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

Fortune_Smiles

Hi Shala


I wouldn't worry too much about being a glass half empty person - there are lots of benefits to that. Negative thinkers often make fewer mistakes because they are better at considering pitfalls and being realistic about outcomes. They can be less gullible too as they have a healthy dose of cynicism.


http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/blogs/work-in-progress/the-benefits-of-negative-thinking-20101217-18zsv.html


So, it's not about whether you have positive or negative thoughts - it's whether these help or hinder you. These articles might help if you decide it would be more helpful to think positively about something.


http://www.mindtools.com/pages/searchresults/?words=positive+thinking


Opps, sorry - just went back into learning and development mode :rotfl:


Fortune x

shala_moo

Thank you Fortune, those links make some interesting reading and you make some good points about negative thinking and making decisions.

OH is out tonight so will have a good read then but I've took a test and I'm on the cusp of a negative thinker's attitude but still do try to look for positives so there is some hope :rotfl:

Appreciate you taking time to post that. Thank you x




Stage 1 of upping my positivity...
Went to the hairdressers this morning for my usual roots touch up and a cut. Instead I decided to shake it up a bit and have some blonde highlights to "lift" the colour a bit (technical term the hairdresser used ) I also had some curls put into it for the day instead of my usual straightness.. feel all bouncy..

Everyone so far has complimented me on it so it's helped a lot!!

Off out to lunch now, gotta celebrate new hair, using a £5 voucher that I got sent so technically my lunch will be free and OH can pay for his own! :rotfl:

xx

shala_moo

Good morning, it's beautiful here today :T

Got woken up early this morning by OH so decided to get up and get on with the day, he was still in bed until about 10 minutes ago.. :eek:

I've put together my meal plan for this week, just noting it down so I can find it easily.

Pan Haggerty
Chicken Chow Mein
Fish, potato cakes, salad
Katsu chicken, Egg Fried Rice
Toad in the Hole, mash, veg
Falafels, couscous and salad
Chicken and Ham Tangle Pie, Seasoned potatoes

I found a lovely recipe last night when I was mooching, it's a Cheesecake dip :drool: recipe here..

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2013/05/red-white-and-blue-fruit-skewers-with.html

I did adapt it a bit to use what I had in, so I used :

100g Reduced fat cream cheese
2 tbsp. low fat natural yogurt
1tbsp splenda/sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

I might go and buy some strawberries today to dip in! :drool: I think it worked out about 100 calories for the above and it does two good portions. It cost about 70p to make..

Right off to hang up the washing, hopefully it'll dry today even though it's going out late!

xx

shala_moo

Evening, OH is watching the football and getting very excited so I've come to bed, ready for my 10.30 sleepathon!

I'm doing quite well on my goals for the week :T even though tonight we popped to M&S and were tempted with goodies, we held strong! So healthy eating is happening, keeping under my calories is happening and taking my multivitamin every day :j

Some money savings for the day:
- car went to the garage to be fixed, mechanics can't find why it's beeping so instead they've disconnected the seatbelt sensor so no more beeping:T and not charged us either - they've told us it doesn't affect anything so I'm happy with the "fix" for now, I'll ask at our usual garage when I take it for it's service
- bought a new top in 0utfit, used £21 in vouchers, bargain £7 top for going out next week and can be used for the wedding we're off to in October (just the night do):T
- bought some nice fizzy water from M&S to stop me going to the pop machine at work 69p a bottle instead of £1.20 for a small bottle of Pepsi max!

I feel a lot more positive this week, I read some of the stuff Fortune linked for me and I'm consciously looking for good things rather than doom and gloom.. Don't always manage it but sometimes is better than none.

Stepped out of my comfort zone today to buy a bright blue top with a big flower pattern on :eek: I usually go for black so it was another step to brightening up my life

Hope everyone is ok and didn't get caught in the storms today :eek: haven't seen rain like it since ermmm last week :rotfl:

Xx

Fortune_Smiles

Glad to hear you're feeling more up Shala.


Fortune x

shala_moo

Evening all..

Thanks Fortune!

I've managed to meet most of my health goals this week (I may have had one pizza meal ) but I've lost a couple of lbs so not too bad considering :T

It's been a beautiful, sunny long weekend from work since Thursday so I've been mowing the lawns, washing, cleaning the house and going to the local festival (OH was playing in his band) as well as having a mass diary catch up and survey catch up.

