Brand spanking new to money saving and to my MFW diary

Penny_pauper

The one thing I miss about being single is the opportunity to have your own way all the time. Compromise? Bah
Anyway, after much negotiation we have come to a decision. I've got my way and there will be no borrowing for the improvements but the windows will be done first rather than the mortgage. Although any bits and bobs of money left over in the account at the end of the month will go towards it as LittleMama said.
OH is walking about like this (think he is already having daydreams of being able to throw the windows open wide without fear of killing some passersby with falling panes of glass)
Not sure of the cost though. We did get quotes last winter when we moved in and discovered the previous mad resident had removed parts of the secondary glazing from the kitchen window and had construced his own greenhouse/cold frame at the bottom of the garden for his veggies. Was getting quotes of 8 thousand for whole house (18 windows, 4 of the main windows are in 3 seperate sections, it's a design feature that has become a cost feature:rotfl:). My brother is in the building trade (poor s0d) and he'd advised that this was much too expensive so will need to start getting lots of new quotes and contacts through him.

Even if we have to go through the winter with the old ones still in place it'll be fine. At least this year we have a new central heating system installed. Ah, those heady days of 14 degrees centigrade with the old system at maximum output in the dead of winter, they are gone but not forgotten :rolleyes:
Taka... I feel your joy at getting rid of your bathroom suite. Our brown one has been deemed servicable for at least the next couple of years. It can wait until the mortgage is gone or at least significantly reduced and i'm happy with that.
PP

Amber_Sunshine

taka wrote: »

I can finally get rid of the avocado coloured suite from hell! Yipee! :j

Alright for some I'm a tenant (one way of being mortgage-free I suppose lol) and stuck with mine ... gotta love the 80s ...

StuartGMC

Penny_pauper wrote: »

Was getting quotes of 8 thousand for whole house (18 windows, 4 of the main windows are in 3 seperate sections, it's a design feature that has become a cost feature:rotfl:). My brother is in the building trade (poor s0d) and he'd advised that this was much too expensive so will need to start getting lots of new quotes and contacts through him.

Do get quotes to include external doors too as well as just windows; improves security and getting them all done together is usually the most cost effective way to do it; and you should still be inside the £8k. In our case the window on the staircase is 2m tall halfway up the stairs and as wide as a door. We had a leaded feature etc fitted to match the front door as I didn't want mock Georgian inserts which wouldn't be in the rest of the windows, but that's a large hole to be just glass! End result was excellent, installers used it in their publicity, neighbours and passers-by stopped and looked too!

Do check on the materials compliance with BS or similar standards such as DIN or EN (in terms of weathering and UV resistance), locks likewise, ideally identify the original manufacturer rather than the installation contractor in case latter goes bust. Confirm the physical insulation 70mm plus for frames, and my recommendation is internal beading for security. As I deal with materials and corrosion, it was great to pin down the salesmen on their products and some hard questions on the materials etc

One important thing is to have safety glass in a window above the bath if you have one in that position in case of slips :A

Finally, do get windows through which you can escape in case of a fire; you can get some windows with fire egress hinges which open "square" with window frame to provide as wide a gap as possible. We have them above the roof above kitchen at rear and above bay window at front :A

Best wishes in your questioning of suppliers!

SmlSave

The one thing I miss about being single is the opportunity to have your own way all the time. Compromise? Bah

:rotfl: I know how you feel :rotfl:

Sounds like you're both happy with your action plan Once you've got some decent quotes you'll hopefully be able to figure out a rough date to order new windows!

Don't know if this helps but our quotes averaged at £3,000 for 4 windows and french doors.

