Buying a little piece of Middle England; Manifesting my way to mortgage free.

debtfreewannabe321

beanielou said:

If it’s any consolation I am out of milk too & food delivery is not until Wednesday. 

Can't believe I missed the bread! I think it is because we went to the city s'burys rather than the local Mr T - and the bread aisle is as soon as you go past the fresh stuff locally. The city one was the back of the store and we didn't go that far in, d'oh! Never mind. I have fed everyone the chickpeas and naan (smothered in garlic butter and airfryed, was yummy) and I might put the shop off until tomorrow as like @skint_spice it is raining once again...this is THE most bizarre weather ever. Honestly one minute it is blue skies, dry the next gale force winds, total grey cover and howling torrential rain pelting the windows. Has been like this ALL morning so far. I have a tonne of washing I need to do as well should have made good use of the sun yesterday but instead I did the gardening! Ah well - grateful I have a tumble drier. 

I am blurry eyed from surveys. Survey fatigued. Answered too many questions on stupid things to even think straight now. I think that's enough for one day. Timed out on a few/ screened out as it wasn't right for me *yada yada that old line after already being in there five minutes* but one survey site is ready to pay out the other is only 100 points away. I think time for a record, and a tidy around, get my body moving as I am freezing. 

I also want to make some protein balls for the kids, jam tarts and also try and find somewhere that sells cheap dried chickpeas in bulk (any readers know where might be best?) I bought from s'burys just to trial using them over canned and it was a great success but I don't think they were the cheapest place to go. £2.25 for 1kg from Laila....1kg did not last long. They are all gone! So I need at least 2kg per month I think possibly more. I will keep searching...

I have an @mazon voucher that arrived in my emails from surveys. I have added it to my wallet online, wanted to use it for furniture legs for the old record cupboard I bought so I can upcycle it - I need a few more quid though towards that before I buy. This saving money/ making extra money for purchases is new to me, I am struggling with impulse buys still and the need for instant (well next day) buying satisfaction. It is making me think about every purchase though holding off and making sure I have a budget before spending so that is a good thing I suppose. Righty-ho going to have a wander round the house make sure DD has stuff for school tomorrow (lunch and uniform) and that some washing and dinner are sorted. Might be back later some days you just can't get rid of me.....

debtfreewannabe321

MOP so far March-April

Some small TT, survey payments sent over to MOP this week...

£1.56, £0.80, £10, £0.76. 

Paid £290.67 to MOP so far this month with 9 days left of the month....I am hoping to make it to £300!

£200 was for the fish. £<nearly> 100 is from cashback, surveys, and v1nted sales alone!

Have over £15 still pending on surveys so let's see if it clears before the monthly reset so I can make my £300!

HotDog2020

It sounds like although you are not working you are very much busy trying to get the extra money in and preparing dinners, planning finances and purchases and partaking in surveys well done...I hope the job front looks more positive soon, sending positive vibes.

dawnybabes

Do you have any ethnic shops around ?,I buy all my dried pulses from them much much cheaper, if not look on the good old Amazon 

debtfreewannabe321

HotDog2020 said:

It sounds like although you are not working you are very much busy trying to get the extra money in and preparing dinners, planning finances and purchases and partaking in surveys well done...I hope the job front looks more positive soon, sending positive vibes.

I am still searching daily for jobs. The thing is I don't currently have a car all day so it's really hard to find anything local (not many jobs here) or a train journey away that makes it worthwhile paying travel. Until then we are doing okay, far better than we have done for months so I am happy with the progress Thank you for those positive vibes I will take those @HotDog2020

dawnybabes said:

Do you have any ethnic shops around ?,I buy all my dried pulses from them much much cheaper, if not look on the good old Amazon 

@dawnybabes Ah thanks for popping by, oddly someone else mentioned this to me last night. Can't believe I hadn't really thought about this...I used to visit the one in the city all the time when I lived there. I think I will pop into it (it's a big asian supermarket) after payday and see what they have! I searched on @mazon and honestly that place just confuddles me these days there is TOO MUCH choice  

debtfreewannabe321

Good morning all!
Well today is a new term for DD. She has gone off smiling as it is also her last term there. Albeit she has GCSEs to get out the way first lol.

