Mortgage Reduction Beginner to Novice - The Show Begins

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

It’s an expensive month for my car… who buys a car in January? Oh yeah me. Well three years ago I did which means that this January the tax, service, MOT, breakdown cover and final payment of remaining sum owed are all due. For tax I obviously couldn’t reduce the cost and that was purchased before Christmas. I called a few garages and managed to get one garage down from £300 to £99 for a service and MOT… on top of that, they charged me 86p for a fuse for my wipers (I thought it was just frozen up and that’s why it wasn’t working) which I thought was a bit of a bargain! Breakdown cover I shall be renewing with my usual favourites First Call GB Ltd… TPA did you go with them in the end? As for the final payment, well the lump sum has been sitting in an ISA (thankfully not with Barclay’s) for the last year so that’s ready to go out… although it’s a few thousand, on a positive note it marks the end of the monthy direct debits which I shall redirect to the wedding fund.

No further news from Barclay’s regarding ISA.

A letter from Next asking me to sign an official form to confirm return of faulty pair of curtains and provide a copy of the proof of return…. now where’s that banging head against wall smiley?

Four mystery shops completed on Saturday and two evening food ones booked for this Wednesday and Thursday.

My local leisure centre has been advertising free taster aerobics classes to encourage people to exercise more. I usually go to these about twice a week but I called and managed to book into a free class today and two others this week (total saved £12.50). Do you think they’ll rumble me as a regular attendee on a taster class? In my defence, the posters didn’t have any small print and they didn’t ask any questions during the phone call.

Costco purchases:
Bottles drinks and snacks to last over a month – to be taken to work and consumed instead of visiting the vending machine!
Large size bottles of my usual laundry detergent and fabric conditioner – to be poured into the normal size ones and continued to be used at half the recommended volume.
Huge block of cheese – has been chopped into reasonable sizes, wrapped up and frozen. I’ve done this with this brand of cheese before and it defrosts well and tastes the same.
Double pack of whole chicken – it was a good deal and will make good rubber chicken recipes but does anyone know how ethically sourced Costco’s chickens are?
Mr MRN’s favourite beer – he’s coming home for 2 weeks holiday in Feb. I can’t wait, we haven’t seen each other since early October.

Any my splurge of the day? A pair of leather boots. They were £85 in the shop but I had an online discount voucher for 10% off, even with £4 postage, I still saved £4.50… I’ll just have to wait a few extra days to wear them! Oh and 50p for reporting my purchase to consumer pulse!

setmefree2

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice wrote: »

A letter from Next asking me to sign an official form to confirm return of faulty pair of curtains and provide a copy of the proof of return…. now where’s that banging head against wall smiley?

setmefree2

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice wrote: »

Mr MRN’s favourite beer – he’s coming home for 2 weeks holiday in Feb. I can’t wait, we haven’t seen each other since early October.

setmefree2

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice wrote: »

Any my splurge of the day? A pair of leather boots. They were £85 in the shop but I had an online discount voucher for 10% off, even with £4 postage, I still saved £4.50… I’ll just have to wait a few extra days to wear them! Oh and 50p for reporting my purchase to consumer pulse!

Just joking - enjoy your boots

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

Thanks setmefree2 – you being colourful emoticons to my boring life drivel!

Up for debate today: Gym membership

Last year I was a pay-as-you-go member of my local gym. This year pay-as-you-go membership is £31 for the year. This gets me a discount off the price of classes/pool sessions and I make my money back in just 18 classes but I still have to pay for the class. I go once or twice a week. I avoid the gym as it cost more and I do consider the cost of twice a week a sufficient treat not to go more often (hence my joy at the free taster classes!).

A higher level of membership, £470 per year, would allow access to these classes, the spa, gym and pool. For just my usual classes an average of 2 per week would be required for the year, for just the gym only 3 a fortnight and just for the spa 1 a week. I guess over a year that’s an average of 2 ‘somethings’ a week but could be a class followed by a spa session on the same day. I’m thinking it’s a big cost up front but towards the end of the year I could be saving money, not feel limited to the cheaper options… not to mention the medical/visual benefits!!!;)

So should I go for it… :question:

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

Another £20 went into the mortgage savings account - for annual overpayments. It feels good to be in year 2 of the mortgage and year 2 of overpaying. There's still 10 months to bulk up this years overpayment. I can't get any mortgage calculator to match up to my mortgage providers printout or balance at the end of the first year though. Can't figure out where I'm going wrong. It's fixed rate.

