Peonie's journey to smart money management

kingster2069

Peonie wrote: »

We have got quotes for life insurance for the mortgage. Our mortgage provider told us we should both take out the insurance separately. But if we take out a joint policy (which is cheaper) and one of us passes away before the other the insurance will only pay out once and pay off the mortgage. So why would we need separate ones?

If you know of a reason why we should take out separate policies please let me know.

Just wanted to remind you to check out the cashback sites, once you've decided on a life insurance provider.

Good luck with the house move.

Vixstar

Congrats on the MOT. Can't think of a reason why you'd both need insurance either.

museumworker

Hi Peonie, thought I'd visit you on your diary as you had on mine . Good luck with the house purchase, it is quite a stressful time and pampering definitely needed!

Regarding your life assurance - I went with an organisation recommended on the guides here. You pay them a one off £35 fee per product, but get rates which are much much better than I was getting on online comparison sites. You only pay the fee once you have taken up the assurance, and I worked out we would save that £70 we paid for the 2 products within a few months, and we had years to keep saving further. I went for 2 sep insurances rather than one joint. My reasoning for this was that it was only a couple of quid more, and we were getting double the amount of insurance for that. As we have a DD to think about, if one of us was to pass away, and then the other during the term, it means she would be well provided for with a secure home AND a lump sum to help her through life. Grim to think about, but glad we did it.

Peonie

I have checked my bank account every day and we were not allocated tickets for the Olympics. I am gutted. But that means we and 28,000 other people get first dibs on the tickets no one else wanted. Handball anyone?

So, rather than the money going into a savings account we'll wait to see if we can get any other tickets. I had hoped the people who bought too many tickets would try to sell them through the official channels but I have already heard of someone selling the excess tickets on Facebook, no doubt for a profit. Sigh.

Like many I have an Amazon account and was pleased, no, excited, to see their wish list has been expanded allowing goods from other sites to be listed. This is brilliant. If you are anything like me, you'll see something you want during the year but will not buy it as it's too expensive and by the time your birthday comes around you will have forgot what you wanted or think it's not special enough for a present. I know some people don't like wish/gift lists but I would rather give something he/she wants rather than spend money on something that will end up in a charity shop in the next clear out, and that's why I'm adding to my own.

We've been looking at kitchens for the new house and found out Ikea have 2 offers this month. For every £1,000 spent you'll get £100 in vouchers to use in store, and buy two appliances get the third free.

At the beginning of this thread I left a couple of posts blank. I'm going to use one to list all of the money management/money saving ways I use and want to make them the norm. Such as, this week I used Mr T's Price Checker and was sent a voucher for £0.68. In the same post I will list the abbreviations I use and their meaning, with the exception of explaining supermarkets abbreviations such as Mr Ts. I am including the abbreviations list as it took me 6 pages of reading a diary to realise NSD meant No Spend Day (but I could be wrong) :rotfl: and readers may think I'm doing a lot of Mystery Shopping when I am Money Saving.

Peonie

The monthly interest from my current accounts has been paid to the sum of £34. I expect the house deposit will be paid in the next week or two so I expect to receive between £8 and £17 in interest at the beginning of July.

In the last 2 months and 2 weeks we have saved some money allowing my current account to revive after transferring the maximum amount into my ISA.

At the end of June the highest tier of interest is removed from Lloyds TSB current accounts with vantage therefore I plan to start paying regularly into my ISA account.

But we not saved as much money as we expected to. Some of this can be put down to increased mileage. Twice a week we make a 20 mile round trip to see my parents and visit our two cats that are holidaying with my parents while we are 'inbetween houses'. And DH's journey to work has increased by 15 minutes each way but is slightly offset by my current lack of driving. I used to drive 10 minutes each way to the local train station and now walk to the bus stop.

On my way into work this morning I took a detour and after 2 months of procrastinating made an appointment with the Halifax to transfer my cash ISA. At the moment Lloyds TSB interest rates are 2.65% and Halifax are 3%. The appointment is on Monday so this weekend I need to find my annual ISA statement.

The lady on the Halifax helpdesk said I needed a current account to have an ISA with them, yet my colleague did not open a current account when he transferred his ISA in April. I'll have to ask about this on Monday. She also inferred I would need to use the current account as my main account to receive the £5 a month. But I have read others MS diaries and they receive the £5 as they transfer £1,000 in and out each month. I'll have to ask about this too.

So I need to:

• Visit the bank tomorrow with DH to make the current account a joint account.
• Find ISA statement.
• Ask if I need the current account and if I will receive the £5/month if I transfer the £1,000 in and out per month.

gratefulforhelp_2

On flylady we call tackling the things we have been putting off "eating frogs". Sounds like you are eating plenty of frogs at the moment, well done!

Peonie

I finally 'ate some frogs'... and finished a few more jobs.

I transferred the ISA to a bank with a better interest rate. It's now with the Halifax and getting 3.2% (rather than 3%) as I now have a current account with them, that was a nice little surprise. And so I don't forget the detail - if I move £1000 (or £250 x 4) into and out of the account each month then I will receive £5 from Halifax, and the advisor confirmed bills do not need to be paid from the current account to qualify.

We used the B&Q voucher off here and saved £25 - wahoo.

In the next 2 weeks I want to fully activate my Halifax accounts and internet banking for both the Halifax and mortgage.

remote_control

re Ikea kitchen, they came top in a Which magazine thing I was reading the other day.

Peonie

So I tried to work out why some people have multiple ISAs, one colleague has 2 and another more. And I think I've come up with a reason but thought I'd check with you clever folks. Is it to make access to the money flexible and to take advantage of the interest rates?

I have shied away from locking my money into a long term ISA (with a better interest rate) in case we need to access the money. But I could have a second ISA that is instant access, and (if the OH loses his job) this money could tide us over for a few months until we wait out the notice period for the first ISA.

Do you agree or have any other thoughts?

I know only 1 ISA can have funds deposited into it in one year. But can 2 ISAs be moved in one year?

Peonie

Thanks sutwam I don't feel inspirational there's still so much I am learning, but I think everyone on this forum is inspirational.

And we do have a completion date, within the next two weeks we will have a new home, I can't wait :j :beer: :T

Thanks Linz, I'm not quite at the baking stage but I am going to borrow my parents slow cooker and I'm going to check the OS threads for recipes.

Kingster
Just wanted to remind you to check out the cashback sites, once you've decided on a life insurance provider.

Good luck with the house move.

Thanks for the reminder, earlier this week we purchased our home and contents insurance for the year, we saved £32 as we went through a cashback site and more again as we paid for the insurance in one go.

museumworker
Regarding your life assurance - I went with an organisation recommended on the guides here. You pay them a one off £35 fee per product, but get rates which are much much better than I was getting on online comparison sites. You only pay the fee once you have taken up the assurance, and I worked out we would save that £70 we paid for the 2 products within a few months, and we had years to keep saving further. I went for 2 sep insurances rather than one joint. My reasoning for this was that it was only a couple of quid more, and we were getting double the amount of insurance for that. As we have a DD to think about, if one of us was to pass away, and then the other during the term, it means she would be well provided for with a secure home AND a lump sum to help her through life. Grim to think about, but glad we did it.

Thanks museumworker, what you said was really useful. We have not purchased the policy yet but we are going to buy a joint life assurance from the same company as you, it's the best deal the DH found.

Thanks remote_control, it's good to know the Ikea kitchen came out top.