No Money, thats No Good!

.NoMoney.

Oh I do love the sunny weather! This weekend was perfect for a family NSW and that is exactly what happened, but partly due to very nice grandparents and greatgrandparents.

We met up with a friend and her little one for a morning in the park Saturday before heading to our eldests Summer Fayre where we expected to have to spend some pennies on the children, however, great grandnanny came along for the ride and treated the kids to goes on the bouncy castle and the games so we didn't need to spend anything - even if we had it would have only been a couple of £ anyway it was that reasonably priced.

Sunday was more relaxed, my wife worked a night shift on Saturday, so the girls when off to the in-laws Sunday morning to go to Chuch (they go every Sunday and really enjoy it, plus it gives, the in-laws more time with them and me and my wife some relaxing time). So, my wife slept and I relaxed in the warm weather.

We then picked them up and the FIL gave my wife some money he borrowed from her a few weeks before, which allowed us to treat ourselves to our monthly indulgence - half price Curry Night at the local Indian.

Not overly looking forward to this week though - my wife is off to Take That Friday and as a result I have two days out of the office which means no OT and therefore reduced pennies come pay day - she also has another night shift on Saturday which means I will have 3 full daddy days to try and find entertainment - which wouldn't be too bad if it wasn't tropical weather outside and therefore not worth staying in!

.NoMoney.

Morning all (well, if there is anyone out there).

Had some potentially good news yesterday, I say potentially as it will be determined on a few figures and the kindness of the bank, but if we are successful we could be in a very good position to make huge repayments.

A friend of my FIL is a financial advisor and he spoke with my wife last weekend when she picked the little ones up from church. He has suggested that we may be paying way too much in respect of mortgage payments.

We are about 14-months from the end of our fixed term, and providing the figures my wife has given him are correct, he believes that we are probably playing around £300 p/m too much in monthly repayments due to our interest rate.

He is coming to see us next Monday to see if this is correct and if he can restructure our current deal - even by us paying the early redemption charge we could save a pretty small fortune (nearly £4,000 a year) which would be very useful towards debt.

I guess we will have to wait and see - but not going to get my hopes up too much.

jwil

I'm still here! Had a hectic week, so haven't really been keeping up very well.

Until this year, I had no 0% deals, and my highest balance on a CC was £7500 at 34.9% :eek: I was paying £250 per month, and if I was lucky, knocking £5 off the balance. There was just no way out.

Luckily various things happened, so I managed to rejig things so now 2 of my CCs are on 0% which helps an awful lot. My loan is front loaded with interest, so I've taken the balance including interest as my actual balance and treat it as 0% now. If I'm ever in a position to get a settlement, it means I will have to pay less than it appears I owe. But it means that a certain amount of my debt balance I know is interest.

That's good news on the potential mortgage savings, I hope something comes of it. Are you with NRAM? Because I believe they are waiving the ERC if you move to another lender - potentially saving even more.

.NoMoney.

Hi Jwil, I have been keeping tabs on your thread (even impressed by the £100 book!) so know you have been a little bit busy.

As I said, not going to get my hopes up too much with the mortgage plan as lots could potentially go wrong - the value of our house not being enough, no decent deals, our financial position (even if we are earning more than when we originally got the mortgage) not being great etc...

Also checked my bank for the first time this month, and haven't spent anything (by that I mean accessed by account) since 29th June....if only I could manage that through till payday at the end of this month.

.NoMoney.

Good morning all.

Today is the day when hopefully I find out if miracles happen and we manage to secure a great reduction on the mortgage - just got to get through a long day at work first.

Weekend was rather nice, my wife went to Take That on Friday so I had a nice day off spent with the little monster followed by a nice family day on Saturday.

My eldest had a party yesterday and my brother came round for dinner (he moved out for the first time a month ago) so we did the older brother bit and made sure he had a proper full meal inside him. As a result of that we spent a little more than we usually would on food because we had to cater for 1 more and also got a special pudding in (something my wife does whenever we have guests).

Apart from that we didn't do alot else - our eldest is 5 next month so we started planning for her birthday party ensuring we get it all her invitations out to school friends before the end of term next week (my thats gone quickly).

It is also 3-weeks before the football season starts and I have now fully booked myself throughout August with pre-season games so the money should start flooding in again there (especially when it hits September and both the Divisions I officiate in kick off).

.NoMoney.

Morning all - the mortgage man came round yesterday, he couldn't find us a better deal than we are on, the payment penalties and the porting fee make it not worth it for such a small saving.

However, we did manage to port all our life insurances etc into 1 product to save us £50 a month, so a little saving is good.

Aside from that, nothing else to report in my world of money saving, although my little spreadsheet shows that since I started this little journey my debt (excluding loans as I cannot work that out with the interest) has reduced by £350! This I feel is pretty good when you factor in my wife being out of work for a considerable amount of this.

jwil

Sorry to hear that there were no savings to be made on the mortgage front. Good news about the life insurances though!

Well done on what you've paid off so far, that's great, especially as your wife was not working.

.NoMoney.

Hi jwil - I wasn't too disappointed that no savings could have been made. I was expecting it given the current market and I also thought with the current LTV on our house we had a pretty good deal anyway.

Still, we will soldier on and hopefully come next year when the mortgage is due for review we can get a better deal then.

However, one benefit from my wife being out of work for a large part earlier this year, we received our benefits entitlement yesterday, and they have increased these by a reasonable sum this year to cover her less than impressive earnings - obviously next year her new job will impact this in the opposite direction, but by then we hope to be a lot better off financially anyway.

.NoMoney.

Morning all.

A NSW for me - only because I experienced every parents worst nightmate and spent the weekend in hospital with my 2 year old. On Friday, when my wife went to pick the eldest up from school the little one fell down the school steps (concrete) steps and smashed her face into the concrete.

Spent Friday night at the hospital and went back again Saturday to finish up, and spent a considerable time with the MaxoFacial Surgeon trying to save her teeth, we won't know for 2 weeks but the chances of success are very slim. Likely that she will lose 2 of her front teeth, the top left and the one next to that. However, for the next 2 week shes got to eat through a straw as cannot risk her chewing whilst the tooth tries to reattach itself.

The only positive to come from it is that she didn't do herself serious injury, yes, shes lost her teeth, but they will grow back, I think if she had broken something (especially facially), my wife wouldn't be able to forgive herself - oh, and now she wants a kitten to make her better!

.NoMoney.

It's Tuesday and for once the sun is shining, I won't hold my breath about it lasting all day though.

We finished writing out the little ones invitations for her birthday party last night, so she will be sending those out today, hopefully with her party being during the school holidays her friends still want to come - she is having a joint party with one of her school friends who's birthday happens to fall on the same day. FIL has hired the hall for us (freebie) and due to the party share, the boys parents have agreed to do the entertainment and we will share the food costs.

Aside from that, weather permitting we have decided to do a bootfair this weekend to clear alot of household junk (please be nice, as the sooner I get one done the sooner I get my living room, bedroom, kitchen and hallway back.....).

Moneywise nothing has changed, eagerly awaiting payday in T-minus 9 days.