Lovethymini's Offset MFW Diary

lovethymini

(Sigh)

Offset mortgage went back up this month.

As of 5th we were at £202,124.49
Thanks to DH needing to swap his car for an automatic. I strongly advise anyone wanting to save money not to frequently swap cars - we only bought the megane in October and have lost £3,000 part-exing it, plus paid £1,000 to get the new one.
All because DH has a herniated disc which is pressing on his sciatic nerve and as a result driving to work is extremely painful. Crossed fingers for a better month this month. - Up to then we were doing so well!

Hope everyone is doing well and keeping dry!

lovethymini

Happy August,
Hubby's had his op and is no longer walking like Quasimodo.
Mortgage balance is 202,081.08 - slightly down, so we want a big effort this month. Earned £250 on Thursday (invoiced but not received yet) by driving the mini to London for a photo shoot (the mini, not me) hope I get more of those opportunities!

I think Ebay will be quiet in August, but will continue to list stuff anyway. DS's 5th birthday is at the end of the month, that will be a biggish spend, and we're camping for 3 nights too. What a treat!

lovethymini

Ended up camping for two nights as it was forecast to rain till about 1am on the last night of our stay, so we cut our losses and packed the tent away (in the rain). It's nice to go away, but it's lovely to come home!

Added up ALL the receipts for the mini for the last year, fell off the chair, tucked it up in the garage, SORN'd the tax disc, changed the insurance policy to storage only, and bought a Fiat Punto for £1200. I'm already noticing the difference in fuel consumption, the Punto is only a 1.2 (it doesn't even have the strength to run air conditioning), and has been really well looked after. Yes, Mini parts are cheap, but you need to buy lots of them, the tyres are very soft rubber and £75 each, and the last two winters of parking outside has done the bodywork no favours at all, so at least by storing it over winter we can postpone the bodywork jobs and any further spending. Since doing this a few people have said that they thought having a mini as a daily drive was a bit of a luxury, so I'm glad we've done it (but roundabouts aren't half as much fun now)

As a result of the above, Mortgage is at £202,862.73 which is about £800 worse than last month. We have decided to aim to ring the One Account on December 1st to reduce the facility by £2,000, so now we have a short term target to aim for. I think this is the best way to get things going in the right direction! We think we ought to do this every three months, otherwise there will always be something to spend money on. Classic example being the dishwasher breaking down two weeks ago, so it's handwashing for now!