The "Grand Plan" - Phase One well underway!

SingleSue

We usually have a farmers market in a local church hall in the town centre but I found them to be quite expensive and our real local farms not represented.

Maybe ours will go the way of yours in the not too distant future and be more of a local thing and at reasonable prices. It was what had put me off buying from farm shops but we have been nicely surprised, I mean where else can you get a punnet of raspberries for 79p!

Thankfully the kids were very sensible and didn't get any stains on them (unlike their mother) and they even took notice when I said not to eat as they picked...they were little angels and never once tried to eat anything before it had been paid for.

And yeah, I wish I had gone tonight too! Still undecided about BH Monday to be honest but definately want to go to the BBQ they have arranged although I may have to hit the savings account to do so, something I don't want to do right now!

EssexHebridean

SingleSue wrote: »

...they were little angels

Blimey!!!!! :A :rotfl: What did you threaten them with?!! :rotfl:

SingleSue

Ahh that was easy......the men in blue coming and taking them away in handcuffs!

Thankfully, they have a good idea that it is wrong to steal.

Mind you, I think the threat of also not ever getting a MacDonalds or christmas and birthday presents for ever more if they did also played a part too! :rotfl:

EssexHebridean

OH and I agreed that when the amount in our "household emergencies" savings account went above a certain level we'd transfer into the ISA against the loan payoff fund. As a result of this I have just transferred my regular savings amount for the month, £150.00, plus that excess and a small amount from work travel expenses over to the ISA - £350 gone over this time which I'm quite pleased with - it's certainly above target. I'm going to be ever so sorry when the time comes to have to empty it out!

I have to work out at what stage I want to ask NR for the settlement figure - I'm going to ask for figures assuming settlement on either 18th December or 18th January I think - keeping my options open! I'm still aiming firmly at the December date though - determined not to take my eye off the ball!

Other than that it's been piggy clicks and competition entries as usual - it's looking like another good month on Racecaller although being away for the best part of a week at the beginning of it affected things a bit. I'm 200 points off another voucher now - hopefully with racecaller and CT's I might get that in a month or so - well unless stingy piggy does his worst!

I have to go through the freezer with a fine-toothed comb at some stage and really start cracking into eating our way through the contents - it needs defrosting before too long although ideally we'll wait for the cooler weather so the baskets can sit outside while it's done. I'm not sure us having gained another local farmers market is entirely a good thing....it could encourage an increased spend as we see godies that look tasty!

setmefree2

Well Done:T:T:T

StuartGMC

Just back from hols and catching up; good to hear you are still well on track for the target.:T

poppyoscar_3

You're so disciplined!!!! Well done!!!

PO xx

EssexHebridean

We just recently renewed our household contents insurance - through Quidco AND a cheaper quote than last year - and as a result of paying it on a lump sum rather than in installments as we have previously, there will now be an additional £16 per month in the joint account....on the basis of this being a "gain" to us (credit card is paid off in full each month so that expenditure is already accounted for) that additional £16 is now being rounded up to £20 and added to the mortgage OP. OH will ring NR tomorrow to add it. This takes our OP's on the mortgage to £81 per month - or 12.5% on top of the regular monthly payment. The thing that is amazing us is that this is all from "free money" - Tax changes, the insurance payment we're no longer paying monthly, that sort of thing. :eek: Makes you realise how easy it is just to "absorb" money into your monthly spend without noticing the going of it.

Did a 230 mile round trip for work today and had already done a 39 mile round trip on Monday, so that's going to be another £107.00 coming my way to go against the loan fund. See PoppyOscar - I;ve taken your idea on board! :rotfl:

EssexHebridean

We've just added another £40 to the regular OP on the mortgage - meaning we're now OP'ing by 16%. It was only going to be half of that until OH remembered that we get the benefit of the Government putting right the almighty pigs ear they made of the 10p tax band changes earlier in the year as from September, so we decided to throw that as it as well. The Mortgage statement arrived (Finally!) yesterday too, so I have updated my spreadsheet. Never fails to amaze the difference you can make!

LoulaBelle

I've just been reading your post and its VERY inspiring!

My husband and I always used to make overpayments when we were both working but since having my son 3 years ago all that stopped and we haven't really kept a check on our spending in all that time - we used to be so good and really enjoyed taking £500 - £1000 cash into Nationwide on the first of the month telling them we would like to make an overpayment and then we'd wait for the letter to tell us how many months we'd knocked off the mortgage - its started that we'd knocked an extra month off then it went up to 2 months and finally 3 whole months - getting those letters meant so much to us - we managed to knock about 6 extra years off in just 4 years.

After reading your posting I feel like we need to get back on track because I don't know where all the money goes - my husband brings in good money but I think it may have something to do with me being at home and taking my son out all the time its ten pound here and twenty there. Its not really a great time to start the Wannabe Mortgage Free as I've his 3rd birthday party in 2 weeks and then 4 weeks after that baby number 2 will be arriving and that may possibly send me off on a spree (we don't know if its a boy or girl this time so buying has been a bit limited - I've just got a few bits in pink and blue) still need to buy a double pushchair. Next year I plan on doing a big car boot sale as I think we are stopping at 2 children (??? who know's ???)

Anyway sorry to have waffled on and hijacked your thread but it seems that you could be the one to get me back on track by stopping my frivolous (sp?) spending ....................... and re-starting the overpayments!

I'll be following your postings!!!!!