Mortgage Free ASAP

Queen-Bee_2

I've just seen a post by Luv2Budget about new fees for Nationwide mortgage holders.

Apparently, Nationwide borrowers are soon to be charged a £20 fee for changing the term of their loan.

This directly certainly affects me, as manipulation of the term is the primary way I'm managing my mortgage-free journey...

It's all the more irritating because I am an ex-Portman mortgage-holder, and formerly had the capacity to overpay by £10K (or 10% of the original sum pa). When the Portman was gobbled up by Nationwide, the latter decided that this level of overpayment was a grey area and that in fact, it was only possible to overpay by £5k (or 5% of the original sum pa).

At the time, I was only placated by the promise that I could alter my term back and forth without charge at any time. Now it seems that this facility is being withdrawn.

:mad:It's all extremely irritating. And very much underlines my contention to become Mortgage Free ASAP - I want to be in control of my own destiny, not subject to the whims of a corporate giant.:mad:

QB

pammyj74

Thats terrible! how and why can they do this, all they have to do is change a couple of figures on a computer and send out a letter confirming this, all takes about 5 minutes!! thats disgusting, they cant justify that as an admin fee surely!
Are you on a fixed with them?

Queen-Bee_2

Yep, it expires in March 2011. As my financial circumstances are pretty precarious at the moment (I've been studying for the last year and doing lots of juggling to bring my mortgage down), the flexibility to shorten and extend my term with the Nationwide is important.

I am irritated to discover that moving forwards, I'm going to be charged for this service. I was particularly irritated by the rather prissy letter received from them this morning which stated that 'the revised fees and charges help to ensure that the costs of the services we provide are met by those that use them'.

Hello? I pay literally thousands of pounds a year in interest charges, and even for those not on a fixed term product there is a tremendous disparity between these rates and the rates they pay to members with saving acounts. Not all of these differences can be explained by the credit crunch.

Nationwide.... Shame on you!!!
QB

pammyj74

I guess you will just have to OP and not reduce your term til march maybe then? They will lose a few people that way surely.

gallygirl

It sucks QB, rats to them all :mad:

Queen-Bee_2

Thanks girls... I think we all want to be free of the building societies asap and this sort of shenanigans merely strengthens our resolve!!!!!
QB

Queen-Bee_2

Last week, I mentioned I was thinking about posting my grocery expenditures as I'm finding it difficult to keep my weekly spend below £20.

The last few days I have been studying very hard (a great MSE activity, as it stops you going out!) so I've only popped to Sainsbury's a couple of times and have yet to collate my receipts. However, having read so much about rubber chicken (making it stretch to lots of meals) on the Old Style Thread, I thought I'd give it a go....

...My opportunity came on Tuesday, when I bought a premium 1.4kg bird with stuffing and herbs, which was discounted to £2.99. Despite an initial over-blitz in the oven, I managed to stretch him to six meals, plus 2 pints of stock which I'll use in soups and risottos.

This is how I did it:
Meal 1 - straightforward, straight up roast - ate one breast
Meal 2 - chicken sandwich with home made bread and coleslaw
Meals 3 & 4 - chicken curry, made with curry paste, onion, grated creamed coconut (in the cupboard waiting to be used up), half a can of chopped tomatoes and frozen green beans. Ate one, froze one
Meals 5 & 6 - spanish chicken stew, made with onion, frozen chopped peppers, garlic, rest of chopped tomatoes, bay leaf, thyme, basil and some rather elderly olives that had been in a jar in my fridge for a while... With lots of olive oil and salt, it tasted fab, though the olives had perhaps been hanging around a bit too long. Ate one, froze one

To be continued... the rest of Mr chicken's carcass went into the stockpot with bay leaves, onion, carrot and peppercorn and produced two lovely pints of stock, which promptly got frozen.

Feeling quite proud of myself - especially as he was discounted to start with!!
QB

pammyj74

wow that is amazing! I am such a novice cook, I just chuck anything in and hope for the best lol
well done. keep it up

Queen-Bee_2

It's probably fairly typical of the time of year, but I've a problem in my garden with fox cubs burrowing under the garden fence between me and my neighbour.

They might be sweet (the last one I caught sight of was a woolly little chap no bigger than a half grown kitten) but they are wreaking havoc on my borders, shoveling up piles of earth onto the patio every night and uprooting my new fuschias in the process.

I decided the best way of dealing with this would be to sink some thin slates into the edge of the bed against the fence. Where to buy the slates however, was a problem. I looked on the internet and was aghast at the prices, but given that everything else I've tried has ended in failure decided to press ahead.

Eventually, I found a wholesale place not far from me, called them up and asked if they'd sell me 3-4 roofing slates. They laughed when I explained what they were for, and said I was welcome to some of their seconds. So I dropped by and they generously gave me 6 huge and beautiful Italian slates from their seconds skip. How nice of them was that?
QB

setmefree2

Great news about the freebie slates :T:T:T Hope they has the desired outcome:D