It was so hot at the festival yesterday I thought I was melting :rotfl: but i'd prepared with lots of sun-cream so there were no burnt bits even though we were out in the midday sun and I also avoided the ice-cream man!

Money stuff

• £10 voucher from CP
• have enough points to redeem on Ipsos but can't find how!
• reconciled all bank accounts - now only have 2 current accounts :rotfl: it's brilliant
• spent £20 on naughty food, £2 on parking at the festival

Our mortgage deal is up soon and we'll be reverting to the 4.99% SVR :eek: the best deal I found a few months ago has now disappeared due to the rumours of an interest rate rise so the choice is more limited than it was the best I've found is 3.44% fixed for 5 years (offset mortgage)

I think I need to leave applying for the mortgage until September as our current account for June looks horrendous (payment for the garden and the car going out).. I guess my question is, do mortgage people still look at 3 months worth of current accounts before decided on your mortgage?

It's very frustrating knowing that i'm sitting on my hands waiting to apply and all that's stopping us is the current accounts looking pants!!

If anyone has recently swapped mortgages then i'd love some advice x


eta - just done a bit of googling and for <65% LTV I only need one month's salary and bank statement for mortgage applications with YBS.. also just checked my credit score and it's ok, so fingers crossed we can apply for the new mortgage in August :j:j bit scared now that they may be lying and have to provide 3 months worth though :eek:


My credit report shows I've had 23 different accounts/cc's/store cards in the past 6 years!! :eek: I blame this on :money: making me change my bank accounts regularly to get all the incentives :rotfl:

shala_moo

Afternoon,

I've finally worked out how to redeem my Ips0s points so I've claimed a £10 Amaz0n voucher :j £10 duly put to savings.

Day off today so i'm having a bit of a use it up day..

Lunch was potato cakes using up a packet of C&O Smash - no idea where it came from.. but they were lovely with a bit of sweet chilli sauce..

Dinner will be Toad in the Hole - an OOD egg, cocktail sausages and pork stuffing balls from xmas :rotfl: and the rest of the stuff from stores

Making HM Granola too - value oats, honey that'd gone all crystalised, OOD almonds (smelt fine), butter out of the freezer and a few dried cranberries too, smells amazing!!

I've also done another freezer inventory - I never keep on top of this :mad: so end up doing it repeatedly.. but at least now I can look at using up some of the old stuff that we never get round to using.

I currently have spinach, frozen peppers, all sorts of cheeses and muffins that have been in there longer than they should have been..

But I do have some pasta flour to try out the Hairy Bikers ravioli recipe so it'll now be a butternut squash, spinach and random cheese ravioli :jalthough I think I need eggs for it so that may have to wait until next week!:(

One day i'll be the perfect housewife, one day!! :rotfl:

xx

shala_moo

Pay Day Shuffle... :j

Jul Monthly figures
Outstanding Mortgage £146,450.60
LTV rate - 65.09%
Family Loan £2,530 (OH's)
Family Loan 2 - Car - £3,147.05
Daily interest £16.06
Emergency Savings - £11,000.00

Total Debt as present moment £141,127.65(-1,565.79):j

Back to normal this month after last month's spend-fest!!


Next month our interest rate on the mortgage goes up to 5.39% :eek: bringing daily interest to 21.63!! I thought it was only 4.99% so i'm even more shocked than before!

Hopefully as soon as OH has been paid on the 31st I can start the ball rolling on the new mortgage :j:j


We've had an interesting development at work this week. They have decided that they don't want to pay overtime anymore so they are increasing my salary to cover the loss :T we haven't been given figures yet but i'm hopeful that they are kind...

There's lots of benefits to having a bigger basic salary - bigger pension, bigger bonus, better redundancy payout :eek: - so i'm seeing this as a positive step.

Off to see how you all are xx

shala_moo

Just spent an hour researching/switching fuel supplier..

I've never had any problems with NP0wer particularly but i'm all for saving money and with the new supplier I should hopefully save £200-250 :j (but no cashback available:()

I went with Co-op in the end.. ethical, cheaper and I get points on my membership card, sounds good to me

I checked out their reviews and there seem to be ok compared to the rest of them.. Which? gave them a 64% customer score compared to NP0wer who are bottom of the pile with 31% so I can't do worse surely??

Fingers crossed for a smooth crossover :eek:

HelenDaveKids

Great mfw stuff shala xx