Getting a Grip and Saving towards the mortgage

Busy_Mee1 · 18 October 2016 at 7:27AM

Hi Try Harder, it is lovely to see you back. I will pop along to your diary later for a catch up.

So it has been a while since I last posted. Work continues to be busy and I have had some worries at home, and I just feel like I haven't had much space in my head for anything else.
My boss who normally behaves like an overgrown toddler has finally spat his dummy out completely and resigned. This means that I am doing his job for a while, as well as my own. It does mean some extra money but not enough really for all the extra work. I have also been really worried about my DD as she and her partner have been going through a rough patch, they seem much better now but I just can't help worrying...

I have however carried on with my MSE activity, but I haven't been quite so focused. I suddenly realised I hadn't updated my spreadsheets for at least two weeks.....the shame:rotfl:
Anyway Operation Eb@y finished on Sunday, making a grand total of £233.44 :j . I am really pleased with this but glad my Eb@ying is finished for this year, I do find it a bit tedious. I also got around to switching my two Donor accounts ( currently with COOP) to the H@lifax. I am really impressed with the H@lifax, I applied for the accounts on Thursday and the switch is set for 21 October and the first £100 was paid in on Monday ! Talk about efficient and if anyone needs to get their hands on a swift extra £100 this is the way to do it. My Donor accounts have now gained me £250 each, so £500 in total and I intend to do a another switch before the end of March. I am also waiting on some TCB for the C@@P accounts but I am not sure whether this will pay out, there are some mixed experiences over on the Banking Forum.
Having some targets continues to be a real motivator, the reason I applied for the switching bonuses is because I am a couple of hundred pounds short of hitting my £1000 saving target this month. Hopefully I am now back on track.

So I think that is all, I will be back to update my October figures and then I will be away for most of November. I hope to be back then with a vengeance and some new targets :T

Kittenkirst · 18 October 2016 at 1:38PM

Fantastic work on the ebaying and I totally understand when you say it's tedious, the extra pennies are great but all the photography, listing, questions and posting is rather long winded

try_harder · 18 October 2016 at 2:00PM

Sorry to hear about the worries at home ,strangely enough i have had similar worries with one of my daughters but things seem to have settled down again now but we will have to see ,all we can do is support them when they wish to talk about things but i find myself wanting to make everything right as i did when they were all small but sadly its not so easy now.You stick at it ,you have done amazingly well with your savings ,i will miss seeing you around in november but hope you have a wonderful time and be back in december with your usual enthusiasim not sure if i spelt that correctly .Looking forward to seeing your october figures busymee1.

try_harder · 15 November 2016 at 4:00PM

Hi buymee1,i hope you are ok ,im not sure if you are away on holiday or with work etc but hope all is going well and look forward to seeing you back soon

Busy_Mee1 · 28 December 2016 at 12:34PM

I am going to sneak back in quietly in the hope that no one will notice how long I have been missing..... So my excuses..... We went travelling for 3 weeks...spent too much money but had a fantastic time and don't regret a penny spent. When we came back work has been really busy and will continue to be so through January. I am enjoying the breathing space Christmas is providing.
Also there had been a change in circumstances at home DD has returned for good having split up with her boyfriend and DS house still hasn't been built and it is unlikely to be ready until March......so much for my empty nest by Christmas 2016.
Despite a bit of a blip in spending whilst on holiday we have generally kept up to our MSE habits and I intend to focus again in January for the New Year. Our savings towards the mortgage this year have been £10k and we have also knocked £10k off the mortgage in repayments.
So the figures for 2016 are as follows:
Mortgage: £252,175.48
Savings. £42014.30
Saving:Mortgage 16.66%

