London Socialite Sees The Light

mark55man

Good point and if you get a referral to a Nationwide building society you get £100 + 5% on the first 2500 for a year - although be careful about chasing bank offers as it does weaken your rating, but one would be OK I'm sure

LondonGirl252

Absolutely throw spanner’s in the works all ideas welcomed!

That’s a good point and I hadn’t thought of it, I just had in my head that I should pay it off and not have it to worry about but it would be good to have that cash in the bank earning interest.

They’re on long deals so I imagine I will get deals at the end and my credit rating is good. If I get a pay rise I can probably get them paid off by the end of the deal anyway.

Will have a think and play with my budget later, annoyingly I’m already a nationwide customer for all my banking so I wouldn’t qualify for that deal but can shop around for others for sure.

I’d need them paid off before I go for a mortgage anyway right?

enthusiasticsaver

I think Verbatim makes a good point re using the money from the ex towards a deposit as eventually you want to buy again. If the debt is on long 0% deals can you make a plan to repay within the deal period? You will have the £5k saved if you wanted to repay quicker but tha5 would give your house deposit fund an instant boost.

enthusiasticsaver

You would have to pay it off before applying for a mortgage but considering the area you live in and the cost of a suitable flat/house and your current salary how far off is that? Realistically I would have thought you would be needing a deposit of at least £20k plus costs so you have a long way to go unless you have another plan?

LondonGirl252

Just done all the sums, yes i think you're right re needing £20k for a deposit plus the rest for fees and stamp duty etc. Thats looking do-able by Oct 2020, and thats around the time the 0% deals run out so i have taken the balance and divided by the number of months to work out the monthly payment.


I think this is the way to go, it would be nice to be completely back in the black mentally but it's financially more sensible to earn some interest from my savings. There is an arguement to pay the min balance (plus a teeny bit more) from the CC's and save up the difference so that by Oct 2020 I've saved up the right amount to pay them off but have earnt as much interest in savings as i can... what do you think?


I better research some savings accounts. Its a shame i don't qualify for the government help to buy ISA, that would have been good.


Better update my goals below, they have now changed a bit!


Weekend going well, last night was fun, snow was too bad for me to drive up to the midlands so i didn't. Came in on budget for last night and saving £ on petrol by not having a long drive.


Hoping to get to training tomorrow but will assess the road in the morning, main roads are fine, its getting the car off the driveway and out of the housing estate I'm not confident about!


LG

mark55man

LG - as ever on MSE someone has done most of the work for you - https://www.forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5776240

The frst dozen posts (although started in 2007) have been updated in Jan 19 with all the current offers. I am doing exactly what you are planning using 2 x 5% Nationwide regular saver (Nationwide also offers 5% on balnce upto £2500 as long as you pay in 1000 a month). If my maths is right paying £250 a month for 12 months nets you just around £65 interest. You can do multiple with different providers, but there is a point where it starts to damage your credit score.to change too often. If you switch to Nationwide you canget £100 on referral - other banks have other incentives its just crunching the numbers thats to work out the best over your duration (many offers end after 12 months)

You may decide a £100 is not worth the hassle, and that it is better off paid

LondonGirl252

Thanks Mark will carve out some time this weekend to go through!


Spending all on track so far this week, had my first Gousto delivery yesterday and the first recipe was delicious and just polished off for lunch too. I wouldn't have been able to get to the supermarket this weekend due to snow so it was a life saver yesterday getting that delivery as didn't have time to meal plan, write a list and go to the shop.


Had some good news this morning, ive been asked to join a project review team next week up in Scotland for a big capital project which involves me being a Finance subject matter expert and spending 4 days with a team to interview numerous members of the project team on every aspect. it's really interesting as it's not a part of the business i am familiar with and it's a great opportunity to mix with new people and hopefully do a good job and be asked to do future ones.


That means I have 5 evenings (flying up the night before) of evening meals paid for by work, breakfast as part of hotel booking, no petrol from driving or other expenses. Just lunch to buy in the work canteen which will be between £3-5 a day. WIN!


Love the beginning of the month when my YNAB is all nice and green with budets in control!


good boxing sesh this morning, yesterday despite not being able to get to the gym I did one of the superhuman workouts at home and managed to complete within the time limit which i was really pleased about. I will have to take running kit to Scotland next week, only downside to the trip is missing out on training in the run up to the event so will have to get creative with body weight exercises in my hotel room.


