That was scary; now to tackle the remaining mortgage

teapot2

Wow you were up early gallygirl. You are right, I wasn't very clear - I meant I was keeping it in my current account that all my [often small] Amazon sales money gets transferred into. So that account is nearly empty now though I've just transferred money that was in my Greenmet account as I've had a few sales on there after a looong drought. Have a good week Teapot

teapot2

Ooh my bad - not updated my diary for months . However I have been reading the threads and kept on over paying - at least thats my excuse.

My OH got to keep his job after the probationary period so for the moment things are settled although he's not terribly happy in the work as its so different to what he was doing before they reorganised. My self employed work is chugging along. A couple of the organisations I work for have reduced the hourly rate they pay me because their money has been cut. Though its not great, to be honest I don't mind too much as I'm just glad to have any work the way things are going.

Our mortgage comes out on 1st so another payment due but we are currently on £43,821 so doing quite well I feel. Can't wait to be in the £30,000s which for some unknown reason sounds much more manageable to me???

Its a lovely sunny day here so am going to sit in the garden with a cuppa and enjoy it - am not much of a one for sun worshipping but its good for a wee while

Will do another post later about whats been happening MFW wise

teapot2

Didn't get back to continue yesterday - always so many distractions . We have cat and dog staying at the moment as family members are away and they are taking up a fair amount of time but in a good way. Am more of a cat person really but grew up having dogs so its all coming back to me. Luckily the house gets lots of sun at different times of the day so they are following the sun round to lie in it :cool:.

Back to MFW stuff - finally got round to making accounts rewards accounts with HBOS. You can't just ask them to do it, have to have an appointment and I know they will want to go in to all the ins and outs of who we have insurance with and why dont we have this and that. Was dreading it a bit but on the day they'd double booked so I just got to say what I wanted them to do and they did it with no questions as they just wanted rid of me - result

Have reached a bit of a halt re overpaying. We can only overpay 10% on a rolling basis and I've never been sure exactly what that means. I phoned a few weeks ago and spoke to someone in the mortgage section and they told me something very different to what I understood so that was a bit confusing and it doesn't take much to confuse me! They insisted we had quite a margin left before we reached the 10% but then next time I phoned to check what the guy had said someone else told me we were nearly at the limit of the 10%. So I didn't overpay last month as I don't want to trigger a early redemption fee or whatever its called :eek: :eek:.

I'm thinking I might have to wrtie to them so I get a clear [hopefully] answer in black and white.

We are still squirrelling money away to overpay once thats sorted out though and I also need to look into opening a new ISA as we'd like to build up our savings a wee bit just in case.

Thats enough waffling from me I think - anopther sunny day here :cool:. Am off tomorrow then back to work on Tuesday. Been nice to be off and not do much, just pottered about really.

teapot2

First Rewards into the Halifax accounts so that felt good . I've written a letter tonight asking for a clear explanation of how they calculate the rolling overpayment allowance so will wait and see what comes back. Any bets on whether it will be more gobbledy gook or actually plain and simple?

Mortgage payment has come out so we are now on £43,387 but I'm missing being able to make overpayments even though we are still saving towards them.

There was smoke coming out of the lawnmower at the weekend so thats a gonner - will need to get a new one so have been shopping around. I went back to work on Tuesday after a week off and found it really hard going getting up and rushing around but am just about in the swing again - just in time for the weekend.

Had a good sale on Amazon yesterday so that cheered me up as its been quite quiet for me on there recently. Am off to bed soon, had horrible dreams last night so hoping for a more peaceful sleep. Night all x

linz

Hi teapot,

Just stumbled accross your diary, hadn't seen it before. Will follow if you don't mind. Our amounts are quite similar so your progress will keep me going

All the best.

teapot2

Hello Linz, good to hear from you - the reason you haven't seen my diary is that I was very remiss and didn't post on it for about 6 months but am determined to do better now as it motivates me to keep going. Have you got a diary going too?

linz

yes I have, prob on page 2 or so, was last on it last night

teapot2

Hi Linz - found you and had a read, you are doing great. We might have around the same amount of mortgage outstanding but I suspect you'll be racing ahead with those overpayments soon . Good luck with it and I'll keep an eye on your diary.

teapot2

Today we went to get a new lawnmower to replace the one with smoke coming from it. Had reserved one in Argos, £20 less than same one in B&Q. Also used Nectar points tho we didn't have many as are not near a Mr S but it was another £5 off. This mower has a box to collect grass which will be bliss. We had the cheapest mower before and I had to rake the grass up which took ages. Its poured rain today though so far too wet to try it out - will have to contain myself a bit :rotfl:

OH has a horrible cold and cough - thats the second one in a month poor soul. So, I cooked a beef casserole tonight with lots of veg and made him liver and onions last night, all good comfort food for poorlies. Don't eat meat myself so not my kind of medicine .

Got a few plants in B&Q, will grow some from seed too but its good to have a few already established. Got a big, wide teracotta pot to fill. It had a Cordyline in it which has done well for a few years but the snow lying on it this winter finished the poor thing off. I'm going to plant cornflower seeds, I love the vibrant blue colour and also night scented stock which is so lovely in the evening. Not sure what else, will have to rummage in the seed packet collection.

Wonder what the weather will bring tomorrow - am hoping it will be a bit drier. ETA also posted a book which I sold on Amazon this morning, was another quite good sale so maybe its picking up again . Also found 5p on the pavement which went in the savings pig

Sleepy_head_2

Hi Teapot

I have a Halifax mortgage and have never fully fathomed out the overpayment thing. It seems I can always overpay more than I think I can (it's all to do with the figure on their system rather than what you think you owe) and I believe the rolling period always restarts when you make an overpayment. It seems to confuse them when you overpay monthly- I think they much prefer a lump overpayment but we don't want to make their lives easy!

Not wanting to teach you to suck eggs but all I can suggest is calling every time you want to make an overpayment and request a letter stating how much and when you can overpay. It means you're covered if they calculate the amount incorrectly which isn't unusual as you seem to get a different answer depending on who you speak too! I've been stung with a penalty before, a quick call and all was refunded as my letter was on their compter system. If you don't agree with what you're being told call again and speak to someone else, in January I was told I couldn't overpay again until January next year, when I spoke to a different person I was advised I could in fact overpay in April and September this year.

I really wish they would simplify their system!

HTH a little

Sleepy head x