Starting the mortgage free path

cb4fwh

bownyboy wrote: »

Anyone else on this rate or had experience with them?

No, but I believe that you have to hold a current account with HSBC to get this rate...

bownyboy

Thanks cb4fwh and Hurdler. Yeah, I guessed you have to bank with them (was the same when I took out my A&L fix; opened the account and then never used it, except to pay the mortgage).

bownyboy

So halfway point of March and a total of 11 NSDs so far, the most I've ever done!

Don't feel I've missed out at all and I've saved a huge amount. All I've taken out as cash has been £20 each weekend for coffee's / papers / beer when out cycling.

bownyboy

Morning all,

Payday today so time for monthly update:

• January 2014 - £106,929 / £358 / £11.96
• February 2014 - £105,967 / £355 / £11.85
• March 2014 - £105,002 / £352 / £11.74
• April 2014 - £104,034 / £349! / £11.64

Savings & investments now at £10k so effective mortgage of £94,034

bownyboy

So the month is nearly over and time to appraise how it went following setting up Money Dashboard and the frightening realisation I was bleeding money away on cashpoint withdrawals, grocery shops, alcohol etc:

• This month I went to the cashpoint twice and took out a total of £70
• We ate out twice at a cost of £70
• I had 20 NSDs
• Took packed lunch everyday (usual do, but would buy lunch one day a week before)
• Only went to the off license once and spent £7 (instead I drank bottles of wine that had been gathering dust at home!)

Net result is that I am £300 in credit in current account just before payday for the first time in years!

I always thought I was careful / frugal with money, but actually the opposite was true.

Will shift the money over into my Santander 123 account to start earning 3% interest and go towards expenses for this year (holidays, new boiler etc)

bownyboy

Well not a very MSE day today. We decided to grab a last minute winter (spring even) sun deal in Gran Canaria in 2 weeks time. We 'saved' £596 with a web booking (yeah, right), so £569 for the two of us, flights, transfers and self catering bungalow. Some great reviews on trip advisor for the resort, average of 26c, pool, spa, tennis courts.

Had a busy first 3 months of the year, so looking forward to some R&R before a big project kicks off!

bownyboy

Got my first Santander 123 cashback/interest today. £26.41 which is not bad at all. It should be higher but my virgin media and travelcard have not come out yet.

Hard to see the downsides to this account. Wish I'd moved over ages ago.

in_need_of_direction

Just been browsing your diary and am impressed by the inroads you're making. We remortgaged about 8 years ago and got a base rate tracker mortgage. As our ltv was around 50%, we pay 0.66% above base rate.

bownyboy

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

Just been browsing your diary and am impressed by the inroads you're making. We remortgaged about 8 years ago and got a base rate tracker mortgage. As our ltv was around 50%, we pay 0.66% above base rate.

Thanks for popping by. 0.66% above base rate is a cracking deal. I'm still flip-flopping on a weekly basis between taking a lifetime tracker for 1.99-2.49% or fix for another 5 years at 3.19%.

My GF hates the thought of a tracker as she saw how interest rates went up to 14% last time with people loosing homes etc. For me I'm annoyed we've paid 3.99% for five years while rates plummeted.

The way I look at it, you have to take a little risk in life and with our very low LTV and the fact that interest rates would have to go up 6 quarter points before it reached what we are currently paying, I'm inclined to take the tracker and continue to overpay.

bownyboy

Finally making some decent returns on my S&S ISA after 6 months it's up 1.61% or a grand total of £32! It's fun to login a do track progress with the Hargreaves Landsowne app.

From this month I'm contributing £990, be interesting to see how it progresses over next 6 months.