I Raided My Piggybank To Help Pay My Mortgage

Written by The Landlord on 28 Apr 2007

The ball is officially in motion. Earlier today I made the first step of raising money for my new project, Reduce My Mortgage By £15k project. Before I start selling my kidneys and participating in any hairbrained schemes to raise the funds, I figured I should start with the basics.

Like most people, I do have a pot of change that has been the disposal vessel for all the loose coins that has accumulated in my trouser pockets after drunken nights out. It’s always easier (and cooler) to hand over notes when paying for a beer (or in my case, a dry martini and lemonade- ice and slice, ofcourse), as opposed to digging deep into my pockets and scrounging together all my loose change. After a night out, I usually return home double in weight (that’s exuding the alcohol consumption and traditional donar kebab) from the copious amounts of loose change swinging around in my pockets, which gets disposed into my “money pot”, which besides on my bedside table.

So, what better place is there to get my first instalment for my 15k project than my money pot? I think I’ve been emptying loose change into my bowl for about 5 months, and I’m confident it will make a significant contribution to the pot. It’s not really money that I consider as “savings” (I don’t have any savings at the moment), it’s more of, well, as mentioned, a tool that helps me lighten the weight and quieten the rattle. I pinch a few pounds from the bowl here and there, but besides from that, it tends to keep growing.

Aside from the money pot, I also have a plastic wallet type-thing, which I occasionally throw a few notes into. I’ve been contributing to that pile for approximately 6 months. I have some odd habits. Let me explain…

I usually withdrawal cash on a night out and when I go shopping. I don’t usually spend all the cash, so the notes ends up in the plastic wallet which resides in a secret location in my bedroom. I don’t leave it in my regular leather wallet because I don’t like carrying around cash in general. Instead of with-drawling money from that plastic wallet before I go out, I end up going to an ATM again. So it’s easy to imagine how the money in the plastic wallet can accumulate.

Funds gathered from the “money pot” and plastic wallet

Here’s a picture of the bowl after bagging all the loose change, and counting the contents of my plastic wallet. Notice, there’s still change left in the pot. Those are all the 1p, 2p, 5p and 10p that I couldn’t be bothered to count. And the few £1, 50p, and 20p that you can see- I didn’t have enough of those to fill up a bag:

£20 – £320
£10 – £260
£5 – £85
£1 – £580
20p – £20
50p – £10
Total: £1275

Not bad at all, if I must say myself. That’s a pretty decent jump-start. Now all I need is £13,725. Err..yeah.

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