I am slightly disappointed that we only saved £10k towards the mortgage this year but we were slightly scuppered by the building work and painting that cost us £6k ( not to mention the holidays!) . So must try and do better in 2017, some of you guys on here are inspirational and totally hardcore.
I am pleased with some of things I have done this year, as well as budgeting our income I have found lots of additional income streams from free money, topcashback, rewards, switching Bonuses and Eb@y. I have received
£220 in M&S vouchers
£150 x 2 switching bonus to C@@P
£50.40 x2 TCB for opening above C@@P accounts
£100 x 2 for switching to H@lifax

Total £820.80 for opening two donor accounts. They are currently with H@lifax and earning £10 per month in rewards but I will probably switch them again in Feb to either Nationwide or FD.
I also need to rethink my bank account holdings now Santander and TSB have dropped their interest rates .... T@sco accounts I think.
In terms of goals for this year - I would like to save £13k bringing my savings towards the mortgage up to £55k by Christmas 2017. This will offset against the mortgage to take the outstanding amount below £200k :T This will feel a lot less scary.
In fact this milestone should be reached sometime in the summer when we hit around £50k mark and of course the mortgage continues to reduce month on month- I need to do the calculations to work out when this could be.

Anyway that is all my news, I hope you all had a great Christmas and wishing you a Happy and MSE New Year

try_harder · 29 December 2016 at 11:40AM

Morning busymee,so pleased to see you back ,i have missed you ,glad you had a wonderful time travelling .You have done so well saving this year and im sure next year will be just as good .Happy new year to you and your family.

themadvix · 30 December 2016 at 10:22AM

Hi Busymee, so pleased you're back, but no need to apologise (there's a two year hiatus in my diary!). Glad you had a good Christmas, but sorry to hear about your daughter's break up (for her, as well as you!). It must be frustrating for your son to have been delayed too.

You've done brilliantly with the donor accounts - part of me thinks I should try harder at this (no pun intended TH!), but I struggle to find the DDs to use as they're all tied up in a NW reward account, which works well for us.

Good luck for 2017!

gallygirl · 30 December 2016 at 10:27AM

Don't beat yourself up - you've made great progress while still doing that 'having a life' thing that is so important :T.

LadyGnome · 30 December 2016 at 1:44PM

Hello, welcome back from your trip. You have achieved a lot this year even if you haven't quite got to where you wanted. Think where you would have been if you had done nothing. You have built a good foundation for next year and managed to have a proper break as well.

Busy_Mee1 · 31 December 2016 at 9:25AM

Oh wow I didn't expect to see so many lovely messages. Thank you everyone

It has been a funny week in between Christmas and New Year, I have not really been sure what day it is. Anyway I have now cleared away all the Christmas leftovers, I chopped up the leftover turkey and gammon and have put that in the freezer to make a pie later. I also packed up all the mince pies, Christmas cake and chocolates and sent them with DS to work. All goodies are greatly appreciated by his work colleagues ! I feel I should make them a cake specifically for them in January because I only ever send in leftovers and it would be nice for them to have a whole cake to go at.
In MSE news I bought next year's wrapping paper and tags in Sainsburys 50p a roll and 10 p for tags, so that is all sorted for next year. I also went to the JL sale and bought a new throw and 6 cushions for £59 in total - I am well pleased with that. I have been looking for ages for something to change our colour scheme a bit but the ones I have liked have all been too expensive. I used the money given to us for Christmas by my MIL too.
So NYE today and we are driving to relatives to spend NY with them, I will be glad to see the back of this year to be honest. It has definitely been a year of highs and lows, but quite a few lows towards the end of the year. To finish it off yesterday the hand brake on my sons car failed and it rolled back into the gates. Luckily no one hurt but it has made a mess of his car.
I am hoping to get a grip of myself in January too - I have had a horrible virus and cough for the last 3 weeks and haven't been to the gym or out running. I have also eaten my body weight in chocolate over the last few days:eek::eek:
So looking forward to a fresh start and wishing all you lovely people a very happy, healthy and MSE New Year x

Getting a Grip and Saving towards the mortgage

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