Mortgage free by my own merit

OhtobeMortgageFree

Pay day today from my supermarket job. Just over £500. I also am due another cash out on Prolific. (I tend to cash out every £20 when it becomes free to do so.)
This week I also secured a regular weekly morning slot updating social media for a small company for £200 each month which I can do on the morning my son goes to nursery.
I need to make more effort monetising my blog. That's on my list of things to try and get round to doing this month. It's been up and running for about 7 years now and occasionally brings me in dribs and drabs of money, but I've never really made it a focus.

OhtobeMortgageFree

Also I've just billed another client for £180 for the work that I have done for them over the past couple of months and swapped the money from my toddler's piggy bank (£175!) for an IOU note, which I have paid into the bank. (May as well be earning some interest rather than just gathering dust in the piggy bank!)
I managed to lose my credit card last week, so we've had to put a block on our account whilst they arrange to have new cards sent out to us. I've been told that it could take up to 10 days. Ten days without being able to spend any money is no bad thing right now!
I've got some extra ad hoc work for a race tomorrow morning. It's all still coming in! (Shame it is all still going out though as well!)

OhtobeMortgageFree

Our credit card bill has only come £640 this month. It's usually around £1200 as we put everything onto the credit card (which we then pay off at the end of each month). We've purposefully thought really hard each time we've gone to spend money over the last few weeks whilst we've been without the credit card and potentially made a saving of several hundred pounds (tbc). Things are still incredibly tight money-wise as work on our garage conversion starts on Monday and we will need to have the garage paid off in full when completed in three weeks time but I'm working hard to bring in the extra pennies!
Unfortunately due to the time of year there is no current overtime available at my nightshift job this month, but I have managed to get some more design work for a company I have worked for previously so hopefully that work will be completed and paid off before the garage bill comes in.
I'm headed to Birmingham for The Running Show both days this weekend but will not have a single penny to spend. I'm hoping to try and blag some freebies and get an idea of things I would like to add to my birthday list in October instead! It will be hard though. I've always had enough money coming in that I have never had to think twice about whether or not I can afford to spend something before. Watching my son grow up is a higher priority to me than returning to work full time for that extra money though. And having our mortgage paid off before we hit our forties would give us so much more freedom than having more clutter in the house. I know I'm making the right decisions for our family.

beanielou

Can't say better than that

Clarity1972

OhtobeMortgageFree wrote: »

......having our mortgage paid off before we hit our forties would give us so much more freedom than having more clutter in the house. I know I'm making the right decisions for our family.

You're so right OTBMF. I really wish we'd thought about overpaying much sooner. Hats off to you for starting it early on.
C. X

OhtobeMortgageFree

Clarity1972 wrote: »

You're so right OTBMF. I really wish we'd thought about overpaying much sooner. Hats off to you for starting it early on.
C. X

It's so hard to think about overpayments and stretching our pennies at times when we see our friends jetting off on holidays and driving around in cars they have on credit but as long as we keep talking about our end goal it keeps it real for us and gives us the incentive to carry on.

OhtobeMortgageFree

I accepted my first job with Red WigWam today. £29 for two hours taking photos of some houses. Should be fairly easy work hopefully and there's the potential for follow up jobs on the back of it.
I also listed my Prolific referral code on my blog this week and have had 30 people use it to sign up so far so hopefully that will generate a little more income over the coming weeks too.
We have just had the first of three payments leave our bank this morning to pay for our garage conversion though. £3400. Still, it's something that needs doing and that we want completed in order to finish our house. I'm working hard to make sure the cost doesn't hit us too much.

OhtobeMortgageFree

I've been quiet for a little while as I've been finding it really hard going. We paid £10200 out for a garage conversion at the start of the year - which was very needed to create more downstairs space in our house as the garage space was just wasted. Some money will still need to go out at some point for basic furniture and a carpet but we're trying to recoup some of our savings first.
I've taken on a fair bit of social media and graphic design work over the past couple of months and have also taken on a second paperround but the constant juggling of a number of jobs, taking care of the household and bills, marathon training and fundraising for charity has really been getting me down. I feel exhausted all the time and this is without overpaying at the moment.
The mortgage will finally be < £130,000 by the end of the month which is a nice motivator though.
Just keep ploughing on I guess!

beanielou

Keep plodding

LeighofMar

You're doing great. Oftentimes, some have to make a choice between doing up a house or paying it off. You're managing both. That's something to be proud of.