Getting a mortgage and then becoming mortgage-free!

Kittenkirst

Hey Ella!
Vouchers and bargains always makes it seem more exciting doesn't it. I just have to resist the urge to tell people how frugal I've been when they compliment the new thing

Another three things listed on eBay last night so now up to 7 items on there. Will keep on posting whilst I have the motivation, I have found the new app is a lot speedier though which makes it less of a daunting task!

Working from home today so minimal spends but have to nip to Tesco's for some milk at some point- will take a walk and get some steps in whilst I can't be exercising. Eyes are all okay today just a bit itchy but otherwise fine, find it hard not to touch them constantly though but I must resist!

Kittenkirst

Morning MfW-ers!
Woke up this morning and eyes are feeling pretty good, a little scratchy but alright.

Gf left early to travel to another office so I got up and went for a nice half hour walk in the sunshine (with my oversized £1 Primark sunnies of course)

Got home to a notification that the beach dress I posted yesterday has sold- yay! £8.75 sale so will post that off today and OP. Small steps but that makes £20.75 in the past fortnight from our junk. Need to keep up the motivation and get things sold and out of the house :money:

Forgot to do my month end tally post so will try and get it done at lunch today- will also update my picture calendar as that really motivates me. Although I follow some mfw's on instagram and their numbers are crazily high for OPs- inspiring stuff!

Kittenkirst

Morning MFW-Wes!
Hope you are enjoying this beautiful weather!

A few little overpayments have been made this month- two small amounts of Quidco cashback had cleared so they have been withdrawn and overpaid, another eBay sale (£18.99 this time :j ) and then a Pinecone survey which I'm waiting to cash out to OP.

Makes this month £34.04 so far which is not bad considering most of it is 'made' money from interest, eBay, surveys & cashback :money:

OPs so far for 2018 = £2217.01 which is not bad against a stretch target of £3k

Realised I have been being so silly with all the holiday bookings as I was going direct to websites for all the hotels :eek: I realised the error of my ways so the last two hotel bookings for Oz have gone through Quidco (£12 tracked!) so that's better than nothing. Everything is now booked apart from airport transfers and the hire car for Oz- will make sure the hire car goes through Quidco if I can as that will be a large expense.

Booked a ferry transfer yesterday from Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays to Airlie Beach and was a little shocked that it's $55 AUD each for the hours ferry! It looks beautiful there but still. Ouch! Thank goodness we've had such a long time to save and pay for it all up front.

Eyes are still healing well and we've been back in the gym doing cardio so I managed a 5km run (painful but got it done!), 1st dance class back on Thursday but will take it easy as I'm going back a week early. I've decided I just won't do any upside down work on the pole just in case I slip and bang the head but general spinning and twirling around the ole should be fine.

Allowed back in water from Thursday so going kayaking Saturday morning and then hoping for a swim on Sunday so gf can practice her strokes will be so odd to be able to see in the pool!!

compHunter

Really impressed with the overpayments so far. Inspiration I need to start overpaying mine

Kittenkirst

Thanks for posting CompHunter- no time like the present to start
Lots of little overpayments will soon add up :money:

Another eBay sale made so an additional op of £19.17 made yesterday and the shoes posted out yesterday!

Ended up out to watch the footie with some senior peeps at work last night which meant a free dinner and quite a few drinks but only spent £16.50 which was my first cider and my share of the cab home.

Unfortunately I'd never realised how much sugar is in a rekorderlig cider- 48g per 500ml bottle :eek: I had four last night so nearly 200g if sugar which meant I was up most of the night on a sugar high not something I'll be repeating anytime soon!

Payday tomorrow so we can do the payday money shuffle- yay!

Kittenkirst

Payday shuffle all sorted and a nice chunk of £169.57 sent to the Mortgage

Random number this month as we've reduced the OP in preparation for our big trip but want to overpay a nice number that makes the capital paid this month a nice lovely round number

Capital paid off this month is a nice tidy £700 which feels good!

Kittenkirst

Kayaking yesterday was great fun, some other friends joined the session this week and we all had a nice chilled paddle up the Rover Soar

Gf seemed to enjoy it more being in a tandem kayak this time so next time we are trying a tandem sea kayak to get the feel for it- seems like it's a winner for the Oz trip though. Yay!

We've booked two more Saturday classes over the next four weeks and I have stand up paddle board yoga booked in with a friend to try next Monday. The boat for the Whitsunday trip has a stand up Paddleboard on it so thought I'd give it a go here and see if I like it.

Went to get some shoes yesterday for the next weekends Italian wedding- found some gorgeous ones in Debenhams: on sale and I used gift vouchers so no actual cash spent which is fab. Gf also got some sandals that match her dress for the actual wedding for only £15 in the sale too :money:

The couple have sent an email out that the Friday night event is smart casual so gf and I are taking back the new dresses we had bought for that event from monsoon (on sale obviously!) so that's £110 back in the pocket. Gf isn't a dress type girl so she's going planning to wear some lovely floral trousers and a nice lacy top or she'll wear some tailored cut off trousers with the lacy top. I'm going to wear a dress I already have that is a bit less formal and have borrowed shoes from gfs cousin.

Feels a bit better that we have shopped from our wardrobes essentially for the Friday events and have got some bargain but gorgeous buys for the wedding.

More planning for the holiday done now- great time of year for shopping as we've bought ourselves two rashvests each. Half price so a lot more affordable. Also bought a small dry-sack on sale to take for anything water related to protect valuables whilst we were away.

We've had a good sort out from under the bed of old holiday clothes too and as we've both lost some weight a lot more of it fits. Good news is I don't need any new shorts :rotfl: Feels like we have brand new wardrobes without shopping which is ace.

Does anyone have any suggestions of how many bikinis to take for three weeks on east coast of Oz? Looking online peeps are suggesting 6 bikinis! I don't own 6 bikinis

PurpleFairy26

6 :eek: 'they' do know you can only where one at a time right. :rotfl: I assume it's so they feel like they are wearing different and not duplicating. I would say 3 max, bearing in mind you can wash it through and it'll be dry the next morning anyway. Another thought would be to buy two different tops that go with the same bottoms, that was it looks like 2 different bikinis but only 3 pieces bought not 4

Kittenkirst

Ooooooh that's a great suggestion Purple Fairy!

CathT

A capsule bikini wardrobe! You are going to have such an amazing time in Oz. You seem to be investing in making sure you have the most amazing experiences out there.