Penny_pauper

Thanks for the advice and ball park figures for quotes. We'll start getting quotes soon but I have an exam coming up on the 19th of October so until then no one is getting across the threshold as every spare hour will be spent hitting the books :mad: (Except not tonight, Strictly is on:rotfl:)
Have been taking a leaf out of the super organised folks books and have set up a Halifax regular saver account fixed at 5% for £50 a month for the next year so that next Christmas is budgetted for (huge family, many lovely kids needing some form of pressie)
Also just got home insurance renewal quote in from Tesco they want £468.40 would have been a rise of £11 per month and nothing has changed! Con artists!
After a quick MSE type search have managed to get better cover:jfrom Sheila's wheels for £225 less than Tesco!!! I'm shocked at this huge difference in price. Also for the first time I'm able to pay the lot in one go and thus give a few more pennies per month to window/OP/bathroom fund depending on which little piggie is looking the most starved.
Feeling all smug and self rightous now. Off to watch Strictly.
PP

Penny_pauper

Have been doing some thinking about our, or rather, my motivation to be mortgage free (it's amazing what you can find to occupy your time when you should be studying ).
I started this diary as a response to the mortgage free in three take 2 challenge. It's always been the case that I thought we'd attack the wee mortgage first as it was coming to the end of it's fixed term and it was dropping to 2.5% and I wanted to get rid of it a) because it seemed feasable, although not easy, in the suggested time frame b) before the interest rates shot back up again and the mortgage became more expensive and c) because OH's job is much less secure than mine (Public sector worker, although if you listen to the news, my job might be a lot less secure after the next round of elections :eek:)
Back when I first started posting Thriftknickers (still love that name) suggested leaving the wee one alone and going for the larger debt with the higher interest rate but I wasn't to be convinced as I was too caught up on the thought of '1 mortgage gone' by the end of the challenge.
However, I've been lurking in the debt free wannabe forum and came across snowballing (this is all probably very old hat to everyone else but it was news to me!)
Have discovered if I go all out and OP wee mortgage by £1000 a month we'll pay it in 2 years 11 months and save £11,387 in interest. But if I split that OP by £500 to big mortgage (currently about £112000, think the exact figure is in my signature, at a rate of 6.79% fixed for the next 9 years with Nationwide) and £500 to the wee mortgage, we will save a massive £72,707 on the big one and it'll be paid in 10 years time and £10,272.77 on the wee one and it'll take about 5 years to pay off :T
Stunned, didn't quite grasp the difference at the beginning. Feel like I am gaining a much more rounded financial education through this web site. Before my reasoning was debt = bad, debt free = good but now I'm starting to recognise there is so much more to all of this than that. So a big thank you to all of you who are helping me to become more aware and pointing me in the right direction. Feel like a right little convert at the moment!
PP:D

twinklie

I think snowballing is amazing. It's mad isn't it how much you can save!!

gallygirl

2 people at work were saying how much they enjoyed snowballing & I joined in saying how great I thought it was. Luckily I cottoned on before I realised they were talking about the white stuff :snow_laug :rotfl:

Penny_pauper

Gallygirl, that is so the kind of thing i would do :rotfl::rotfl:
Been on to Nationwide and have set up a regular overpayment of £500 on the larger mortgage and £240 on the wee one. Have also asked that they send us the necessary paperwork to reduce the term of the larger mortgage to 18 years (currently 24 years) so that the set payment goes up by about another £115. If our calculations are right, it means it'll take roughly 9 years to pay off both mortgages.
Fingers crossed we will be able to make these overpayments and that my maths aren't shockingly out
PP

Penny_pauper

Hi All
Well I haven't been up dating the diary very often as I've been too busy sticking my head down the toilet and throwing up every, ooh 45 minutes. Had my scan yesterday and i am 12 weeks pregnant (all bits in the right places as far as the scan was concerned:j). Clearly this was a little bit of a happy accident:rotfl:but it does rather change my financial priorities!
Still going to take part in the mortgage free in three but going to have to change my original target from £40k to £20k. This might still be ridiculously over enthusiastic as this is our first baby and I have no idea how much they cost etc etc.
So back to the diary and lots of super saving and over paying to do. Have currently reduced mortgage payments to the minimum until we get our savings together for the time I'm off work sorted.
Also was due to get my new windows fitted this morning but they just phoned and cancelled as I was typing this :mad::mad::mad: Not happy. Oh well, they better work super hard tomorrow.
PP