Mortgage Free Mini-Goals

mrsp1987

Busy weekend, lots of typing, some time enjoying George. Bubba seems to have claimed George as his own, which is lovely as I'd hoped the cats would be okay with it and curl up on it. However Bubba has been glued to that chair for most of the weekend. It's a good thing it's so big and I can squeeze on next to him.

It's weird but having been training in Manchester on and off for the last 2 weeks I feel like I'm going back to work tomorrow. Bit of an odd sensation. Not sure if I'm feeling out of sorts or not emotionally. I don't feel depressed but I feel a tiny bit different. Not sure if it's the implant, the fact that it's nearly that time or if I might have forgotten to take one of my AD the other day. I'm not certain that I have but the blister packet wasn't popped for that day of the week whereas I remembered to take my other tablet. So, I'm a bit unsure about that. Oh well, nothing I can do and as long as I don't start yelling at myself in my head "Leave me alone,' I'm not doing too bad.

On a financial note I have TTd £1.67 today. I also have another £10.50 due from TCB courtesy of the lottery. I decided to spend £2 on an online scratch card and won £4!! I made a profit! Decided not to play anymore as I'd probably just lose it all again. I've also signed up for the TSB version of a TT where any debit card purchases will get rounded up to the nearest pound and the extra amount goes into my nominated account - obviously being the mortgage O/P account. This makes me very happy.
Just realised that I'm just a tad over 25% of the way towards an overpayment. Minimum amount is £500. Looking forward to that day. Although I doubt it will be as much fun as answering the question "How much would you like to overpay?" With "£10,000 please." *sigh* one day I'll do that again. One day....

EatingTheElephant

Great result on your parkrun and the progress towards next OP

mrsp1987

EatingTheElephant wrote: »

Great result on your parkrun and the progress towards next OP

Thanks very much. I realise that I run slower than a tortoise through peanut butter but I'm quite proud of my achievements. Planning on going out with my local running club for the first time in a year tomorrow night so fingers crossed for me.

On the finance side of things I remember reading an article a little while ago on here about super duper long interest free periods for credit cards. Didn't really pay much attention to it as I don't need a new credit card. Pop along and have a mooch on TCB and find out that they have some offers on credit card applications. Double check and one of Martin's recommended cards is being offered with £31.50 cash back. Did a eligibility check and came back as 90% so thought why not? Applied and got accepted.
Anyway my question now is is 3 credit cards too many? As in will it reflect negatively on my credit rating? I have an MBNA card which used to be an Amazon reward card and I haven't used in about 3 years. In fact I'm not quite sure when the card is - should be on a shelf in my spare room but the hubby moved a lot of stuff around to get George in so I don't where he's moved it to. Anyway I never use it and don't need it and thinking about it have wanted to cancel it for a while but I'm lazy. What can I say? I don't like making phone calls.
So, I'm planning on ringing up tomorrow and cancelling that card. My other card which as of tonight has about £40 on it is with Asda. I do pay interest on it but I get 1% cashback at Asda and at the petrol stations. It has a decent size credit limit so I'll probably keep this as an emergency card and do any spending i need to on the 0% Post Office card.

Does this make sense? Am I doing anything wrong with all of this? I'm not the type of person who is going to go nuts and spend my credit limits on the cards on frivolous rubbish so it's not having that amount of credit available to me that bothers me. I just don't see the point in having 3 credit cards when I haven't used one of them in over 3 years.
And I'm rambling, so I'm going to go before your ears bleed and you curse the day I discovered the internet! :rotfl:
Love to you all xx

mrsp1987

Went out for a run with my running club on Wednesday and then about 200m from the finish my left foot slipped off the kerb and I fell over. Very gracefully apparels - probably coz I wasn't going very fast by that point. Anyway I wake up yesterday morning and although I can bear weight it hurts when I walk. Gutted - no parkrun tomorrow and not sure when I'll be running again. Hopefully mid week I can give it a go again. *sigh* typical

Got some good news financially - looks as if HMRC have sorted out my new tax code and I got paid my salary plus £20. Asked my mum to pick up my payslip as I'm in a seminar in Birmingham about fuel poverty (she works in the same place as me).
I'm somewhat surprised at just how excited I am to reach the end of the month so I can see how much interest I can earn on my accounts and do a TT and a monthly checkup!

