The 9 year plan...hold onto your hats and here we go!

EssexHebridean

Jo_R wrote: »

Ah Toni and Guy is a real treat, I got a £20 voucher so going to make up the difference next month and get a cut and blow dry - the 'glossy, straight, shiny hair' bit is always a winner with me but not very often these days will I let myself go there.

I must investigate this 'no toiletries' challenge I keep reading about on here!

I get my hair done at T&G twice a year Jo - if it needs anything in between times it has to make do with somewhere cheap! I find the cut I get from them is just so much better though - even when they've gone a little shorter than I was expecting the cut has still really worked for me, which is good.

The no toiletries challenge is great - makes you think a bit too. Also makes you remember what you have, and use it - trust me, your bod will thank you for the attention!!

Swinstie73

I used to go to the Rainbow Room in Glasgow and my sister came one time, if I got someone else to go, I got my next cut half price! I got mines done then my sister got done (same hairdresser), three different people asked me if I was waiting to get my hair done! I was so peed off, cos it cost £35 for it and this was about 10 years ago! Didn't got back for the half price one, now I pay £7.50!

When I am rich, I might visit T&G!

EssexHebridean

Oh dear - sorry Swinstie but I couldn't help laughing - your face must have been a picture!

OK - update then.

I have just had a play with the money - the credit card statement surprised me this month - it was substantially lower than I was thinking it might be which was good! It's all thanks to making a concerted effort to NOT put christmas presents onto the credit cards. The cashback has been paid out on that card too - £91 of it - so I have transferred that temporarily into savings (but not counted it on the total) as it will be going towards our holiday spending money. There will be a little over £20 to come on cashback on the other card in March too. I've not currently counted this months joint savings into the savings total as the holiday balance needs paying by 12th Feb.

Both cars need a service shortly - MrEH's is playing up a little when it's cold - we suspect a clogged injector is the culprit so I think it's going to get an engine flush through and a service from my friendly mechanic next week. Hopefully that will cure it and get it ready for it's MoT which is up in March. Mine will have to go to the main dealer again - it's 1400 miles away from needing it yet so will get booked in for about 6 weeks time - I always like to get it done before we go on holiday so that will be good timing for that too. The positive bit is that there will be enough money in the car account to cover both services I hope - it certainly looks as though there should be. :T

Have transferred a £50 surplus from the joint bank account into the challenge account which has given that a nice boost.

The monthly payment on the mortgage has now gone up by another £40 so I need to remember this when working through the finances for the next few months until I'm used to it. It's brought a fair few months off the MF date so we're pretty chuffed with that.

Finally, and if anyone who also has a Northern Rock mortgage (Bob I think?) but who didn't get the same news I did, I am truly sorry, but we got our letter from NR today about the changes and in spite of having a "Together" mortgage, we have been put into the new "good" bank! Apparently there is only a tiny proportion of the mortgage business going over to it, and we had just assumed that we would be with the majority, but for some reason they've decided they like us. Really pleased as our fixed rate is up next year and that should make it easier to get a new deal elsewhere, or give us the option of staying with NR if that's better for us.

Lemon_Tree

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Finally, and if anyone who also has a Northern Rock mortgage (Bob I think?) but who didn't get the same news I did, I am truly sorry, but we got our letter from NR today about the changes and in spite of having a "Together" mortgage, we have been put into the new "good" bank! Apparently there is only a tiny proportion of the mortgage business going over to it, and we had just assumed that we would be with the majority, but for some reason they've decided they like us. Really pleased as our fixed rate is up next year and that should make it easier to get a new deal elsewhere, or give us the option of staying with NR if that's better for us.

which one is the new good bank? i have a loan with them and they've told me i've changed to something or another but i'm not sure whether it's the good one or the bad one and can't find the details.

Lemon_Tree

darn just found out the answer, we're with the bad one, hope it won't scupper us as it's 'only' a loan, and i should pay it off in 12 months time which will be 2 years early (all things staying the same that is). Oh heavens why when i was feeling positive about stuff does this happen?

EssexHebridean

Awww sorry LT - I think ALL the loans have gone with Asset Management though - the same as all the savings have gone with NR Plc. It's only the mortgages which have been split part and part I believe.

Have you got PPI with them on your loan? If so give some thought to whether they mis-sold - they did with mine, told me I could only get the loan if I took their insurance. I reclaimed, they didn't put up much of a fight, and I got it all back plus interest.

taxi73

All your news is sounding really positive again..well done.

Lemon_Tree

i have got PPI with the loan but i'm one of those fools who always thought that it was better to take the insurance, i'm not sure i could claim it back.

boredofbeingathome

That is good news about NR. Don't apologise- i really can't understand their thinking regarding this as we have never missed a payment etc..i haven't had the letter yet- but saw it on my credit report, i noticed the name change. I also noted the long list of satisfactory payments and a loan we completely satisfied as well with them about 5 years ago. ( Not through re mortgage either)

But they probably know Mr.B and that is enough....;)

taxi73

The government are in charge..you can't expect common sense!!!