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

HotDog2020

Don't feel bad you will feel tired doing activities like that, the fact you did so much is impresssive. Well done, enjoy the rest, I will probably need a holiday to get over the holiday! 🤣🤣🤣

debtfreewannabe321

Haha 😆 yes I've been on holidays that have left me glad to be back home they were so tiring 😌 

Glad I cashed out the v1nted money as DD just reminded me I hadn't bought her leaver's hoodie yet. So that was £15 towards the £25 😯.

debtfreewannabe321

Morning all, 

MONEY TALKs...

It's the 1st of the month so most money has arrived in now aside from weekly child benefit. 
First month without my wages so let's hope we get this right
Anyway I've shifted some money around, savings- 

£1500/3000 now sits in the YBS - 50% to our goal
£1750.96 is in my EF

Money has been moved to our bills account so that should take care of itself (I will check though as we did forget a couple since starting this so I need to make sure they are now set up right). I love having a separate bills account it means we don't accidentally spend it
The only bill not on a DD is my gas and elec and I paid that this morning so all done.

GROCERY BUDGET
This one is just doing my head in. To be frank...
SO we ran out of coffee and fruit. I tried to swap my shop for an earlier one in the week as my delivery slot is on Friday. No can do. The earliest they could do was Thurs eve...I may as well just wait until Friday morning so I left it. No problem, my fault really I didn't order enough fruit and coffee last week. I popped to Mr T this morning and picked up fruit, coffee, bread sticks and 2 hanging baskets *where is that face palm head emoji* so I spent £21 something. However, in my defense........they were really pretty I have decided to limit the damage on the Grocery budget and opted to take the £10 hanging baskets from my pocket money (PM pot). i have still spent in one week...£163.36. SIGH....... I am not relenting yet, nor giving in though. I will stick with my £500 budget and the £50 buffer. I will be honest I would have not gone shopping if it wasn't for the coffee...DP & DS can't seem to live without it and I felt bad saying no until Friday I think that would have been the worst week ever. I would have got frozen/tinned fruit out and made do without that but never mind...it's done.

HM food
I have made humous and protein balls this morning (bought more desiccated coconut too for that out of this morning's shop). That's what the bread sticks are for...so we have plenty of snacks now, and everyone loves protein balls, humous and breadsticks and fruit so snacks are good and I have plenty of bread and dinners in so we should be okay. 
I have sausages for dinner later with the last of the sack potatoes and some veg. Tomorrow will just be something out of the freezer, there is quite a bit in there again so no worries there.

SURVEYS & other money makers
Last month in my budget planner I decided to start noting down all extra sales and money made from surveys. My aim is to make enough to cover the OPs. We budget money towards the EF as that was my new priority, but it's not a lot now I have quit work so I wanted to make the difference up with sales on bay of E and v1nted and survey sites. 
Already this month I have made approx £50 on surveys with cash payouts and £10 a.ma.zon vouchers. DP also gave me £100 this morning...I haven't allocated it yet though. I will decide what to do with it and report back on that one. 

MORTGAGE
I guess what we are all here for...the interest went on this morning, it is kinda deflating seeing the interest going on and bashing that number back up, up, up after you spent all month chipping away at it and seeing it go down, down, down. Any-who...there is some good news there, the interest this month is £198.84 which is down from last months (206), but not quite as low as February's interest (£194). We haven't yet had the money taken off for our monthly payment (the app always seems to be a day behind) so I will update that when it goes on tomorrow.
It will be just over £97k I think (less that 97.5k anyway). I have reached my main monthly goal for the EF already so I am tempted to start on the MOP now....I kind of have in mine I have £1500 in the YBS savers.......so if there were a real emergency, there would be no question about it, we would use that money in there. So I would like to revert back to chipping away at the MOPs every month after having reached whatever goal I have set myself for the month (and most money made is going to EF rather than MOP I think on average.) This may make no sense to some and I may once again change my mind anyway, as I am prone to doing

HOUSE
DP is going to look at the unsafe bannister later, it really does need some work doing to it. This home is perfect for a family but the bannister and handrail are wobbly as h3ll and I would say dangerous to smaller kids. I think I mentioned before that when we had the steel beam up the stairs where we had a wall knocked down, we had to removed the handrail and spindles at the top and they were pretty much thrown back in by the builders. It is a mess. DP will see if he can sort it out on the cheap. ALL the parts are there they just need to be fixed properly, filled and painted.

