Goodbye Mortgage - the beginning of the end!

Beckyy

A bit of an update again.

Have just OP'd 2 x Halifax rewards £10.

The woodburning stove is in and looks lovely. We've just about finished redecorating the room, but still need to pick out a new carpet. I'm hoping we won't need new underlay, but haven't had a chance to see properly yet. More ££

We're still a bit muddled on our plan at the moment. The initial plan was to buy our 2nd BTL then OP our own mortgage before our fix ends next May. However, because we had to dip into our deposit for my new car it's going to be longer before we can afford to get our next BTL so I'm not sure if we're going to be able to OP as much as I would have liked before we're due to remortgage, which is disappointing as we still don't have a partifularly great LTV on our own house so will likely not get the best interest rate we can. But that's a while off yet I suppose.

I got a letter from British Gas about an app they missed a while ago, saying I'm entitled to another £44 compensation. £22 for missed appointment and another £22 for them not spotting it. which is great as already have £22 off from the other missed appointment. However it says something about taking it off a payment card, and as we're DD I need to phone and make sure it will be taken off our bill. The letter has been here about a month as I've been so caught up in the car accident stuff!

Update: Called them and they said it will be taken off my bill £66 altogether. However I'm currently on hold with a waiting time of 5minutes at 40p per minute because my online account has updated to my smart meter yet. Is gonna cost me a fortune but our home phone is still not working so haven't got much choice!

ETA - Just been reading the flylady thread, think I need that in my life! Has inspired me to make a start on the housework and have just clean all the windows, however I've now run out of kitchen roll...

Beckyy

Turns out 0800 numbers aren't 40p per minute from tmobile, phew.


I was away at a wedding this weekend and had a lovely (and expensive!) time, but I'm back to reality this morning and after a few days in the city it feels incredibly quiet at home . I have the day off work, so today I need to:

- Meal plan for the week
- Go food shopping with list
- Walk dog
- Catch up on the washing/ironing
- Catch up on housework
- Sort out new SOA/Budget (MUST get this done!)

For now I'm feeling a little less enthusiastic about a 2nd BTL, just because it's been such a busy couple of months and buying one will make a huge amount of extra work but I know that we need to and it's an important part of our long term plan.

QB_Wolf

Our stove was one of the best things we ever bought, enjoy it.

Beckyy

Thanks QB Wolf, what a difference it's made. We've had a good amount of firewood delivered too so we should be sorted for the Winter hopefully.

We're re-viewing the potential BTL again this afternoon. I'm humming and harring over it as it's an ex LA, in a LA housing area and whilst it's a lovely house I'm a little bit concerned the location might be it's downfall. The EA admitted there hadn't been much interest though, and the owner needs a quickish sale I believe so at the right price we may well go for it.

We need to get a new carpet for the living room now the hearth has been changed. We'll have a look after house viewing and maybe pencil in a date for it, I'd rather get the expense out of the way and done with!

Today I need to batch cook some lasagne for us to have for dinner tomorrow and put in the freezer. I also need to get to grips with the housework. I was round somebody's for a coffee yesterday and was so envious of their lovely tidy house, made me feel a bit ashamed of mine!

gallygirl

For what it's worth, I've found ex-LA houses a good buy - you tend to get long term tenants so very few voids.

I'd like a wood burner

Beckyy

Thanks Gallygirl, still a bit unsure about it so have decided to save for another month or two before making a decision. Woodburners are definitely worth it if you ever get the chance to get one!

I'm having a bit of a hectic morning so far, had a really long weekend at work so slept in a little this morning but have loads to get done before work today.

British Gas have messed our account around as they didn't update it when we had our smart meter fitted, I called and instead of updating it they closed our account and opened a totally new one on standard tariff, no DD etc. So I spoke to them on Saturday and they said they'd reopened our old account and will rebill, but will take overnight to update... but it's still not right when I log in. Meter reading is showing as 'Night' reading when we don't have E7, tariff is wrong etc. so have phoned and asked to speak to the same advisor and was told they'll email her and ask her to call me in the next 30 mins. That was just over 25mins ago, loads to get done so can't hang around all day to wait for them!

Beckyy

I'm still none the wiser with BG. I've submitted a complaint on their website because they never returned my call. I hope they sort it soon as it's playing on my mind whilst it's not sorted!

Today I'm batch cooking cottage pie. Should hopefully have enough for 3 each and I'm making Nigella Fajitas tonight from her Kitchen book

Beckyy

I just had a £55 mobile phone bill thanks to all the 0845 and chargeable 0800 number calls from the car insurance claim and BG. Will seriously have to get our home phone seen to soon. £5 SO OP'd.

Beckyy

BG figured out that our account was active on one of their systems but not the other, so are working to resolve it and it will hopefully be done by the end of the week.

£5 SO OP'd. Not a lot, and every time I start reading diaries on here I have a huge urge to OP every penny I can find, but I know that if we want to buy a 2nd BTL we need to save as much as we can at the moment. We're due our annual mortgage statement quite soon, so hopefully I'll be able to squeeze in another little OP before that comes out.

Still waiting for my excess and uninsured losses to come through from the insurance claim. It feels like so long ago, and lost money now, so it will be a nice bonus when it does arrive!

Beckyy

I bought new curtains for the living room and new blinds for the rest of the house as our current ones are all either broken, starting to look very old, or don't match the d!cor... or all three. *whispers* £133 lighter now A reasonable price for what I bought, but more than I wanted to spend in general while saving.

One big thing for me this month is that I've actually stuck to our food budget, I've meal planned for the rest of the month. Will only need to grab a couple of small fresh bits at the weekend and current have just over £2 of the food budget left. Is the first time I've ever come in on it since I've had one (embarrassing!) but very happy. Just wish it was a little less than £300 as I know it's not really a little amount to be spending on groceries.

I had a big clear out under the stairs and have a few things to put on eBay or take to the charity shop. Nothing of huge value but they need to go to clear space so any money for them is a bonus!

A roast dinner tonight. I didn't buy any sprouts and can't justify driving the 16 miles round journey to the shop to buy some so a sprout-less roast tonight!