Finally I have a mortgage I can start to pay off!

themadvix

Money shuffles done - had to take £200 out of buffer fund to cover an exceptionally low payday. Fortunately invoices for next month are looking much healthier, so I'm hoping to be able to pay this back and add more too. I did substantially cut my contribution to my tax/NI/pension savings, but as I was earning below the threshold this month (and I put well over the amount in normally), it was both necessary and doable. Annoyingly there were several takeaways on the cc this month - but I'm not going to beat myself up about it given the poor health and extreme work busyness over the last two weeks. However, I need to make sure that DH pays sometimes as I think I paid for them all one way and another (there's lots he pays for too, but he does earn rather a lot more than I have been lately)!

Annoyingly, I was credited the £9 bonus for the longitudinal PA study just after I'd cashed out - it'll wait till next month now. House insurance and password manager payments are due out this month and once they've both gone there'll be some extra to distribute to savings.

Still waiting on the restart of a long-standing project for one of my American clients (it stopped at NY and it's been promised to be coming a couple of times, but nothing yet) and the commencement of another new project for the same client.... (both agencies, so dependent on end clients). These should help with ongoing income.

Veg box has been cancelled as we've barely touched what was in the last delivery two weeks ago. Have also cancelled a subscription I had been dithering about - if I decide we will use it I can always repurchase it, but we've not used it much in the last year.

I want to keep on top of spending this month as my usual habit when I know I'm having a good month income-wise is to let things slip a bit. If we're going to clear the mortgage at the end of the fix, we need to be saving £1000 a month on top of regular payment and our OP allowance. I think this is unlikely, but the more we save, the less time we'll be on the SVR.

themadvix

The tooth is out!! And the lady from the council rang to ask if I was still interested in an allotment! 😁 I’m being invited to a viewing day as there are several plots available!

themadvix

Oh, and I sold something for FIL on eBay - profit will be his, but I’ll get to convert postage cost from stamps into cash.

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, exciting on both the tooth and the allotment! Good long term plans for getting rid of the mortgage there. How long have you got left on the fix?

themadvix

Thanks Cheery! Fix ends June 2023.

Karmacat

A sudden cascade of good news there!  Wonderful!

Suffolk_lass

That's all lovely and positive! - An allotment, how wonderful. Depending how long it has been unattended there might be an opportunity to clear any persistent problems before you get going - and you might get trees or fruit bushes. How exciting!!

As out mortgage got towards the end I tracked the interest - avidly, so I could track how much we were saving over the lifetime with each OP. It really was an incentive. All my Tilly Tidies and extra bits and pieces were accumulated where they were earning more and then paid off in lumps.

Relief that the tooth is gone!

themadvix

Morning all,

Thanks Karma and SL. Yes, some positive news is good. Face is achy and sore this morning and am still on a liquid diet (sadly the non-alcoholic variety - soup and yoghurt). Am looking forward to pancakes for dinner though!

The allotment is exciting - I put my name down 18 months ago (when we were originally looking to move, in a 'just in case' moment), so it's been a while coming. The plots are meant to be cleared before returning them, so I'm not sure what will be there, but it'll be interesting to see - have emailed the volunteer site agent who will be showing me the plots (by the sound of it I might have a choice of several). If I don't hear from him within a couple of days, I'll try ringing him. I'd love there to be some fruit bushes/trees or asparagus/other perennials there already, but we'll see. Just need the council's garage man to come through and we'll have what we wanted (more or less, I grant you!) without having paid £200k for the privilege!

SL, re the mortgage, we can't do that now because DH has paid off the OP allowance in full for the year, so no OPs until Jan, and then we'll certainly be in the same position - paying off OP allowance in full. At the very end though (there's only 4.5 years left on it anyway), we'll be able to do that and the interest will certainly be a huge incentive.

Think I'm going to open a donor a/c to switch to the Virgin account mentioned in Martin's email - it doesn't appear that DDs are needed and the decent interest rate (even on £1k) is worth it, as well as the savings interest rate.... my Atom a/c will be short-lived!

MS things: 
* My liquid diet is very cheap and good for weight loss!
* Clicks done 
* Have the info needed to invoice main client today
* Ebay item to post
* Need to collect prescription for flea tabs, then can order those (with TCB)
* YG survey (and future promised invite to YG Safe)
* £1.08 TCB claimed
* Transferred £30 from 'window cleaner pot' to anniversary savings (don't think I need £80 in there! It does build up so he can do the gutters, but he also doesn't come for the winter, so more gets put in than needed) - only £30 now until I've got the £400 for our anniversary trip (which we haven't decided upon or booked in any way).

Gratitudes:
* The tooth is out! Very grateful to experienced dentist who was able to numb me up enough to get it out and pulled it in a flash ('my' dentist had stepped out while he was injecting and was disappointed that he'd stolen her thunder! She had done the hard work the day before!)
* An allotment!
* DH looked after me last night, which was much appreciated, especially as he has a cold (and has now passed onto me) - we're a sorry pair at the moment!

Have a good day all!

themadvix

Just read that you do need two DDs on the account to switch and get the voucher and higher interest rate. That won't work then. Will move my savings though.

QueenJess

Boo.  There's always a catch..