Mortgage freedom..Shala_moo's attempt at a diary..

MoneyMission

Hi Shala-Moo. Hope your eye gets sorted. Doesn't sound like much fun.

Could I ask you to point me in the direction of a spreadsheet that can help me with our mortgage OP's? I've trawled through but can't seem to find one. I'm looking for one that I can put in our mortgage amount, what we currently pay and over how long and what happens to it if we OP. If it shows daily interest charges and a pretty graph of term reduction or something that will excite Mr MM then all the better!! Doesn't want much does she!!

If you can't think of one that does that I'll ask around again. Its just that you seem to have it so sorted!!

Thanks
MM

shala_moo

Hi MM,

I think lots of people use Locoblades spreadsheet - link below

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1157173

I started with this and then changed it a little bit to suit me..

hope that helps

shala_moo

I currently have an Iphone that I pay £40 a month for. My contract is up in July so I thought i'd have a look around for a new package and check out what i've been using.. i was shocked and then annoying at my ignorance at how much money i've been wasting each month..

I only used to have a PAYG phone before I had an Iphone and used to spend less than £5 a month, stupidly when i got the iphone i didn't really look into different contracts i just accepted what they gave me which then went up again in price shortly after due to the VAT change.

My comparison :

Contract = 600 free minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited data
actual usage (avg month) = 10 minutes talk :eek:, lots of texts and 150-200 mb of data

So at the moment i'm paying for 500 + minutes of talk time i never use :eek:

The contract i've found gives me 150 minutes(i'll make sure i use them!), 250 mb data and unlimited text for £10.50
so i'm happy that this will suit me.. and annoyed that i didn't compare sooner!!:mad:

MoneyMission

Ta Shala_Moo. Had a quick look and I think it will be perfect (once I can get my head around it!). May have to ask Mr MM for some assistance.

shala_moo

Busy weekend for us (we're usually lazies:o)

We spent saturday morning in the garden clearing beds, sorting the greenhouse and planting fruit bushes.

OH works at a garden centre so we got the fruit bushes from there, not sure how much it will cost yet as they sort out their bills at the end of the month but we got..

3 raspberrys (with about 5 canes on each)
3 blueberry bushes
2 blackberry bushes
3 strawberry plants
2 purple asparagus

This adds to our blueberry bush, raspberry plant, 3 rhubarb plants, 2 apple trees and 2 pear trees we already have.

We've probably planted all the bushes a bit late in the season to get a decent crop this year but hopefully next year we'll win the fight with the birds to get a decent yield.:cool:

Ended up rewarded ourselves with a trip to blockbusters and got free films with our tesco vouchers, a free pizza courtesy of the "try for free" offer from Pizza ristorante and a bag of 81p popcorn from Te$co's :rotfl:cheap date? me?


Today was mainly spent in town, shopping for toiletries and cleaning products from Wilkos. I also managed to pop to the opticians and got a referral letter to go and see someone privately about my eye op. Still to hear from the nhs hospital but i'm guessing that won't be until Tuesday due to the bank holiday.

Right off to bed, full day of work tomorrow for me .. hope everyone else has a lovely day off and hopefully some sunshine!
x

ammonite

Sounds like a busy day! Hopefully you will have a bumper harvest with all of those lovely plants/trees

curlygirl1971

shala_moo wrote: »

I've looked into having it done privately and it would cost about £2.5k, this is a hefty amount of our savings but my eyesight is very precious to me... i will decide Monday whther this is the path i'm taking IF my consultant hasn't come back

*SIZE]

Just catching up on your diary and saw this post....don't know what your decision was but I think £2.5k (if you have it) is absolutely worth it for a healthy eye. I had a minor problem with one of mine (retinal tear) and it really made me appreciate the vision - albeit poor vision - that I do have. I was a bit scared for a while that I would loose some or even all of my sight in that eye. If I hadn't been able to get good treatment on NHS then I would have paid. But I did get good treatment, although their idea of 6 monthly checkups clearly was based on a different timescale to the one I use - 13 months at one point due to cancellations.

I've been left with unavoidable scar tissue that drives me insane as I can see it - if there was an Op for that I'd pay for that as well! It's money we'll spent if its your vision.

shala_moo

Thanks Curlygirl..

I spoke to my Consultant yesterday, finally! She actually cancelled the operation herself which i'm more than happy with.

It was nice just to be able to speak to someone who understood my questions and concerns and could make the decisions that needed to be made.

I've now postponed the op until September so that I have at least 2-3 weeks of recovery time, if needed, without stressing about work etc and I also have time to decide which the best course of action will be.

I've also booked an appointment at the private hospital near us. It's worth going to ask for a second opinion if nothing else.

Sorry to hear about your scar issues, i agree though that the problems we face make's you grateful for the vision we have got.

Just read your news - congrats!!

shala_moo

Afternoon all,

Just spent a productive afternoon scrubbing the kitchen clean whilst baking the OH a birthday cake. I've never made him one before, bless, he only usually gets the cast off bits from cakes i'm making for other people.

It's a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and i'm going to try and attempt to make it look like a stack of records.. :eek: not quite sure how it'll turn out but i only have 2 hours whilst he's out tonight to finish it in secret :shhh:

I've also been given a "Herman the German friendship cake" starter at work. For anyone who doesn't know (like me) it's a type of sourdough cake that is made with a starter that has been passed from friend to friend. I now have the responsibilty of looking after Herman for 10 days, feeding and nurturing him, until it's time to divide him into 4 and bake one quarter for my cake whilst finding 3 other people to give the new starters out to..

Money wise, not much changed in the last week really. I have had to have a little spend on some new underwear, apologies to any of our male population of MFW's but my underwire has broken on two bras in the last few days so i've had to buy some more :mad: they were my favourites too

7 days till payday and my first official overpymt on the mortgage :T

ammonite

Cake sounds yummy Shala! Congrats on your first overpay, I'm going to make my first one this month too Every little helps!