Mr and Mrs P are going mortgage free...

MrsP1983

Well, I've finally made the switch from HSBC to First Direct. The lure of a free £125 was too much to ignore! And that plus the benefit of NOT paying £12 a month for the Advance account anymore makes me feel like I'm really saving, though I appreciate that I wouldn't have been paying that in the first place if I'd been more sensible. First Direct have a regular saver that offers 8% which is pretty brilliant, so I'm going to start squirrelling away into that as soon as the ISA's full, which should be the end of next month.

I'm feeling virtuous!

MrsP1983

Haven't updated for a while. November was a write off in terms of savings due to the car disaster, but hey, that's why we're re-saving our emergency buffer, so it shouldn't happen again! Am aiming to save about £1100 in December and on track so far so fingers crossed.

I'm seriously considering quitting my job next summer (I'm a teacher and can't really leave till after the summer exams); I work 4 days a week for 2.5 days pay, and also pay out for 4 days of nursery a week. After childcare I'm bringing in about £700 a month, which is pretty pathetic for the amount of work I have to put in, and I hate not seeing my little girl. I'm not sure it's worth it. I'm very tempted to quit, become a stay at home mum and find other ways to make some money. It would slow down our mortgage free journey, but my baby's only going to be young once

MrsP1983

Christmas isn't looking too pricey, thank goodness. I enjoyed spending my nectar points on our grocery shop for the week, and equally enjoyed picking up Aldi's amazing butter fudge! The only thing I'm slightly regretting is buying brandy butter. I make it rather well (if I do say so myself :rotfl:) but I couldn't justify paying for a bottle of brandy just to make brandy butter, so it seemed more prudent to buy it ready made from the supermarket. Goes rather against the grain though!

I've been doing sums pertaining to the mortgage and the effect of quitting my job. It will obviously take longer to pay off-approximately March 2025 instead of May 2020, but that's still a darn sight better than May 2042, and we'll throw everything we can at it to try and speed it back up. Who knows, I might find the dream part time job in the meantime!

I don't know if anyone's reading this, but Merry Christmas-have a frugal but festive one! X

lulabelle1

I've just found your diary and had a quick read. Well done on your progress so far. I've subscribed so will keep popping my.

I've had a diary myself for just over a year and at first when things went a bit tits up I would stop posting.....

I'm different now and find that a quick diary catch up and a post on my own at least a few times a week really helps to keep me focused and motivated.

Best of luck with your plans for 2013 and have a very merry Christmas...

Themandarin

Hello. I have been reading your posts today and I want to say well done! A massive well done! At the moment, we are living with my partners parents although I do have a flat which is rented out, I took unwell and had to move in with them last year. We've decided to stay here and save like mad so that we have a large deposit for our own home, so I suppose we are in a backwards position to you! Hoping to save before we committ to the mortgage and hopefully also overpay.

You seem to be doing really well though! What are your plans if you leave your job? I always thought if I had kids I'd like to be a childminder so I can be at home for my own but make a bit of money too! Xx

MrsP1983

Long time no post! It's busy in the P household. The washer dryer packed in and after much soul (and bank account) searching we decided to splash out on a really good quality model that will hopefully last years and years rather than another cheapie. The previous one used to take about 5 hours to dry a load (not exaggerating) and this one takes about 45 minutes so it should be good for our electricity bill if nothing else!

I had almost completely decided to quit and be a SAHM (plus some tutoring) but a job has come up at a really, really good school. It would be 6 full days a week (ouch) but the salary rise would be amazing and after a lot of to-ing and fro-ing I've decided to apply. It would be great financially but I hate the idea of not seeing MiniP all week except for Sundays, so I'm still in a quandry to be honest, but if I get an interview I've decided to just cross that bridge when I get there. In MF terms, it might mean we could pay off the mortgage in about 5 years, which would be utterly incredible given that we only took it out last year with a 10% deposit, but I don't want to count my chickens.

bbh30

Good Luck with applying for the new job. Just been reading your diary. It may even be worth speaking to them at interview and possibly asking for job share?? Or just go for it! You will still have all the school hols with her. I know she is only small now but when she gets to school age it will be great having a job where you have the hols off and term time working.
Im guessing if they do saturdays it is a private school- they usually have longer holidays too!!

MrsP1983

It's a private boarding school-great holidays but my current school is the same, so I'm most ungratefully not too excited about that! I think, though it's hard to know for sure, that it's the kind of place where if I brought up a jobshare or asked about going part time at interview they'd just put me straight in the 'no' pile So I reckon it's all or nothing. Argh!

MrsP1983

Forgot to say, we have taken the step of...getting rid of the TV! Have requested a refund of the license fee, but who knows whether they will give it to me :mad: you have to prove you no longer need it, but there's no way to prove that we just don't have a tv anymore unless they send someone round to check!

MrsP1983

We got our TV licence refund! I was quite surprised and I expected them to be a pain about it, but they weren't thank goodness. Mr P and I are enjoying spending more quality time together, and when Mini P really needs it we've still got iplayer for old episodes of 'In the Night Garden'!

I still haven't written my letter of application for the 6 day a week job. I think I'm going to go down the road of requesting a job share, accepting that that probably means I won't get interviewed and hoping that they'll keep me on file for any future jobs. The more I thought about it the more I thought I just couldn't bear the idea of spending 6 days a week away from Mini P