Bufgers Diary (Slow start, explosive finish?!)

Bufger

Ok so i've made a bit of a blunder this month...

I overpaid by £80 at the start of the month after working out my finances in advance. I had £300 cash in the house to go against the £500 bill for our holiday I had coming for the outstanding balance. The plan at the start of the month was to sell a few things and make up the remaining £200.

The issue is we dipped into the £300 whilst getting carried away with the bathroom repairs which ended up being some new fittings and a paint job. As i've been so busy on the bathroom and other house jobs I havent sold a single thing which now leaves me with £500 on a CC for the holiday and £50 on my aqua card (just paid off £150). 1 week until payday and all other accounts are now 0.

I have £70 cash to last me 3 days in wales on a stag do. I've decided to only take the remaining beer I have from home and not buy booze when out and about but its going to be tough!

Not sure what im going to do about the £500. I think I can use £300 from next weeks pay slip to bring it down and then use my bonus at the end of June to clear it but i'll have to incur some interest either way.

bad money management this month and chances are I wont make an overpayment next month. Not a happy bunny!

QB_Wolf

These things happen Bufger, it'll straighten itself out!!

Bufger

So payday has been and i've rehashed my finances. 2 credit cards cleared from last month before incurring any interest. One remaining with £200 rather than the £500 it originally had! that leaves me with £200 for the month for fuel and purchases (all bills and shopping already budgetted and in another account).

Should be doable! to make it easier i'll also get around to selling some stuff this weekend and see if I can generate that £200.

Interest is applied to the outstanding balance of the CC on the 14th June so I have until then to sell enough stuff and clear it. If I dont manage that i'll just pay it off and go into my overdraft as the costs of that will be so much smaller.

No overpayment for me this month! I am expecting a bonus next month which should be well over £1k so i'll overpay some with that to make up for this month

Bufger

What a crazy month its been! My financials have been somewhat allover the place...

Got a £3,3k bonus. £1,6k after tax (thanks taxman).
Spent £1,1k completely redoing our bedroom. Ikea had £700, a new carpet at £300 and paint etc at £100.
2 days after spending all that money my car blew up and the garage quoted £1,3k!

DOH

So yeah, kinda wish I had waited on the bedroom now.

The car is worth £7-8k now and we dont use it as much as we used to. We now have no need for a larger diesel as our daily commute of 40+ miles is now down to 1-5 miles! I'll be selling the car once fixed and downgrading to a small petrol in the range of £1k-£2k, the rest can cover the outstanding finance of £3k and the bill we're facing which should leave a little left in the bank and leave us better off each month by £200 by paying off the finance. Makes sense to me!

Got my payrise through too. £150 per month more which was a bit more than expected! I'll up my monthly mortgage overpayments from £100 to £150 now

Bufger

Some good news..

The £1.3k fee for fixing the car has been disputed and they're covering it under warranty so I wont have to dip into my pocket!

I'm still selling the car now though as its surplus to requirements. I reckon I can get £8k for it. £1.5k for its replacement and £3k on finance so I could add £3.5k into our non existant savings pot! Another £200 per month we'll save through not paying out the rest of the finance over this next year and by next November our savings will grow to £6k.

My PAYE bonus has come through too so its an extra £150 per month in my pay packet. I now plan to make a regular £200 overpayment on the mortgage, a £200 into savings so by the time our current fixed rate is up next November i'll have £6k savings and be looking at 80-85% LTV deals.

Bufger

Quick question to my readers:

My mortgage payment goes out on 2nd of every month and the interest gets added monthly on 14th. Would I be better to make my overpayment after 2nd and before 14th? Or doesnt it matter?

I ask because previously ive just been overpaying whenever I worked out I had the surplus cash. Now I have £200 waiting to go in as OP but im not sure whether to wait a couple of days.

Advise appreciated!

Also - budgetted for £440 childcare this month that we dont need as its the summer holiday so another OP on its way

Beckyy

The way I see it it makes no difference when your normal payment comes out, the interest is the relevant one and the sooner you OP it the less interest you will pay.

MallyGirl

it depends on whether your interest is calculated daily as to whether it makes any difference at all

Bufger

Its calculated monthly on 19th. I've just overpayed £200 anyway and hope I can do another £150 before the 19th along with my regular £800 mortgage payment.

I love overpaying! Sad isnt it but that one phonecall every month makes me happy.

MallyGirl

ah. Because mine is calculated daily, on a current account mortgage, it really makes a difference when money goes in and out. I pay for everything on a card that earns John Lewis vouchers and then pay it off in full each month - each day I save a tiny amount of interest by doing this but all those tiny amounts add up.