Single gal balancing my way to mortgage freedom!

frankersBri

Monday update time!
Prolific - £8.79 
Current account round down - £32.38

Total OP for the month now £241.17. Feeling confident I'll hit my £300 target for July 

If I manage to average £300 OP every month, I'll be at ~£150k when I come to re-mortgage in May 2022. This would be >£30k paid off which quite honestly sounds ridiculous and is so far beyond what I probably would have expected to be able to do when I started to plan my journey to becoming MF. Extra motivation right there! 

South_coast

Great work. £300 sounds very achievable

Sistergold

Wow @frankersBri you are doing soooo well! Welldone! Go girl! 🥳

frankersBri

Little update on things I've done this week so far. Some to help with moneysaving, a lot not.. oops!

• Switch to new energy provider confirmed. Should save me a little each month on DD and the ~£70 rebate will go to the mortgage when I get it, but apparently it can take 6-8 weeks? Mental
• Called life insurance company and cancelled it. I don't have dependants, so I was paying money for a product I (and my family) don't really need. Will save me ~£20 per month
• Booked a holiday  UK based. Hire car to drive up to the Lake District for a week camping and hiking at the end of August. Hopefully it happens. If not, both Hire car (~£230) and Campsite (£80) are refundable. Will need to buy a few more camping and hiking bits but excited to (hopefully) explore a bit of the country I've never been to!
• A few more Prolific surveys. Heading for another £5+ this week once the submissions are approved
• Started sorting clothes to Ebay this weekend. Going to spend a bit of time on Saturday listing some bits and see if I can make a bit more ££
• My housemate (the previous property co-owner) put an offer in on a house and had it accepted! So she may be moving out a little earlier than expected depending on how quickly the purchase goes through. Some considerations for me as to dealing without the lodger income, or try getting someone else in.. I can cope without, but may hit my OPs
• Fence panel blew down. Grr. Need to evaluate a replacement of the fence. It's not in great condition, so I think I need to get some quotes, but it's concrete posts which apparently have shifted/are too far apart as this particular panel has never fitted properly. 
• I went to the office yesterday for a test day back! It was nice. Me and 4 colleagues, so much space between us, masks, antic bac everwhere, wiping down everything. The best was a change of scenery, seeing people in real life and then popped out for a burger and a beer at lunch. It almost felt "normal"
• Rejigging lots of money where I have had refunds for various festivals, gigs and sporting events come through. Needed to be redistributed back out to others I was going with. Of course that leaves me with some, but I've redirected it to my Lake District holiday fund.. 

MovingForwards

The Lakes are gorgeous and you will have so many fantastic memories for years to come!

There's two options with lodgers - 7 day week lodger (more money) or Monday - Thursday lodger (less money, but weekends the home is yours). The may work well, depending on your area and whether you do have city type folk who go home on the weekends.

I'm sure you will work something out that suits you and your finances.

Sistergold

Welldone for cancelling unnecessary insurance and reducing energy bill. I have been psyching myself towards getting a lodger but I am not there yet! I would say since you are doing well on OP due to having a lodger it might be good to keep up the momentum while you can? I am waiting on that day I manage to organise myself enough to get a lodger in for now I have every excuse under the sun as to why I can not do it! The truth is I just have not gotten to the bottom of sorting out the room! I could do with the extra money to add to savings or OPs. 

Good that you are now easing into work mode it’s good to spend time with other human beings I guess! 

Xx

frankersBri

A few small OPs from Prolific and rounding current account means I'm at £296.79 OP for July. So close to that £300 monthly goal..

Didn't start Ebaying yet.. still on the to do list! Wardrobes (or most of them) being delivered Friday, had the delivery confirmed by the big Swedish company and I am so excited to build them! Away for the weekend visiting a friend for her birthday, so it may be my Friday night treat!

Just back from a couple of days camping and climbing hills; I didn't know I needed the break and feel thoroughly refreshed from it! Did mean I didn't have time to prepare for the formal interview for the job I applied for though, so I revoked my application last night. Been contacted by my friend that works there to say HR want to know what it would take to get me back into applying as they really liked me! Flattering to say the least and something else to think about...

South_coast

Sounding great all round 😀 

Sistergold

W lucky you for being able to go camping! That was a good change after this lockdown? Wardrobes - exciting! Nice to be able to pack away cloths! 

X

frankersBri

Thanks @South_coast certainly was feeling good! 
@Sistergold - camping was LOVELY; so great to be somewhere else apart from the small area of lockdown. I'm someone that travels a lot normally so it has been so strange!

New wardrobes.. well. My surefire belief I was going well building them yesterday resulted in emotional pain when trying to stand the carass up it collapsed on itself, breaking the chipboard/whatever it's made from. No tears, a lot of insults at myself. I've put it back together, with some wood glue and am off to a DIY shop tonight to get some metal brackets to hopefully support it enough when it's vertical not laid on my floor... Fingers crossed this girl can do it! Normally I'd just buy another, but it's more MSE to try and fix it and it's out of stock until October so...

A few more little OP's have meant I hit my OP taget for July 🥳 £320.30 the total for July, bring YTD to £10,686.74! Current balance is £169,617.50, hoping by the end of August to be under £169k with my usual payment and any OPs I get.

I actually have a weekend at home with no plans! Wooooopp! So a few things on the agenda

• Fix wardrobe, install doors and move clothes into it
• A couple of gym sessions - it's back open and I had my first socially distanced session yesterday and it was great to work some muscles I haven't
• Paint a wooden chest of drawers I have to match the new room & add lovely copper handles
• Sort things for eBay and put first 10 items on
• Do some gardening
• Plan how to fix fence (panel blew down.. again!)
• Watch the FA Cup final!