MF Quest

house_help

October will be a low spending month after the expense of September. No annual payments and no hotel trips etc. planned.

The only big item will be bill for the plasterer but that is part of bathroom budget which in total is still below what was planned. That was helped by being able to return one box of the floor tiles as not needed, so that came in at £90 for the materials and looks realy good. The plastering has been done now, the floor and new skirting are also in. All thats left is the painting and then tiles and plumb the new stuff in. Hopefully should be all done by the end of the Weekend

No news on the payrise yet. The hedge trimmer works well on first use, so will have plenty of work to do if it stays dry!

Cut my phone / broadband bill down by haggling a bit, I had a £3 a month discount off the BB when i started a year ago but that stopped this month. I got that re-instated plus stopped paying for the anytime calls (we no longer call in the day so no point having it) so thats another £3.5 a month off. We live in a area where you cannot get the cheap deals (market 1 exchange) so have limited choice. When my 12 month line saver period ends will probably look at moving or trying to get better deal again.

Had a smart meter installed which will save submitting meter readings, however noticed they want to put up my DD due to, in my opinion, over estimating our use. I have left it where it is as the account is already in credit even after reducing the monthly amount down to £3 for 3 months (now at £15).

The oil is lasting well thus far, however as a consequence we are burning a lot of wood so will need to re-stock shortly. Hopefully will be able to help a friend with land and trees with chopping some down this weekend and get some some of the spoils in return

house_help

Whole evening of painting last night! Workman is in today to put tiles up, back tomorrow to grout and then I will spend the weekend plumbing the new stuff in and securing to the wall. All the pipes are in the right place some so hopefully will be straight forward, famous last words!!

house_help

Bad new on the British gas fron today with the 6% increase I had toyed with the idea of changing to the longer fixes that were championed on here, but we will have a £30 penalty if we move before Decemember so thought would sit it out for couple more months and then switch. We are pretty low users so would have switched anyway to one of the providers with lower standing charge (BG are one of the higher SC, plus their DD discount is linked to useage so we don't get the full amount whilst others just give it no matter the useage). Will still sit it out to December and wait for all the other providers to put their increases in and then switch. Hopefully the smartmeter they have fitted will contiue to have the same functionality with another supplier.

Low spend week this week. I have had the free sandwich in work each day so no lunch costs and evening meals have been from the freezer of previous leftovers.

Currently got £1k a month going into regular saves but couple of those (accounting for half) come to an end soon. Not sure what I will do with that money each month. Would like to be able to OP but limited to £500 without penalty, the penalty is pretty harsh so not worth going above £500. I will have to repay some interest free credit cards so will need to keep the money easily available, will probably try to hunt out reg savers. I haven't had a letter from tax that i can use to open the first direct account so need to chase that up and then can have their reg saver.

house_help

The bathroom plumbing and fixing to walls / floors is now done I hope. Had a few issues with leaks under the plug holes of both bath and basin but some decent sealent / extra washers has hopefully fixed. Need to test the basin tomorrow, the bath has been used few times with no leaks so think that is done. Have also got the door back on with some new hinges.

Next jobs are to put radiator back on and put up some sheves, toilet roll holder, hook and mirror. Then all done bar one more piece of art for the wall that is on order but won't be ready for another month or so.

Payrise news is in and am really happy with what I got, a lot more than expected Will up the holiday fund monthly drip feed a little with some (we hope to have a decent, long trip break either next year or year after) and rest can go into my longer term monthly share investment plan. A lot of is gone to the tax man and also increased student loan payments, the increase has taken two months off the end date for that, still 2.5 years to go though

I have this week also reviewed my company pension investment options and moved new subs back into global equity funds, the UK funds I have been putting into have done well but feel time right to move back now. I am a long way from retirement but do diary to have a review every 6 months and change investments if need be. I have a very small fund with previous empluoyer that I need to investigate if worth moving, I doubt it will be worth it given the size, but worth investigating.

house_help

Bathroom is now in full working order with the rad back on plus shelves etc.. Still work to do with hanging the mirror (its to heavy for screw so need to find another way), the new blind and waiting for the wall art to come (December). We have some valued opinion vouchers to use to buy some towels and that will be it done So pleased with how it looks and love having a long soak in the bath

I have paid over the November OP, balance is now down to £153.5k and will go below £153k mid month when normal payment goes in.

My payrise took effect immediately so October pay was higher Also picked up my student loan statement from last year and by my calcs the current balance (statement was only up to April of this year) should be not much over £7k. I have cleared just over £5k in the last couple of years, it should all be gone in another 2 and a bit Will be good to get rid.

house_help

The blinds for bathroom and now up and also few other bits and bobs. Have found solution for mirror - just need to get on a put it up. Now just awaiting the wall art and it will be complete

Got a bargain tumble dryer from comet. We were looking at one as fed up of having cloths drying around the house (plus also probably lead to damp in the house in the long run).

Good news this month in work, got a decent annual bonus I wasn't expecting anything so it really is a 'bonus' bonus! Some will be saved but some put into the holiday fund for next year. The taxman had his share but also meant a decent amount extra off the student loan so will decrease the time left on that.

Reg. monthly payment goes out in a couple of days which should take us below £153k.

gallygirl

house_help wrote: »

Got a bargain tumble dryer from comet.

It may be a bargain - but has it got an internal light .

house_help

The mirror in the bathroom is now up, we used a hangman heavy duty bracket and it worked great. Also means its flat to the wall so looks good too. We had picked up the mirror from an auction for £5 (actually got three for that) so a nice cheap one too

We got the tumble from comet before it went into admin so I was just glad I got it delivered when I did. They went into admin about a week later so much later and I may not have got it. I now know why they where selling them off cheap!

My other bargain this month was some curtains for our dining room. Been looking since we moved in last year but its a big window and they have all been too expensive. The previous owners had venetian blinds they had left on so we were happy with them for the time being but with winter it was getting to feel a bit cold without curtains too. There is a Laura Ashley factory outlet nearby and popped in there and found some perfect ones for just £40. There is nothing wrong with them and similar are well over £200 on their website. Put them up over the weekend and they look great and make it feel a lot warmer The pole cost me as much as the curatains!

Will pay over December OP on Monday which will mean we have hit the £6k target for the year

house_help

December OP went across yesterday so £6k target for the year achived and total OPs since start of mortgage now at £7.5k. That has taken about 20 months off the term so far.

We have achieved our mini target of OP'ing such that more of the regualar monthly payment goes to the capital rather than the interest.

Will have a look at the budget, but think we will target another year of the max OP allowed without penalty in 2013 - £500 per month or another £6k total.

nicolula87

Wow this is so impressive! My partner and I have just taken out our first mortgage this year (April) with 2 years fixed, and haven't done any overpayments yet as all spare money has been going on decorating and other house stuff! But this has certainly motivated me to try and overpay a little next year! Might aim for £100 a month, nothing like yours but still it's something!