Drip drip drip feeding the mortgage

tjp70

Yet another huge gap as life progresses at a rapid rate……

Since I last posted, the mortgage overpayments have continued at about £275.00 per month. The mortgage now stands at £58243.88. On 10th of this month, I met my second target – the daily interest is now below £4.00 per day, ok, so it’s £3.99 a day but at least it’s under the £4.00!! Last year we managed to overpay the mortgage by £2550.29 and I hope to do even better this year.

Sadly, I have been unable to sell my dog walking business. I have been badly let down by two separate ladies, who both pulled out on the day of the sale completion so I have now returned the van to the dealers I bought it from and they are going to try and sell it on my behalf. At least it is no longer parked on my driveway, where it was a constant reminder of a failed dream. I now have to try and sell the dog crates, leads and other equipment. Having looked on ebay, there are loads for sale at very little money so no chance of an overpayment through that I don’t think.

But there is good news – DH has been promoted and will get a company car at the end of the month. :j Obviously he will be taxed on the car, but at least the tax and servicing will be down to someone else. This also means we will have a spare car, so I have that to sell too.

My main focus between now and Easter is the credit card which is now running at just under £3000. It is on a 0% card and we have the savings but I still don’t like that amount. I am trying to make payments to that card as often as I can. It’s a psychological thing!

The bookkeeping work, the children and the cat are all keeping me very busy. Luckily DH looks after himself.

So, with regards to overpaying – I need a new target. I was thinking that a goal of getting under £49,999 by 31st December should be a good challenge. Let’s hope the interest rate does not rise any time soon!

tjp70

Not a lot to report since my last post. I have been busy with work and had a really productive day yesterday.

Last night we really wanted a take away but I went to Mr A instead with DS. I bought southern fried chicken pieces, American style fries and coleslaw so it was Mr A's KFC! However at the checkout I was shocked that it was roughly the same price as a KFC takeaway. I am consoling myself with the thought that it was probably slightly healthier as it was oven cooked and I have frozen fries left over for another meal.

After my last post I checked the o/s balance on my credit card. It had risen to £3308 as the holiday hire car charges have been paid. I made a £200 payment but would love to see that balance reduce further.

DD has counted up all the pennies in the mortgage pig and we have £5.00 to take to the NatWest coin machine.!

Today I am hoping that last night's!EuroMillions winner of £40million was my syndicate at work! Almost certainly not, but a girl can dream......

icontinuetodream

tjp70 wrote: »

Today I am hoping that last night's!EuroMillions winner of £40million was my syndicate at work! Almost certainly not, but a girl can dream......

Remember me if it is!!! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

tjp70

ICTD - of course!!!

A good day today. Coppers from the mortgage pig paid into NWB, had 10p rejected so a total of £4.90 paid in. I have transferred £5.00 to the mortgage account so that should be in by Wednesday.

We went to watch our nephew play rugby today, we took a packed lunch so the only outgoing was petrol. On the way home, DH mentioned that he wasn't in the mood for cooking which is hilarious seeing as he doesn't do the cooking. That was his code for wanting to eat out or get a takeaway, but I was strict and cooked pork with noodles in a spicy tomato sauce. Yum!

Now snuggled up in front of the tv.

TallGirl

Hi Tjp70 I thought I better pop in and say hello just read your diary so sorry about your dog walking business sounded like it was going really well.

Fellow Southcoaster here too, I love living down here such a nice part of the Country and of course close to the sea. We are lucky aren't we.

tjp70

TallGirl wrote: »

Hi Tjp70 I thought I better pop in and say hello just read your diary so sorry about your dog walking business sounded like it was going really well.

Fellow Southcoaster here too, I love living down here such a nice part of the Country and of course close to the sea. We are lucky aren't we.

Hello TallGirl,

I have just posted on your diary!

We are lucky living in this part of the country. I like living close to the sea, I just don't go there as often as I should.

