A long journey to mortgage freedom

More_tea_please

Hello all,

First week at work done and feeling good but tired. I managed to bring lunch in every day and no spending on other bits either so pleased with that. I need to keep this up.

I've also transferred £11.12 to the mortgage which is the money I had available in PayPal, should have more to come soon and this is all earmarked for the mortgage. I need to list some more items on ebay, I've drafted the items just need to schedule them for listing so that they finish when I actually have time to get them posted.

Weekend involves date night with DH, just going to have a nice meal together and watch a film with some popcorn once the little ones are in bed. This will come out of our grocery budget. It's important for us to still try and do nice things together even with the little ones. Then on Saturday it's BILs birthday party and we just need to bring some drinks for this which we already have in the house so fairly cheap weekend planned.

More tea please x

beanielou

Enjoy your weekend

More_tea_please

Hi all,

Well almost another week at work done and it's been a stressful one as my youngest has come down with a chest infection which has meant she's been unsettled at night and we've had to sort out doctors for antibiotics and alternative care arrangements. Hoping she is on the mend now.

In money saving the small steps this week include:

• Bought lunch to work every day
• Walked instead of using the car to get to work where possible
• Posted all my ebay items
• Continued to login to Prolific and YouGov daily to do surveys
• Transferred £17.87 to the mortgage from PayPal
• Updated budget spreadsheet with spends
• Sorted out connecting mortgage and current account to allow easier overpayments

Weekend plans include an Oktoberfest festival which will involve some costs for beer and food. Not planning on going to mad and it finishes at 11pm. Need to do a meal plan and some shopping and have come to the realisation that I need to get some more work clothes so need to have a look at the weekend to see what i can find at a reasonable price so a few spends planned there.

More_tea_please

Hello,

Another week done, time is just flying. I keep meaning to post more often but time just seems to get away from me. I do read the boards but want to contribute more and keep my diary going as I know that might help keep me motivated.

So last weekend was my local Oktoberfest get together and must say had a really good time but probably drank a bit too much beer :beer: it's not my usual drink of choice so I felt it the next day. I spent a fair bit as it wasn't cheap but as we don't get out as much these days I'm not going to worry too much about it.

I managed to take lunch with me to work and walk in everyday...so I'm happy with that.

Today I've listed some new items on Ebay and done a survey on YouGov for some points then had a lovely comforting jacket potato , beans and cheese for dinner as OH is at the ILs.

I need to check my accounts and see if there is any money I can transfer to the mortgage and see what the current mortgage balance is.

OH got paid yesterday..was hoping it was going to be a higher amount due to a small pay rise but unfortunately it was less as we decided that he should buy some additional annual leave for next year and that came out of his wages this month...not very money saving I know but he values the extra time off to do jobs, spend time together or to cover childcare needs.

This weekend is another busy one tomorrow I'm meeting friends at the local park and then going to friends with the children - this should be a nice cheap day as we'll eat before we go. In the evening we're off to the cinema to see Bohemian Rhapsody, we will be paying for most of this with vouchers we won from being in our local recycling club. I must remember to take our own snacks and drinks as the cinema is so expensive.

On Saturday I need to do the grocery shopping (must get meal plan and shopping list done). I need to buy some work clothes as some how I don't seem to have any that fit since returning from maternity leave but I'll be looking in charity shops first and then supermarkets rather than buying any branded items.

Then Sunday were taking DS to Thomas Land (must take food with us) using Tesco clubcard vouchers and then going to BIL and SILs for dinner. I'll need another weekend just to recover :rotfl:

Sorry for the essay, if I can start to post a bit more often hopefully I can make my posts a bit more succinct.

Thanks,
More tea please

beanielou

All good

Kittenkirst

Thomas land sounds like fun

I need to copy you with the food from home not the work canteen- it's so hard not to just grab a coffee or some snacks when you get busy and feel tired

Enjoy your weekend

twinklie

We love ThomasLand. My eldest is autistic so we try to go when it’s not busy and make an annual trip of it.

More_tea_please

Hello,

Well it's been a while since my last update.. life got in the way

The pace of overpayments has slowed down as we've been busy saving to buy replacement windows for the front of our house. It's something that needs doing so that's been the priority for now. I'm hopeful we'll be able to get back to concentrating on mortgage overpayments from September as the windows will be done and DS will be starting school saving us some of our nursery expenses.

We've kept up our standard monthly overpayment so not completely stopped with the overpayment plan. I'm going to try and update the diary more often and work on making some smaller overpayments before September to keep me on track.

Current figures:
Mortgage balance: £174,157.18
Overpayments in April: £231.22

So that's where I'm at and it's time to get back on track :j

More_tea_please

Hello again,

So work has started on replacing our front windows today- my DH and FIL have taken out one panel to check what the frames would be best and can now get them ordered. We currently have a piece of wood in the window so the house isn't looking the best and is not very well insulated at the moment! Should take 3 weeks to get the new windows delivered,,,DH and FIL are confident they can fit the windows themselves so that should save us a fair bit in costs.

We also owe the balance for our family holiday to Croyde this month, so immediate goal will be building our savings buffer back up. This means that there will be no major overpayments in the short term.

In good money saving news I have:

• Taken lunch into the office everyday to avoid spending on lunches
• Done a couple of Prolific studies
• Used TopCashBack to buy some needed items
• Transferred money from PayPal to the mortgage of £5.05 (every little helps!)
• Joined the MFW2019 challenge
• Started to do a weekly Tilly Tidy

In not so good money saving I seem to be spending a fortune on groceries and house stuff and still needing a top up in the week. One of my goals it to try and get on top of this a bit more - I do meal plan but finding more and more treats and extras sneaking in and don't tend to think of the costs when planning our meals so we will see whether it can be improved.

Thank you to anyone who takes the time to read my rambles I appreciate it...:)

More_tea_please

Another week gone by managed to make an overpayment of £206 this week from some odd bits from Prolific, Tilly Tidies and a balance which had been sat in my personal account earning no interest as everything is now done through our joint account.

Still haven't sorted the new windows so the money is still sitting in our account for that and hopefully will be sorted soon and I can see where we are with our savings and emergency fund pot and the best course of action.

Had a good weekend last week with no spends- spent Saturday at home playing in the garden and Sunday went to a local garden centre and spent some time hunting for painted rocks and re-hiding them- the kids loved it and best of all it was free. Not sure what the plans are this weekend but nothing too expensive planned.

We've just paid the balance for our holiday in June so now need to start thinking about activities and any vouchers we can use etc.

Been a fairly good week ...nothing too exciting but I guess that's the nature of these things when you're in for the longer haul.