Taking the plunge as a MFW...

alflavor

Good luck! We made 1st OP this week, (£100) and are working a strategy to reduce our mortgage which is £161K over 19 years. Figured we can do £100 a month poss more from ebay, competition prizes etc.

Due to remortgage this Dec, coming to end of 2 year fixed, payments are going to jump ouch!

moominyak

alflavor wrote: »

Due to remortgage this Dec, coming to end of 2 year fixed, payments are going to jump ouch!

Thanks Alflavor... I think I got off fairly lightly, I''ve just remortgaged and the rate is only 0.8% more (although I was walloped with a £699 fee... ). So my monthly payments only went up by £20
Still don't want to be paying it when I'm 69 though!!! :eek:

Didn't manage to get much done at the weekend after all - hopefully this weekend will see me a bit more motivated

Finally got around to ringing the Hfx to up my monthly payment - Mortgage people told me that if I changed my regular payment, it would revert if there was a BoE base rate change ; rang the Banking people and they said I could set up a separate S/O, but in the end I thought I may as well stick to FPs if they're due to start working properly in September anyway. Hopefully that'll be less hassle than trying to talk to them on the phone every time I decide to change the payment, plus I can send odds and sods as well

On a brighter note, my lodger's money has hit my account 2 days earlier than usual, so must be a sign of the elusive FPs taking effect - told her she could send it 2 days later from now on though :rolleyes:

evab_2

The FPs sound good, mine take ages to show up. When we remortgage in April 2010 I how I can find a product that you can see online and overpay on online would be handy too.

Ev

moominyak

Ev! You're still with us!! Just posted to your thread... thought perhaps you were otherwise occupied by now!!

Hope all's ok your end?

ISN-IFS

Not to worry, it seems a lot of the banks are reducing their rates at present and hopefully it should continue till the time of the remortgage.

moominyak

Just come home from a bit of shooting practice, managed to get a spot from 60 yards but I suspect it was a lucky fluke! :rolleyes:

And then on the way home saw two dogs running along the middle of the main road, stopped and grabbed one and chucked it into my car (they were only terriers, not big mutts like mine) then spent half an hour trying to find where it lived (all ended well, the other one had found its own way home too )

Sold a few CDs on Amazon this week so am waiting for that to hit my bank a/c. Also sold a phone on Ebay but promptly spent the proceeds on yet more archery stuff

Hopefully the Amazon money will come in in time for me to chuck a bit more into the OPs for August... I might even empty the MP too as I know for a fact there's a twenty quid note in there!

poppyoscar_3

Hi Moomin

Sounds like you're doing well - £20 note in the MP!!! OMG!! Le cochon is lucky if he gets a 20p piece!!!! (I don't 'do' cash much!!)

I keep thinking I ought to try selling stuff on Amazon and Ebay - have never really looked at how you do it, and I did get rid of a lot of unnecessary stuff before I moved back to the UK, but i do have CD's sitting there that never get listened to, etc etc.

Anyway - keep going! Good luck!

PO xx

moominyak

Hi PO,

LOL, the £20 note was a one-off, believe me, it's usually just 20p and below (and £2 coins when I get them... I think there's a few of those in there too!).

In fact, the more I think about what might be in there... he's definitely going to have a colonic irrigation before the end of the month to improve my stats!

moominyak

Have only recently ventured into the Quidco thing... used it for the first time earlier this week to bulk buy some dog food, it had tracked the next day so that covers the £5 admin fee

Today I've gone via Quidco to get my home insurance sorted, less than £140 in the end for B&C - and with lodgers - so pretty chuffed about that. And if it tracks and I get £25 back I'll be super-chuffed!!

I didn't realise there were so many merchants on there, I'd always thought it was just places I'd never shop at (clothes/handbags etc)

EssexHebridean

You're not into handbags then?! LOL!

As the others have said, don't get disheartened if one month isn 't as good as you'd hoped - just pick yourself up by your bootstraps and make the next one count. We're working on the method of OP'ing money we're not going to miss - so the home insurance that used to go out monthly has just been paid as a lump sum and accounted for immediately - those £16 per month payments are now added into the regular OP. Tax changes are good also if you get the benefit - many people will gain an extra £10 or so next month and ongoing from the changes due to the 10p tax band screw up earlier in the year so that would be something else you could consider adding if you get that. Ultimately, there is no point in making yourself miserable scrimping and saving as you'll end up coming off the rails completely on the whole thing - learning to be inventive with your cash and cutting down regular spends though can be almost fun!