I have done 90% of the painting and cleaning now, just the ceilings to do really and second coat on the hallway. I wanted it all done before we even let an EA round to value it. The last house we sold they tried to value it over the phone but we insisted they come out, and he then valued it 20k over what we thought we could get....I am hoping to break even this time round on spends and what we paid, we haven't been here long enough to have much profit sadly. And if we decided not to sell because we haven't even broken even at least the house is totally finished and we can enjoy it. I just know if we don't finish it then decide to stay those little snagging jobs will never ever get done!

Okay well think that is long enough...I will be back with my new mortgage total hopefully tomorrow!

skint_spice

I too went to the shops early basically because we ran out of butter but I also bought wine and chocolate…

With the mortgage interest I like to work it out per day and watch it go down a little each month.

debtfreewannabe321

Morning all, 

well I started a survey this morning- 20 minutes it said....45 minutes later grrr! And only 50 points. I persevered thinking it must be nearing the end.........by the end I confess I was just clicking through without much thought for it and admitted so at the end. I have cashed out £5 a.m.azon voucher for my troubles though so whatevs. I am done with surveys for today though my eyes are hurting now! Pr0l1f1c still stands at £3 odd and hasn't moved, lots pending on there though so may get a payout soon enough. 

Mortgage update! 1st May 2024...
£97,285.47

That's great as even without any OPs I should get below £97k next month     
It would have been great to get to £95k by next month as that would have been 10k paid off since we bought the house nearly 2 years ago. We're not far behind though! 
Today is miserable out and windy. It started off sunny and quickly turned. This weather is making me feel thoroughly fed up.

Yesterday afternoon after I logged off here DP asked if I wanted to go to the city with him as he had a meeting so we could use business miles instead of personal ones :mr:mrgreen: ....I went thinking I could drop something off to my sister on the way and also get the flooring for the toilet room and some trim we needed for around the window. So we did that, couldn't find any offcuts small enough but found some super cheap vinyl on the roll which matched the colour scheme and for £8.99 a metre cost us less that £20! Also got the trim from b n queue for only a tenner so not too much spent which I was glad about as I had no diy budget this month    

I was invited for an interview next week but I am not going. I found out the hours and I am sorry but I am not starting a menial job for minimum wage at 4.30am in the morning. Uh-uh no way. I have to have some principles I stick to I did think it strange the hours were not posted with the ad, but there was more info on the invite. So I left it. Heard nothing back from any others. I will keep looking, I have faith something will come that is right for me at the right time.

@skint_spice I worked out my interest per day too, I wrote down the 'how-to' sum in my budget planner. My old math teacher & my math tutor would drop down from shock at my understanding and learning of maths beyond school years I had no care for it at school, surprised I even scraped a C   but since then I am all over these numbers at the moment *runs to grab phone for calculator* my interest daily is £6.64 (approx there is a lot of numbers after decimal that I have just ignored for a quick calculation ) And the wine and choc sound good....My hanging baskets were a bargain. I told the neighbours how much they were and some of them have paid over double just for one. TBF though they are pretty small. 

Anyway I suppose I ought to walk the dog, I think it may rain it's turned really moody looking outside. AND DS has actually come down to speak to me this morning! Shock! He wants to cook something with me with his protein powder although I think it is up to me to find something to cook I will look on p1nt3rest! OKay off for now. I may come back later depending on whether I fancy some more surveys

debtfreewannabe321

Morning all, 
Well I feel super energised this morning! I decided right before I went to sleep last night (if you can call my restless nights scattered with hot and cold flushes sleep) that I was going to do something about my mood and my health today. So I got up after only one cup of tea this morning and got dressed and went out for a 2 mile walk. One where I could walk at my pace. One where a dog does not stop to sniff every blade of grass before we have even left our street and one where I could walk up a sweat. I nearly went for three miles but I decided I would work my way up. My hip is still a little twingy. On the whole though my body feels back to normal *yay*. I was super fit when I was at work (even with the pains) and it is amazing how quickly you can go from being fit to fat again and unable to walk far without feeling it. I think I have already put on half a stone sine leaving work and I already wanted to lose a bit even at that weight perhaps I just need to embrace middle-age spread but I don't want to I will fight the good fight a while longer lol. 
I am glad I went out early, I am looking out the window now...and it has gone dark. Looks like rain looming and it wasn't particularly nice when I left. Suppose really I should walk the dog round the block now but I will have my tea I've just made myself.