Yes, sad news about the dog walking business. I drove past the van dealers yesterday and my van is sat on their forecourt still, with all the signwriting on it so they haven't done a thing with it. Oh well, at least it's not on my driveway.

Yesterday was a lovely day. DD was at the school production rehearsal all day and DS is old enough to sort himself out, so DH & I went for a wander around Winchester which was lovely. I haven't been there before and it's beautiful. We ended up buying birthday presents for DD for her birthday in February as Bo*ts had some good deals. Then we went out for lunch. It was lovely to be a couple again.

I was very good when we got back home as I did one hour's work, so a little bit of pay towards the presents purchased.

Today, my 18 year old cat is not feeling well. She has an upset tummy and has been messing and being sick a lot. I went to the vets to get her some food for sensitive tummies in the hope it will help settle her again. Fingers crossed. She is an old, skinny cat but I feel there is life left in her yet. I hope she doesn't prove me wrong. She is still very spritely if you have some food and she wants some!

The £5.00 op hit the mortgage account today so that's £255.00 op for this month so far.

tjp70

It’s been a busy week. DS has had GCSE’s this week, DD was in the school production of Bugsy Malone at a local theatre, my health has been up and down, and DH has finished his job and starts his new job (promotion) on Monday. The cat is much improved.

On Thursday, I was really poorly so DH worked from home to keep an eye on me. That saved us £12 in petrol so I put £6 towards the credit card and £6 towards the mortgage. Not a huge amount for either, but at least something went towards them. The usual £25.00 weekly overpayment went to the mortgage too so that brings January overpayments to £286.00.

Yesterday we washed our cars. Of late we have been getting a local company to do it. It only costs £5.00ish but it is something we are more than capable of so I dragged DH & DD outside to do it. DH’s new company car then arrived so we now have a glut of vehicles again. DH & I went to local VW showroom and have managed to trade in our two old cars for a 3 year old Golf. We managed to negotiate on the price, refused their ‘amazing VW finance’ and got a great deal with our current bank on a loan, thanks to this site. I should take delivery on Tuesday. Excited!

tjp70

Don’t you just love it when your monthly payment hits the mortgage? Maybe it’s just me.
Mortgage now stands at £57,810.29. January overpayments reached £311.00.

Peelerfart

tjp70 wrote: »

Don’t you just love it when your monthly payment hits the mortgage? Maybe it’s just me.

No,your not the only one, it's the only bill I look forward to paying.
Only in as much as I look forward to never paying it again.

tjp70

Peeler, I agree entirely!! Whilst we are not in our forever house, I don’t want this much on the mortgage ever again.

I have been worrying about the credit card bill, about when to pay it off, how to pay it off etc. without hitting the savings too much and I have decided that this is crazy. The only reason we have so much in savings is because things we should have paid for immediately got thrown on the credit card whilst we kept hold of the money. I had hoped that we were gaining greatly by earning interest on the savings, but in actual fact, we are making about £5.00 per month only.”£5.00 per month” I hear you cry “ – not to be sniffed at”, and I agree. But it’s causing me concern so I spoke to DH and he agrees that we pay the monthly bill in full this month and next month. I can save that £5.00 in other areas (I promise). See next paragraph for a start. This also means that any future additional income/savings can be put towards the mortgage and not needed for the credit card bill.

The January expenditure spreadsheet (geeky I know) shows that we were better with our Dining Out/Takeaways than the previous six months. I plan to keep up this good work, and will focus hard on meal planning. I made a cake today and am looking forward to having a slice at teatime.

Great news. I had a call on Friday and the dealers have sold my van! :j Yay! The sale should go through this week so I can replace some of the money in the ISA that I used for the initial purchase.

Half term is looming and the kids are going away to France with the grandparents. This means I am not confined to working school hours and should be able to rack up some extra hours.

We were all sad that we did not get a single flake of snow. I am sure some of you MFW’s are sick of the sight of it, but we are still sad.:(