Going to get rid of my mortgage!

bbh30

Had a fairly quiet day at home today- did the shopping at ALDI this morning then spent the rest of the day pottering around, cleaning the house etc. When the rain stopped, we walked to the drs to pick up my repeat prescription and the kids rode their bikes to get a bit of fresh air.
Big news is... we have exchanged! Woot! We are now obligated to buy the new house when it is built.. did not get the carpets though Ah well. So saving is full steam ahead. I have done the money shuffle as I get paid into one account, which now needs to go through the new FD account (to claim my £100) and then onto the nationwide flexdirect acc to accrue the 5% interest. This was all much easier when any spare cash just went into the mortgage!!

So list of ways I have saved money today:
1. Shopping at ALDI, spent £50 but should last us a while, I will take some of the fresh food down to the in laws with us, lots has gone in freezer, when we get back from in laws we will all be straight back to school/work so I needed to have some food in.
2. Husband has been paid today so shuffled his money through my accounts so I am able to get the benefits of offers
3. Walked to drs rather than drove, saving cost of petrol
4. Have paid credit card off, was only £40 worth of daughters brownie uniform but is now cleared before it accrues interest
5. Rounded main joint acc "down" into my nationwide flex acc as that is now my savings acc to try and accrue as much interest as possible.

bbh30

just a quick update as staying with the in laws down at the sea side. I spent £5.50 on 2 pairs of reduced trainers for kids this morning. popped to sainsburys after and spent £5 on hot chocolate and a French stick for our lunch. moved some more money around, more into savings.
mse things today
1. have packed drinks and snacks for journey down and to take to beach
2. money shuffle
3. bought 3x sainsburys own brand hot choc rather than 1x Cadbury, even though I prefer the Cadbury, it costs 3.89 for a tub which is astronomical!
4. in laws gave us dinner tonight, free meal!
5. downloaded more free books for kindle, all thrillers- should keep both the husband and I out of trouble for a bit
6. went round our house before we left and turned all sockets off at the plug saving electricity costs.

bbh30

a nice low spend day was had with the in laws today. we went to visit the husband's nanny (otherwise known as great nanny) in a nursing home, and went to visit the husband's aunt for coffee. we took the kids for a lovely long walk along the beach then went out for dinner with mil and fil and aunty and uncle in law, which fil paid for, despite our protests. I just bought some more bread and milk for the pot, cost me over £2 but I only had the choice of shopping at a tesco express!!
our lovely lovely in laws have offered to pay for carpets and flooring throughout our new house which is a very kind gesture, they are too kind to us!
So a very brief list of mse things from today:
1. free meal out as paid for by fil
2. low spend day of just bread and milk
3. free activities and entertainment of visiting family and walking on beach
4. money shuffle and transferred another 50quid to savings
5. accepted offer of carpets for new house saving a couple of thousand pounds!

my own pay day tomorrow woot woot at last!

bbh30

we have been having such a great time here at the seaside. the weather hasn't been great today but we've been busy and wandered around town and an art gallery. the kids spent their pocket money buying tat but they were happy.
I spent £45 quid Yesterday buying food for everyone for bbq and then today £8.50 on fish and chips and then £10 in arcades and amusements and £4 on ice cream so quite a bit spent!! tomorrow the weather is meant to be great so we plan to spend the whole day on the beach before driving home around 5pm. we may end up stopping at the golden arches in the services on the way home.
mse things from today
1. took our own drinks to have with fish and chips on the beach at lunchtime so saved money on having to buy drinks
2. took my own bottle of ketchup, I noticed it cost 25p for a sachet, we would have bought 4 so £1 saved
3. art gallery was free entry
4. internet banking checked, my flexdirect 5% interest has paid out for this month, an extra £1.30, thank you very much
5. pil gave kids £5 each pocket money so they wasted that money buying new buckets and spades

bbh30

We came back from the beach yesterday evening, stopping off for a McDonalds dinner on the way home. The kids thought it was a real treat having a Mcdonalds- they were still talking about it this morning!! We didnt get back until quite late last night then then put kids straight to bed and it wasn't long after that we went to bed.

All back to work and school today, husband flew off to Germany at 7am this morning and we are on our own for the week. A NSD for me today, and Im hoping for a no spend week.

