Wishing on an ickle star

icklehelen

It's been a busy summer holiday so far - keeping DD entertained and I'm still sane (well as sane as I was to begin with :rotfl:).
Lots of catching up with friends and their kids. We've been to the cinema using our free vouchers, done the free Lego trail, had friends round, been to local parks and the water park and lots of walking and cycling (we did all the errands one day without the car - 4.5 miles walked without much complaint )

Extension plans are on hold for a while - being sensible and going to save/OP a bit more first.

Had few freebies while out and about - perfume samples (equivalent to about £8) and a primer (should have been £10.50!) Also had a nice surprise this morning of the 10p per litre off fuel voucher with my MrT wine delivery. Haven't ordered wine from them for over 4 years but our favourite was less than half price.

Have started to plan for September. My new job is only 2 hours a day so I'm looking at ways to supplement it while DD is at school. So far I'm thinking - mystery shopping, dedicated time on survey sites, selling 'stuff' we have around the house and some craft items I've made for Christmas and I'm also going to look into matched betting.

Time to go and bake cakes for a party tomorrow

icklehelen

Well I've made it to the end of the holidays and am proud to say DD and I are still alive and talking to each other! :rotfl:Although my consumption of gin had definitely increased!

Thanks to the interest rate rise my savings were not making enough to 'offset' the mortgage so have put them straight onto the mortgage. It did make me smile to see the balance drop and by Christmas we'll be in the £20 thousands :cool:

icklehelen

It seems that my attempts to keep this diary up date are going to fail every year! Speaking of the year …..where did that go????

Keeping a diary may not have gone well but overpaying has gone better than expected. My £2500 target was hit in the summer and I’ve just transferred a final £2000 over bringing the total overpayments to £6904.52. This brings the mortgage to £27500 :j

It’s been an interesting year but I feel like I’m leaving it a better person. Redundancy was hard but I learnt that I’m tougher than I thought. Having time at home has given me a chance to be a mum which has its ups and downs :rotfl:

DH has now settled into his new job and is enjoying it. There are quite a few issues that need to be addressed in January but he’s looking forward to the challenge.

DH and I have sat down and discussed finances and budgets for 2019 and are both happy with the plan ahead. The dream of paying the mortgage off before I turn 40 is unlikely but we’re still working on it – 20 months to go

We’ve managed to add more to our emergency savings now and have more than 6 months set aside. Now that’s at a reasonable level we are going to look at our pension pots and work out what’s best (I’ve got 2, DH has 6) and how much extra we can throw at them.
As I do every year I have put extra pennies into a ‘piggy bank’ on my spreadsheet. This is cashback, interest, little extras here and there. It will be this year’s ‘DIY’ tasks pot which sadly we think will have to include a new boiler
We’ve just had a lovely Christmas present from a bank as I found some PPI hidden on an overdraft on an account closed over 10 years ago! It’s going to come in handy as DH is in desperate need of a new (to him) car as his is now 14 years old, has just clocked 100,000 miles and it rattles and shakes when you go more than 45 mph!
Better go and update MFW 2018 and give the MFW 2019 my target of £5500.

icklehelen

Popped in to update my challenges and signature. I've also set my target for MFiT-T5 which is to completely pay off the mortgage

My aim for Jan/Feb 2019 is to contact all of my previous banks etc to check for PPI as it seems there could be more hidden on old store cards etc

Fingers crossed that I can keep up with these challenges this year

icklehelen

So 2019 has started badly - I'm struggling to come to terms with it all and can't even type it on here as seeing it in B&W makes it too real.

So I'm focussing on the positives no matter how small they are. Today I managed to get one of the 1000 free radiator kits that were in Martin's email :money:

I'm looking forward to Friday as I'm taking DD to the panto. Very much looking forward to immersing ourselves in the silliness.

DH has a few days off so we're making the most of the paint we want being on offer and decorating the lounge which has been in need of a new colour for about 9 years!!

icklehelen

Just done my usual Friday check of the accounts etc and am very pleased to announce that we are

Mortgage Neutral!!!!

Still a way to go till we can actually pay off the mortgage but I am grinning like the Cheshire Cat at seeing black numbers at the bottom of my spreadsheet!!

To think that 7 years ago we were plodding along with no other debt and a bit of savings, but no plans or even thoughts of future proofing. I can't tell you how grateful I am to these boards and like minded people who have helped keep me motivated and challenging myself.

After the last few weeks this is such an awesome feeling. There will definitely be a GnT or two tonight for a mini celebration with DH.

sammy70

congratulations! the hard work is paying off for you :beer:

icklehelen

Thanks Sammy - it certainly is!!

February has been an interesting month moneywise. We've stuck to budgets well and managed to put a bit into our extra savings pot as well as an further OP of £500. We also spent a savings pot to buy a much needed, new (to us) car

The extra £500 was made up of a few bits of savings from accounts that don't pay much interest (they're just there for DDs from accounts that need them)and a bit of compensation from TSB after their online banking issues. The main chunk is down to DH finding some sports memorabilia, doing his research and selling it. :cool:

March plans include more selling of our [STRIKE]crap[/STRIKE] items we no longer use. DH has some annual leave to use up so he will be putting it to good use.
Also found a few more possible PPI store cards so I'll be putting claims in for them. I don't think there'll be much as they were not regularly used cards but any pennies are better than none.
We also need to make a decision on pensions/retirement savings.....this is a job that I keep putting off

icklehelen

Wow another month has just disappeared!

So March update:
Another good month and DH has been really active selling on ebay which is great for both the ££ and the house decluttering.

Spoken to S@ntander about my store cards. I had a letter to tell me that they could not find my accounts however the lady I spoke to was more than helpful. She found a total of 5 cards all with PPI cover so has done the paperwork for me. Fingers crossed for a positive result from that

DH needs to fill in some paperwork as S@ntander say the PPI on his old HoF card was not missold.

Looks like DD is going to get her 10 seconds of fame tomorrow. She's going to be in the national news!! It's also paying £50 just for submitting her photo. That can go into the OP pot when it arrives (although I'll probably put it on the IOU spreadsheet I have for DD to repay her once the mortgage is gone)

Hoping for a nice family weekend as DH is still on leave. Making the most of the nice weather with bike rides and playing in the park!

icklehelen

Trying to cheer myself up this weekend with small money victories.

On Friday I transferred money into my new LISA just in time for the end of the tax year:o looking forward to the 25% top up

Just sorted a new fee free 0% credit card. I've balance transferred two 0% cards that are about to end and also some money over from one of the spending cards to free it up. As always all spends are budgeted and put into interest paying accounts. Not making huge amounts from stoozing these days but it's better than nothing!

DH's Regular saver matures at the end of the month and was planning to set up a new one but it's with N@tionwide :mad:. Glad I've just got a FD account so I can set up their 5% RS instead.

Eating out of the freezer this week so weekly shop was just under £20

Plans for April include more online selling, sorting our SIMO deals and looking for ways to keep the Easter holidays cheap....need to be as I am paying for DD to have some extra 1-1 swimming lessons!