Baby steps to being mortgage free

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checked my experian credit rating today and no issues at all. So no idea why I got declined, they bank in question just must have crazily strict acceptance rules

Just to let you know that Natwest once declinded me an overdraft saying that my credit rating was poor but I checked and it was flawless! DH went to a different branch of same bank and they had no problems letting us have the overdraft :mad: Just shows that human error still rules!

pammyj74

Baby_steps wrote: »

My bulding and content insurance re-newal has come through so got some quotes tonight and reckon I can get it a bit cheaper. Going to pay it as a lump sum this year instead of monthly.

I am thinking of doing this when mine comes around as there is a little savings when you pay all in one, i will have to be disciplined to put it away each month

Baby_steps wrote: »

Right off to see if I can find the monthly grocery challenge thread, June is going to be better than May as this seems like the best area to try and make cuts, £40 a month is £480 a year extra towards the mortgage.

definitely a start to try and do this, good luck with that.

Baby_steps_2

Morning all,

Well made a grand total of £45 profit on eBay sales. So not bad just for the effort of listing a few items. However have had to give half to oh as his stuff I was selling!! And confession time - had to use the rest to top up the food budget:mad: oh well I will get better in June. Can someone give me the link to the grocery challenge, I can't seem to find it whenever I go over to the old style board.

Need to look closely at the budget for June and have a bit of a re-work as now paying for the gym as well. It's nearly pay day again, can't wait to pay another chunk off the damn cards.

pammyj74

Grocery Challenge
No Spend Days Challenge this helps me not to spend although the last few days I have been buying plants (naughty spend days)

Baby_steps_2

pammyj74 wrote: »

Grocery Challenge
No Spend Days Challenge this helps me not to spend although the last few days I have been buying plants (naughty spend days)

Thanx pammy, will sign up to the challenge for June. Need to use it to motivate me!! I've bought quite a few plants recently - not managed to kill any yet, so i'm quite pleased with myself. How's the study going?

pammyj74

it isnt , have been sooo tired lately.

Baby_steps_2

Well I have to admit to having neglected the mse ways recently. Been really busy with work, exams and social things. Had a good week or so though so that's good.

I have now been paid so I need to sit down this weekend and do some budgets, pay off the cc's. Though I don't think it will be nearly as much as I want as I have lots of expenses this month, annual travel insurance, home insurance and tv liscence to cover. As well as that last weeekend I may have had a mini shopping spree, which means I now have some lovely new clothes but put this on cc:mad: I really need to get my shopping under control, it seems like I can't stop spending.

Will update more over the weekend when I have sorted out the good old finances. Wish me luck, I don't think it's going to be pretty this month!

pammyj74

Why dont you set yourself some spending money each month and stick to it and try NOT to use the CCs
I have a rule, if I havent got the money physically spare then I dont buy it. I have a savings account which doesnt have a great deal in but if I do WANT to buy something then I dig into that. I haven't used my CC for four years (since ex left funny enough )

Did you really need those new clothes young lady! Are you really serious about becoming mortgage free???? I suppose you needed a treat for your hard work and study

Have you got a spreadsheet with all you income and outgoings on it. I do this and have it set up so I check off what has come out and what I have left to pay and what I am left with. I love it

Baby_steps_2

pammyj74 wrote: »

Did you really need those new clothes young lady! Are you really serious about becoming mortgage free???? I suppose you needed a treat for your hard work and study

Thanks for that kick up the butt pammy, I needed it:p I probably needed a couple of items but not all of them if i'm honest.

pammyj74 wrote: »

Have you got a spreadsheet with all you income and outgoings on it. I do this and have it set up so I check off what has come out and what I have left to pay and what I am left with. I love it:)

I have spreadsheets to do the budgeting, and I really enjoy playing with them. But i'm still getting used to actually sticking to it and find living with budget really hard :mad:

I have been good with the home insurance though, looked online and got a quote for £60 cheaper, plus £60 cash back. I am going to pay this on my personal CC this month to get the clubcard points and then pay it off with joint account money next month. So if I use the clubcard vouchers on line thats another £7. So all in all a total saving of £127 .:j:j:j:j

That means the amount paid off the joint CC this month is £390. Still less than what I would normally pay but this is because paid the annual travel insurance premium and service charge.

I am still having a look at my personal finances for the month. I have an outstanding balance of £1050 on my tesco clubcard (not taking off this months payment) and by the end of the month am normally in the overdraft by about £1100. The available balance on the OD is £3000. I am considering paying off the CC balance in full this month and using the OD to do this. The interest on the CC is less than the OD, but not by much. I'm thinking that as I won't max out the OD for the entire month I will save interest this way. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

My new years resolution at the start of this year was to be debt free by the end of 2010 and I will make this happen :cool:. Once the joint card is paid off the extra money will go towards the mortgage and savings (I anticipate this to be August). Once my personal debts are cleared I will then build up some savings for my emergency fund.

Baby_steps_2

Oh and forgot to say in my long rambling post another £50 into savings and OP of £100 made.:beer: