Starting today

Phelpsie001

I'm a study geek too I need to finish my current degree (which work are paying for thankfully!!) then hope that work will pay for my masters too, although I don't hold out much hope for that one =P

mortgage_girl

Hey WLB, good luck on your mortgage free journey - it looks like your making a great start on cutting your expenses already :T Keep up the good work.

welshlovebiscuit

Thanks everyone.

OK, so loan all sorted and a regular overpayment is set up (only £50 at the moment until we see how this budgeting business works). New 'shopping' account opened to try and limit our food spending and spreadsheets set up for budget monitoring.

I've had packed lunch so far this week and not ventured into the canteen at work at all and hubby is taking me to the cinema on Orange Wednesday to celebrate my birthday instead of the usual meal out at some fancy venue (he's promised me a bag of peanut M&Ms!)

3 days down and I feel we've made progress.

welshlovebiscuit

Phew, one week in already.

Went to the bank today to sort out the new shopping account (could only open in in DH's sole name online and needed it in joint names). Whilst there they offered to do a life cover review for us. All our protection is from the same bank source as DH works for this bank, but the advisor thinks that we are paying over the odds on the Mortgage PPI (£75 pm) and that we are under covered on our general income protection (esp unemployment cover). He recommended British Insurance for the PPI so we're going to get a few quotes off them and others to see what we can do.


The new loan is all set up and we will be overpaying on that and we had an up to date mortgage balace - £143,445!! Quite pleased with that - we haven't been overpaying by much or for very long but it has dropped noticably more this year than in previous years.
Still undecided what to do about the fixed rate. We have 3.5 years to go but the ER charge is £5000 at the moment and we have no cash to pay that...plus the legal costs. Weigh this up against the 0.5% variable staff mortgage we could get hmmm...but then I get all jittery about the interest rates (I owned a house in 1989/90 and at one point had 15% rate!...DH is too young to remember those dark days! decisions, decisions...

And finally...our new frugal approach to shopping is going well. I had to pop in ASDA mid week for milk and fresh rolls and I resisted all temptation other than a 'whoopsie' ready meal which I had for my lunch in work yesterday! Today we bought loads of food for just £17 in Iceland and I spent vouchers I had for my birthday in M&S on work shoes and clothes (SO boring!)...and got 50% off as they were having a one day sale! The cash I had for my birthday went straight into my ISA as I am painfully aware that our 'rainy day' fund in non existent...we had a roof/chimney crisis last summer which wiped out our savings :-(.

Oh and can someone tell me how to set up the 'footer' on my posts with my running totals...being dim!

Lois_E

welshlovebiscuit wrote: »

Oh and can someone tell me how to set up the 'footer' on my posts with my running totals...being dim!

A few inches down from the top of the forum page is a green bar that says "Main site.......Forum.......User CP" and some other things.
Click on "User CP", then look down the left hand side and select "Edit signature"

welshlovebiscuit

First pay day in the new regime. Have set up what I call 'squirrel' accounts to try to manage the money more efficiently and have budgeted in detail - shouldn't be a problem to keep to it this month as I'm too busy to go shopping! I do however have a weekend away to contend with (thankfully its with friends so no food to buy!)

Quite excited at the prospect of paying my first additional OP at the end of the month:j

welshlovebiscuit

Goodness...it's the 20th and I'm not overdrawn yet - it's a miracle!!!! admittedly I currently only have £40 to last the next 10 days but usually by this point in the month I'm at least £100 overdrawn...and I started this month off £170 in the red - which bodes well for next month. I shall xfer some money across temporarily just to ensure I don't pay my usual overdraft charge.

Food shopping has been slashed - only spent £270 this month (hubbie got paid today so our fiscal month begins today) and there is currently £46 inthe new overpayments account I've set up. As soon as it hits £100 we'll make a payment.