Saving £100k for mortgage, living a simple life

msmoneypennyplease

Hi earth girl,

I have been lurking on the mortgagefree wannabe board for a while but have never written anything-in fact I couldn't even remember my username! But Kure thread has particularly inspired me. Maybe I will pluck up the courage to start my own thread soon!

You remind me of myself but your slightly further on your journey than I am.

Can I ask what age you guys are?

Also I am wondering about your tutoring. I am also a teacher & thinking of tutoring. How much do you charge for this?

Thanks for being so inspirational.

Ms M

earthgirl

OH is older than me I am in my early thirties. I love tutoring and chrge £25/hour. I am always busy but quiet at the moment which is fine as the children are both quite demanding of my time at the moment. DS2 is 8 months old and has a few health issues (eczema wheezing not eating well) and he needs quite a lot of attention right now.

So been very busy with things I can do to earn money with the children!! We have done 3 mystery shops this week and have a ms with £35 towards a meal out tonight which I am looking forward to. All added up ms (not including the meal) comes to £60 this week. To make my £75 target I will try to list plenty of things on ebay this weekend.

I have also done work on ohs business.

I had to spend a few days cleaning as I'd let it build up and I really want to keep on top of it now so I don't have to spend a day on it again any time in the near future!!

We are looking at a buy to let which needs modernisation today. Its a 3 bed end terrace on at offers over £117,000 so we should be able to raise something like that from our current overpayment reserve. And then I won't be mf anymore which I am secretly looking forward to is that crazy!!? I really think another mortgage will focus me on paying it off quickly!

This weekend I need to:

-wrap present and card out of store for ds1 party this morning
- clean greenfly off apple tree grrr!!
-cleaning
-ebay 15 items at 99p
-more work on oh business

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Hello,

I do know what you mean about not having a mortgage making you less focused. I am a bit worried about the same thing. I plan to save as much as possible once ours is paid off in the autumn so that we can pay cash for a new bathroom and a conservatory next summer. However, saving for things doesn't give me the same push as saving to pay off debt, on which we are paying interest so I worry that we might slip into wasteful ways again.

For you, having a buy to let seems a really good idea to keep you on track and help you achieve your perfect family house in a few years. Hope you get it,

Squirrel

[Deleted User]

Oooo BTL sounds exciting EG!!
Will be great to have you back on the MF journey with the rest of us! :rotfl:

earthgirl

thanks! the btl at £117 was a no go, far too much work. We have found another lovely little one (btl) on at £149,000. BUT we have now seen a house that could be the house of our dreams, with alterations.

Now we don't know what to do!!

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Go for the dream home! Keep life simple.

Squirrel x

earthgirl

We have decided to do that, go for our dream house. Thiusweek has been filled with declutterin and cleaning. I have listed millions of things on eBay and need to do a bit more deep cleaning before the house goes on the market this week.

If our house doesn't sell, or our dream house is sold, we will reassess before school form deadline in January.

I have a meeting on Friday to get my new contract for returning to work, and I need to see how this goes as I don't want to work too much and want to spend as much time as possible with the children.

I feel like we have spent so much time and
energy on getting the house ready that I have forgotten the really basic things that save us money, and I haven't spent much time outside with the boys this week, so this will be my go us this week - living a simple 'cheap' life - the best things in life are free of course!

Starting with washable nappies again, planting more veg in garden, library books, making.elderflower cordial if I am not too late.

Courgette

Good luck with the house sale! Wow to having to sort out DS's school place so soon. I know he's an academic year ahead of mine but pretty much the same age otherwise. When I look at mine he just looks in no way ready for school!

I know what you mean about needing focus too, it's so easy to slip into wasteful ways if you're not careful

earthgirl

Well our dream house (well dream location really) sold for the asking price on Thursday buy someone in a position to buy straight away. Gutted for a while. I know that things can change and they could pull out, but I don't want to sit around moping and wondering so its time to move on.

All sorts of house related ideas bumbling around our heads at the moment, so I will update when we have decided what to do, but as our house in on the market, we have decided to keep it there and sell.

Went back into work for a chat, head was not nice and tried to say I was not entitled to return to work 20th of July as that was the summer holidays (erm that is the point!!) so I just need to double check that I am allowed as I stood my ground and said that was what I was doing.

He wasn't very pleasant, and has given me 3 days (rather than 2) and days I didn't want to work, and it looks like he is going to try to make me take a temp contract, so I need some union advice Monday.

We had a lovely free day out with an art pass from a while back yesterday, and today off to a childrens party, and then some outdoory things. Must get home insurance for tomorrow as well.

summerday

Sorry the house didn't work out, but hopefully something even better will come along. I'm a believer in the saying 'what's meant for you won't pass you by'.

Your head sounds an idiot, he should know that women can come back any date they like from mat leave, and the first day of hols in very usual. Try to get your union rep to accompany you to any other meetings with him. Hope you get a more satisfactory agreement reached.

Our house insurance has been with Sheila's wheels the last few years (sounds weird it not being for car insurance I know!). We are happy to have a high excess as have savings and if you set the excess high their premiums (at least for us) are amazingly cheap. Halifax insisted on giving us a house ins quote for our new mortgage but they were more than double the price. Worth a try if you haven't already looked at them?

Yum to the elderflower cordial, you have so many talents! I wouldn't even recognise an elderflower tree let alone know what to do with the flowers...