MeandO's mortgage-free musings

MeandO

Thank you everyone for your replies, I really do appreciate you all taking the time out of your day to reply. I will reply properly later, but I have ten minutes before collecting DS from school and am batch cooking a lasagne too whilst I type, so will just round up some of the financials for now.

I’ve had to transfer money from the savings to cover spends today. Whilst I was poorly I just lost my grip on the bank account and spent way too much on easy food, top up shops and treating DS and OH, I basically went back to my old ways, so the bank account is not looking good.

YNAB is up to date though and all the bills, bar two are paid for the month. I have to be super frugal with the grocery budget from now on as i’m living on borrowed money from my savings.

Op’s to the mortgage So far consist of only the regular amount of just over £50 so I can’t see how I’m going to find another £100 to spare this month. I also want to pat another £30 off the credit card to get it into the £500’s.

OH owes me around £65 so that will help when he pays me back. I have also finally had some cash back confirmed on TCB of £168. No idea when this will be payable, but if it is this month it would be extremely good!
I think this is the week I need to start tackling the eBay pile too. There is nothing of great value, but every little bit will certainly help at the moment.

I received my tax credits renewal pack yesterday and sent it back online last night. I also did my tax return today and thankfully not much to pay there either as I didn’t really trade much for my small business last year.

I’ve received a few of £’s cashback via the Shopmium app this month and have also cashed in £6 of amazon vouchers received from surveys.

Must dash to pick DS up now... x

MeandO

We’ve picked DS’s prescription up from the doctor’s, dropped it to the pharmacy (who didn’t have the meds in stock so will have to collect tomorrow). We then filled up with petrol as the car has been running on fumes for days and wow, I could certainly tell that diesel prices have increased. I’m £51.72 poorer; :eek: previously the car would never take more than around £46 of fuel. I also checked the tyre pressures as the low pressure warning had come on, all was fine though, it’s always been temperamental in this car.

Ds’s Lasagne is cooking in the oven. There’ll be about 6 portions for the freezer too. I’ve had a quick sort through of the freezer as well and found a few bits I’d forgotten about. I’ve also made a small shopping list of essentials that we need so I can make a good few meals along with ingredients I have in the cupboard.

I’ve also remembered that we have a big bag of change in my wardrobe that my Dad gave us to change up. Perhaps we’ll get that counted this week and use it as a mortgage op. That will certainly make me feel like i’ve Achieved a little bit this month if I can at least work towards the op target.

MeandO

I've just exchanged £12 of clubcard vouchers (before the value drops to 3x their worth) for two days out at local (ish) fun park/wildlife places for DS and I during the holidays. :j I'll only need to pay around £6 at one place, the cost of the other will be covered, so I've saved £53.50 on admission fees and it'll be two fun days out for us! Both are about an hour away from us so will just need to cover diesel and take a picnic.

MeandO

Last night I went through all of the gifts I have already bought for remaining birthdays this year and also a few for Christmas. I've listed them all in a little notebook so I don't buy more than is needed.

I need to pick up something for my Dad and for DS's dad for father's day. Hopefully both combined should be under £25 - less if I can manage it. I have nine more birthdays to cover this year and have three gifts sorted, so six more to budget for. Thankfully most of these are later in the year though. As the 'gifts' savings is now drained I really need to start building that account up again to cope with the remaining birthdays and Christmas.

hummingbird

Hi MeandO! Lovely to find you as I'm back after not being on MSE for ages! I'm hoping to reduce my mortgage so have wandered over here from DFW Look forward to reading your thread ....HB xx

MeandO

Welcome back Hummingbird! xx

MeandO

Oh my goodness, I could cry.

I've just checked my tax credits account online and it seems I'm owed money which will be paid within the next two days... £482.07! :eek::eek::eek:

Plus, my tax credits will be increasing by just over £20 a month thereafter.

I feel so nervous about this. I really don't like having to claim tax credits and wish I could do without it. I'm sure they're going to ask for it all back one day too, but I can't say how grateful I am for this to appear today. I was just looking at YNAB, trying to figure out how I was going to pay my parents the £200 I owe them this month as well as paying £30 off the CC., paying for groceries for DS and I and if I'd have enough money to cover diesel to go and see my parents. Once all that was out of the way I was trying to find a way to overpay the mortgage and replenish some of my savings pots.

I feel so very grateful and emotional as it's been a really tough few weeks, I could cry! :o:o

greent

Brilliant timing for the windfall xx

MeandO

The tax credit payment has been very gratefully received this morning so I've shuffled some money around and replenished a few pots a little.

£75 has gone back into the 'gifts' account; £100 back to the emergency savings; £30 paid off the credit card; £200 to my parents and the grocery and spending accounts have been topped up.
I'm really pleased to say that I've overpayed the mortgage to the tune of £116.92 which means I've more than reached this month's target and OP'd a total of £167.95 this month. :j:j Mortgage now stands at £76,160.

Mortgage Feb 2015: [STRIKE]£102,000[/STRIKE] Mortgage now: £76,160
2018 OP's: J:£129.26 F:£287 M:£150 A:£157.31 M:£164.19 J:£167.95
Emergency Fund: £900/£5000

MeandO

Just earned another £5 Amazon voucher from surveys