No more news on flat, just waiting for the money to come to my exes account then we can get the ball rolling!


LG x

enthusiasticsaver

LondonGirl252 wrote: »

Just done all the sums, yes i think you're right re needing £20k for a deposit plus the rest for fees and stamp duty etc. Thats looking do-able by Oct 2020, and thats around the time the 0% deals run out so i have taken the balance and divided by the number of months to work out the monthly payment.


I think this is the way to go, it would be nice to be completely back in the black mentally but it's financially more sensible to earn some interest from my savings. There is an arguement to pay the min balance (plus a teeny bit more) from the CC's and save up the difference so that by Oct 2020 I've saved up the right amount to pay them off but have earnt as much interest in savings as i can... what do you think?


I better research some savings accounts. Its a shame i don't qualify for the government help to buy ISA, that would have been good.


Better update my goals below, they have now changed a bit!


Weekend going well, last night was fun, snow was too bad for me to drive up to the midlands so i didn't. Came in on budget for last night and saving £ on petrol by not having a long drive.


Hoping to get to training tomorrow but will assess the road in the morning, main roads are fine, its getting the car off the driveway and out of the housing estate I'm not confident about!


LG

I would be more in favour of dividing the credit cards up by number of months you have left on deal and paying that and no more so you know it will be paid off by the time you apply for a mortgage. Your budget will have that built into it and any spare can be saved towards your home and you have your lump sum from your ex as a kick start. Getting rid of all debt before taking on a mortgage is always a good idea from a budget point of view especially if you are buying alone and money will be tight. If it is at 0% though as long as it is gone or almost gone by September or October 2020 that should be ok. No need to worry about transfer fees then either or applying for a BT card just at the time you are making a mortgage application which will look bad.

Regular savers may be the way to go for you if HTB is not applicable. I guess this is not your first home so that is a shame but there are ways of getting as much interest as possible. Nationwide, TSB, FD and HSBC all do good regular saver rates. Tesco current accounts are another good account to put any extra amounts in.

enthusiasticsaver

LondonGirl252 wrote: »

There is an arguement to pay the min balance (plus a teeny bit more) from the CC's and save up the difference so that by Oct 2020 I've saved up the right amount to pay them off but have earnt as much interest in savings as i can... what do you think?




LG

There is an argument for that and if you can get a decent interest rate then this is certainly a plan. Personally I think though I would prefer to get the debt going down at a reasonable rate and given the generally low rates of interest on savings I am not sure it would make a massive difference. It is really down to your own personal preference as to whether you would be happy with the debt decreasing very slowly and then you needing to take a chunk out of savings just as you are moving.

LondonGirl252

Hi all,


Back from Scottyland, it was a really long tough week but really good and learned loads just didn't have time for anything else!


Weekend was good, caught up on training (less than 1 week to the competition now! eek!) and had some friends over for Sunday lunch last night which was yum, leftovers for lunch today


Money wise not too bad! I have just caught up on all my YNAB admin and am under on some budgets and a little over on others but overall coming in on budget and on track to have a little saved at end of the month!


Saw the ex yesterday, hoping to progress things this week, we discuss split of furniture and stuff and we're on the same page in that he'll keep it all and give me some cash on top of the sale to buy it off me, so just need to agree that number.


Been having some work/career chats over the last week and I have a phone call with my bosses boss at some point today to discuss my future. There's 4 Finance Director roles being advertised and I've been considering applying however have come to the decision not to. Reasons being that 2 are massive roles so it would be way out of my depth and the 2 smaller ones that would defo be a step up but not ridiculously so are both based in north Scotland.


Originally my thinking was to have a go and get interview experience and feedback with no expectation of being offered the role, but my boss rightly pointed out if I were to be offered the role it would not look good to turn it down on location and similarly if I did get offered it and decided to move up then I needed to be sure I would be happy up there.


Thought about it a lot over the weekend and decided I wouldn't be happy up there so instead I'm going to let them know why I am not applying and that I am still keen to have a new role in the company but these ones just aren't right for me right now. Hopefully it goes well.


Hope you're all good will catch up properly later!


LG