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

shala_moo

:hello:Hello.. weekly update.

Not much to update though

My sister has come to stay for a week, which means going out to eat or making more food than usual, so our grocery spend has gone up a bit. It's not too bad though as she usually has a wander up the shop and buys herself some bits in the day (while i'm at work)and she bought a leg of lamb for Easter Sunday (£30!!:eek:) from the best butcher in town. It was gorgeous, fed us all for Easter sunday, roasted, and then made a shepherds pie(7 portions) with it for the rest of the week.

I've paid another £500 off the credit card (not updated signature yet) and i have a TCB pymt coming of £56 so that will go on to it as well. This should bring the balance to around £800 now :j:j

Done 30 hours overtime last month at work so with this extra money i think we should be able to clear the CC in a couple of month :T right on target..

xxxx

shala_moo

So done my normal shuffling..

£300 to regular saver - this is the last payment so should be getting interest soon:j
£250 sharesave
£1000 to Ha1ifax and back
bills money to bills account

MSE stuff

Received £29.44 interest payment on my ISA.. this was used up when we moved so i didn't expect much interest.. but something is better than nothing

Used our M&S vouchers today to get the weekly shop.. spent £65 ish so still got £35 left for another time.. got some lovely food on the deals and loads of reduced food too :drool:

Havent had to water the garden as it's been teeming down for days (only positive i can find with this :rotfl:) so money saved as we're on a water meter


UN MSE stuff

- still haven't won the Ha1ifax prize draw for £100k:o
- had to buy a new to us car cos OH's isn't worth repairing anymore:mad: (although this is a smaller engine so less tax, less petrol, cheaper insurance etc) OH has paid for this
- had to buy a new tumble dryer - i've paid for this with my bonus money i had last month - fireplace will have to take a back seat for a while.

Monthly figures to follow...

shala_moo

Outstanding Mortgage £164,736.66
Family Loan £15,774.22
Outstanding CC 0% £651.52
Savings £10,000 - hit target

Total Debt as present moment £171,162.40 (-1957.04):j

Hoping to pay off the credit card next month...

shala_moo

Well i've just become a fan of the Hairy Bikers... We've been watching the Bakeation programme that is on at the moment as we are going to see them at the Good Food Show in June..

Last episode they made a Focaccia bread which just looked gorgeous so it tempted me to have a go as i love this sort of thing... Normally you'd pay a couple of quid for a ciabatta/focaccia, i think this cost around 50p ish. O.M.G. as the kids say :rotfl:it were lovely

I shall be making a few smaller ones next time and freezing them for ready made options..

This is the half that's left..








Just watching Trevor Macdonald in that Mississippi program and trying not book another holiday to Memphis.. it's not MSE, it's not MSE, it's not MSE!:(

MoneyMission

oooh. Shala_moo. That does look yummy. Send me a slice next time you make one.

MoneyMission.

shala_moo

With pleasure MM.. it'll stop me from scoffing the lot!

i'm now going to have to tax myself as i've gone slightly over my calories for the day.. about 250 cals slightly over :rotfl:oops...

recipe here if anyone wants a go.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/focaccia_97984

DawnW

The focaccia looks great - thanks for the link

shala_moo

Great MFW day today!!

The credit card is no more... :j:T:j:T:j:T:j:T

Balance = big fat ZERO!

I know i was meant to pay it off next month but i managed to find the money this month instead!

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This leaves me to move on to the next debt to clear - the £17k family loan.:eek:

I've also decided to split our monthly "extra" money between the mortgage and the loan.

I'll be upping the monthly DD for my mortgage by an extra £123, meaning it'll be £1k a month. This saves us £20k approx in interest over the term and reduces it by 3.5 years approx.

The remainder will go into a savings account to pay off the family loan.

Off to change my signature...

unhappy_shopper

Well done on clearing your CC. :beer:

shala_moo

hello all...

Good to be homes for the weekend.. i've had a busy, stressful week

I've been going to the hospital regularly for an eye problem i've had since i was little... a week and a half until my operation and my consultants gone off sick!!:eek:

Since then i've not seen another consultant (missing 2 appts) or been able to get a straight answer out of anyone at the hospital about whether I should postpone the op or not. Consequently i'm very concerned that the level of care i'm getting is not at the level i need it to be to ensure my eye is at it's optimal health for the op or for recovery..*

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 and IF i can't get a straight answer from someone!

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On the MFW front - i've rang the mortgage peapods today and upped our monthly mortgage DD so we'll be paying an extra £123 a month. This reduces our term by 4 years and 8 months (i calculated it wrong before :rotfl:) and interest paid reduces by £19,823.90.:j:T:j:T

Thanks to whoever suggested this - i never thought of this as a way of getting round saving up £500 a time for overpayments!

I also got a balance from them just to check my spreadsheet is working and i'm happy to say it seems to be (although not to the penny) :T

Have a good bank holiday weekend one and all (unfortunately i'll be working it:() xxx

* disclaimer - this is nothing against the NHS, i think they do a grand job overall