mrsp1987

Bit of a quick one but I'm a tad miffed.
Just got round to sorting out the travel insurance for our little break to Croatia for the first week of April. Just paid £45 to Staysur@ because I have a history of depression and I'm currently taking antidepressants. I find it so annoying that my insurance goes up from £12 to £45 just because of my depression. I dread to think what the quote would have been if I answered yes to having been hospitalised, been under the treatment of a psychiatrist or having had to cut short a trip.
It's a shame there isn't a way that I could just go "Oh, I only want to be covered for physical injuries to me not if its anything related to my mood."
So, yes but miffed but it's the right thing to do. I got one quote that was so high I was tempted to not declare it but I know that's the wrong thing to do and I've managed to get 18.9% cash back which will go the wards the mortgage so it's not a total dudd. But still. I dislike the implication even though I constantly go on about how mental illnesses should be treated on the same level as physical illnesses.
You just can't please me eh?

mrsp1987

And just realised that that was not a quick one. That was a standard length one :rotfl:

mrsp1987

I did intend to do a financial update what with it being the beginning of a new month and what not. However, after trying to sort out my Tilly Tidying from last month and not being able to get my spreadsheet to reconcile (serves me right for not doing one from the beginning!) my cat Bubba has decided to sit right in the middle of my desk, in front of the keyboard and on top of my papers!! So, I'll do it later.

Good news about my foot though. Went for a sports massage last night and told her about my foot pain. She gave it a good poke, prod and massage and it didn't hurt one squiggly bit. So, she says its just bruised and that I'm okay to run as there's no actual muscle injury/damage. She recommended grass but its raining so I'm going to go to the gym and do a short one on the treadmill. What can I say? I'm a fair weather runner!!
I'm also going to take this opportunity to to go the pharmacy and get my prescription before my card runs out on the 9th March. I don't need them just yet but I will be using them and if I can save myself £9 or whatever the charge is now, why the heck not.

Anyway better get dressed before I change my mind and I'll give a financial update later on after I've convinced Bubba he'd rather be sat on George than me typing around him.

mrsp1987

Got a bit carried away with my audio typing yesterday. Got my file done lovely and early and then got an email asking if people wanted some extra work. i thought why not? They say its a 1-2-1 interview and nice clear audio. Didn't find out until after I accepted it that it was not quite 1-2-1 and it needed time codes every 30 seconds and whenever anyone new started speaking :eek: Then again that makes it a higher rate of pay, so swings and roundabouts really. So, I finished at 11pm, up at 7am and out for over 10 hours today in Brum. Tad bit tired, but I got a free pizza at Birmingham New Street so can't really complain.

Right, my first monthly update. Not 100% sure how to do this but here goes:

Mortgage last month = £99,310.76 Mortgage now = £99,048.03
Daily interest last month = £8.68 Daily interest now = £8.66
TT for last month = £35.97 Target for year = £225
Amount in Mortgage O/P account end of Feb = £147.95

So in just under a month I've managed to squirrel away nearly £150. I can't complain with that at all really. I've had a bit more go in over the last few days and I've got a bit more to go in over the next few days too, so I think I will wait until Sunday before I update again.
With regards to my MFiT goal I am behind the 8-ball because I believe that requires a monthly over payment of about £245 a month to reach target. However, I know I set myself an ambitious goal so I'm not too worried just yet.
All in all I think February has been a good first month. Let's see how I can improve on it.
Now I'm off to bed - late night, long day and lots of best friend drama makes me sleepy (be warned, never read your fiance's diary. It will end in tears!!!)

mrsp1987

Beginning to wonder if anyone actually reads these, but then again it's also a good place for me to just put down my ramblings.

So, it's a work friends 40th birthday on Sunday and she doesn't work Fridays so we're meeting up for C0sta tomorrow morning and as I'm a bit of a baker I was going to make her some really nice lemon cupcakes as a gift. However, hubby tells me that after a power cut this afternoon he thinks the element in the oven has gone! Electric oven. Gas hob.
So he's ordered an element and paid extra for delivery - should be about £25 so fingers crossed that fixes it. We have our mothers coming over for a lamb Sunday dinner for Mothers Day. Obviously if the element doesn't fix it we're screwed.
Hubby has already chosen the replacement cooker if worst comes to the worst. It's on a0 and my first comment was "Oh, I can get cash back if we buy from them" :rotfl: totally addicted to money saving tactics and trying to feather my mortgage O/P fund.

Elsewhere the saga continues with regards to "I read my fiance's diary and didn't like what I saw"-gate. I'm glad WhatsApp exists - otherwise I'd be dangerously close to using my text allowance. Seriously though communication is key to a successful relationship!

mrsp1987

Phew! Thought I was asking to myself to be honest. I do prattle on but I so enjoy it.
Yay for Shropshire! I'm more used to people saying "Where's that then?" And usually end up responding with between Wales and Birmingham :rotfl: