FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

LouiseJ

financialbliss wrote: »

Recently got my renewal notice from Budget Insurance @ 220.69.

I’ve this evening gone ahead with a home insurance quote from Halifax. This was @ 179.46 – ok only 41.23 less than Budget, but Halifax allow you to pay monthly at no extra cost, so I’ve done that.

But while typing this up, it’s just occurred to me that I should have checked quidco. A quick check suggests I could have earned £55 for a tracked transaction on-line to Halifax. Doh. Oops.:mad:

Again, it’s late and I’m tired. While I’m saving money, it’s perhaps not as much as I could have. You live and learn…

Need to make a mental note for car insurance. Told you I hate insurance.

FB.

Silly Boy! I did the same with my holiday insurance:o

angedema

I have read the whole of this thread and found it really interesting and motivational. I am dying to know have you told Mrs Bliss yet about your blog?

Keep up the good work!

financialbliss

angedema wrote: »

I have read the whole of this thread and found it really interesting and motivational. I am dying to know have you told Mrs Bliss yet about your blog?

Hi angedema,

Always nice to see someone new. Welcome! Pleased to hear you're finding it interesting and motivational.

Erm, well, how do I answer this. Not yet, although I do feel she has a right to know.

It's 150 days or almost 5 months since I started this. We've a pretty open and honest relationship - but, and this is the sticking point, how the hell do I break this to her?

We do discuss money, spending etc, and I've almost let the cat out of the bag a few times - but I'm also not sure how she is going to react!

We're on holiday next month in the Lake District - one part of me is thinking that I mention it when on holiday - we should get a chance to talk it over as we'll be out of our normal day to day routine.

In fact, apart from people reading this - no one knows about this, ie I've not verbally discussed this with anyone. A couple of people in work are regular bloggers - one in the recent past has suggested I start my own - I smiled and said I don't have the time

By the length of this reply - I guess I do think this over often !!!

You'll all get to know pretty soon as and when I break the news

Thanks for reading,

Financial Bliss.

Little_Mama

Kaz2904 wrote: »

My DS is starting school in September and I'm looking forward to it too. DD is already there and having them both in the same place will mean that I can walk them to/from school. It's 1/2 mile from our house but there is a huge hill! Maybe my bum will get slightly smaller come September.

#2 DS is going to school too in September and I can't wait to ditch the car for the nursery run and just dawdle down the road with them. Will then have to weigh up if it's worth keeping a 2nd car......

LM

financialbliss

Grrr,:mad:

Since Friday when I used the various comparison sites to do home insurance, I've had 3 calls from what appears to be moneysupermarket.com.

I've just had one a short while ago, but was in a meeting - I gave my mobile number as we're ex-directory. Just fired an e-mail off to moneysupermarket complaining.

I don't get it - if I wanted to actually speak to someone, I'm have used the telephone, so why the return telephone calls - hope of a sale I guess?

If you use the likes of confused.com, moneysupermarket.com etc, do you give a real contact number or not?

FB.

savingmore

hi, haven't replied to anyone's sites recently, but having been lurking...no, i never give my mobile number out to anyone, and only house telephone number if i have to....i just HATE firms phoning up. just went for home insurance through moneysupermarket.com and got half the price of my own insurance, but stupidly forgot to quidco it....can't believe i didn't do that, but i saved a heap of money anyway....:j

financialbliss

Been another busy week, plus not too much of interest to report…

Budget. Haven’t yet had the chance to read through all of the facts, but the BBC budget calculator suggests we’ll be better off by 353.26 after the budget – mainly due to gains in child benefit and a reduction in income tax. Let’s hope so.

Bills. Had our council tax bill for 2008/09. We’re a band D property and it’s 1,370.88 for the year or 137.00 per month (10 payments).

Also got an e-mail from Scottish power asking for meter readings. Did that yesterday and presumably as a result of that, they’ve upped our direct debit from 60.30 per month to 72.00 per month.

Was expecting that sooner or later – everyone appears to be putting up fuel prices at present. The 72.00 is for both gas and electric and also includes an on-line discount. Have shopped around before for fuel providers - may look again, but I'm not sure there's much savings to be made.

Food and petrol/diesel also seem to be going up. Diesel is currently 109.9 at our local asda, although I’ve seen it elsewhere at a whopping 115.9. Ouch.

The other budget. I’m still chipping away at our budget / SOA. It currently doesn’t balance – my thinking is that I analyse our spending after 3 months, refine and post on-line. So, I’m hoping I can get this on-line sometime in April…

Regards,
FB.

financialbliss

As well as reading some of the diaries on the MSE forums, I try to read the blogs of a couple of friends who post regularly.

In one of these blogs, the topic of participation inequality is discussed - this is 90-9-1 rule.

It states that in typical on-line communities, it has been observed that 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% are occasional contributors and only 1% are active contributors.

I can certainly relate to that; my own MSE registration was only after a good while lurking - the 90%, I then only made the occasional post - the 9%, until I started my own diary, where I’ve (as you’d hope), made the lions share of the postings – the 1%.

I also read some of the other forums such as savings and investments, but I slip back into lurking there!


Anyway, after a period of slipping into lurking on my own diary, I thought I’d just slip that in ahead of a quick update in no particular order…

Work. This always gets a bit more busy towards the end of the tax year – another reason why I’ve been neglecting the diary.

Chilli Sauce. Forgot to mention that this finally got used up two or three weeks ago. This was partly due to sterilising the jar and partly because it has such a kick you never needed to use much!

Night out. Myself and mrs bliss went out together last night in true MSE style. We don’t often get the chance to get out together – we just went to the cinema, but used some cinema vouchers we exchanged for points from our goldfish credit card. Took our own snacks instead of paying the hideous mark up they charge. Total spend zero!

Gran Turismo Prologue. The first Gran Turismo to come out on the PS3 format is due out next week 28th March. For anyone not in the know, this is a first taster of what we can hopefully expect of the full Gran Turismo 5 game due out, apparently on 26/09/2008. RRP for prologue is 24.99 – many places appear to have it on sale for around 17.99. I’ve now pre-ordered it from blah @ 17.95 – this time I remembered to use quidco and I’ve got a further 1.44 cash back coming, giving a price of 16.51.

FB.

LouiseJ

Night out. Myself and mrs bliss went out together last night in true MSE style. We don’t often get the chance to get out together – we just went to the cinema, but used some cinema vouchers we exchanged for points from our goldfish credit card. Took our own snacks instead of paying the hideous mark up they charge. Total spend zero!
:T Nice one FB, good to see you again:T


Woke up to snow this morning brrrr, nice and sunny now though, Happy Easter to all the blisses.

chunky79

Hi :hello:

Hope you don't mind me jumping in.

The thought of being mortgage free for us is now what we would like to aim for. Having followed this thread on and off it makes it seem far more realistic rather than just a dream. Certainly has given me the motivation to get on with researching what would be the best options for us.

So a little about me and a little question to start off my resarch,:p hope you don't mind?

My partner is the main wage earner, a sortware developer like yourself and me i earn a little bit part time (cleaning) as we have 4 children. BUT. My Partner is now contracting, although the return can be much higher whilst the contract lasts, i was wondering whether it would be better to pay off a lump sum each year rather than each month? Just to be on the safe side at them minute we don't have a safety net but that is now being built on a monthly basis.

Thanks x