Todays things Ive done to save money
1. Made a massive pasta salad for dinner, which is enough for lunches tomorrow too
2. About 3 million loads of washing done and all dried on the line
3. Online banking checked, all direct debits came out today as expected
4. Money from main joint account rounded down and added to savings account
5. Soup from freezer for lunch

bbh30

Wow Ive had a really money saving day. Its not been a NSD as I bought a packet of biscuits to take into work but that only set me back 45p so no major expense.
I had to go to Sainsburys to get some shopping for work and all the work shopping cost me about £30- I had taken petty cash to pay for it all so no damage to my bank accounts, but swiped my own Nectar card and claimed the points
I spent my lunch hour entering competitions on the web, so fingers crossed I will win something at some point!
Ive transferred some more money from the joint acc into the savings, and also as my first direct has an interest free overdraft up to £250, Ive transferred £250 from there (now leaves me £250 OD) into savings where it can earn some interest.
I claimed back to husbands PPI a while back and he got an offer from HSBC for about £250 but I wrote back and said that wasnt enough. Would you believe they have now offered us £550!!! So I posted the letter today saying "yes please, thank you very much", in total, I have now claimed £750 from PPI claims! Still waiting to hear back from the last one.
The girl child had a friend for tea tonight whos favourite food is macaroni cheese- only I realised we are running a little low on milk! So I made a budget macaroni cheese- instead of using a traditional roux sauce, I made it with a dash of milk and topped the rest up with water. By the time I added the cheese at the end, it tasted fine and they were none the wiser- there were no complaints!
I am aiming to get to the end of the week before I have to go food shopping; as I said we are running low on milk but I do have UHT milk in the cupboard so we will swap to that at some point when the fresh milk runs out. I am working late on Thursday and I need to ask my next door neighbour if she will have the kids after school, that way I will save on after school club fees. Fingers crossed she says yes.
I got a letter from the boy child's teacher today saying we owe £3.80 lunch money, now I can categorically say that we do not owe £3.80 as I know I have made them packed lunches every day without fail!! There is another boy in his class who has the same name as him so I wonder if they have charged it to the wrong account. I will speak to the office at school tomorrow.
Ive got a fairly easy day at work tomorrow, I start the day off visiting some year 6s in a local primary school- this means I can claim petrol expenses- I MUST remember to do this! It will probably only add up to about £3 but every penny counts!

coocoo51

Its always a good idea and I wish you luck. I had a very narrow scrape with losing my job and my partner being made redundant, but between us we just managed to finish the mortgage, and essentially we felt we'd won the jackpot. It was such a relief to know that the roof over our heads was safe. For years we'd stuggled and had to pay Council Tax and other essentials with a credit card, because 'we don't count what goes out' for CTB. We did have to sell up and buy a cheaper place to clear the credit card even though it had only been used for essentials, but at least the new place was all ours and we got rid of all debt. We don't have a huge amount to live on now, but so what? - we're really happy.

Thistlewhistle

Hi BBH,

I just LOVE reading your diary - you've got a really easy writing style and it's fun to read. Glad you're making inroads into your mortgage and saving money.

Thistle x

bbh30

Thanks for the compliment Thistle- I think I just ramble but it helps to keep me focused! I did notice when I didn't update for a couple of weeks, it was much harder to keep on track.

Yay, I managed another NSD today, and even got a free dinner, which I cooked (as a demonstration) at work! I made a risotto and took it home, which the kids and I dined upon. Tomorrow I'm demonstrating pasta salads and eton mess; should eat well tomorrow for free!

I visited a primary school this morning, Ive worked out I'll get about £5 in travel expenses for that... and been asked to visit another one, Im aiming to go Friday morning, that will add another £5 to the expense pot, woot.

So, today's mse activities:
1. NSD
2. Milk has run out, now onto UHT
3. Made bread for sandwiches for tomorrow
4. Spoke to kids school about owed lunch money- they are adamant the boy child had a school dinner x2 that I owe for, but I know he did not- there is no way I would have paid for it!!!
5. All banking checked, no dd have come out, all untouched since yesterday, as expected
6. Have entered about 20 competitions, in the vain hope I may win something! Even if its something I don't want, I can sell it, so fingers crossed for any win.
7. Have arranged to go to "Open Farm sunday" on sunday with a friend and the kids (husband on a stag do). The farm opens its doors for free and does tractor rides etc, we will take a picnic with us.
8. Arranged for neighbour to take and pick up kids from school tomorrow when I do my long day at work; she has even offered to feed them for free.

Just watching Watchdog where they are talking about insurance companies not paying up when they should.. a few years ago I needed an operation and the husband has BUPA through his work... BUPA refused to pay for the operation as they said it was a pre existing condition even though 3 drs had said it was unrelated to a pre existing condition. I remember feeling so exasperated at their refusal that I said I was going to phone the ombudsman. Within the next hour, the top dog at BUPA called me personally and said they had made a mistake and they were going to pay for my operation. It's definately worth using the ombudsman if you need it.

bbh30

Short update tonight as Im shattered...

a) Had to fill up car with diesel, grrr
b) Free dinner from work, also got enough left over for the girl child's lunch tomorrow
c) Banking all checked
d) Competitions entered
e) Children taken to and collected from school

Had a bit of a nerve racking day with the head from school doing spot checks on teachers, she came into my lesson and spent ages there, asking pupils what National Curriculum levels they are all working at, how they can progress to the next level... all stuff they should know but kids being kids, they dont always remember. Anyway, most of the kids she spoke to did actually know their level which is good and she said all the pupils were on task and proud of their work which is good, phew.