The Mortgage Free (to be) Pixie 13 January 2021 at 3:07PM in Mortgage-free wannabe 37 replies 1K views

BeeblePixie

My dad is 100% a MFW enabler! I just called him to chat tonight (and to see if he would taxi me to or from putting my car in for it’s service 😁) and was telling him about my grand MFW plans (and also that I’d applied for a LISA today) and he told me just no not pay back money that I had borrowed from him (£1200 for an e-bike, he has one too and we go out together). He didn’t even think about it. Just told me not to bother paying for it, because he’d rather the money goes to my future (he did also then say all their assent would eventually be split between my sister and I at some point anyway, so why not just give me it now!)

Mum just sat in the background and laughed at both of us. 

So in my own accounts, I’ve just freed up £50/month which can go towards the additional £40/month we’ve agreed to put towards the joint account each to help fund the additional OPs and some of the improvement work we’d like to have done. 

Winner winner 🎉🎉🎉

South_coast

And the ball is rolling....😀😀😀

shangaijimmy

Welcome aboard...you will be obsessed like the rest of us very quickly. In my early days of MFW quest I also found it hard engaging Mrs SJ, and I know I was too giddy, too quick and probably not great at finding the best time or the best words. In the end 2 things worked for me. The first one was a drawing of our house with each brick representing £1k. I got Mrs SJ to colour in each brick as we paid that £1k chunk off. The second one was telling her the daily interest rate. When I told her it was £16.41 a day the look of horror and disgust was amazing! And those 2 things were my buy in. In all honesty she's still not actively interested but she does tolerate me when I give an update. And when she rolls here eyes and thinks (quite rightly) that I'm a nerd I can say "Remember when our daily interest was £16.41...". My updates now generally go along the lines of "This time last year we owed XXXX and daily interest was XXXX, now it's...and by the time your 40, we'll only have 5yrs to go". Lastly before I go, stick with it and keep finding those little wins. Purchase round up's, and account tidies really help to keep momentum going when you're finding it a slog. And it's always nice to say at the end of the month "Hey, those account tidies have paid for 6 days worth of interest this month".

BeeblePixie

Thanks for visiting guys
@South_coast as you know I speed read my way through your diary, and @shangaijimmy I’m tackling yours now 😂 (currently on page 64!) 

It’s amazing to see the different ways people do the same things - it also give me ideas as to what could work for me. 

I’ve started doing surveys/stories on Qmee and streetbees for a few extra pennies, and I’m thinking about a monthly tidy of the joint account (any money left in some categories in my YNAB budget will be going to OPs now)

However my own finances may take a bit of a hit today - took my car in for its service (paid for on a service plan so that’s fine) but I mentioned that my windscreen was frozen on the inside the last few time I’d gotten in it. Turns out there is water in one of the footwells 😭 £100 to find out where it’s coming from, and god knows how much to fix

I’ve only got about £250 in my car maintenance fund, so hopefully it’s not going to be too much more than that!

pepperwand

I am in a similar situation @BeeblePixie where I'm the one driving the overpayment conversation. DH is far more cautious and likes to have money in the bank just in case. We do have a decent emergency fund though so I think any extra needs to be working for us in a better way. Luckily he's agreed and we're now going to aim to overpay at least £100 a month. I've just started a diary of my own and agree it's addictive!

caeler

I really empathise with that @pepperwand
For years I didn't have much money let alone an emergency fund so I just saved as much as a good and its only been since 2017 that I felt confident enough to overpay.  I also realised that with my lender I can use it against any underpayments in the future so that felt quite secure. 
I hope you can get the car fixed @BeeblePixie and my car fund has also taken a beating this month!

BeeblePixie

@caeler I’ve decided to take a wait and see approach 😂 and have told them not to investigate yet - have a theory that it might have been my frost guard that has caused the problem, so am going to keep an eye on the situation before jumping into anything

And addictive is absolutely the right word for this process. I’ve got bricks to colour in, and a budget (using YNAB which I used to use ages ago), OH is scunnered, and has taken himself off to the spare room to watch YouTube with the cat. 😂😂

Bargainhunter30

I have an older car and find there is always water inside, maybe from wet feet or the dog. I use the damp traps that you get from pound shops to trap the water and this tends to stop it freezing on the inside. 

BeeblePixie

@Bargainhunter30 sadly it was more water than would be explained by something like that - the carpet under my rubber mats was really quite wet!

I went out today to check it and it’s much drier today, which is giving me hope 😊

On other financial news my paperwork just come in today for my LISA, so I’ve shuffled some money around and put a reasonable sum in there (there’s no way I’ll fill it each year, but I’m going to make a blinking good go of it!)

caeler

You might want to give the car’s drainage channels a clean. When they get blocked water can get into the cabin. Just a thought. @BeeblePixie