Lovethymini's Offset MFW Diary

SmlSave

Hope your feeling better today love Tis the season for the colds - urgh.

was just popping on to say hi really

lovethymini

SmlSave wrote: »

Hope your feeling better today love Tis the season for the colds - urgh.

was just popping on to say hi really

Hi Smlsave, thanks for the post Hope everyone is having a restful sunday.

Feeling lots better today. Made a huge batch of chilli con carne last night and a big batch of lentil soup today, so freezer meals being replenished slowly.

DH currently looking at buying a motorbike for his commute, but trying to persuade him to sell his car to fund purchase is tricky! Seems that it's a buyers market for cars at the moment though - I'd really like him to sell his car and buy a less expensive car and motorbike with some change left over for the mortgage - that would be a good result!

DS is definately not going to nap today, off to get him up - so much for a cup of tea, chocolate biscuit and feet up!

lovethymini

Just transferred £100 into offset account - cashback from Scottish Power via Quidco. Excellent!
Can't sleep thanks to Lena (cat) being sick twice in our bedroom. Nice. I think she wolfed her biscuits down as they were undigested.

PS it's 3.30am and there are 55 people on the gambling board!

Must go back to bed.

lovethymini

It's been a good week moneywise, also managed to hand make a few birthday cards and recycle a present to SIL. Sep/Oct is as expensive as Christmas as we have so many birthdays, I had allowed £25/month for birthdays in SOA but have spent way more than that this year.

Aims for this week;-

Find moneysaving way to give nephew 2nd birthday present -- bought truck from ToysRus for 9.99 and it was priced on shelf for £15, love it when that happens
make some birthday cards in advance --Um not done, but secretly bought 2 of mum's cards at an art exhibition which were only £1.25 each
keep thermostat to 19 degrees (what is everyone else's at?) -- done
list at least two things on ebay. --not done, brain needed a break from ebay after last month
Get dh to fit our energy monitor, the screen is very blank, sitting in the sideboard drawer. -- done - all light bulbs now energy saving and we're turning more things off
should receive cheque from NCT from the September nearly new sale this week. -- done

lovethymini

Just been wondering if any other MFW have an offset mortgage - overpaying is not as easy to track as traditional mortgages, it's more a case of just trying to spend as little as possible I suppose.

Just checked our account - I banked £20 cash today and dh has withdrawn £30 :doh:

Got a free bag of giant buttons though, for looking after a friend's little one - all is not lost :j

cha97michelle

Hi, Just popped into read your diary. You are doing so well just by discovering overpaying in the first year. Ouch to the size of that mortgage though.

We don't have offset. I don't think i could be disciplined enough to do it. Some do very well with it though, particularly if self employed and holding money back for the taxman.

Thermostat wise, we are set at 20 degrees. I am the one who is sat cold, my boys and DH don't seem to notice the cold at all. We've got balckout linings on the bedroom windows which help keep it warmer in winter and cooler in summer, and also the curtain at the door. We also paid out for cavity wall insulation too which seems to make a big difference.

lovethymini

Thanks cha97michelle

DH lives in t-shirts, hence the thermostat battle.

Luckily our house has a new boiler, and is up to date with insulation. On the down side though, the windows and lounge patio door (which are big) are about 20 years old and a lot colder, so we'd like to replace those in the near future. Also, we have ceramic tiles in the hall and kitchen which is chilly in the morning!

Off to track down the nearest Matalan to get some thicker tops for ds. Sure there's one near us somewhere...

We've only spent £190 on fuel so far this month, partly down to dh having a few days off work for his birthday, that saved us a tank of diesel!

hebe

We have an offset mortgage, it works brilliantly for us.

Good luck!

lovethymini

ooh reeesult!


I think I've managed to get DH to see the light

He commutes just under 100 miles every day to work and back and only achieves about 35mpg in his big car, and we have started looking at alternative cars so this will hopefully get the evil fuel bill down!

So -

Sell car for 12k
Buy more economical and efficient car for about 6k
Buy efficient motorbike for commuting also (especially on Fridays) about 1.5k (I know, but he's a biker, misses a bike and spent 2.5hrs last friday travelling 45 miles)

Theoretically leaving us 4.5k which we can pay to DH parents and shorten our repayments by 9 months.

DH also fitted the energy monitor and we spent the first few hours after reading the results sitting in just the light of the computer monitor in shock over the cost of running the kitchen lights :rotfl:

Happy saving everyone

lovethymini

Phewee

Well half term is over and ds is currently at pre-school, so I've had a chance to check where we're at...

banked cheque for selling broken mobile £20
banked NCT sale cheque £63
"cashed" in some tesco vouchers for £100 worth of days out so we can go to the zoo etc for next to nothing
Updated spreadsheet and last month the grocery shopping was £325, (£110 less than September.)
Unfortunately the eating out was £208 :eek: due to hubby's 40th, and a very social month. I think other people did chip in but I've just taken these figures off the amex statement.
Going to see what magazine subscriptions I can get with tesco vouchers as gifts for Christmas, have already shortened gift list with family.

DH's beloved car is on autotrader now (ad cost £45!!) - crossed fingers it sells. Spent most of the weekend car shopping and after some test drives decided on a megane estate with a 1.5 diesel engine. Fantastic economy and cheap tax & insurance. Fuel bill for Oct was £440.

Telly has died (all the faces were green) and is waiting to be collected by the council in the front garden (nice), so will try to get an old crt off ebay or freecycle.