Confessions of a mortgage-spreadsheet-a-holic

fishfins

Thanks for that Lois, I did read that, unfortunately after I'd already tried it . Still hoping though!

What is it you don't like about iPhones and androids? I have a few niggles too and have considered an android. I might have to face the choice sooner than I'd thought!

BaconandEggs

Hi Fish,

Did you manage to get it working?

fishfins

Hi B&E

Thanks for asking, no not yet . It now has a special place where it's box of rice stays on a warm hot water bottle at all times. It's like having a poorly animal

I'm still holding my hopes up though, if it's still dead after 7 days I'll let it get to me then!

BaconandEggs

Have you had a search around for other people who have had a similar problem. It is certainly one of my fears. Isn't it annoying how anything you drop in the bathroom seems to gravitate towards the toilet? I once dropped my keys down the toilet at work - much to the amusement of my two colleagues in the neighbouring cubicles who could work our what had happened from the clinking, the splash and my obsenities.

I hope you get it working - you strategy sounds like a good one but I wonder if having it in the container will mean that moisture can't escape. Would ventilation help?

If it doesn't turn on - what are the possibilities of retrieving the information on there by other means? For example, the memory might be intact if a component controlling power supply is defective?

fishfins

I had the same thought as you about the sealed box, but all the recommendations I've read say a sealed container?!

I hadn't thought about other ways to get the data off it, I'll definitely look into it!

fishfins

I'm back

Hello everyone, I'm back after not being on here for ages!

There has been an outage on at work for the last two months, which means I've been working 6 days a week and doing a lot of overtime. I've not had much time for anything else!

All the overtime means I'm in a much better situation than I was last time I filled in my diary on here. I've added £1582 to my savings, leaving me just £1085.45 short of the £3000 savings I'm hoping to have for moving house next spring. On the mortgage side I overpaid £1050, which means that if I make no more overpayments, by march I will have the £27,000 capital I wanted for a new house. It's also taken 6 months off the end of my mortgage.

So hopefully I'm in a good position for buying a house with my boyfriend next year!

House

Now I've got my weekends back I'm hoping to do some DIY to my house to make it more sellable and save money this winter. Some are easier than others but I'm a bit of a novice to be honest so some seem quite daunting! The list (what I can remember of it) is:

- draught-proof front door (soon!)
- insulate loft after removing lots of rubble :eek: (I've been avoiding this for a year )
- fix leak on roof (another one I hate the idea of)
- paint back of house (sounds easy but it's 3 storey)
- replace floors on top floor (they're sagging- it's cheap chipboard the last people put down)
- touch up paintwork and fill in any holes
- make the bath side panel look better (it's white plastic which is starting to yellow. They're expensive so I'm thinking of priming it and painting it with white gloss- any advice appreciated if this is a bad idea!)
- put up new picnic bench I bought in the sales- waiting till nicer weather in spring
- level up cupboard doors
- paint inside of back door white
- maybe buy second-hand replacement oven and get it fitted. I remember when I bought the house I hated the oven and I still have it now.
- put up framed pictures all over- my boyfriend is doing that, he has a good eye for it!
- maybe buy a small corner chair for front room
- maybe get velux window double glazing replaced (it's gone but I don't dare get a quote )

There is a lot there which I'm really nervous about but which I'm hoping when I come to do it will be easier than I think! On the loft insulation I've got two options. I can try to get it free with EDF which could take till march, or I can get some space blanket off a friend to do it myself. I'm really not sure what to do so I'd appreciate any ideas.

Holidays
:mad: we might be going to florida again

Christmas

I'm trying to really be careful this christmas. I know I'm going to end up spending a lot on my boyfriend as normal which I'm really happy with. So I'm trying to cut down on what I spend on my step-brothers and step-sister. They're 17, 21 and 26 and every year I go to loads of effort, spend a lot then they just go "oh thanks" and put it down with the rest of their pile of presents. I've set a strict budget this year and without wanting to seem tight I've got some good deals on ebay (all new stuff though!) which should really help to cut costs.



Well, thanks to anyone who has actually read all of the above It's nice to be back and I'll be catching up with everyone's mortgage diaries as soon as I can!

fishfins

Another massive gap between posts! I really need to keep more up to date

A lot has changed since my last post. My house is now up on the market with the plan of buying a house with my boyfriend. I have been on the market for 3 weeks now and have had quite a few viewings, I'm hoping it shouldn't sit around for too long since it is a sought after street, fingers crossed!

I have budgeted everything on getting what I paid for it 2.5 years ago, with anything extra being a useful bonus. I'm currently on £26,718.56 capital in the house (according to my spreadsheet ), but out of that £3000+ has to go to natwest to buy out of my 5 year fixed rate. It still works out far cheaper to switch than to stick with them with the interest rate I'm on currently. Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

The plan is to rent for a while unless we can find somewhere we like first, we've seen 22 houses so far and only been really excited by one which has been taken off the market. We would much rather get a house we can stay in for a long, long time than one we would need to sell in the not-so-long term.

I'm ramping up the saving and thriftiness now, I'd let it slip a little bit with all the stresses of getting the house ready to sell, but we think we will need all the help we can get when we do get a house!

Today I went through the contents of my freezer and wrote down everything that was in there. I now have a meal plan for the next 9 days using only things from the freezer and store cupboard basics like rice etc.
I'm also getting a pile of things together to do my first carboot. After some problems with selling on ebay around christmas (someone bought a dress, said they didn't want it, paid me, told me they didn't receive it and asked for a refund-coincidence??) and getting annoyed with all the charges and hassle, I've decided that apart from more costly things carboots might be the easier option.
I have made a list of all the survey sites/dooyoo/etc which I am on, how much I have on each and how much I need for a payout. Then I can discount the unrealistic ones and concentrate on the ones which will gain me more money.

I'm also going to make time to catch up on all the MFW threads to find more inspiration!

fishfins

Well, I have done a few pro-active things today!

I started off with some oatibix for breakfast, I'm trying to use up all the old cereal in the cupboard before buying any more. It is 7 months out of date :eek: but I thought I'd try it anyway and it tasted fine

I also bought some smart price chocolate for 30p and made 6 cornflake cakes with some smart price cornflakes from the same cupboard, meant I saved on buying a pack of cakes or pies for puddings/snacks!

I did a couple of surveys and added a little section on my spreadsheets, some people would probably find it extremely sad but I'm sure at least a few people on here will understand! I calculated percentages of how many points I have on certain websites compared to how many points I need to cash in. Then I can concentrate on the best ones!

That's about it for today apart from eating a freezer-left-over tea, I did print out some asda price guarantee vouchers but then forgot to use them, doh! I also caught up on a few MFW diaries

Lois_E

Hi fishfins. Nice to see you posting again! :wave:

fishfins

Hi Lois! :wave:

Thanks for posting, it's nice to be back and getting all motivated again. I've caught up on your diary, good to see you continuing the good work!