2008 MFW newbies

newmoneysaver_2

Ah salty! Good luck with everything and I hope the move goes well.

I think the thread has jinxed my efforts to overpay. With all the problems I had with my car, hubby bike had a service towards the end of feb with resulted in a £500+ bill - 2 new tyres, new front & back brakes and a new chain and sprockets, then last weekend hubby and the bike went through a barbwire fence. Luckily DH came away unhurt, the bike didn't. :mad:

DH can repair the bike himeslf, luckily it is only cosmetic damage and it's just a case of sourcing the parts on ebay. Damage to overpayment fund = £150-£200, luckily I have been doing the free bingo sites and I'm approx £250 up (I had a very nice £113 win ).

Anyway, after all the rambling my S/o went out yesterday so £100 off the mortgage.

Dithering_Dad

Hi Salty, Sorry to hear about your wife's health problems .

Well done on becoming MF though and good luck for the future!

elantan

Dithering_Dad wrote: »

Hi Salty, Sorry to hear about your wife's health problems .

Well done on becoming MF though and good luck for the future!

what he said ...well done enjoy your new found freedom

bellsbells

I am so glad you are sorted with a new bungalow Salty - I bet there is a whole saga you are not telling us about the battle to get a place that is right for her...so you deserve all luck and success in your new place!
Newmoney - glad DH is OK and I know what you mean about the jinx thing - I hav had a hairy couple of months as well!

PS gang, I seem to be having problems with my internet connection - it keeps going down, so if I am not around for the next few days it is nothing personal - I will be back as soon as I can!

SALTY69

Hey Thanks to all for the good wishes, Yes Bellsbells you are not wrong we were messed about and all the crap from the local authority etc but we are lucky and we know it, I will be still coming on here to give updates and see how everyone is doing. I really want you all to be MF as when it finally happens to me and the OH, i think we will just be so happy knowing her she will cry her eyes out then start me off lol. Leaving the house which has been in the family since 1959 will be a wrench though.

tootallulah

Dear Salty

I hope that the bungalow is everything you and your wife need and want. It must be hard to leave your house after so long but at least you are not going far and hopefully life will be easier all on one floor. Good luck and do keep popping in even if it's just to tell us how great it is to be mortgage free.

Toots

Martinslovechild

I know it's slightly cheating, but am I allowed to join your MFW club given that I've paid off my mortgage last year.

Does my new found celebrity status on 'It Pays To Watch' allow me honorary membership?

Di-Dough

Martinslovechild wrote: »

I know it's slightly cheating, but am I allowed to join your MFW club given that I've paid off my mortgage last year.

Does my new found celebrity status on 'It Pays To Watch' allow me honorary membership?

Well done Martinslovechild - Any tips for us?:money:

Di

Di-Dough

Well done Salty .... you will have to let us know what is like on the other side:rotfl:

Martinslovechild

Di-Dough wrote: »

Well done Martinslovechild - Any tips for us?:money:

Di

Sure, but to be fair, there's probably not a lot here that you haven't already considered or are not already doing. Off the top of my head...

• Stoozing on 0% cards - invest the cash in a mortgage overpayment fund (if you have one, this reduces the amount of interest you'll pay) or Cash ISAs
• Maximise overpayments on your mortgage (some deals allow up to 10% per annum, others unlimited, the bad ones allow nothing). Where your bank won't allow you to make overpayments, consider either paying the additional funds into a Cash ISA (providing the Cash ISA interest rate is greater than the Mortgage interest rate) or reduce the outstanding mortgage term, i.e. phone them and ask how much it would cost to reduce your existing term by 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 5 years etc. Whichever one is most achieveable, go for it. A lot of people find that they can reduce their mortgage by up to 15 years with this one phone call. And you'll save bucketloads of cash in the process! Work out how much you can logistically afford each month after compiling a proper budget (use Martin's spreadsheet at www.moneysavingexpert.com/budget)
• Check you're on the cheapest Gas & Electricity package
• Pay Direct Debit for bills rather than cash or cheque - it's generally cheaper
• Swap to a water meter if you don't currently have one AND where there are less people living in your house than there are bedrooms (e.g. 2 people living in a 4-bed house will normally be better off on a meter)
• Swap to a cheaper landline deal. Providers such as Primus Planet Talk offer cheaper line rental than BT and evening & weekend calls are free. Route daytime calls through another provider such as 1899 who charge 0p/min (you must pay 5p connection fee but regardless of whether the call is 1 minute or 2 hours, the total cost of the call is still only 5p)
• Cancel unnecessary outgoings (gym memberships, magazine subscriptions)
• Shop around for the cheapest petrol, check local prices on the petrolprices website
• Use cashback websites for online shopping (e.g. TopCashback, eCashback, GreasyPalm). A payment to you of between a few pence and sometimes over £100 - for something you were purchasing anyway - has got to be good.
• Use comparison websites for insurance, e.g. insuresupermarket.com, uswitch.com.
• Recommend your friends/family to change their insurance/phone deals. Particularly if they don't have internet access, offer to help them out. If you can purchase the insurance through a cashback website, you could always go 50:50 with the cashback payment. They benefit, you benefit also.
• Look around for online shopping vouchers. A quick google for online vouchers for a store before you press the [Buy Now] button can often result in a saving of between 5% and 25% on top of any cashback through a cashback website.
• Use a cashback Credit Card for all purchases, e.g. Egg Money. Spend £20,000 a year and you'll get £200 cashback for free - this pays for your car tax! Remember to pay off the credit card IN FULL every month so as not to end up paying any interest.
• Move your current account to a bank paying a higher amount of interest (e.g. Alliance & Leicester pays 8.5% on the first £2500 balance and offers 0% on overdrafts for 12 months).
• Ditch Sky TV. I used to pay something like £42 per month for Sky+. When I looked at the channels I actually watched regularly, I found that the majority exist on freeview. I ditched Sky, bought a PVR with DVD Recorder & Freeview built in and haven't looked back since. It always gets me how some people say that they're struggling to make ends meet and yet when they publish their SOA, there's often Sky & an expensive mobile phone deal on there.
• Learn to cook! Eating homemade produce is far healthier (and often cheaper!) than buying supermarket ready-meals. It was this point which enabled me to become a domestic god. Maybe.

Now, about that honorary membership