Mortgage Free ASAP

LilacPixie

Evening QB. How is it nothing ever goes smoothly. I have been very quiet on the overpaying front mostly because we are up to eyes in DIY getting everything sorted. Did rip out old bathroom suite only to find wet rot so bills have snowballed. Not good.

setmefree2

LilacPixie wrote: »

Did rip out old bathroom suite only to find wet rot so bills have snowballed. Not good.

That happened to us when we were doing up our current home. When we took the bath out, all the floor boards underneath were rotting as previous owner had had a leak...

Good Luck

Queen-Bee_2

Oh my goodness LP, nice to hear from you (and you too Setmf2), but what a nightmare!

Really, really sorry to hear about the bathroom. Sounds like it was a good job you found it when you did though, especially if it had spread to floor joists etc.

Sometimes it feels as if one's trying to run a marathon through treacle, but hang on in there, it'll all come good in the end.

Best wishes
QB

Queen-Bee_2

I’ve just been revving up for my November reconciliation, which I’ll report on later this week. But as my diary’s been a bit quiet recently, I thought I’d write an update on my other MSE activities…

Firstly, the freezer. The upside of having to order it twice from Argos was that on both occasions, I was given a £10 voucher because the purchase was over £200.

With my ‘free’ £20 (which felt even better given I’d paid in Nectar points to start with), I have bought a double plugged extension lead so I can actually plug the freezer in, a rain cover for my bike and a halogen table lamp for my studies (I seem to need a lot more light when reading these days…). All essentials in their way, but great I’ve not had to fork out for them!

Secondly, I’ve cashed in some points from the Toluna survey site to get a £12 HMV voucher, which will shortly be winging its way over to my nephew for his birthday present. When I checked my account, I discovered it’s about 90,000 points short, which would translate into another £12 voucher (at least), so I’ve dropped them a line to look into it. The surveys are quite time consuming, but I knock ‘em off whilst watching the telly to justify my viewing habits!!

Finally, I’ve noticed that these days, focus groups pay a lot less than they used to – typically, they’re now £30-40, instead of £60-70, but I still get the odd good one. All in all, they’ve brought in about £450 since the summer, which is great, cos it means I’ve now completely offset the capital cost of getting my spare room ready to let.

And speaking of the lodger, everything seems to be going well in that department. She’s a really nice girl, loves the cat and the extra cash is extremely useful.
QB

setmefree2

on all your progress, especially the extra £450! Great news about your lodger too:money:

Queen-Bee_2

As at November 30th, my mortgage has a “5” at the front of it. That is SUCH exciting news… The rest of my figures are as follows:
- Total payments (YTD) £30,159
- Total interest charged (YTD) £3,211
- Daily interest charge £8.11
- Current balance outstanding £58,786

If I’d paid in accordance with my original mortgage payment schedule (ie with a September 2025 end date), my balance would currently be £86,915.

This means that to date, I’ve paid off £23,057 more than if I’d stuck with my scheduled payments. December will mark my sixth month as a MFW and the end of the first quarter for my diary, which means I’ll be able to update my charts…
QB

setmefree2

Brilliant news

Queen-Bee_2

Thanks SMF2, I've not been on MSE much the last few weeks, but have been catching up on a few of my favourite diaries - everyone seems to be making steady progress, which is great news and very motivating!

Queen-Bee_2

Winter Warmers, but at a cost!!
Not long ago, British Gas came and replaced my old imperial meter with a brand spanking new metric one. Consequently, it's much easier to take - and more importantly - understand my meter readings.

After a series of hideously inaccurate estimates, I've now started to record my readings on the 1st of every month. And I am astonished that in the month of November, my house has guzzled £79 of gas! :eek: In October, the figure was only £58. Can this be right?? I live in a little 3x bed Victorian semi with a combi boiler and have the central heating on for 2 hours every morning and 5 hours in the evening.

My electricity (also supplied by British Gas) seems to be showing a similarly alarming rise, up from £34 in October to £44 in November.

I'm now wondering how much, on average, other people pay for their utilities. Maybe I ought to get one of those Owl monitors, though I think they are only for electricity, not gas, and that seems to be the biggest culprit!
QB

Queen-Bee_2

5* Service from Homebase
About eight weeks ago, I bought two new light fittings for my kitchen. Each had 4x 50w halogen bulbs in them. A couple of weeks after putting them up, two of the bulbs had blown and had to be replaced. Last week a further two packed up. Given I don’t really use the lights that much, this struck me as a bit much, especially as they cost around £3 each to replace.

This afternoon however, as I was driving past Homebase, I decided to drop in and have a word with them. I took the original receipt for the lights and the two latest duff bulbs. I hadn’t expected much, but the assistants offered to give me eight replacement bulbs by way of recompense.

I thought that more than fair, especially as they gave me Philips EcoHalo bulbs, which use 30% less energy, are normally £4.99 each and guaranteed to last 24 months.

That’s just under £40 for the lot and I won’t have replace any more for two years. This is just as well, ‘cos I am hopeless with the little plastic sucker device you need to use to change them. Anyway, really helpful customer service. Thank you Homebase!