Aspirations of Frugality and Fun on the Road to Mortgage Freedom

jwil

That's annoying about the car boot. It chucked it down when I arrived on Saturday, but luckily it stopped quickly.

I also hate waiting for DDs to come out. I don't like spending any money in the account until I know they are gone

DedicatedDFW

jwil wrote: »

That's annoying about the car boot. It chucked it down when I arrived on Saturday, but luckily it stopped quickly.

I also hate waiting for DDs to come out. I don't like spending any money in the account until I know they are gone

Hey jwil - you had better luck than us with the weather then - i think it eventually stopped raining at lunchtime which is when its usually the tailend of the day at this carboot with everyone packing up *fingers crossed* the weather is better for us this sunday x

I'm glad you understand with the DDs i leave all accounts at virtually £0 due to owing money everywhere else so i really need to be sure exactly where i'm up to with things

DedicatedDFW

Hi all,

well a busy last few days and i'm home early from work due to finishing late this last couple of days - sadly no overtime is payable as the cash may have been rather nice :cool:

So i've got a loaf in the breadmaker and am going to motivate myself to do some listings on the bay of e after having a couple of sales :T i also need to do a food shop later today and a few longlasting staples need replacing eg oil, salt, pepper hoping it won't be too expensive :cool:

So i've finally updated my sig :eek: had forgotten how high i'd set my overpayment target for the year. But am happy to finally have the dates in my sig for MF date not sure why i didn't do it before maybe because its such a long way off but of course, the challenge is to reduce it as far down as possible

I've also made some more payments to my target stooze card - from bay of e sales and usual payment. Also went out for a meal after work the other night - i'd budgeted £30 and spent £18 so overpaid the difference

other things i've done is re-gifted an item for a birthday gift saving me £30 - not overpaying this as really didn't have this to spend. I now have just 1 birthday left to buy for before the end of this year - will be a biggie

Other than that there is christmas to pay for so i've organised all gifts - already purchased in sales so have just 1 person left to buy for - figuring will cost about £200 - they do deserve it and will be something they will use Just the small matter of raising the £200 funds now *gulp*

on that note i'd better photo & list the extra few bits i've selected to sell

Alchemilla

That is some Christmas organising.

jwil

Wow, that is organised for Christmas, well done!

Also, you've already knocked nearly 6 years off your mortgage, that's brilliant :T

DedicatedDFW

Alchemilla wrote: »

That is some Christmas organising.

jwil wrote: »

Wow, that is organised for Christmas, well done!

Also, you've already knocked nearly 6 years off your mortgage, that's brilliant :T

Thanks guys but i don't have any kids to buy for so i think it must be alot easier for me. I actually said i wasn't going to do the xmas shopping through the year again but saw some really lovely things vastly reduced - the recipient basically gets alot more for the budget :T

DedicatedDFW

Thanks jwil - the date is their estimate based on my overpayment yesterday which i forgot to mention I'll get confirmation in writing *fingers crossed* it'll be a month less than that - thats being realistic given the amount i paid - i wouldn't expect it to be very different to what they've said so we'll wait and see.

Impatient to be making money and be rid of the stooze cards and mortgage - not necessarily a bad thing as that motivation and the sales encouraged me to list more items for sale yesterday - actually got 7 new items listed and 1 sold already :T

hoping for nice weather for the carboot this weekend - the majority of the money will be going towards my card in my sig

Spends have been food shopping which came in at 27p over budget - i know that doesn't seem that bad but i'd much prefer for it to be under budget.

Going out tonight and think i'd rather not i don't have the money to spend really :( and i feel like staying in and curling up rather than having to get ready to go out. But i am supporting my Mr at an event so will go.

Oh and from the sales on the bay of e i made another payment to my target card.

Does anyone have any survey sites they recommend? Or Mystery Shopping companies - i gave up on surveys after spending ages and being screened out :mad: and the MS companies were similar - i'd spend ages looking for a job to pick up and them they'd take over an hour and the payment was £4 - or similar :mad:

So recommendations welcome

DedicatedDFW

Monthly Targets

1, Pay £400 off target card

2, Paint fence to protect it ready for winter

3, Clear tubs / pots in garden which we are not keeping. Clean and prep for carboot

4, practice instrument at least 3 hours a week

5, submit details to new phone company

6, pay cheque into the Bank

7, Clear my underbed storage - again! may involve starting a new project and :eek:

8, revise all study work 3 hours a week minimum

9, run each week 3 - 4 times

10, book docs appointment

11, pay deposit for new tiles

12, make decision on windows

13, make deicision on floor

14, find a further 5 items to declutter either to carboot or bay of e

15, meal plan for each week

DedicatedDFW

I've not had a monthly challenge / target for a while so figured i'd set one and see how i go on

as this week is almost over the weekly targets will start from next week as i don't think there are enough hours in the day :cool:

jwil

Great looking targets!

I do all the main survey sites - I just do them in down time when I can't do anything else, so it builds up and I don't worry so much about being screened out. You Gov is the best as you never get screened out, but it takes about 2 years to cash out. My Survey you can cash out fairly frequently, but get screened out of loads! Ipsos and Valued opinions are my other two faves. I also like crowdology as I get to do the Pointless questions!

It also pays to check regularly and do the surveys as early as possible so you are less likely to get screened out.

I find the same with Mystery shopping. They don't pay enough to make it worthwhile for me. I do check though and if something comes up that I plan on spending there anyway, I will do it then, but it's very rare.