Thirty something dreaming of not paying mortgage

kaycastle

I don't understand how this survey things work. I tried some sites the other month but I never seem to qualify for the full surveys, and always chucks me out half way through.

Thought I'd do some surveys next year but I spent alot of time on them and got no where so far.

Anyone got any tips or favourite sites?

volsung37

This might seem like a stupid question but I'm not great at finance
I have an outstanding mortgage of about £13000
It is a flexible mortgage and I have overpaid regularly so I now have about £10k I can draw down
Does this mean that I can pay the mortgage off entirely by just paying another £3K
Thanks for any replies

kaycastle

volsung37 said:

This might seem like a stupid question but I'm not great at finance
I have an outstanding mortgage of about £13000
It is a flexible mortgage and I have overpaid regularly so I now have about £10k I can draw down
Does this mean that I can pay the mortgage off entirely by just paying another £3K
Thanks for any replies

Hiya @volsung37 you should ring your mortgage provider to get a redemption figure. They will give you the amount you need to pay. Good luck!

South_coast

kaycastle said:

Anyone got any tips or favourite sites?

It's different for everyone, but most people seem to consistently get good results from Prolific Academic. I get an average of £15-£20 per month and I'm pretty idle with it. They pre-screen you based on your profile, so there's no chance of getting screened out. If you see how you get on with that and how you feel about putting the time in, then you'll get a better idea of what you're prepared to do and people will be able to make suggestions for other survey sites. One Poll is also working out well for quite a few people at the moment. 

Not survey sites, but if you're willing to be consistent then I get an average of £15 per month from a combination of Shoppix/Storewards/Huyu (receipt scanning apps) and Shop & Scan/Consumer Pulse. In total they probably take me 15 mins a week? Vypr is another app which is really easy to use and hardly takes any time out of your day. None of them on their own add up to very much, it's when you do several and then you get regular payouts that you see the benefit x

kaycastle

Thank you @South_coast I shall check out prolific. I was thinking that this method would be a good way of funding coffee and baby classes next year a bit  

Do the receipt scanning apps/shop and scan work if you mostly do online shopping?

I just logged into avios shopping for first time in ages and found I have 24,000 points 

South_coast

I don't buy any groceries online, but pretty sure Shop & Scan would work with online shopping as you scan all your purchases at home. Shoppix you can forward any online shopping confirmation email to them for the same points as a paper receipt. Not sure about the others!

kaycastle

Just reviewing budget for the month. Not done too great but I think I've spent less than previous months and would have done worse without budget. 

Christmas presents: £79.83/£50 this went over but only because I finished up all my Christmas present shopping. Only thing left is the tree next week

Treats: £74.29/£50. Went a bit over at start of month. Still better than previous months. I succumbed to first takeaway in months after a really bad day at work. Otherwise would be under budget still.

Groceries: £239.93/£240  yay the only budget stuck to just about hehe  

Baby: £145.92/£50  yikes!! This was because I also finished getting all baby things this month, the bedding I needed came in stock and so could finally get that and found sling I like too. 

Misc: £193.04. Eek. Some of this was unexpected, had to spend more on pyjamas as bump getting even bigger. Had to pay annual website hosting and also had the cat food delivery. I buy in bulk every 3 months which works out cheaper but I forgot to put it in my plan. 

I don't think there will be much more spending this week, at the most there will be some Groceries. 

December should be quite a low spend month. Once I get paid this week I'll move things into savings.

Nothing more to spend on baby or Christmas presents so those should be 0. And there really shouldn't be anymore misc spends. 

Gonna set budgets at:
Groceries: £240. Should even be a bit less this month as going to family for Christmas.
Treats: £50. 

Not expecting the treat spend to be to high as spending more and more time at home. Should be a really low spend month.

Also next month is last month of paying for the furniture yay!!!

debtfreeoneday

Re surveys I’m very similar to south coast. 

Prolific is a good little earner as is YouGov, I also do One Poll and Ipsos ISay. 

Receipts I do Shoppix, store rewards and Huyu. You can forward online receipts to both Shoppix and store rewards. I dohh my T do a huge amount of in person shopping but petrol receipts, post office receipts, even out local fish and chip shop gets accepted by one of them. Store rewards is good that it accepts more than one receipt for the same shop a day so I have been known to pick up a wayward receipt at the checkout if there is one / put my shopping through in 2/3 bits to get extra receipts. It does all add up!  Checkout smart is a good little app for food shopping Instore or online. Just filter down to the shop you’re using. 

Cashback is obviously another one especially if you mostly buy online. TopCashback is the one I use. Before I buy anything online I go and check if I can get cashback. 

kaycastle

Thank you both so much  

Prolific aren't accepting new people at the moment but I have registered for their list so hopefully they'll open for applicants again soon. 

I've made a list of all the sites you've mentioned @debtfreeoneday and @South_coast and will get trying them out at the weekend.

I also decided to pay off the £100 left of that furniture credit now instead of waiting for the DD to come out later in December Felt good to have done with it and feels good that money won't come out close to christmas.

kaycastle

Yay payday, I moved £1000 into loft savings straight away which brings total to 26k. I'll wait until its officially December and all bills have gone out and then should be able to top up emergency fund as well

I'm so excited for Christmas and so pleased to have Christmas presents all sorted already.