Getting started but feeling daunted!

Dragonrider

Hope so!

Does anyone know if Co-op do internet banking for mortgages?

Thanks

debtdesperado

Hello Dragonrider!

I know what you mean about there not being many (crazy!) people with big mortgages on these boards...:-)

I have around £290,000 still to pay off on mine (gulp). The original mortgage was £300,000. Am trying to break it down into smaller chunks... so my first goal is to pay off 10% (which also means I will be able to move off the SVR....).

The way that I have started to do this is to make one extra mortgage payment a year...ie take your current payment, divide it by 12 and then try and save this each month. See the effect on one of the overpayment calculators (my favourite is the HSBC one which shows it as a graph). On a big mortgage it takes about 4 or 5 years off the term, and saves about £20,000.

Once you are in the swing of doing this, then look at increasing it to, say, two extra mortgage payments a year...

Best of luck!

Dragonrider

That's a really good idea!
Good luck with yours as well - sometimes feels completely unachievable... The other thing is that some people who have managed to become MF seem to come into money at just the right time eg bonuses - there's no hope of that with us!

Dragonrider

I normally shop at Sainsbury's, so I have decided to maximise my Nectar points to get as many as possible!

I have just signed up for the American Express Nectar credit card, as they are giving away 5000 points if you spend £500 in the first 3 months, and then 500 points per month after that, plus you get 4 points per pound spent if you use your Nectar card at the same time. I'm planning to save them all up, and then use them for Christmas!! Yum yum!

I am also going to look through our packed garage, and see if there is anything I can put on ebay.

Next - I know that British Gas are also giving away lots of Nectar points if you switch to them, so I need to work out whether that's worth doing as a form of cashback.

debtdesperado

I know what you mean...sometimes I just think it's such a drop in the ocean... I paid off over £30k of debt in the last 2 years though, so I just remind myself that I felt the same way with that, and I did it in the end!

Don't look up at the mountain, just start climbing!

misscousinitt

Hi

Just read your whole diary.

Stopped by to wish you loads of luck - the nectar points are a step in the right direction saving for Christmas.

I find that combining a big supermarket in your case Mr S and mine Mr T with a cheaper store such as Aldi or Lidl you are able to reduce your shopping bill considerably - try some of the products and see how you go, you could make some decent savings.

Good luck with your journey...

GeorgieFTB

Dragonrider wrote: »

I'm hoping that you lovely lot might have some pearls of wisdom or different perspectives that we may not have thought of. Ultimately I know that we are the only people who can make the decision, but it has got so complicated that all I want now is for someone to tell us what to do!

DR

As others have said, work out all three financial situations and worst cases and make sure you could live with them...

Then I think it should be down to heart over head... what is the point in overpaying the mortgage if not to gain some freedom! My mortgage allows payment holidays upto the overpayments made, if the nasty brown stuff hits the spinny thing then I can just about cope while I find a new job...

Just my tuppence...

Gx

Dragonrider

Today I switched our gas and electricity, and fixed until September, so I reckon we'll save £200 - 300 over the year, hopefully more once the loft is insulated.

Keeping this diary really focusses the mind - I'm actually doing the things that I have been meaning to do for ages! Long may it continue

We had DH's parents over for supper tonight, and ended up having a long discussion about his career - no further towards a decision, but I think talking about it often helps to crystallise things out, so hopefully we'll get there soon.

As a bonus, we had home-grown rocket in the salad tonight! Plus my 2 year old daughter ate strawberries straight off our strawberry plants. This may not sound like a big thing, but I have never managed to persuade her to eat any red fruit (strawberries/raspberries/tomatoes). She would quite happily pop one in my mouth, so I don't think she thought they were dangerous to eat, but she would never even try one herself. However, growing them ourselves seems to have made all the difference, and she ate 3 today! I'm so chuffed!

Dragonrider

No posts for a while as we went camping with family over half-term. It was a lovely place in Cornwall, but very basic! The loo was a compost one, perched up on a hill in a little hut with windows over looking the coastline and an amazing view. Apart from the petrol to get down there it was a pretty cheap holiday, and the girls were kept busy by all their cousins and collapsed exhausted into bed every night.
Now we're home, and getting back into the swing.

We went to Chessington when my OH had a day off this week, and found the cheapest way to do it was to print a voucher from the Chessington website for one adult and one under 5 for £13.50. So we all got in for £27 plus £2 parking, then took a picnic so only bought one coffee all day. In the past I would have bought lunch and icecreams, and easily spent more than £50 I think.

I have opened a Halifax cash ISA and transferred my funds over as it has a much higher interest rate. I really feel that I haven't taken advantage of this tax-free situation before, and want to maximise it now.

Does anyone have any suggestions for saving for university fees? They're likely to be much higher than £9k per year once my girls get to the ripe old age of 18, and as I had them 19 months apart, we'll get hit in quick succession if they both decide to go to uni. Should we concentrate on paying off the mortgage, and therefore potentially have more disposable income later? Or put some towards the mortgage and some towards fees? What is anyone else doing?

Hoping to have a cheap day out with the girls next week by going to a pick-your-own place. Looking at the prices, it's cheaper than the supermarket, and will be much more fun!

Dragonrider

Well, I have now received my American Express Nectar Credit Card, but am sadly disappointed with how few places actually accept it. I had hoped to do the vast majority of my spending on it, in order to pay at least £500 per month to get bonus points. However, seeing as my entire monthly budget is £600, and I have only found a few places that take it, I don't know whether it's going to be worth it or not. I think I'll try it for 3 months and then re-assess.

There is a summer fair near our house tomorrow, so I have just cooked a big batch of double chocolate brownies (yumm), and meanly didn't let my husband have a single one as they are all going towards the Shooting Star cake stall. I'll have to make some more for him tomorrow - and me!

I ended up spending quite a lot today, as one of the tyres on our car had a slow puncture. It turns out there was a nail embedded really deep, but luckily they were able to repair it. However, £20 that I hadn't budgeted for. :mad:

It's amazing how there is NEVER a 'normal' week or month, isn't it?!