Closing the mortgage to Open opportunities

Emsky123

Monthly total £82,747.95, A little bit more chipped off. Looking forward to payday this month, The company i work for pay a return to work bonus for mums coming off maternity leave, You have to complete 3 months first and then it gets paid every month for 6 months. Every penny of this bonus will go to the mortgage which also means i wont get used to having it.

Car goes for MOT next week - I wonder how much its gonna cost???

lincoln-potter

Emsky123 wrote: »

Monthly total £82,747.95, A little bit more chipped off. Looking forward to payday this month, The company i work for pay a return to work bonus for mums coming off maternity leave, You have to complete 3 months first and then it gets paid every month for 6 months. Every penny of this bonus will go to the mortgage which also means i wont get used to having it.

Car goes for MOT next week - I wonder how much its gonna cost???

Hello Emsky,

Just been reading your thread, doing well!

I have just booked my MOT online with F1auto-centres. Not sure if they have a location near you but booking online gives you 50% off.
So costs £27.42

http://www.f1autocentres.co.uk/book-mot.php

Emsky123

Thanks LP, I checked out your link but there were no branches near me. I have been thinking more and more about my car, My engine light comes on alot and it really annoys me that the garage charge over £50 just to plug it into a computer which tells you why the light is on. I did a bit of research and could not believe you can actually buy a handheld scanner for less than £40 so could diagnose yourself. I might invest in one so i could at least know the problem, I wonder if you know the issue could you get the garage to fix it or would they insist of doing their own diagnosis?

Emsky123

Well i have just left my car with the garage for the Mot, Yearly average cost is normally around £500 so im not looking forward to the call from the mechanic later.

I have been saving money where i can this month and have so far got £400 in the OP pot, Unfortunately this will dwindle when i get the car bill.

At least it means i wont need to touch my wages when i get paid on Thursday, touch wood, touch wood touch wood!

I have got Thursday off for my little girls birthday so its a 5 day weekend for me - 3 days less petrol usuage aswell.

Emsky123

:j:j:j My car passed the MOT, first time that has happened in 6 years, I must use the threat of the scrap yard more often.

Was expecting a bill of up to £500 but ended up with £60 bill so i still have some money left in the OP pot which i will send at the end of the week once i have been paid.

On target and still going = Yay

SeriouslySeekingtoSave

Fabulous news! Isn't it great when a bill doesn't actually arrive? :D

Emsky123

Well i actually wobbled a bit this month, Sun is shinning and the temptation to spend lots of money on garden toys, pools and lots of nice food is very high!

I thought i better send the money now before i go to town at least then i wont be tempted.

With the money i saved from last months budget and the usual amount from my wages i managed to send £800 to the mortgage:j:j:j

This leaves me with around £400 extra this month which will cover us for our week away in May, Im hoping to spend a lot less than that but as its our only holiday this year i wont mind if i spend it all.

Right im off shopping now, must be good, must be good, must be good

Emsky123

OP and normal payment now applied to account, Balance as at today £80840.19

So close to going below £80k :T

Emsky123

Email came though at the weekend, Home insurance due at end of May, Cant believe i forgot that was due. I started on the comparison websites and Quidco looking for cheaper insurance and will hope to save a bit of money.

Whilst i was looking at Quidco i also had a look at bank accounts and saw one that had £150 cash back just to switch, I must admit when it comes to banking my heart has ruled my head as i have been with the same company since i was born and even though i get 0% interest on my current account im still with them!

I do like the internet banking and even though my OP's are sent to a different Bank the transfer is instant so i like how quick it is, I then started thinking about running two current accounts, One for normal bills and another for my OP's - This wont matter with 0% interest as the money is not in the account for more than 24 hours and i can make sure the minimum deposit amount is met for both.

Has anyone else done this? Is it easy to manage two accounts?

I finally gave in and bought breakdown insurance, I have only been on short journeys for the last two years so did not need it, We are now going on at least 3 long journeys and i dont want the worry, Got it though Quidco so it was not too expensive.

Its been another nice long weekend but needs must so im off back to work today. Only 9 more working days till my holiday:j

mpgsheep

Ref your question about current accounts, I currently am running following current accounts:

First Direct - my main personal current account (switched for £100 and the 8% reg saver)
HSBC - long term current account (15years plus), only keeping it as have a reg saver at 4% running til dec 2011
Nationwide - joint account for our bills etc (also gave us access to 3.10% isas last year)
Halifax - this is just for the £5 per month, and also their easy access saver at 2.8%. I "run" my OHs account too for the £5, and in process of setting up a joint account for the extra £5.

So yes it is simple enough to run multiple current accounts! I just like to write everything possible down on my spreadsheet, ie usernames/login details etc (all in my own code...). Also tend to think more accounts you have open then quicker can apply for any really good savings accounts/mortgage products etc that open only to existing customers.