BabyB wants to be mortgage free (or at least have more equity!)

cha97michelle

Hon - sorry to hear your ankle is still giving you grief. I am still struggling with weightloss myself and it is just being greedy and a bit lazy i think. I hope SW works for you. I've always done wW when i have done it and done ok in the past. I should just get the books out again and do something.

Food spends - mine are more like £200-250 for me, DH and 2 kids, but it is getting harder all the time. I have time to shop round for bargains, and have a cheap freezer place near my house, and i also shop at approved food online to get cheap food delivered to the door. It is all out of date or close to date, but i have not had food poisoning yet, and we eat well. We've cut down on meat portion sizes but still eat meat most days. i just pad out more now with veg and pulses. Best place i would say is the grocery challenge which is always at the top of the old style board. Lots of recipes. If you want any more advice, please ask.

babyb06

Having thought about it lots I have decided against an Ipad - I think Billy was right about the lack of extras on the Ipad2 not making it worthwhile and the Ipad3 hopefully being the way forward.

Plus my laptop broke at the weekend (screen is only attached by a wire rather than a hinge now so has to be propped open!) and so have replaced that tonight - spent too much! But as that is for work (and only a little fun) am now going to wait for the Ipad3 which is all fun (can't afford it anyway now!) Bought the laptop from Dell through TCB (10%) and using cashback CC (2%) - so a little MSE!

So far so good on SW - don't need all the syns (hardly any in fact so far) but come the weekend can see that I'll need them for alcohol! Not sure if you can save them up during the week - need to look into that!

BabyB

Froggy-G

babyb06 wrote: »

Having thought about it lots I have decided against an Ipad - I think Billy was right about the lack of extras on the Ipad2 not making it worthwhile and the Ipad3 hopefully being the way forward.

Plus my laptop broke at the weekend (screen is only attached by a wire rather than a hinge now so has to be propped open!) and so have replaced that tonight - spent too much! But as that is for work (and only a little fun) am now going to wait for the Ipad3 which is all fun (can't afford it anyway now!) Bought the laptop from Dell through TCB (10%) and using cashback CC (2%) - so a little MSE!

So far so good on SW - don't need all the syns (hardly any in fact so far) but come the weekend can see that I'll need them for alcohol! Not sure if you can save them up during the week - need to look into that!

BabyB

Hey BabyB

Well done on the SW.. Little by little, you will get there..Concerning the syns, I would say: use them, don't save them up..I used to have a little bit of chocolate, bits of cheese..(i don't drink much alcohol :eek:)
OH & I also need new laptop/ PC but will wait till the end of the year.. As Billy said Ipad 3 should be out by then, so will be within the comparison..

Well done BabyB, keep going!

Cheers
Froggy :cool:

babyb06

I have been lurking lots but not wanting to post......i have fallen off the mfw and sw wagons.....:(

My earnings were low in April (partly because of not being able to do as much because of the cast on my leg but also a large part due to a lack of effort) and have had so little money in, so for April paid £150 into o/p account and £679.19 off mortgage (the majority of this made at start of month and regretted at the end as I fell into my overdraft...........:mad:)

I completely gave up on SW as I was getting so frustrated with it not working! And in doing so managed to put more weight on over easter! I have started again this week, so lets see what happens, but so many client parties this week I know my wine consumption will be through the roof (and I don't have the confidence to do these things without a glass of wine!)

All in all feel a little rubbish! Need to pick myself up and sort myself out - my poor OH is sick of seeing my downturned mouth!


EDIT - Just updated my signature and looked at how much of my target I have paid this year - maybe I should let myself off on the MFW front - but must do better on SW!

babyb06

After my post a few days ago I have been reviewing my finances. For the last few years I have been paying into an ISA on a monthly basis and have around £8,000 in it now.

The interest rate is 1.5%. I have always thought the ISA to be important as I am a high rate tax payer and don't want to be taxed on interest.

However, my offset mortage rate is 3.75% and so the money would work better for me in the savings account linked to my offset mortgage - I would save more interest on my mortgage if it was in my offset account than I earn with it in my ISA, so logic says I should withdraw it from my ISA.............but, once I do that it has lost its tax free status forever........I don't know why that worries me but it does!

The money in my ISA is my security blanket, as I am self employed the importance of a couple of months earnings in my savings cannot be underestimated, but there will be no access issues with it being in my mortgage savings account, it can be withdrawn at any time if i need it

I think I just need reassurnace moving the money is the right thing to do and I am not missing some massive pitfall - my OH has no interest in discussing it with me!

Lois_E

The MSE banking and savings page mentions an HBOS ISA paying 3% AER (or 3.2% for HBOS customers) that accepts transfers in from other ISAs and has no transfer out penalties. Perhaps you could transfer your ISA money there. It's not quite as good as avoiding paying 3.75% on the offset, but it does preserve your ISA allowance.

Sepa74

The time left on your mortgage is long enough that the ISA allowance becomes moot - it will be years before the savings in your offset cancel out the mortgage, and until then your 3.75% offset savings is definitely where you should stash your cash UNLESS you can get a significantly higher savings rate.

Don't forget the annual ISA allowance is £5340 per person, so if you do remortgage to a non-offset for some reason you can put the cash straight back into ISAs - one for you and one for your husband.

To be honest, I would pay it into your offset immediately. Your ISA is not great value, and I there is no logical reason to keep the ISA allowance because you'll be able to stash the cash in an ISA again if you need to - it's not a large amount.

babyb06

Thanks Lois and Sepa for your advice, nice to have a different opinion to help focus the mind! Sepa - OH is not (yet?) husband, all finances are separate at the moment - he prefers it that way.

Decision made - I will transfer the money.....I was receiving a rubbish interest rate and it will work better for me elsewhere. I will transfer it in the next month or so as I want to get it to a round number (I love them!) first so that I know exactly want is emergency savings and what is mortgage savings at a glance. It will cost me a v small amount of interest but in the long run save me a lot in terms of stres and panic!

babyb06

So..... end of May figures
Capital repayments sent to mortgage - £404.64
Money to o/p account/family loan - £867.08

Earnings still not as much as they work (not working as much because of ankle) and so less to o/p. Still not back in SW mode as I am feeling far too sorry for myself generally and eating/wine is easiest way to pick myself up!

Have booked our summer holiday though and because there is only 5 weeks to go have managed to negotiate a good discount on the villa we liked - so my laziness in not booking earlier has paid off! Maybe the holiday will spark my weight loss desire - or else I'll have to wear a hoodie at the pool! :rotfl:

Been lurking lots, but not wanting to post. But have to do at least a monthly update or I may fall off the MFW wagon!

babyb06

Hello!

Just trying to keep monthlyish updates so I can stay on track.......been lurking lots and realised organisation is key - amazed by how much people manage to do on days off - get tired reading about it!!!

I have rejoined SW, first week down and a good loss and have been batch cooking which should help me stay on track and save money - amazing how much less I am spending bycooking rather than buying convenience food.

June's total was £1531 (offset savings account £1283 and £248 to mortgage), which has meant my £10,000 family loan is repaid!!! Yippee!!! I am so happy I switched to offset, has been so much easier to save this because my interest has dropped so low.

And July's total is going well! Plus I have a lot of surplus in my bank account this month so feeling great!

Because it is all going well I have decided to treat myself (and spend rather than save the surplus) and go to NYC again in December! My boyf and I love the place and I am so excited!

Off to lurk at other diaries now.