EyesOnThePrize's Overpayment Diary

EyesOnThePrize

Couldn't resist buying a dorayaki today (only £1.59) for a snack but otherwise a NSD as I picked up a free face mask from Lush by returning recycled pots.

My parents are visiting this weekend and are kindly treating DW and I to a DS-free lunch at a nice restaurant and a trip to a local spa while they babysit (sure I'll be panicking the whole time about leaving him!). Have a good weekend everyone!

EyesOnThePrize

Lovely meal today with DW and sounds like DS had a fun time with grandma and grandad. DW also received an update on her stocks and shares ISA which made £530 last year, very impressive!

Running totals for 2020 as at 22/02
Mortgage £121,217.97
2020 10% overpayment: £13,500 of £13,600 made
2021 10% overpayment: £1,000 of approx £12,000 saved
£196 "extra" savings
£540 holiday funds

greent

EyesOnThePrize said:

Quick daily update:


Finally, bought some tablets from Boots and used my 200 extra points offer. Scanned my receipts for my first day of Receipt Hogging and Shoppixing. I miss the glory days of Job Spotting, way more lucrative!

Just starting your diary, so not sure if you've now also discovered 2 more receipt apps (may as well make each recipt work as hard as possible!) - HuYu (supermarkets only) - pays in vouchers (can cash out each £5 - each receipt is 5points (5p)) and ZipZero - 1% of each receipt is given back to you which is paid direct to a bill-supplier, such as phone/ gas/ electricity etc.

EyesOnThePrize

greent said:

EyesOnThePrize said:

Quick daily update:


Finally, bought some tablets from Boots and used my 200 extra points offer. Scanned my receipts for my first day of Receipt Hogging and Shoppixing. I miss the glory days of Job Spotting, way more lucrative!

Just starting your diary, so not sure if you've now also discovered 2 more receipt apps (may as well make each recipt work as hard as possible!) - HuYu (supermarkets only) - pays in vouchers (can cash out each £5 - each receipt is 5points (5p)) and ZipZero - 1% of each receipt is given back to you which is paid direct to a bill-supplier, such as phone/ gas/ electricity etc.

Hi there greent, thanks for popping by!

I wasn't aware of those apps so I'll download them now! Agree that it's worth making each receipt work, they don't take long to photograph. Thanks for the tip! 

badmemory

As you work in London & seem to have reasonable earnings, I thought it might be a good idea to warn you to watch when your earnings go over £50k that you start to lose entitlement to child benefit.  It has been giving a lot of people some serious problems recently.

EyesOnThePrize

badmemory said:

As you work in London & seem to have reasonable earnings, I thought it might be a good idea to warn you to watch when your earnings go over £50k that you start to lose entitlement to child benefit.  It has been giving a lot of people some serious problems recently.

Hi bad memory, thanks for popping by and for flagging this.

My wife is much more benefits savvy than me (admittedly not hard!) and has crunched the numbers on child benefits. We ended up submitting the form but not applying for benefits as it doesn't work out in our favour due to my salary. 

Another concern which she recently flagged is that, after my recent promotion, we are getting close to the free childcare "cliff edge". Luckily there is a good nursery near us that has free childcare spaces so it's definitely in our interest to keep below the threshold if we can. If it comes to it, my wife might try to work fewer part time hours when she goes back to work. Complicated stuff! 

EyesOnThePrize

A nice relaxing trip to the spa yesterday and a NSD today thanks to my preloaded drinks credit working again (that loyalty card is mysterious) and lunch using a birthday gift card. 

On the pricier side, we've now booked another mini break to Southend - I'm a sucker for the seaside, I loved Blackpool as a kid - in July. We've agreed to have a maximum of one more weekend away this year (staying overnight in Central London so we can enjoy the city without worrying about tube travel home). It's probably becoming obvious that my main vice is travel at least these trips are on the cheaper side since they're local! 

Running totals for 2020 as at 24/02
Mortgage £121,217.97
2020 10% overpayment: £13,500 of £13,600 made
2021 10% overpayment: £1,000 of approx £12,000 saved
£196 "extra" savings
£550 holiday funds

EyesOnThePrize

Payday, hooray! Made final small OP for this year and saved more for next year's OP in savings account. Added to DS's ISA again. DW has given me "the day off" on Sunday so I'm going to head into Central London and spend some time on my favourite hobby: eating! 

Running totals for 2020 as at 26/02
Mortgage £121,217.97
2020 10% overpayment: £13,600 of £13,600 made
2021 10% overpayment: £2,500 of approx £12,000 saved
£205 "extra" savings
£520 holiday funds

EyesOnThePrize

NSD today. Yesterday I spent a fiver on charity fundraising at work and (ridiculously) £1.80 buying a dessert to send to my mate's table at Wetherspoons (I wasn't there, I just knew the table number). Apparently he enjoyed it! Things are going a bit haywire in the run up to going on leave but there's a light at the end of the tunnel. 

South_coast

Loving the idea of sending the surprise dessert - knowing my luck, I'd have it arriving at the same time as the starter though 😂