FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

pavlovs_dog wrote: »

for future reference financial bliss you can phone the argos store where your item is reserved (or pop in) with your reservation number and ask for your reservation to be extended. if memory serves the system allows us to extend reservations by a good fortnight. that would give you breathing room, especially if the offer price on the item would still be valid at the end of the extension period.

Thanks for that pavlos_dog - very useful to know...

FB.

Today the mortgage is £53,992.77. Anyone who follows the MFW 2009 thread may have noticed that I decided to overpay the mortgage by £25.00 on Saturday. This was mainly due to the extra Halifax interest. So the mortgage in the next few days should look something like this:

Monday: 53,999.84
Tuesday: 53,981.91 (£25.00 should clear by Tuesday)
Wednesday: 53,988.98
Thursday: 53,996.05
Friday: 52,978.12 (1st July payments clearing by today)

So, in short it looks like we won’t hit the £54,xxx’s again. :j

I’ve calculated that we need £2,200 to cover direct debits, monthly saver payments and mortgage payments / overpayments come the first of July. Fortunately, we just have enough – we currently only have £2,250 in accessible savings until the Halifax money comes through on Wednesday.

Knew some months ago it was going to be tight, but to have just £50 spare – that’s very, very tight. :eek:

FB.

Was looking at uzubairu's month end mortgage stats this morning, here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=22903203&postcount=123

and as a result, I've this evening added some info to my stats so that the breakdown between standard payments and overpayments can be distinguished. I've also slightly altered the colours to just highlight the overpayments, plus alter the balance to green.

FB.

Seems to be a problem with the MSE forums...

Quick check shows that I'm currently the only logged in user. :eek:

It appears to be logging me out as soon as I log in. I've ticked the "remember me" and this has kept me logged in. Mind you, think something is broke!

FB.

We stumbled upon the Haven experience, via a Daily Express 4 day break offer in 2007 and we have been going back there off and on ever since.

And when your kids are 5 and 3 (daughter turned three last week), you don’t really have to spend that much in order to have an enjoyable break with them. Our view is holidays are what you make then and we have a pile of website printouts and information to sift through for days out during our holidays.

Holidays for 2009 are now as follows:

Number one.
Back in January we booked a caravan at the Wild Duck Haven complex near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. This is for 7 nights from 20th July. I’m off a second week at the end of July and we are currently considering taking the tent up to Scotland somewhere for a few nights in preparation for “two”.

Number two.
Looking for a second break and liking the Haven pools, entertainment, child friendly complex etc, we started playing around with dates for Haven sites that did camping and caravanning until we discovered we could get a four night camping break with electric hookup for a total of £20 in August (a fiver a night). So, we’re booked at the Blue Dolphin complex for four nights from 31st August.

Number three.
I’ve been keeping an eye on the UK holidays forum recently and looking at threads such as the Sun £9.50pp holidays, Daily mail holidays etc. On further analysis of the Sun £9.50 holidays, you collect the vouchers, select dates and locations and are literally entered into a “lottery” for free places.

So, despite the Daily mail holiday being more expensive, starting at £10pp or £15pp, we have just booked a caravan on-line for 3 nights (Fri-Sun) at the Haven Haggerston Castle site at the beginning of the October half term, as you could immediately view / book what was available. Could not find a single 4 night break w/c 26th October, ie half term.

This cost £15pp, ie a cost of £60 for us 4. There are service charges (£9.99 each) and entertainment passes (£7.50 x 4 or x 3 if daughter is excluded) on top of this which should come in at £62.46 or £69.96 – ie a total of £122.46, but compared to a Haven half term quote of between £305 and £505 for 3 nights, that’s certainly a saving.

Decided to up from standard to “luxury” as while standard has just one fire in the living room, luxury has heating throughout, which may be needed come October. :eek:

Think that’s enough holidays for this year.

Financial Bliss.