pippa80 is a mfw!

pippa80

Well this has been a more MSE month

Other than a small blowout on takeaway on Sunday, all meals were planned, lots more staying at home and enjoying that, and lunches taken into work! Yay!

Got a 50% off deal from toptable for the OH's birthday. Very nice it was too.

Unfortunately the OH has vetoed my (admittedly somewhat complicated) idea about different budgets for different 'entertainment' spendings, but I think if we can consolidate how we've gone this month then that's real progress.

The exciting news from my spreadsheet: if we had made no overpayments we would have paid just £2,254 principle. Although this includes our buffer and savings for boiler and trip overseas, we've so far overpaid £10,237!!!:j This month our overpayment fund will save us more than £38 in interest :T

My MFW goal this month is to consolidate the good work of May.

ETA: boiler conundrum continues. I've been given a £4,000 limit on the 0% card, but have also discovered that our freeholder offers a boiler insurance deal for £150/year, so going to look into that and do a proper cost/benefit on what we should do.

pippa80

Had a good chat to my dad at the weekend about the boiler conundrum. He is the ultimate MSEer (we had a grey water system in my 1980s childhood to save money on watering the garden!) and an accountant and financial advisor and thinks we should get a new boiler. So will look into that properly in the next few weeks. (He was very proud of my overpayment spreadsheet and told me he used to always overpay the mortgage on our family home!).

Have also planned out the month ahead and unfortunately lots of trips away for work and a few gigs and parties booked in. I know from the past couple of months that when I'm away a lot + have things on in the evenings it's when I end up not cooking, not making lunches and wasting lots of money.

Goal is still to consolidate the good work of last month, but will be more challenging that I initially realised.

pippa80

Well, as expected June was a tough month. Fell down quite a bit with not making lunches, but did manage to meal plan and make dinners most of the time. July will also be tough but not quite so bad. Even so, managed to save about £300, some of which will go on new hub caps and things for the car (toe rags stole them!). The rest will go towards a nice bookcase for the living room. Am thinking of getting a good quality second hand one from gumtree. Otherwise looking at around £500 new (want to only buy good quality furniture now we have our own place, but happy to save up and get things as we go along).

Have had quotes for the boiler and they're less than expected. Looking more like £3,000 than £4,000. So that's good news. Have already saved £700 and will probably 'stooze' it by continuing to pay into the mortgage overpayment fund and then withdraw it and pay off the balance before the 0% period ends (obvs making minimum overpayments on the card).

This month we saved £44.69 in interest compared to if we had made no overpayments.

CathT

Hi Pippa, not come across your diary before. Good luck with your MF journey. We also could do with a new boiler, it's just old and inefficient but never let us down but I struggle to save for one whilst I am soooo addicted to overpaying! I was quoted £2800 for ours.

gallygirl

Pippa, 3-4k sounds extortionate for a boiler unless there is something especially complex about what is required. I paid 2k for one recently (admittedly no VAT as a small business) and a friend is paying around 2.3k plus VAT - and she is in Hertfordshire, so not a cheap area.

Have you tried mybuilder.co.uk to ask for some quotes?

Good luck

pippa80

Thanks Cath - yes I had planned to save/overpay for the boiler slowly, but when it broke down recently I changed my mind! I can also use the gas savings for OPs

Gallygirl - our best quote is about £2,200 + VAT. The highest one is about £1000 more than that! We found them through which local (I subscribed for £1 and will unsubscribe once I have this sorted). As we're moving from a conventional to a combi, they need to get rid of the tanks from the loft and bathroom. Also the gas piping under the kitchen floor needs to be replaced as it's the wrong diametre for a modern boiler (all of them have said this when they quoted so I don't think it's someone taking the mickey).

Sepa74

I think that was pretty much what I paid when mine got put in. I got a couple of new radiators and moved some others around, so it was quite a bit more than that in total. But worth absolutely every penny!

If you're getting a combi boiler you might also want to think about getting thermostatic taps for the bathroom at the same time.... it's a lot harder to control the temperature with normal taps - my shower is always either slightly too hot or slightly too cold.

It's not a huge issue, but something you might want to do while the plumber is there. I knew I was going to have to completely gut the bathroom, so decided to just live with it in the interim and it certainly hasn't been too much of a pain.

CathT

pippa80 wrote: »

Thanks Cath - yes I had planned to save/overpay for the boiler slowly, but when it broke down recently I changed my mind! I can also use the gas savings for OPs

Gallygirl - our best quote is about £2,200 + VAT. The highest one is about £1000 more than that! We found them through which local (I subscribed for £1 and will unsubscribe once I have this sorted). As we're moving from a conventional to a combi, they need to get rid of the tanks from the loft and bathroom. Also the gas piping under the kitchen floor needs to be replaced as it's the wrong diametre for a modern boiler (all of them have said this when they quoted so I don't think it's someone taking the mickey).

Our main issue is figuring out where to house the new boiler. We would also be upgrading to a combi so removing the tank from upstairs. Our existing 15yrs+ boiler is currently situated right at the back of an understairs cupboard. I think the new location is adding to the costs and plumber said to bear in mind proximity to sinks etc so not wasting money sending hot water through great lengths of pipe. We also want some asbestos removed which isn't cheap and a gas supplier company wanted over £5k to do the same job!

pippa80

Thanks for that tip Sepa - actually the bathroom is a bit dated and we do plan to renovate it once we've paid off the new boiler.

Cath - I know, it just seems like so much money doesn't it!? I'm thinking that it will be worth it though

In other news, I used last month's savings to buy two lovely solid wood bookcases. Found them on gumtree - a daughter clearing out her mother's deceased estate. They are gorgeous and were £80 each. Look pretty similar to the £500 ones from John Lewis! Excitingly that meant that we've now unpacked our final box (which was books with no home). Only ten months after we moved in! :j

Think we've saved at least £300 this month, which will go towards our christmas cottage rental and some new curtains that we need for the living room. One of the blinds broke, and they look a bit rubbish anyway. I figure some lined curtains will keep us warmer in winter too. Anyone know of a good place for curtains? I found curtainsmadesimple online, but not sure if they're any good etc.

pippa80

Last few weeks have been completely manic at work and OH busy with sporting duties, so we've fallen off the wagon with taking lunches to work unfortunately.

We're having a staycation this week. Going on some nice day trips and a couple of days to catch up on stuff at home. We've put up the new shower bracket today as well as decluttered and tided our under stairs cupboard.

I think things will continue to be quite manic for the next few weeks, but am going to try to be more organised! And very much looking forward to mid Sept onwards when things will be back to normal.

In very nice news, an uncle from overseas gave us £200 in John Lewis vouchers as a belated wedding present! Have to think of something nice to buy with them

Our balance this month will fall below £145,000 for the first time (though lots in there is savings not true OPs). We've saved about £47 in interest this month. :T