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

Peonie

When we first moved we did not the internet or TV for a week! I was going crazy without them.

shala_moo

Howdy..

:eek: peonie, i don't know how you coped!!!

Got to admit that I couldn't do without the internet and have ended up buying a pay as you go Dongle.. now i'm not very technical so i have no idea what the best deal are etc etc and without the internet to research this - irony - we ended up buying 3gb for £39.99 on Three.

Not very :money: i hang my head in shame

Old house is completing the sale on Monday (fingers crossed) so we should have all money sorted and in the correct pots by this time next week!! :j:j:j (obviously with our run of luck it may not happen :rotfl:) and hopefully i'll be getting some lovely credits from the elec/gas/water suppliers which can go into the savings/debt pot!

Peonie

Shala the house sale is great news; I hope everything goes to plan.

shala_moo

:j:j:j:j:j:j:j

I now only have one mortgage!!! hurrah hurrah!:D (i'm ignoring the fact it's huge for the moment :rotfl:)

I can now sort out my life and debts in a more orderly fashion which pleases me no end as i'm a little obsessive about neat and tidy accounts.

So an update of my list from before

My list of people to pay:
1. pay off 0% credit card - number to follow (approx £3k)- actually £2,834.88
2. pay back sister - number to follow (approx £20K) - actually only £10k as i needed to round it up to an even £50K to pay back now
3. pay back dad - £7,000 - £7,000
4. keep a £10k savings pot - already keeping £8572.48 for emergency savings (including share save scheme) so need to find another £1427.52
5. overpay mortgage :j

So total debt now stands at £185,884.88..(savings £8,572.48)

MSE stuff this week - £10 to add to my Amazon vouchers (balance £30) from surveys, £100 in M&S vouchers arrived for going with Sky, should have a credit of £90 from E0n, £112 credit from Coucil tax and rang to have a water meter fitted. pheww...

shala_moo

Payday been and gone.. so money shuffling begins..

£250 share save
£300 to regular 8% saver
£1000 to ha1ifax and back to get £5
credit card paid off
money put into bills account
Mortgage 1 paid off

I quite like the fact that i'm starting the year with a fresh slate, new mortgage here, old mortgage gone. It appeals to my neat and tidy side!

So these are my 'starting' numbers.. (i had to add £77.52 to my savings to round them up to an even number to make it acceptable..:rotfl:) would love to add the other £800 to it but i don't have it spare :( and the credit card:mad:.. well, can't wait to get my hands on that!

Jan 2012
Outstanding mortgage £166,050
Family loan £17,000
Outstanding CC 0% £2834.88
Savings £9200.00

Total Debt at present moment £176,684.88 (ohhh to have £84.88 spare and get rid of that pesky number!!:D)

Peonie

shala_moo wrote: »

Total Debt at present moment £176,684.88 (ohhh to have £84.88 spare and get rid of that pesky number!!:D)

I have the same problem but where would it end? If you took the £84.88 off one debt then it would have a pesky end number. My mortgage has £71 + pennies at the end and I keep thinking 'I would love to pay off that £71' so it ends in 000s but then should an extra £5 be paid off so it goes into the next set of 1000s?

shala_moo

Unfortunately it only ends when I get to round down the £176,684.88 to £0!! :rotfl:

Right i'm off to catch up on some diaries...

shala_moo

So my first mortgage payment has gone out.:T I've tried to set up a spreadsheet to keep track as I can't see my account online i'm hoping i've worked out the sums properly otherwise i'll be disappointed when i get the actual balance! I'll ring up the bank at some point to find out the balance, but as of yet we have no landline!!

My spreadsheet shows that i'll be mortgage free by the time i'm 60 if i just pay it off normally :eek: but i'd like that target to be at least 10 years shorter if not sooner.

Also had money from OH for the month (he gives me half the mortgage money etc when he gets paid at the end of the month) i've transferred some of that onto the credit card so we can start getting rid of that debt!:j i'm hoping this will be paid off by June/July.

shala_moo

Our internet has finally been connected.. thank you internet gods! :j:j:j

Now to be MSE i need to use the internet as much as possible to make it value for money for £7.50 a month!! surely?


So to get my money's worth this week i have

• got a free lovefi1m trial for 2 months from SIL
• got a free netf1ix trial (plus cashback £12.12, although not tracked yet)
• done all my surveys
• ordered 2 lots of shopping (using new customer discounts, saving £25)
• got £65.65 cashback from Sky coming through
• Got £90.50 credit from E0n for old house

In the next few weeks, I need to sort out a couple of new savings accounts. 1 to move my emergency savings to(instant access at the moment ) and 1 to save up the money to pay off the family loan.

To be honest all the choices these days confuses me a little and I just don't know which account is the best :undecided and with moving house recently I'm not sure if my credit rating is effected which would limit me to the banks i already have accounts with...

Decisions decisions...

shala_moo

Just lost a big post cos i forgot to turn on the laptop at the wall and ran out of battery...

We've tried this week to cut down on our grocery spending.. the last few weeks i've been using the main supermarkets as i have new customer codes due to moving to a new address. However, i've now ran out (except Asda - which i will use at some point when i'm stocking up again) so we'll be going to Aldi tomorrow and the meat wholesaler (is it wrong that i'm excited about filling my freezer up again and starting an inventory!:rotfl:)

I've also done a bit of a money saving research experiment - jointing a chicken!

My Good Food mag (free subscription) had an article which said it's cheaper to buy a whole chicken and joint it than buy it already done. Well i'm not so sure...

I got a £3.50 chicken (bought at some point on offer so cheaper than usual) which gave me 6 pieces of chicken, 2 wings and 3 pints of chicken stock to be turned into soup. Working out at approx 58p per piece, ignoring the wings..

I usually buy 6 thighs from Aldi at £1.99 and 4 breasts for £3.99, average 60p per piece, so by my reckoning it's not that great a saving and i'm now traumatised by the sound of cutting bones and handling slimy meat :eek:

In terms of weight per £1 it may work out better value but my OH eats 1 piece of chicken regardless of size so for our household i have to compare number of pieces rather than weight.

Conclusion - fun experiment not to be repeated :rotfl:and not that much money saving..

My next chicken experiment is to poach one in the slow cooker..

So tonight we are having a Fake Away KFC and watching a free Lovefilm DVD approx cost £5, bought from the shops this would have cost about £20 :T

p.s. just updated my signature with 78p interest.. better in my pocket than theirs!!