to coexist. But the only tricky issue is, do you allow your lodger to be in your lounge/sitting room? We use this more as a study, so would like this room to be kept private. All opinions/suggestions welcome.


Last time I posted mine, but it was not taken up. Hope someone will take up this one. Now that the redemption level has been raised, they are closing all the loopholes. I did enjoy earning £15 during the last month, but it is now down to a trickle.

usa1

unhappy_shopper wrote: »

Hi all,

I have been a lurker for too long, posting sometimes and without a dairy. So, I thought I would rectify that by creating a diary to remind myself of my journey to being mortgage free.

I have signed up for the MFiT-T2 challenge as #77 and MFW-2012 as #34.

Background: Our MFW journey started in Feb. 2007 when we bought our first home in UK. We had paid off a large chunk by May 2011, when we bought our second home as it is convenient for my OH's job. So now we have 2 mortgages with a combined outstanding amount of approx. £138K. Our major expenses are university tuition fees for DS1 @overseas rate and school fees for DS2 (independent school). Next comes mortgage in the priority of things.

I do small things such as using vouchers for grocery shopping, surveys for Amazon vouchers, cashback on most online purchases. All these go into the OP pot. I have recently switched to Halifax Reward account for the monthly £5 reward. Hope to be MF within the next 5-6 years.

Best Regards,
unhappy_shopper

( I am not unhappy in life, just unhappy to part with my hard-earned cash while shopping - makes me think twice before I hand over my CC to pay at the till)

Blimey - how do you manage to overpay mortgage with Schools fees and Uni fees? All credit to you girl. I am in the same suitation with schools fees. How I wish I could pay the Bursar with Coupons LOL... My DD1 aged 15 leaves school next years so I can in part breath a sigh of relief, I do over pay the odd £100.00 when I can off the mortgage/s, but next year I going for it big time. I thought I was only one on here that did un-money saving things like paying school fees.

unhappy_shopper

usa1 wrote: »

How I wish I could pay the Bursar with Coupons LOL...

It is just our choice to send our boys to private school and therefore have to pay the fees. We consider it our duty to give them as much as we can in their formative years, just my personal opinion, and also support them through Uni.

If only the Bursar accepted coupons, I'll be making a small dent in my fee payment. Having said that, I use coupons extensively and buy YS and offers to stock up so that my grocery spend is kept minimal. And I jump into whatever glitch comes my way.

Have a good weekend, everyone. :wave:

unhappy_shopper

Good morning, fellow MFWs

I have had a miserable week so far - on the health front and money front. My sore throat has now developed into a full fledged coughing bout. So I have been working from home for the past 2 days. On the money front, a couple of unnecessary expenses when I was in the Big Smoke on official business. I have had a run-in with Virg** Trains regarding their issuing a wrong ticket. They have admitted that it is their fault but so far refused to reimburse me the costly ticket - they have agreed to refund the cheap Advance ticket. Talk about :money: by big companies :eek:

I have also slackened on my fleabay sales and surveys. May be it is time now to restart on these to earn some pin-money. I had to call off from a £50 earning opportunity (a financial survey) yesterday due to my cold/cough. Well, I hope something else will materialise soon and fingers crossed for a FLW. On the flip side, I have received some MOCs from MrT and they will help with my grocery spending in Jun/Jul.

I received a 10% off code for M&S Summer Home range which is valid for furniture too. Very rarely do M&S codes work on furniture. So, I took advantage and ordered 2 sofas on 30% offer and the additional 10% also has kicked in. So, additional expenditure there (about £1020), but I've been waiting too long for a code. So happy with the result.

Have a good day.

unhappy_shopper

There is a LivingSocial deal for 2 Cineworld tickets for £9/£10. If anyone is interested, please use my link in the referral thread. Thanks in advance.

Two Tickets to Any 2D Movie at a Cineworld Cinema in London (£9), or in London West-End (£11); or to Any 3D Movie in London (£11), or in London West-End (£13)

OR

Two Tickets to Any 2D Movie (£8), or 3D Movie (£10) at a Cineworld Cinema Outside London

misscousinitt

Hi US

Hope the sore throat and cough get better soon - definately not ideal, especially when its so nice outside.

Take Care.

MCI

unhappy_shopper

On a brighter note, I have been refunded my booking price for airport parking. So money back in my kitty and free parking. Link here if interested. I also have a spare 16-digit unique code for 10% off M&* Summer Home range and a 25-point SP invite.

I am now feeling much better with my sore throat not so much sore and I hope to return to normal soon. My pay has hit the bank, so hoping to make an OP as soon as I get my spreadsheet in order.

unhappy_shopper

Good morning,

Yay! it is Friday and just like everyone else I am looking forward to a nice sunny weekend. My cough is subsiding, which is good. Can't be coughing around the bbq :eek:

For fellow MFW fleabayers, it is free listing weekend for fixed price listings (Sat and Sun). It is a welcome news as I can then put up all the high-priced stuff for selling, if it sells it is good. Otherwise wait for another day.

I have been peeping into GG's osprey nest every now and then all throughout yesterday, anyone else doing that? Have a nice day!

ammonite

Yes me I have! Looking forward to seeing the birds this morning :j

I count down to pay day too - it was yesterday so a long way to go until the next one!

Have fun overpaying