Goodbye Mortgage - the beginning of the end!

Beckyy

Thank you for your replies - will need to check out your diaries!

It's been a while since I've posted. We've had our annual mortgage statement in - LOVE seeing all the OPs on it and more comfortable with the figure now that it's going dooooooown.

Food budget is looking better this month... well, we're past half way and there's some left anyway!

Doing quite a bit of overtime at the moment, it seems to get swallowed up easily though.

I need to start Christmas shopping! Hopefully I will have a rough present plan soon, I think we have ideas for most people.

Beckyy

It's been a while!

We've had a busy time lately.

Both our dog and one of the cats have been back to the vets.
I haven't put in an insurance claim for our dog again as I think his total bill will only be a little more than his £160 excess and I'm not sure if making another claim for the sake of a small amount is worth almost guaranteeing an increase in his premiums.

Our cat has been having kidney problems, she was not insured. Only briefly when the cashback was more than the policy some years ago. Her bills are standing at around £600 now. We're not sure what the future holds for her but she needs to stay on a veterinary diet, the price is much and such the same as her normal food by the looks of it.

Our empty BTL is still costing us quite a lot each month between the mortgage, CT etc. however we've just accepted an offer on it. Once everything has gone through it will be a massive weight off of our shoulders so I'm just keeping my fingers crossed it does all go through.

Work has been pretty hectic and between that and the above I really need to update our spreadsheet. A few of our utilities have changed price (up of course!!) and I need to switch elec suppliers again.

I haven't really made any serious OPs, just dribs and drabs to keep it up. I'd like to make an extra push in December as the totals come to a close this year but it will likely depend on our BTL situation.

lilmissmup

Hi!

I have both my cats insured, costs me about £14 a month now but I daren't cancel it as I had to make a 2.5k claim years ago and couldn't afford the same again now!

Luckyinlife

My mums dogs well ours just dont live with me lol cost around £60 a month 2 Alsatians

the boy had 2 ops few years back came to around 3k in total so the insurance is a must for people who work and cant get stuff done free

Beckyy

Pet insurance still feels like such a new thing but I would be too worried not to have it for a dog now. I hope you both had a lovely Christmas/New year.

-

My total OPs for 2015 were £2675.55, total all time OPs are £8110.32. :j

We've had quite a busy couple of months and I need to recalculate out outgoings due to the following:

1. Our BTL has sold :j
2. We are getting another dog quite soon
3. Our fixed electricity tariff has ended

I also need to decide on new OP/Saving targets for this year and a new 'plan'. I'm keeping a look out for a new house, however we can stay where we are for some time if needs be. I'm unsure if we would let our current house out and move to a new one given the chance, with the tax relief and hoops you have to just through as a LL now I'm not sure if it would still be worth it for us on such a small scale and would mean we'd need a bigggg LTV on our own mortgage if we didn't sell this house.

lilmissmup

Hope you got a decent amount for your BTL after all the flooding hassle!

Beckyy

Thank you, it didn't have too much of impact, amazingly! The builders did a brilliant job and with the whole downstairs refurbished we were able to sell it for pretty much market value and pay off the mortgage/ERC without any issues which was a weight off of our shoulders!


I've finally just submitted a meter reading for our electricity. Our tariff is finishing at the end of the month so I'll be switching then - note made in diary.

I've been looking at the sealed pot thread. I'd love to do one but I don't often pay for things with cash, and change I do have seems to end up being used for car parking or similar. Hmm.

I'm going to set another OP target of £2500 this year, and also set our saving target of £2500. I have no idea if we'll make both, but as long as our savings go up rather than down I'll be happy.

Beckyy

It's been a while! We've got some quite big changes ahead so I will need to post a proper update soon and a rebudget etc.

I hope you're all well :beer:

lilmissmup

I have a sealed pot for £2 coins. It's massive though and had it for over 2 years now and not even sure it is half full so think will be another couple of years before it is! Will prob have £1000 in by time it's full

Beckyy

We are expecting a baby in the Autumn!

Finances are going to change significantly as I will be going on maternity leave and at the moment I'm unsure what hours I will be returning to work on, childcare and general living costs etc.

We also had to have one of our cats PTS, we had been managing her CKD for some time but she deteriorated to a point where it was the kindest thing to do. Her monthly blood tests, special diet etc. were quite costly and whilst I would never begrudge the cost for a second I need to recalculate how much the pets are costing us now as the amount would have gone down a noticeable amount.

I haven't made any OPs for a couple of months, however will hopefully be making one this month once I'd done a new budget etc :j

I hope everyone is well?