SeriouslySeekingtoSave strongly strides straight into slaying her mortgage!

alex_p

SeriouslySeekingtoSave wrote: »

Wow Alex - so close to the MF Roll of Honour! Good for you.

Yes it's getting rather close now! The MF Roll of Honour is within reach! Well almost! See you there!

SeriouslySeekingtoSave

abouttimetoo wrote: »

Hi SStS and welcome to the MFW board :hello:

• use of credit cards to ontain rewards/cashbacks etc
• use of 0% interest credit cards whereby you save the money you would have used to pay the monthly bills, earn interest on this money, then repay the full balance at the end of the 0% term
• investigate sites such as quidco and topcashback before you by anything at all as it's amazing how much money you can generate by doing this
• join one of the MFW challenges e.g. cake21 is running the 2011 one
• regularly review your standing orders and direct debits
• keep an eye on savings rates as there may be times that you can earn more interest than the interest rate you are paying on your mortgage

:rotfl:

Ok, got some time to properly answer:

* Credit Card Cashbacks. I have been considering this as a real possibility. Once I have my ISA and/or Saving account set up I will be looking more into this
* Credit Card 0% This is another one I've been considering and I'm wondering whether I should go for the 0% CC or the cashback. Seeing as I don't have any debts to move onto this I'm leaning more towards the cashback credit card. One question I had was, the 0% period that you get, is that a set time period at the start of the card and 18months later any debt that is on it you have to pay off or does it keep extending depending on when the debt was placed? So if I bought a sofa on the CC 10 months in and it was an 18 month free credit, would the debt for the sofa need to be paid off in 8 months or 18?
* My first (and only) attempt at a cash back was when I moved over to nPower for Elec/Gas. Well I will be in a few days, takes AGES to have it go through. I'm not at all sure I've done it right and I can't remember supplying my bank details or anything like that. I need to do a lot more research into this.
* I have joined the MFW 2011 challenge. Number 46 I think. I have been trying to work out how you subscribe to a thread as I keep losing the ones I'm reading.
* Will do
* Applied last night for a First Direct account so I can set up a 8% interest savings account (for £300 a month). That's better than an ISA! And I'll try to find a good ISA for the rest. I still want to make my £10,000 a year reduction from principal though unless it is obviously financially silly to do so. At the moment the ISAs are about the same as my mortgage so the slight increase is not much to concern myself about. Will try to do both though!

Megadebtor

SeriouslySeekingtoSave wrote: »

I'll also check other saving account options. Some of them might be better than an ISA. There was one around not so long ago that gave you 6% interest for up to £300 a month. Although after a year it dropped down again. This would be a perfect saving account and I'd have ready access to my money in case of disaster

I find your diary really inspirational and your enthusiasm is already rubbing off on me
You mentioned that you have an HSBC current account. If it is an advance or premier account then you could also open a regular saver and pay in up to £250 per month earning 10%. Over the year that would be £163 interest earned on £3000 of savings. However that only makes sense if you have an advance account already as they charge you £12 per month for the privilege. Over the year that would be £144 in charges so unless you are already paying this anyway, the regular saver wouldn't make financial sense. I just inquired about it and currently HSBC offers half price monthly charges of £6 per month for the first nine months which would mean you end up paying £90 and leaving you with £73 of interest after one year.

Another account (and in my opinion better option) is the Lloyds Classic Vantage account. That is a current account into which you have to pay at least 1k per month but then they will pay you 4% (I believe) for a balance of up to £7K. Also the monthly incoming payment of £1K doesn't have to stay in there. This account has no monthly charges, you can take the money out at any time and the interest is applied monthly rather than annually and unless you find an ISA that pays at least 3.2% you'll be better off with a taxable savings account. The main advantage of this one is that you could put £7k in there straight away rather than drip feeding small amounts of £250. If you're a lower rate tax payer then this should leave you with £224 net interest.

