Mountainlioness' diary: the MFi3 journey

setmefree2

Yes - we will be turning the lights off after everone has gone:rotfl:. I love old maps too:D. We have a few of the area we live in...

TTFN

SMF2

mountainlioness

Hi All

Well DH didn't pass (for very silly reasons IMHO - the examiner needs head examined) so we're looking at at £44 retest fee but TBH it doesn't seem to make much odds for many insurers... Have managed to reduce the quotes considerably. Current insurer (Norwich Union) phoned today to "remind" him about impending end of insurance term and he told them in no uncertain terms what he thought of their uncompetitive rate

Have dipped toe into ebay selling - listed a couple of small items for a 7-day listing and already have 2 watchers on one and 6 on the other :j They won't go for much but at least I have some people interested.

Have also got almost £100 waiting to clear through quidco (mainly due to joining Coral and Betfair) - those will go straight off the mortgage. Should hit a max OP this month on the most expensive mortgage :cool:

Also in planning is a boot sale with mum - she has a room to clear and we have a few bits to flog but probably not enough to warrant our own stall fee so that should be good.

Our freecycle veggies are experiencing mixed fortunes Some are clearly on their way to the great patch in the sky but others appear to be hanging in there. We also have a few apples on our little tree and some strawberries on the way too Nothing to affect our weekly budget but nice nevertheless.

Have just cancelled my two personal credit cards and am waiting for my new Egg Money card, which I plan to use to handle my personal money (which is v little!) The 7.9% debit interest plus 1% cb on purchases plus 4% credit interest seems like a good package.

Anyway, am off to watch the lioncam (see freebies board) for a bit of lion-related de-stress time ...

Cheers

ML

mountainlioness

Just found out that DH claimed a load of expenses early - so we allocated the money thinking we were doing well and now they've hit the credit card bill :eek:

He's also not getting as much salary as we thought (he's on commission so it varies...) So our first month of our new exciting plan (which have also, sadly, been looking forward to) is scuppered before we even get there We're lucky that we can still pay the bill off in full but it does mean that we can't save what we wanted, and am feeling disappointed as have been on a bit of a mission this month to get everything planned and in order.

So basically we're a month behind but hopefully with low spending from now and a decent month's pay we can start with renewed energy in August... I also need to decide what we don't do. Am prioritising our mortgage OP and ISAs - the rest will have to wait....

Gutted!

ML

setmefree2

mountainlioness wrote: »

Gutted! ML

:kisses: Cheer up - Sometime it feels like it's 3 streps fwd, 2 steps back. Mr SMF had his bike nicked this month:rolleyes::mad:...

Keep up the good work:T

mountainlioness

Hey SMF - thanks for that (and the dodgy emoticon!!) Really sorry to hear about the bike - motor or pedal? That's really annoying (and expensive:mad: )

We're going down to the wire on this month so will be pence left in the account on payday - just hoping to resist that little transfer from the emergency fund that never quite gets paid back... Once DH has finally done his car insurance though I'll be able to recalculate the monthly payment into the annual expenses fund, which should give us a few quid more.

Definitely a long haul :rolleyes:

setmefree2

You think that's dodgy. I wanted to send you a hug:grouphug: but just hover your mouse over it:rotfl:

All The Best

SMF2

mountainlioness

:rotfl: :rotfl:
I'd never noticed that before :T So wrong!

mountainlioness

Still no sign of Egg Money card - so I phone up and am told my application has been passed to another department for further checking (sinister stuff). So basically the you've been accepted and the card will be with you in 5-7 days is actually rubbish :mad: The department won't take calls and won't tell you when they'll be in touch to "investigate" you...

Am feeling both annoyed and worried... as you guys know, I was refused a capital one card this time last year despite having an excellent credit record. Am just worried history is repeating itself

Have no idea if this is normal to have accepted applications referred in this way or what it means....

I stupidly cancelled my other 2 credit cards, which were on worse terms, as I thought accepted meant accepted - doh!

Any ideas????

mountainlioness

Hola! Just checked my credit report (£6.50 c/b through experian) and nothing untoward... all accounts showing paid on time... nothing dodgy on financial associations (just DH ) or addresses. Was very surprised though to see FIVE searches from Capital One last year :eek: Admittedly some were unrecorded but I definitely didn't give them permission to keep going back. Ah well, will just have to see what Egg Money come back with, if they ever bother to contact me (rubbish comms...)

Just signed up for my first mystery shop - a trip to the pub :beer: I could get used to this! DH is v excited. I can only do one at a time at the mo as am on probation :rolleyes: but hopefully all will go well and I will soon be able to do multiple missions :cool:

Should be some good income coming into our e-pig with over £100 from quidco due at some point, plus the mystery shopping and maybe a boot sale too. Really want to hammer the mortgage before we switch to HSBC in October and the rate isn't as good. The c0ck up with DH's expenses has set us back slightly but it's not too bad - must get in perspective

Right - off to root around and see what else I can flog... Am not feeling too good so need to get a nap in too

Edit: weird... 1.30pm and it's just popped through the door... but anyway, am up and running with Egg Money and have just transferred £100.

Have also just packaged up my 2 ebay items as my first ever sales end tonight - eek! Have done them all nicely with tissue paper and ribbon so hopefully buyers will be happy!

mountainlioness

Hello!

Well, both ebay items sold :j and for good amounts... though take off ebay and PayPal fees (even on 5p listing day) and I've only made about £12 profit, but hey, it all counts...

The upcoming month isn't looking quite as bad as I thought now - I've managed to get the amount needed to put by every month for annual expenses (basically car insurance/tax and house insurance) from £140 to £55 following DH's renewal ... we also got a bit of money from a relly which will pay for one of the prints we bought on the CC. So all in all I'll be able to top up June's OP to the max of £500 (currently standing at £200) and maybe even make a modest additional payment in July.

With one of our products going onto SVR in September prior to our re-mortgage in oct, we'll need a bit of cash to make up the additional monthly payment but still hoping to have lopped a bit off the total before then (we're going on to BOE +0.38, which matches the worst of our 3 mortgage deals, though allows unlimited OPs and no tie-in) we've managed to get our mortgage down by £10k this year, hoping for another £10k in the next year of the challenge at least plus a decent pot of savings...

I've also joined the Make £10/day challenge over on DFW for July, admittedly for £5/day as am new to this... Hoping that a bit of ebaying, a boot sale and some mystery shopping will get me there (I don't get OT at work so that's out)

TTFN

ML