I've aquired a futon from freecycle (quite exciting as I've offered loads of stuff over the last two years but this is the first time I've been selected to receive something). I found some fabric for £5 to cover the futon mattress as it clashes considerably with the room decor and its a little stained! I'll get my sewing machine out next week and make that. Still a bargain though as we'd been considering buying one for sometime but kept putting it off thinking the money was better elsewhere.

I'm having the same woes as other ex-Tiscali customers being transfered to TalkTalk.

Transfer to Scottish Power is nearing completion and cashback with Quidco has been validated.

I felt sad moving the final lump sum money from my ISA today - it looked juicy in there but I guess the car is finally mine at the middle of next month and that frees up the monthly direct debits.

No news from Next or Barclays.

I worked out that I'm owed about £200 in mystery shopping fees and reimmbursements.

I haven't paid for the gym membership yet... still umming and ahhing about it.

My employer is giving a 0.5% payrise, backdated too. It doesn't work out as a big amount (likely even less after tax, NI and student loan) but better in my bank than theirs!

Queen-Bee_2

Well done with all that :beer:
QB

wantabetterlife

Well done MRN, your certainly starting the new year a good note. Thats great about your husband coming home, i am sure you can wait

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

Just two little changes to my signature... nearly there on one aim!

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

Finally positive news to report:

Barclay’s released the money from my ISA and transferred it successfully to First Direct ISA (only been waiting 5 months!).

Doing nothing regarding Talk Talk’s take over of Tiscali has meant that I haven’t locked myself into any contract with them, neither have I incurred a connection fee. I’m keeping my eye on the market for landline and broadband and will move as soon as a better offer comes along.

Cashback from transfer to Scottish Power arrived in my bank account and MrMRN said I could keep it because I’d put in the time doing the comparisons, getting the cashback and doing the transfer so he thought I’d earnt it! And a cheque for the balance of our account with previous energy provider also arrived too, that went back into joint account though.

My car is officially mine and I can say my only debts are student loan and mortgage now.

My recent payrise is very small but the extra student loan repayment has shaved off two months payments in the long term and I’m sure I’ll appreciate the extra pension later in life!

Very close on the wedding fund for my half of the budget. I don’t think OH is doing quite so well!


And not so positive news:

My issues with Next are still ongoing. They have agreed to credit my account but that’s my Next account, thus forcing me to re-spend that money with them. I’m pushing for a refund to my bank account which is fair since I had to pay for a charge which was their error.

Work owe me over £300 in expenses.

MrMRN and I had a fantastic city break. We went to quite an expensive place but we’ve both wanted to go there for a long time and figured having not seen each other for 4 months, a trip and a treat were due! Unfortunately his holiday is over and he has to go back to working abroad again.

And my big mystery shop magically disappeared from the MS company’s website when I came to report it so I could be out of pocket for that. Very annoying.


And mission statements for me to get back on the savy rails:

I will only buy yoghurts and fruit tea bags at the supermarket tomorrow (and I’m cycling there for free exercise instead of gym membership!).
I will make a stew and a soup tomorrow to replenish my depleted home-made freezer meals.
Inspired by PoppyO, my next supermarket shop will be to M&S to use my voucher and I will only buy things that help me to use up what is already in the cupboard.
I will ball my eyes out when OH goes back abroad/to work, I’ll have an evening moping on the sofa feeling sorry for myself but I won’t resort to spending money on chocolate from the corner shop.
I’ll get back into the habit of checking the mystery shopping websites for assignments.
I will return/get a refund for the dress I bought to wear on Valentine’s Day but then didn’t. I don’t know why I bought it, I’m not usually an impulse shopper.
Using my trampette, hoola hoop and tinned food… I do not need to spend money on a gym membership!