If anybody knows of any good savings accounts - I'm always interested in those even though my savings are currently zilch

SeriouslySeekingtoSave

SJ1 wrote: »

Hi there

I read your thread with interest as I am also thinking about overpaying on the mortgage but I want to do a little work to the house first so was going to put money towards that. Not sure if we can afford to do both. I am limited to repaying £500 per month. We could probably afford more but I didn't think this was too limiting as we completed a big build project last year and that soaked up all our savings big time. So I need to replace them so I have some dosh in the bank and having got my budgeting under control (my food budget was atrocious - well there wasn't a budget just me buying exactly what I wanted without thinking much about it!) things are settling down and I actually have a reasonable amount left over.

So let me have your top tips - do you really not budget? I find it impossible to keep track if I don't and really carefully. I write everything down and keep the same amount of cash out each week which I limit myself too. Our main spends apart from food and clothes for me (I too LOVE the clothes) are cars:mad: which I sort of love and hate. I love driving them but hate the expense! OH would dearly love a little two seater to add to the collection.

Would love to hear from you on how you do it!! Oh! And consistency and determination to you!!

SJ

I also have some things that I would like to do around the house. Namely my bathroom. It's a large space and it could be a really lovely space (and future selling point). However it will cost thousands so I'll do everything else first and once the house is exactly how I want it, then I'll think about rewarding myself with a nice bathroom...

It sounds like the food budget is a common woe, glad I'm not alone :-) Well done you for managing to reign it in :T I've just started on this part of my 'makeover' so I'm aiming high for me (£150 a month) but I know that that would be considered laughable by many others standards. Got to start somewhere though right? Once I've got some cheap and easy recipes down pat I can hopefully see about pulling it in further. I still like my Thai though so I'm not planning on a Beans on Toast diet regardless

My top tip? Hmm? Stick to these forums! Honestly I've been pretty terrible with money and I'm just trying to learn the lessons now. I've never been able to budget, my 3 month record of every penny I spent before I applied for my mortgage is the closest I've ever been. I am able to not spend money though if I know I don't have it or I need to save. I'm just quite erratic and hate the thought of saying 'ok £20 this week on going out'. Sometimes I'll go out 4 times a week and not for the next 3. Or if I do I won't spend anything. I've always had a life like that so I've never found a budget to fit in with the sort of person I am.

I'm actually ok with that. I know it doesn't work for 90% of people but to not have a hard and fast rule about when I can and can't spend money works for me. What doesn't work is my lack of discipline regarding spending money on food and understanding about exactly how much money I have where and how much money it's NOT making me by sitting in crappy bank accounts :mad:

You never know though, after a year of keep a record of my monthly spend I may be able to work out a budget (and be able to stick to it) for the very first time in my life! Won't that be something? :rotfl:

Good luck to you! May you find lots of very cheap clothes and super cheap two seater! I had a lurverly 2 seater convertible back in NZ but I haven't got one here because I live in areas of good public transport. A car would be a convenience but too much of an expensive one I've decided. Maybe one day...

SeriouslySeekingtoSave

LilacPixie wrote: »

first direct could be your friend... http://www1.firstdirect.com/1/2/savings/regular-saver-account/overview

Thank you so much for that link, that is the one I was meaning. Although it looks like it's increased it's interest rate from 6 to 8%. Although it is entirely possible that I just got it wrong lol

I applied for a first direct account last night, you need one before they will let you have a regular saver account. Got an email today saying that they are posting some things out to me. Hopefully that will got through and I'll be able to set up a decent saving's account before I head home at the end of the month!

SJ1

Hi There

Thanks for the response. I really need the budget like I said but impressed that your 'no budget' budget works for you. I am nowhere near £150 a month on food but then we are two adults and two children, that said I have dramatically reduced the spend each month and I have got to the point where I spend the same almost every week. I get our shop and then some cash out for food and that is what I have left to last so now the food fits the budget. It was a big area for me, sure I could do more here but at the moment I am satisfied.

