Pay Off £200k in 100 months!

SwitchyChick

Dimbo you pre-empted my 2nd post! :rotfl:

I SHOULD be ... keeping a closer eye on utilities. I use Microsoft Money to track household expenditure (I know, it is deeply flawed, but I've been using it for 10+ yrs and particularly like the way e.g. it forecasts my cashflow for the year). Anyway, this is what it showed me for 2008 spending on basic utilities:

Water: £187.25. This seems pretty good We're fairly frugal with water 'cos we're metered. I always check the meter when we get an estimate & either phone it in or update it online.

LX: £1358.12 OK, we had been signed up to Good Energy for the last 2 years (I was trying to do my 'green' bit) but I'm afraid now that we're MFWs my green aspirations have to be pushed aside for a while. Have switched using cashback site to EDF & am hoping for big savings here.

Oil: £2962.69 :eek: I can't quite believe that figure but I'm afraid its accurate to the last penny! Prices of domestic heating oil have more than tripled since we moved here 8 yrs ago. We're in a big house with underfloor heating Since the clocks went back I've been round all the room thermostats to make sure we're not heating rooms unnecessarily. Will double check today. We usually get deliveries of oil 3/4 times a year and we're at the mercy of the price of oil at the time it is ordered. Maybe I should order more regularly to even out the peaks & troughs in oil prices However, I know we get a discount when we order 1000L+. Must keep a closer eye on how much we actually order & the price at the time.

I think thats scary enough for this post...

Switchy

Amarillo

Good luck with this. We owe the same amount and have been on interest only for far too many years. So last month I decided that we would be paying extra each month as if we were on a 20 year repayment mortgage and hopefully extra whenever possible to get the term down to less.

However first month failed spectacularly as all Abbey did, despite being asked to pay the cheque against the capital, was reduce this months mortgage by the amount I sent them ! So am trying again this month to pay the extra on top of the interest only for 2 months and hopefully an extra few hundred. Will have to see if Abbey can get it right this time.

SwitchyChick

Every time I try to post in 'Advanced' mode the site keeps redirecting me to the login page & I lose everything I've typed. How annoying!

SwitchyChick

I'll either try & keep this brief or will post & then return to edit!

What I was trying to say was ... our old mortgage provider sent a cheque to the new one for £700+ which suddenly appeared in our offset account last week, which was a nice surprise. Had to e-mail FD to find out what it was & it was overpayment of redeemed mortgage :T

My 9-month stooze is coming to an end mid-Dec. I have a new BT card set up & ready to go for £5k but will pay the rest off because it is MBNA & I want to see whether we can get the Virgin 16-mth SBT next.

Slow stooze has started on Sainsburys card which finally arrived this week. OH had a battle royal when he phoned to activate & he was given a hard sell of CC payment protection insurance. In addition to 0% on purchases we get 2 nectar points for every £1 spent. Just made by 1st purchase on Amazon via the nectar store 'cos I had a voucher from Valued Opinions to redeem. 3 pressies of DD's Chrimbo list bought!

Worked out we prob spent around £5k at Sains last year :eek: but this prob includes petrol as well. Even so! Wish the card had arrived last week when OH's car insurance & service had to be paid! Next on the purchases list is the next gadget on his wishlist: HD TV (via Quidco, natch).

Quick note on Quidco. Noticed I had notched up £1000+ cashback over the last 2 years :T

OK. Thats enough from me.

Switchy

SwitchyChick

Typical - I didn't log on yesterday afternoon and thats when the e-mail arrived!

So, have logged into my account, submitted my claim for compensation & will have to sit tight & wait for it to hit my nominated account. There was £1.61 more than I was expecting - woo hoo! Then I'll move it to the offset account. It wasn't a huge amount (£1400) but it will have more of an effect there than if I opened another ISA account I reckon.

Today's other decision is whether to complete the AQA application It seems like a lot of jumping through hoops for v little rewards. However, I have got the day off today ... ho hum ...

Switchy

evab_2

Hope this gets sorted soon and bonus of £1.61 is brilliant!

StuartGMC

The money going in as an OP will help boost the year-end sitrep, well done

SwitchyChick

Icesave money has gone into my nominated account today so I have transferred it to the offset account!

Salaries went in on 1st so I paid £300 off the mortgage account. The interest calculation is made on the 8th so it will be interesting (for me at least!) to see how this first month of offsetting has gone.

Have updated signature to show the added slow stooze. We have treated ourselves to HD TV for Christmas (thanks to MiL for Chrimbo money!). Just waiting for Sky engineer to plough through the snow - literally - to fit the new HD box. Cross fingers...

setmefree2

SwitchyChick wrote: »

Salaries went in on 1st so I paid £300 off the mortgage account. The interest calculation is made on the 8th so it will be interesting (for me at least!) to see how this first month of offsetting has gone.

Well done:D

gallygirl

Ooohh, a diary I missed .

Switchychick you're making me think about getting Microsoft Money - I have too may spreadsheets etc already - I must resist

Re your comment ' it will be interesting (for me at least!) to see how this first month of offsetting has gone' - the sad thing is it will be interesting for all of us :rotfl:.