Yesterday was the first shift I didn't work at the old job too, my friend  & fellow supervisor called me yesterday evening and we were both wondering how they coped. They had advertised for our job for less than a week and it was filled (like I say there isn't many jobs round here so they do get filled quickly). She had sent me a description of the job and I just laughed. There were two job adverts. One for supervisor and one for normal staff. Normal staff wage is 40p less than supervisor wage. This is how the job description went- normal staff- your duties will include X, Y & Z. And this is how the supervisor job description went- your duties will be to supervise the staff we have (17 of them).


{Then a few paragraphs underneath that was one more sentence} you will also be expected to do duties, X, Y & Z and also A & B & C, in the event of staff sickness you will be expected to stand in for the staff member too, on top of supervising. 

we nearly wet ourselves laughing at that one. They actually tried to hide what the job is- a glorified version of normal staff. Ha. Well I wish them well whoever took it on because they have gone from hiring two supervisors to only one and we couldn't cope with two of us most of the time. 

ANYWAY, onwards guess what? My foot hasn't hurt me in days!! The chiropractor did something to it that made an almighty crack and my face was just like OMG. I thought he had broken it at the noise but it hasn't hurt since, so, I think he's actually fixed it! To have that one pain alone gone was worth the money!

This morning I have cashed out £15 and sent over to the MOP. I have also cashed out £5 from another survey site but I opted for a £5 @mazon voucher instead for that one as I have a list of stuff I want to buy. I will wait until the money goes on my mortgage app tomorrow and then find the figures to post on here but I think my mortgage will be down to the next £500 (in my mind I am working towards paying it off in £500 increments as we don't have that much money to see thousands coming off at once, so I want to feel spurred on in smaller steps). The figure should be £97,5XX (not sure what the XX will be yet there is a few payments pending).

DP is out most of today, DD is at school, DS is upstairs but he will probably not leave his room aside from food. I think I will get dressed, walk the dog, get a few bits from the shops and then decide on dinner- something with tofu. I am reading through a course online still so will carry on doing that too and perhaps get my daily meditations underway. I keep falling asleep when I am doing them in the evenings lately. Yesterday was a NSD as I didn't get to the shops. I am up to 8 now. I made everyone porridge this morning as we had no bread and I made DD a panini for lunch as I had one left. But we are short on a few things like oat milk, bread and wraps so I do have to go shopping today sadly. 

My friend had her appointment yesterday to find out what stage her C is. It had already been cancelled once. She got there and the Dr didn't have any idea as to why she was there as he had no results to give her, in fact he reckoned she was at the wrong hospital entirely and another one should have made the appointment for her. She has been psyching herself up for weeks, and she is already so up and down I think this mess up is just cruel. The Dr didn't even apologise nor see if he could find the results anywhere (they probably are in the system somewhere as tests and scans were done a while ago now). I felt really bad for her. My old colleague is at the same hospital today she said she started throwing up blood at around 4 this morning. They've left her sat there in A&E being sick for hours without even an anti-sickness tablet. This hospital is really not good locally. I am kind of glad we moved, we are now right in between two hospitals and given the choice I would go in the other direction to the smaller one. So I am kind of sat by the phone waiting for either friend to call me today. 

