Pay off mortgage and start having fun!

museumworker

May miracles happen for us all in 2011! You can OP an IO mortgage, I have a friend who has one and OPs. I can't tell you much more than that I'm afraid!

I liked the laundry in the boot of the car idea - however we have so much junk around the house would need to hire a very large van :rotfl:!

What a pain with the MIL, you're doing the right thing serving lunch earlier. Hope you enjoy Xmas anyway!

newgirly

Thanks Pammy and MW, hope you have a great christmas.

Have had a busy day, 16 for lunch in the end, it started at one, all family left at about 3pm, b&sil left just after 7pm :eek: I'm a little cross as they knew we had done a xmas eve hamper for the kids with movies to watch. After they left the boys said it was too late to watch a film as they wanted to do to bed early.
Also managed to have words with fil as he made comments ( not for the first time) about ds1's weight, which is crazy as he is in the correct size clothes for his age. I'm really not looking forward to boxing day with all the inlaws now:(.

I'm just watching a bit of telly and waiting for the boys to go to sleep, hopefully not too late as I'm shattered now.

I hope everyone has a lovely day tomorrow, Happy christmas.:santa2:

newgirly

I hope everyone had a good xmas day, as usual its flown by, just the in-laws to contend with now;) We are not invited to lunch until 3pm, so Dh has decided to go and watch tron in 3D with all the men in my family first. It will give me some much needed time to clean up and do a bit of washing, after just one day this laundry basket is overflowing! I may also do a little online shopping for next years xmas presents, I've already bought 3 beauty sets courtesey of grabbit this morning.

I still haven't paid the £50 fee to switch the mortgage over to IO, must check out when they re-open and do it over the phone.
I've opened an isa with nationwide to start saving for the loft, I'm very excited as we have never saved for anything ever, and I think dh will be quite shocked when we do actually manage it, which we will.:D

I've been thinking about other MSE/oldstyle things I can do this year, and maybe trying to grow some veg, although our garden is small (about 45x20ft) and is decked everywhere, plus we have a 12ft trampoline and a hot tub so there's hardly room to swing a cat! Also anything grown in tubs the dog like to eat, so I'm not sure how possible growing our own may be.
Sewing is definatly something I could learn to do though, I think it would be nice to make something, I used to do cross stitch and enjoyed that, which also has the benefit of stopping me eating and drinking so much in the evenings.
Anyway, my 2 boys are arguing over who gets to watch what they want on tv, so I'm off to break them up!
Have a good boxing day everyone:D

newgirly

Boxing day over;)

I have been given a load of food that my parents could not get through today, turkey/couple of bags of sprouts/port/massive stilton/port/choc log/crackers all sorts , even had to turn down a few bottles of wine as we have too much already and I need to cut down in the new year.
As we have so much xmas food I thought I'd see if we can manage on £25 until 11th jan when we can use th 0%CC, we need some cash for fruit and luchbox bits for school, but should'nt need too much really as the cupboards are pretty full, there may be some interesting meals coming up:D

I have done lots of unplanned spending in the last 2 days, have spent about £200 and got 2 birthday presents and 22 xmas presents for next year, most of it was perfume in the sale, lots of bottles of britney spears for DD's friends reduced to £6 a bottle, so although unplanned it will save us in the long run next year. I would love to get the total pressie bill under £500 next year, but that seems unlikely.

newgirly

I thought I'd do a quick end of year round up. The mortgage payment comes out tomorrow so I've worked out the figures as closely as I can.

Mortgage as at 17th may 2010: £160,936
0% cc 17th may 2010: £ 9903

Total : £170,839


Mortage as at 28th Dec 2010 :£ 152,104
0%cc 28th Dec 2010 :£ 7,326

Total :£ 159,430

So we have paid off £11,415 since may which over 7 (ish) months is £1,630 per month.

Its all change in the new year when we start saving for the loft to be converted though.
I (oops we!) would like to save £1000/ pay £250 off 0%cc/and if miracles allow op the new interest only mortgage by £70 per month.
Unfortunatly dh's income will be dropping this year, plus our twins will be starting secondary school and needing a kitting out in their new pricey uniform.

money in per month is £2,470
money out £1249
savings £1000
cc £245
if possible op £70

Need to make £24 extra per month or £94 to op the mortgage as well.
I don't think we will get anywhere near this , but it does'nt hurt to aim high!

CathT

Have been catching up! Still can't believe that parent didn't collect his child!!

Top up money wise? Not sure. I kind of do surveys and used to do clicks but it's very time consuming - but so is going to work I guess! However have just had another TCB payout and 2p of that was for a click i did on kelkoo so they do pay! I know some people do very well from 'clicking'. Do you do Bingoport? That's really good for Amazon vouchers, i made over £20 in December. That could go towards your present budget and perhaps free up money to overpay.

We had our mortgage on IO for a while when i was doing my training but used to put the equivalent repayment amount in an ISA. We made a £3000 OP tho and saved for our garage conversion. Have you managed to get any good regular saver interest rates?

Wishing you lots of luck in 2011.

oh, can't believe you turned down free wine!

newgirly

Hi catht, I have been doing surveys this year but have earned far more through topcashback. I have not done any scratch cards or even looked at bingoport though, will have to take a look. I think the most I will make will probably be from ebay, so I will get stuck in with that next year.
I've signed up for a nationwide isa which is 2.89% I think, to be honest earning interest is a totally new concept to me.
As for the free wine I'm trying to be good (oh except for opening the baileys tonight!)
Hope you had a good xmas.

pavlovs_dog

hey newgirly,

finally all caught up with your news. For what it's worth I think you're doing the right thing not taking on extra borrowing at the mo. At least with your current plan of action you have plenty of room for manoeuvre should anything unexpected crop up and force a change of plan.

CathT

I think I am really going to attack the surveys. I just didn't want to waste time on them for them not to track. Do you do the 70p one. I always keep an eye out for free trials too, so far had lovefilm and credit expert trials with cashback.

Christmas was lovely thanks but always goes to quick as I worked Christmas eve and boxing day and working later (am a nurse so being on a ward instead of with my DH and DD takes some of the magic away!)

I might try ebay again, have a pine welsh dresser i need to get rid of so hoping that brings in some £££££ Just not sure where to put everything i will empty out of it! I'm sure the playroom was tidier when it was a garage!

newgirly

Hi cath, yes I have done the 70p survey a few times and its tracked ok confirmed but not payable yet, but lately keeps saying there are no surveys, hopefully its just xmas.

I have taken the boys bowling today with a friend as dh paid! only £5 plus a happy meal so not too bad, gets them out of the house for a bit. My good news today is that DH has agreed to decrease his personal money (for work fees/petrol etc) by £10 to £170 per month. Its a start, and to be honest I didn't think he would agree, but after a short lecture about our targets he agreed to drop £10 to start with.
I think he may have just agreed to shut me up as he was trying to do some work he brought home with him, perfect timing by me then I think

I have given myself a new signature for the new year today, and worked out how much I need to find extra a month from somewhere to meet my rather ambitious targets, £24/£94 depending on if I OP the mortgage or not.