new mfw

StuartGMC

Chirpchirp
Sorry not been posting due to having been abroad on business the past two weeks; regarding the mortgage, I hope all will be ok in terms of your ownership and that if your ex-OH loses his job that the mortgage company will be supportive.

Regarding your insurance, typically combined contents and buildings will be cheaper (we're with Direct Line and their package includes a number of additional things, but take great care in reading the actual policy of the companies you compare, not all cover is identical in fact I'd say it's anything but!). It may be worth keeping your contents insurance with the "good" company, then when buildings is up for renewal add it to the contents insurance in Feb 2010 - you need to avoid double insurance cover. Give your preferred insurer a call about doing this, they won't be able to give a formal quote now for 2010, but could likely tell you what it would be if moved in the present so you can plan and budget.

Then it would be a combined policy at time of renewal in June 2010

Good luck

chirpchirp

Ahh - May has started off badly. Youngest has grown and his instrument rental has increased by £12 upto £30 a month! I've been advised to buy the instument outright - unfortunately it has to be done in one payment and will cost about £950. However, it should have a good resale value of about £550 so to buy it should be money saving over time. I'm hoping I can get their Dad to pay something towards it but I already get maitentence so I won't hold my breath.

Meanwhile I've written 5 cheques over the weekend all to do with the children and their activities and dinner money. My bank can't keep up with all these cheques!

chirpchirp

Hi again, I sent an email to my buildings insurance people to find out how much the refund would be and how cancellation charges would impact this and this is the reply:

"Thank you for your e mail
The refund you would receive if you cancelled the policy on the 29/05/09 would be £278.58 I cannot advise the cancellation charge as I would have to cancel before the system calculates the cancellation charges
I hope the above explains the position"

I can't understand why I can't get the cancellation fees as without this information I can't make an informed decision as to whether it is best to cancel the policy or not. Surely they must have a manual way of working this out other than having to just cancel the policy.

chirpchirp

Feeling much happier about the insurance now. Have found cover for £327.60 for my buildings and contents. Decided to cancel buildings insurance and worry about the cancellatiion charges later. When I cancelled I was told the refund would be £303.44 and this has taken into account the cancellation charges which were £40.66. Then I cancelled the contents who are giving me a refund of £15.03 for this month and I don't need to pay the premium at the end of the month of £19.45. Hence I feel like I have managed to get my contents for the year free or at least for about £9.

I guess I've lost money through naivety in the course of sorting this - ie paying for a loan on the dd for the buildings insurance and then losing money after paying for the whole amount but overall I feel like it's a win.

Still possibly no more money for the mortgage from this at the moment but hopefully June/ July I'll see some big repayments. I like to keep a buffer in my current account for unexpected expenses (like that new instrument!) and I'm still building an emergency fund, although I'm prepared to pay money off the mortgage whilst building this due to the overpayments being able to be used to pay the monthly interest should the worse thing happen.

StuartGMC

Chirpchirp
Do remember the lessons we remember most are those we experience; I'm sure from now on you'll be a savvy buyer of insurance :T
Keep up the good work.

chirpchirp

Help - keep me motivated!

Every time I think there might be a good month coming along things seem to get in the way - normally weekends!

Since my last update, my filling came out and has to be replaced with a porcelain crown which is costing me £325! My medical cover will cover about £175 of this :-(. At least the cover was part of my ex's work scheme so I didn't have to pay for it. Meanwhile I have used the cover from his Bupa scheme to pay for private specialist and diagnostic tests at hospital but I have a horrible feeling I have gone over the £1000 allowance that I get for this. Also, ex is about to be made redundant so his healthcare will end as will mine so my next job is to find decent health cover. Considering HSA as I have found out that my employer has a discount arrangement with them. My employer can also do a deal with BUPA for the private health cover so will be looking into this too. It may be worth me having both as HSA will cover dentist and optician and any overnight stays in hospital as well as other things that I can really see me using.

I have just been looking at my mobile bill online which means I can finally see full itemisation. I hadn't realised that by having delivery receipts turned on that I have been getting charged 9p each time I receive a delivery report. As I have unlimited texts this has added up to quite alot!

On a brighter note, ex has agreed to share the cost of the new musical instrument so that's £450 that I won't be needing to shell out.

Unfortunately, son has been ill and this may lead to me being docked a days wage for last week as I needed to look after him.

Have spent ages trying to get through to the tax office on an 0845 number. Each time I get through all the recorded jargon I get told they are busy and can't take my call, then they hang up, I'd rather wait in a queue and a freephone number would be nice too. I had an increase in my working tax credits which would be nice to use towards the mortgage if everything else was eating into this months possible overpayment. I updated the WTC on the phone before I received my P60 using the year to date totals as they say you can do this. Unfortunately, my P60 and March payslips don't tally - but I'm sure the payslip is the one which is correct. When I add up the amounts in the NI payments then this comes to the March total. Just the pay and income tax detail box appears to be wrong. Before I did this I wouldn't have even noticed!

At the moment all this money saving just seems so time consuming and I know I have to go through the car insurance rigmarole soon. That's why I need some encouragement to keep going with this before I go back to eating out and take aways.

I did find out something interesting the other day which may be of use to people but I'm guessing most of you will know this already! There is an extra way to get tax free savings, apparently every adult can save upto £25 a month, tax free in a friendly society. May be worth looking into, but is a very low amount but nevertheless some more interest the tax man won't be getting.

chirpchirp

P.S. If you got to the end of the last post then you deserve to benefit from the friendly society tax free interest!.


However, it appears that the policies may be investements and that you need to keep them in for a minium of ten years. If I find out more I'll post here.

lil.mouse

Keep going - you're doing well! x

setmefree2

lil.mouse wrote: »

Keep going - you're doing well! x

from me Keep the faith. It is time consuming but after awhile it becomes a habit and you almost stop thinking about it Remember "It's a marathon not a sprint";)

Lynn11

Keep up the good work and yes I agree that things can get you down. Im down at the moment due to a motor accident and no doubt having to use some of our savings to buy another vehicle but we are still here. Chin up and remember any overpayments are good.