Right I will be off now as need to get on.

ladybird1106

Your poor friends, the NHS is really falling apart. Some Dr's seem to forget they are dealing with people often in times of distress and their bedside manner leaves alot to be desired. Or the forget we are not medically trained and don't give us all the information we need, but are given websites to look at that often don't give you much info/advice.
We have had alot of fantastic Dr's in the past, so I don't want to tarnish them all with the same brush. Anyway sorry about mini rant. 
Love 🐞

debtfreewannabe321

ladybird1106 said:

Your poor friends, the NHS is really falling apart. Some Dr's seem to forget they are dealing with people often in times of distress and their bedside manner leaves alot to be desired. Or the forget we are not medically trained and don't give us all the information we need, but are given websites to look at that often don't give you much info/advice.
We have had alot of fantastic Dr's in the past, so I don't want to tarnish them all with the same brush. Anyway sorry about mini rant. 
Love 🐞

I totally agree My bro in law had an emergency op last summer in this hospital - it is when they found his cancer, they left him in a corridor for hours on end. They messed up the operation and twisted his bowels, cut off blood supply and he was in a coma for weeks. We nearly lost him several times but he eventually pulled through. It was horrendous and my poor sister has trauma every time she goes near there now especially the intensive care unit. It is kinda why I put up with their moans the other day, I know they have had a hard year and he is not getting better..... That hospital would be the last place I would want to be sent to in an emergency. I can speak very highly of other places but that one- no. Not from everything I have heard and been witness to myself. 

debtfreewannabe321

WHERE MY FINANCES ARE, April-May 2024 (new lower income)
Proper budget done (copied from my budget book, I did a rough one yesterday)

My income is:
£700 made up from:-

£530 maintenance (which may go down very soon)
£170 child benefit

DP income is:
£1900 approx
£ XXX Bonus to be confirmed 

Income TOTAL: £2600 (+ bonus divided by 3.)


This is my outgoings each month as it stands currently:

HOUSEHOLD
Mortgage                          £515
Council Tax                       £150
Gas & Electric                   £130
Water                                £52
Mobiles x 3                       £21
Talk Talk                           £25
Insurances                       £40
=£933

DEBTS
Carpet loan                       £93 (0%)
=£93

ENTERTAINMENT/ PERSPONAL
Amazon Music                       £10
Plex                                        £4
Kids activities & expense      £58
Pocket money for kids          £40
Pocket money for adults       £200
fast host                                £21
=£333

SAVINGS POTS
EF                                        £150
Clothes                                £50
YBS MOP                            £300
Birthday & Christmas          £150
Health                                 £50
=£700

OTHER
Maintenance                       £208
=£208

FOOD
Food                                    £500
Dog                                      £20
=£520



TOTAL Outgoings             £ 2,787

Incoming - Outgoings = -£187

Thoughts- well this isn't as bad as I initially thought! There might even be an extra £100 or thereabouts if I can stick to this budget....just a waiting game now to see if DP bonus is as high as we hoped it would be (after tax, before tax it is a really nice high figure usually)


AIMS FOR PAYING OFF MORTGAGE
I have taken the MOP out of this budget. Whatever is extra from the bonus can be allocated to this. And I will carry on for now making extra where I can.

OUTSTANDING DEBTS
The loan has another 2 years left to run on it. We will leave it as is though because it is on 0%.

OTHER MONEY SAVING GOALS
To reach that first goal I set myself of £1500 in my EF. I think I will carry on with the EF payments being this high after I reach that point too, as this is more important to me than the MOP at the moment whilst we are on such a low interest rate with the mortgage. And it is important to me to have financial stability which means a big rainy day fund. Not sure where else I can cut any money from the budget to be honest, if anyone sees it though please feel free to chime in

HotDog2020

That chiropracter sounds like a miracle worker. If it was me...I don't know how much debt you owe on your carpet loan even though it is 0% having that money continually coming out lowers the amount you have from your monthly pocket, I would pay it off if I had the money...I would do it with Mortgage and student loan if I had the money and neither are very expensive. This means you reduce your monthly expenses ongoing, wheras if you use it up on other stuff your bills will not reduce and you'll be in a worse spot until  you get another job...But although I would do this it is not for everyone, and I don't have a family to feed and everyones situation is different. Just a passing opinion choose to do with it what you want.