The Final Push - Getting Rid of the Last Loan and CC

pixiechick99

Happy half term:beer: Ahhh this time next week it'll be my turn...it can't come quickly enough;)

WelshWoofer

Well good news at last!
My mum has given me a cheque for £1000 as an early payment on my inheritance from my gran - the rest will come when they sell her house. Wasn't expecting anything so its all a bonus!

I have been very good and put it in the bank already - £770 to the untouchable savings to make that a total of £3000, £180 to the emergency accessible savings to make that £255 (aiming for £500) and £50 to me for a treat!

Have been shopping and bought 2 tops (well 4 actually but I'm taking two back after trying them on at home) but I'm undecided on one so it may just be £25 spent IYKWIM!

That makes me feel a lot better about the cash situation - feel like I have a bit of a cushion again:).

If I can get my act together and claim back my overpaid tax of £220 I'll be just under my target of £500 for emergency cash. And that's without anything I can save this month;)

I still have not spent anything on the CC and the balance is ZERO and just have the loan to pay so everything seems doable!

WelshWoofer

Hurrah!!!!
No more visitors! They've all gone home!

Now all I need to do is clean my bombsite of a house and life will be back to normal. Phew!

I'm still quite chuffed about the extra money mum gave me - it does make you feel so much better to know there's a bit of cash in an emergency.
I don't really have any plans for the next few days apart from tidying and cleaning, school work and dog walking and HAVING A REST!:p

Shouldn't need to spend anything much until the weekend when I have to do the food shopping but we have tons in and it will only be fresh stuff required - going to try to just buy stuff from the local greengrocers and a quick trip to Mr Ts for sandwich stuff for the week - I have £7 in Clubcard vouchers so if I can stick to £20 for the essentials I will save almost a weeks worth of shoppping money this week - hmmmm - sounds too good to be true!

I need to take back 3 tops saving me £10 back from H&M (will swap one for a different size) and £25 from New Look - will do that later in the week.

OH announced that he is going out on the weekend with his mates so a quiet night in for me on Saturday - really looking forward to it - an empty house and what I want on the telly - bliss after the past few weeks!

WelshWoofer

Just had a letter from Northern Rock about the mortgage - its going down by £35 a month from March 1st :j:j
The deal period has come to an end and the interest rate has gone down by 0.5% since I took it out so that means a lower monthly payment (for now at least!).

Not a lot to shout about but better than going up!

WelshWoofer

Well I'm having a good day!

Phoned Sky after reading the positive stories about getting the price reduced and managed to go from £55ish a month for TV (including sports), broadband and phone to £36 a month for the lot!
That's a saving of £20 a month for the price of a 5 min phone call - am well chuffed! They didn't quibble at all and actually offered it to me :j:j

Also called Legal and General that I have the mortgage repayment vehicle with to confirm how much the plan is worth at the moment and it was about £2000 more than I thought it was - £20600.
My mortgage is for £90000 so if I cashed this in and paid it off the balance it would leave me with a mortgage of £70000ish which I'd then switch to a basic repayment deal. The bank offered me quite a good deal last time I was there so this may be worth thinking about?

Also called the tax office and they agreed that I have overpaid by about £220. Its a bit convoluted to get it back in the next few weeks but if I wait until April it will be paid back automatically so I may just wait until then if the phone call to my last employer for a P45 is not fruitful.

So, for the sake of a few phone calls I now pay £55 a month less on Sky and mortgage payments, will get £220 back from the tax office:T

Will have a look at mortgage deals with the bank and see how that works out with regards to monthly payments if I swap on to a repayment only deal.

I also looked at when my home insurance is up for renewal -its July apparently and have done a quick quote thingy on a price comparison site and the renewal will be about £150 - I've decided to pay this in one chunk this time instead of monthly so now have to save £150 to pay for it - have 5 months to save for it at £30 a month and then thats another £20 a month DD that won't be going out too!

Did think about doing it for the car insurance too but that may be a bit of a stretch at the moment - one thing at a time!

If I can do all of this (new sky payments, paying home insurance in one go, mortgage gone down by £35 a month from March 1st) that's the equivalent of a £75 a month pay rise! £75 extra in the bank a month will help me save a bit and possibly make overpayments on the dreaded loan (last remaining debt).

And £220 cash back in April - oooohhh - I feel like a millionaire!

WelshWoofer

Just updating totals....

Untouchable savings £3000
Emergency savings £255
Survey balance £20.65
Overdraft - none
Credit card balance £0
Loan payment £345 a month (only outstanding debt)
Xmas food saving pot £10

Aiming to save £100 this month - we'll see!;)

Also, need to start home insurance savings in unused Egg savings account

WelshWoofer

Not much planned for today - going to take the tops I bought back to get refunds for all but one if I can change the size - don't really like or need them so better to get the money back than leave them in the wardrobe as I would have done a few years ago.

I MUST do some school work or will be panicking again on Sunday (will I ever learn!).

The dog went for his eye tests yesterday - was worried he was getting cataracts - but all is fine thankfully. He only charged me £25 too so not as bad as expected.

Right better get on with the day.

WelshWoofer

Taken some tops back - that's £52 back in my account :A

But, I did succumb to lunch in the food court - a fiver invested in my waistline:(

Feeling quite fed up today - not sure why, OH and I seem to just be putting up with each other lately and its getting me down a bit and sleeping is getter harder. I'm not a "down" person so will snap out of it.
Eating seems to be a bit of a crutch too so must get that under control - hence lunch in the food court (nice though!)

WelshWoofer

Gave myself a good kick up the bum yesterday and got on with lots of schoolwork - I always find work therapeutic (odd I know!) as it makes me feel like I've acheived something and in control I suppose.
I'm now totally up to date and have even written some revision guides for the year 10s that have exams coming up. Feel quite virtuous!

Don't have much on today - thought I'd have a go at catching up on all the marking I brought home - mostly internal exams - none is really urgent but it'll be a big deal to get it out of the way. I'll have a go at least.

Moneywise - I have to pop to the library to pick up a reserved book (reserved it so long ago I'd forgotten about it). I'll also recheck the shopping list for tomorrow to minimise spending. There's a bit of housework to do but I'm leaving the majority of it for tomorrow so its nice and clean and tidy to go back to work.

I checked the bank this morning and no surprises - the vets bill has gone out but the returned tops haven't registered yet.I took out some cash yesterday and succumbed to a bottle of wine last night so there's about £30 left in my purse now to last until next weekend.

Famous last words!

WelshWoofer

Well, I didn't do any schoolwork but will tomorrow - promise!
I have decided to go back to Slimming World on Tuesday and have spent a few hours going through the books and magazines finding recipes and ideas for food and changing the shopping list to match.


Tomorrow I have to...

• do at least one set of marking
• go food shopping
• write a revision sheet for year 8
• hoover and dust house
• clean bathroom
• put dry washing away
• hoover out car
• get stuff ready for school
• go for another long walk with the dog and ipod to blow away the cobwebs

oh, I had a really nice email from a fellow teacher thanking me for the extra work I have done and for sharing my resources - cheered me up no end!