What I am starting to do now is divide up what we have after the budget spend left into different pots, which has led to the question of whether I use a piece of that to pay what I can on the mortgage. I want one pot for one off expenses like car tax, Christmas and our holiday and an ISA for longer term saving and then maybe repay the mortgage but the question is which do I go for first? That's the question in my mind at the moment.

You are very good leaving your bathroom to the end, I want to try to do the work upfront to the house so then it's like we owe £x then start paying off. We are nearly there as well, not much left to do. I still need to get decorations and cushions and stuff but not too worried about this at the moment.

Anyway, wishing you lots of consistency and determination

SJ

SeriouslySeekingtoSave

Megadebtor wrote: »

If anybody knows of any good savings accounts - I'm always interested in those even though my savings are currently zilch

Hi Megadebtor (stick with this place and you'll be microdebtor before you know it). Thanks for your comments and I'm glad I'm inspiring you . You sure do get a lot of omph from reading other peoples comments, as well as a stack load of good advice and just an all around good vibe. :A

I was reading Earthgirl's Diary. It's been going a while so I've only gotten through the first few pages and the last ones. Whew! Talk about a girl with some energy! She reminds me of the energizer bunny bouncing around with the battery... well you know where Hope she wouldn't be upset by that comment, I just mean that she is amazing! I wish I had a tenth of her get up and go.

I've actually taken the advice of one of the earlier posters and I've tried to open up an account with First Direct - that will give me £100 straight off and then I can open a saving account with them with a maximum amount of £300 a month and at 8% for a year.

So far that is the best I've found. I'm trying to find a decent ISA; if I get one at around 3% that will be worth more than my mortgage repayments even if it's not by much. I'll keep at my repayments though as I want to hit my £10,000 target.

SeriouslySeekingtoSave

Things are going well and I'd like to thank everyone for the great advice and tips I've been given in such a short space of time. Thanks to you all I have done the following in the last couple of days:

1. Applied for a First Direct Account
2. Joined the January Grocery Challenge
3. Started looking for a good ISA
4. Got lots of positive vibes

Now that I've joined the Grocery Challenge I'm hoping to find some good recipes that I can cook this weekend and have the ingrediants on hand for an extra couple of cheap nights during the week. I'm going to be starting slow and working my way down!

Wish me consistancy and determination! I CAN do this!

SeriouslySeekingtoSave

museumworker wrote: »

Just popping in to wish you consistency and determination! I think if you put up with that old flat, you can deal with anything! Well done on OPs to date, I think at this rate your mortgage will be gone in no time.

Food shopping is a really good area to save money on - I do a meal plan for the week before shopping, try and batch cook every now and again (and freeze in take away containers I get 10 for a £1 from the pound shop, they can be reused too but are a good size to stack and portionwise.), use a slow cooker, buy meat and fish reduced and freeze, use local markets and fantastic (but cheap) local butcher, shop at Lidl.. all of these tactics mean we spend around £220-250 a month for me, OH and DD including lunches. I'm sure there are many who do it even cheaper, but considering how well we eat and the fact that the OH is a bit of a foodie, I'm happy with that! Was more like £450 when we moved in together 2 years ago.

This is a great idea and I've now joined the challenge :-). I will be looking out for ways to make cooking easy in the kitchen. I don't have much (not even a toaster or a kettle atm) but I'm working on it!

gallygirl

Hello, wishing you consistency and determination

cha97michelle wrote: »

One of the links on the first page of the grocery challenge is to a webpage about cheap family meals, made by one of the members here Weezl. I would say she is an expert on feeding people cheaply and well. She looks at nutritional needs as well as just being very cheap.

The only downside, which Weezl admits, is that although the meal palns give your 5 a day it is mostly canned or frozen. There are some lovely recipes there, though once they've been frugalised & the expensive ingredients taken out there is not enough variety for me.

I wouldn't bother with a cookbook - the internet is your friend , especially for soup recipes. Type in any random combination and add the word soup & something will come up! BBC Good Food & UKTV sites are v good.

You've made a great start, well done :T