Goodbye Mortgage - the beginning of the end!

Beckyy

Cheque cleared so have OP'd another £71 to bring us up to our monthly OP target and put a little more into our savings pot. I think we're going to struggle to do much more until payday now.

Mortgage balance is £95,117.42 so once our normal monthly payment goes through we should be in the £94Ks!

Have been ploughing on with adpoints, hoping to get the full 250 a week if I fit in the odd few here and there.

Making more breakfast muffins today: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2998682/get-up-and-go-breakfast-muffins

They're very tasty and have been keeping me going until lunchtime which feels like a miracle in itself as I'm usually grazing by 10!

Pearla*Merle

The breakfast muffins look yummy, shall be filing that recipe away, cheers

:j on the voucher find, I'm going to have to keep my eyes open in the supermarket henceforth

Beckyy

They're lovely, I'd definitely recommend them for something reasonably healthy but also tasty and filling!

HM pizza for dinner tonight, then duck and pancakes tomorrow. Not the healthiest two meals but I need to use up things from the freezer and stretch the food budget out a bit more!

Have messaged Quidco about the cashback from two insurance policies, I took them out 6 and 7 months ago and the expected date is just moving back each time I check. Getting annoyed now as it's £160 of cashback. Hopefully they'll hurry up as the money is coming from them anyway!

Getting the new front door fitted soon so will need to pay for it out of savings and pay ourselves back over the next 2ish months - will be worth it as will make the house much warmer!

Coffee machine is away for repair. Waited in all day for the courier to pick it up but apparently I wasn't available when they called - no card left. Luckily OH dropped it off at the depot the next day as he was going that way for work, however a 'we called...' card appeared through the door 3 days later... um? Must have never bothered to come IMO as sure I would have heard them!

Got a steady week at work next week which is helpful as it's quiet on the whole at the moment. Hurry up payday!

Beckyy

Chased up Quidco and now have the £100 cashback from our LL insurance policy confirmed - woo! They were very helpful. Still waiting on the pet insurance cashback as it's a pay monthly policy so needs longer to verify.

Meal with family is after payday now so will use enhancements from working Christmas to pay for it.

BT sent confirmation of stopping our phone service for switch with our OLD address on today, so have emailed to make sure they haven't messed up.

Beckyy

Quidco is through but will have to use it to pay for the chimney sweep today as I only budgeted for one sweep a year.

Have overspent on the food budget again . Still got a few days to by for so need to try and be as frugal as possible. My problem is that I seem to buy more at the beginning of the month, need to remind myself that the budget has to stretch for the whole month!

Work is also quite quiet at the moment so I need to reign in a bit and make sure I'm not spending like I have lots of overtime.

Have some things to list on eBay, no idea if they'll sell but will try and get picture etc. ready for listing!

New front door is in, really love it but now owe our savings quite a lot of money so the 2014 savings pot will have to take a back seat til we've paid ourselves back for it. We also need a new hallway floorings now as the new door frame is slightly different to the old one, and the floor was on it's last legs anyway really. Getting measured up today and will know how much it will cost then.

Downloaded the new Nectar toolbar but it doesn't seem to be working, I've emailed them as they've had lots of technical problems lately I think. Managed to get ad points over 200 last week, will aim to do the same this week and bump up the points! Think I'm going to use some club card points to pay for dinner out next month, 4x value is definitely a good deal I think!

Mortgage is finally into the 94k's!!! :j

Current balance: £94,707.69

Beckyy

Struggling a little bit this month. Having to borrow money from savings to pay for extra groceries and other spends because I've overspent. Sets me off kilter a little bit as it will mean most of February is paying back what we owe ourselves rather than saving more.

Hoping to get my payslip in soon to see what we've got to play with next month.

Was planning to do some things in the garden today but the weather has most definitely put a stop to that! I do have some things to list on e Bay and see it's a free listing day but I don't want to start them at 99p really... doesn't feel like it's worth the hassle if after fees and postage you've made abut 50p.

Found that amazon trade it will take a few books that I wanted to get rid of and will pay way more than selling them on ebay, providing they give what they say they will! Just need to get some more ink for the printer so that I can print of the free posting label to send them off.

Also found a good bingo offer on Quidco which should pay back over 3x the initial £10 deposit. You never know, I might win aswell!

Pearla*Merle

Beckyy, I tend to put stuff on eBay at the price I'd be happy to sell it for as I got sick of selling things for nothing as well. Some things won't sell immediately, but if it's free listings then it hardly matters as you won't have lost out, I just try again next time a free listing days pops up and eventually the majority of my stuff sold. You'll be surprised how much some people are willing to pay for things they actually want. I've made loads more than I expected going down this route

Good luck with the bingo

Beckyy

Had some browser trouble with the bingo but deposited and played my £10 and came out with £14.75 so £4.75 up even if the cashback doesn't come through :j

Sent away some books to try out the amazon trade in, should get £18 + £5 bonus voucher if they're happy with the condition. Free postage to send them in too.

I think you're right about eBay Pearla, I might just put things on for what I want for them. No free listing at the minute now, but wouldn't begrudge the fees so much if I knew I got what they were worth to me.

Quote is in for our new hallway floor and is going to be a few hundred pounds, will have to wait a little while to get it done as I really want to pay some money back to our savings or we'll risk just spending them more than we can pay back. Will be able to put a good chunk back in on payday, will keep OP's at out monthly target but the 2014 savings pot is going to have to take a back seat for a few months I think!

Beckyy

I'm really impressed with amazon's trade it service. I sent away my 3 books yesterday afternoon, quite late on, with the freepost label from them. 24 hours later they've been received, processed and I have the gift card credited to my amazon account. No queries about the condition too, so I'm glad I didn't go by the bad reviews I read.

Beckyy

Have been tidying up a bit this weekend and have a load of games packaged up ready to go to amazon trade it. I hope our 2nd experience with them is a as pleasant as the 1st!

Ad points was a bit abysmal last week and there's no new ones appeared this week so far, but considering a sainsburys shop this week. Would be nice to have enough nectar points to go to the cinema for free this month.

Picked up an extra shift at work, really need it at the minute there's just a lack of extra shifts with nobody on AL at the moment!

Have some things to take to that charity shop and also things to go on eBay, think I'll just take pearla's advice and list them for that I want. Will be lovely to feel like I've actually had a spring clean and make a few pounds out of it!