Reading other diaries on here is so helpful to me, I often feel like I am alone in the world and when I see other people struggling with their mental health and becoming aware of why they are in debt/ why they want to pay off their mortgage/ whatever financial goals we all have I see we all have struggles and I don't feel so picked on by the universe any more (I know so childish but whatever tis how I feel some days). My ex and I got ourselves into a lot of debt when we were together (hence my first few diaries on here) partly because I was effectively a mortgage prisoner for a long time and had bad tenants one after the other, cars breaking down were another reason, and also overspending to make us happy (doesn't work FYI haha). I am older, wiser now and am aware when my mood is dropping to that crazy thinking of F it all let's go on a big blow out.....I was heading that way recently. It is me searching for some spontaneity in a boring mundane existence. It is fleeting happiness though so I am returning to my roots of cheaper easier ways to get a dopamine hit......walking alone, meditation, writing/ journalling/ "me time". I do not want to end up running down my EF or other savings because I am having a bad day and I see the £££ there ...phew that's off my chest. 

Anyway I am hoping for a NSD today. Yesterday was not a NSD. I went to the hardware shop and bought some new light switch plastic switchy things. Whatever they're called. We have more expensive ones throughout the house but for some reason we overlooked the dining room. The ones in there are '80s gold ones where the gold has all rubbed off to a dirty muddy colour so will just update with plastic ones for now. I might do that job myself as DP thinks I can't do it and I want to prove him wrong I am not sure who he thought did all the DIY in my houses before him but I think that he thinks my skills go as far as painting and that's it  

Mr T is due I am not counting that in spends as it is a planned expense. The shop came to £119.93. so that is £283.29 so far. If I don't need any extras this week I should be able to carry £200 over into weeks 3&4 I have a sm0l delivery due at some point too...I am debating whether to cancel it or not and just buy cheap from SM....hmm... I will think about that one. 

I bought a newspaper for the first time in years the other day just for the NT voucher. I looked for the cheapest paper carrying the voucher and was gobsmacked to see that it was still 95p!! I clearly haven't bought a paper in a while as I think the last one I bought was closer to 50p and I thought that was daylight robbery haven't even read the paper....it is sat on the side so I can use the voucher. I will use the paper in the fire unless of course it has all weird ink that likes to light up different colours. 

Right better go get ready to run dog round the block before the rain I can see it is starting to spit already.

debtfreewannabe321

A pic from my walk ... aren't they pretty! They were all along the sides of the fields ❤️

~FlowerPot~

so pleased you managed to get out early and have a good walk, Ive walked round the garden (picking up dog poo!!! haha!, so im not sure that counts!)

Need to find some energy. Ive had a protein drink. Im trying a new blend to see if they help!!

lovely bluebells, we have a ton in the garden, but they all seem to be the Spanish type and not our native ones unfortunately, still very pretty mind x

debtfreewannabe321

~FlowerPot~ said:

so pleased you managed to get out early and have a good walk, Ive walked round the garden (picking up dog poo!!! haha!, so im not sure that counts!)

Need to find some energy. Ive had a protein drink. Im trying a new blend to see if they help!!

lovely bluebells, we have a ton in the garden, but they all seem to be the Spanish type and not our native ones unfortunately, still very pretty mind x

We've also got a tonne of Spanish bluebells in our garden. I wish I'd dug up a few from my old house they were native ones and so delicate...
I've also been round our garden this morning with a bag picking up dog poo too 🤣 such a glamorous life I have.

debtfreewannabe321

NSD 4/15
£6.16 cashed out finally on Pr0l1f1c. Unsure what to do with it, debating more to the EF...debating also MOP Will move it to an empty account for now until I make my mind up