Sweetdaisy's aim to be mortgage-free

sweetdaisy

QB_Wolf wrote: »

Sounds like a good car to me, I've had Mondeo's in the past and loved them.

Thanks QBW. The car has had good reviews and we purchased the Titanium X TDCI 2.0 litre estate. It looks nice and has all the mod cons, but I didn't test drive it only DH, as it just seemed so long when I got in the driver's seat. No doubt that I'll get to drive it next week when we pick it up from the garage.

QB_Wolf

Very nice, I had a titanium focus and that was great the titanium x will be even better.

sweetdaisy

Had a complete change of plan regarding how we are going to pay for the Car. Had another think about it and ended up paying for it in full from Savings. I was going to pay 50% through Finance, but decided to ‘borrow’ the money from DS1’s Savings account (which is being offset against the mortgage) and will repay the money into his savings account within 2 years. This saves us money on having to pay interest and does mean that we have less money offsetting against the mortgage, but I prefer to pay for things outright. I did manage to pay £500 using the Cashback credit card, as anything above this you get charged 2.5%, so at least I have added a little bit of cashback to next year’s statement.

It’s been a busy few days:

• Sorted and washed a load of DS1’s old clothes which will now fit DS2
• Bagged the children’s old clothes and received £2.50 from our local Cash for Clothes place and bought some treats for the boys
• Spent over an hour going through lots of paperwork, shredded old insurance documents and utility bills etc
• Bagged some coins (£11) which I found in an old pot and will take to the bank next week
• Bought Radiator Reflective Foil from H0mebase costing £5.99 for a roll. I have done 5 radiators whilst the children were in bed and hope that it will make a difference to the heat in our bedroom and playroom, as they are part of the extension we had a few years ago and feel colder than the other rooms in the house. It was a little fiddly, but a lot easier than I anticipated.
• Did some retail therapy and used up some shopping vouchers which were about to expire and bought £70 worth of clothes from N3xt for the boys and myself and bought shoes and slippers from Br@ntano in a sale as my local branch is closing down in a few weeks. Purchased a new bag from Dotty P’s online (through TCB) and got a 20% discount, plus earned 90p cashback.
• Food shop done which was £29 under budget.
• Took the children to a Birthday party today

sweetdaisy

DH picked up his new (used ) car on Monday and is boring me silly with the constant talking about the cars features, digital displays, voice command, blah blah etc :rotfl:. DH has sold his old car privately (through a friend of a family member) and got £450 for it, so really pleased with this as the guy just needed a run around to go back and forth to work. This money has been put straight into Savings.

I have also gone on a bit of a spending spree . . . I have bought a new (used) car for myself . I have purchased a 62 plate Niss@n Qashq@i. Really happy with my purchase and will pick it up on Wednesday. It has only done just over 10,000 miles so should last me for many years. I am part exchanging my old car as it has done over 160,000 miles and is 10 years old and I need a newer and more sturdier car for all the motorway driving that I do. I also like the feeling of driving higher up and feel safer in it.

I have renewed my Car Breakdown cover and negotiated a new monthly payment as I am a loyal customer. I will now pay £19.85 a month, but it’s an increase of £4.85 a month as the premiums have risen.

Mortgage payment has gone out of the account today which brings the balance to £63,466. This has also reduced the term by another month . No Council Tax payment due this month or next month (as I pay over 10 months) and I have transferred the £144 kept aside for the Council Tax into Savings.

The water meter has been replaced and we should get a new bill in around 15 days, which hopefully we won’t owe a lot of money, but it all depends on how long the water meter has been faulty.

I should be receiving a new Np0wer bill around 24th February, but have had an email today stating that my bill will now be recalculated in August. I checked my account online and it states that my account is £531 in credit :question:. I have no idea how I am in credit by so much as I pay £94 a month for combined gas and electricity :think:.

gallygirl

sweetdaisy wrote: »

I should be receiving a new Np0wer bill around 24th February, but have had an email today stating that my bill will now be recalculated in August. I checked my account online and it states that my account is £531 in credit :question:. I have no idea how I am in credit by so much as I pay £94 a month for combined gas and electricity :think:.

If you send in meter readings they will generate a bill and you can then ask for any credit back. Remember though that all your payments will show as you being in credit until there is a bill to debit it.

:eek: To your breakdown cover - I pay around £30 a year, including homestart, only difference is if you breakdown you pay the callout guy and claim it back. For what you're paying I'd want not only brought home but tucked up on the sofa with a cup of tea and bowl of soup :eek:

sweetdaisy

gallygirl wrote: »

If you send in meter readings they will generate a bill and you can then ask for any credit back. Remember though that all your payments will show as you being in credit until there is a bill to debit it.

Thanks gallygirl. I have emailed them this morning enquiring about my bill, in case they have made a mistake and have submitted meter readings again. If they are right and I am in credit I am going to request my £531 back as it could be working harder for me in the offset account.

gallygirl wrote: »

:eek: To your breakdown cover - I pay around £30 a year, including homestart, only difference is if you breakdown you pay the callout guy and claim it back. For what you're paying I'd want not only brought home but tucked up on the sofa with a cup of tea and bowl of soup :eek:

Our cover is with the AA for both myself and DH, including Homestart. How have you managed to get breakdown cover for such a low price? and who is it with (if you don't mind me asking)?

gallygirl

I'm with kwikfit this year, did the cheapest for what I wanted off quotes on moneysupermarket. Last year was with a different co and they did 0% finance so it cost me £2 a month :rotfl:.

sweetdaisy

gallygirl wrote: »

I'm with kwikfit this year, did the cheapest for what I wanted off quotes on moneysupermarket. Last year was with a different co and they did 0% finance so it cost me £2 a month :rotfl:.

Thanks for the info .

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi SweetDaisy, sounds like all is going well on the car front. I can't recall how much our breakdown cover was, but it covers 3 cars and I'm sure wasn't more than £50 for the year. If you are still in a cooling off period (if they have them) may be worth doing more investigation.

You're getting so close to the £50s :j:j

Tilly x

sweetdaisy

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS wrote: »

Hi SweetDaisy, sounds like all is going well on the car front. I can't recall how much our breakdown cover was, but it covers 3 cars and I'm sure wasn't more than £50 for the year. If you are still in a cooling off period (if they have them) may be worth doing more investigation.

You're getting so close to the £50s :j:j

Tilly x

Hi Tilly. Both of our cars were/are on their way out as we have each had them over 10 years - mine especially due to the amount of mileage I do, so we just decided to replace them now as we knew we would have needed to do this before the mortgage was paid. Also, it's a nice treat, albeit one which will hopefully last another 10 years :rotfl:.

Re: Breakdown cover. It runs out at the end of April, so I do have some time to shop around. I have been with the AA for many years and have always found them very reliable, so hopefully can get the same service elsewhere, but at a cheaper price.

I can't wait to get into the £50k's. Whilst I would love to be able to put more money towards the mortgage, rather than put most of it into Savings, my sensible head is telling me that I am doing to right thing, as we don't know what's around the corner and having a safety net of Savings gives me piece of mind.