Goodbye Mortgage - the beginning of the end!

Beckyy

I've been having trouble with one of my wisdom teeth which has recently had a growth spurt and left a gummy flap over half of itself. It's been quite sore to eat on over the past 5 or 6 days and has only just started to calm down. I had to register with a private dentist when I moved here, and they were horrible so I vowed never to go back to them, so if it gives me any more bother I'm going to have to try and get an emergency NHS appointment. Fingers crossed now it's settled a bit it will be okay!

I've recieved a cheque for £3.49 from Quorn as part of their try me free promotion. £2.99 refund and 50p for 2nd class postage. Actually made a tiny profit as used a 2nd class stamp bought before the postage increase and also got Nectar points on the purchase - win win!

Beckyy

Dog food delivery is paid for, and hopefully I should get my payslip for next payday tomorrow.

I had a longer than expected day at work today and ALMOST caved in to a takeaway... but made chilli con carne as per meal plan. Very pleased actually as have about 3 extra portions each to freeze

I signed up to recieve nectar points for watching ads. Have already reached my 250 points per week limit - I should easily get the 1000 points per month, a nice little boost for a few minutes work!

ETA - £1.34 quidco cashback recieved and OP's. Love these faster payments!

Peonie

I've tried to sign up for NectarAds, I sent them a message but have not heard anything. How did you sign up?

Beckyy

Hi Peonie, they sent me an email about it. It said it was invite only at the minute, but I think I must have got the invite because I use nectar epoints alot for shopping on amazon etc. I hope you manage to join, it's a good extra boost!

We had an expensive weekend - our broadband has been playing up and we weren't sure if it was the router or phone line. We'd found a router online OH had picked but I didn't want to spend the money on it while it was still (sort of) working however it died properly over the weekend and we ended up having to buy the new router from PC World (begrudgingly - was a tenner more!). After a lot of faffing OH managed to get it up and working.

The problem is their till kept freezing while the sales assistant was trying to serve us, and everytime OH went to pay by card it froze. He had 2 failed attempts after putting his pin in, and it finally went through on the 3rd attempt - but as it froze there were no reciepts to say it didn't go through. I've checked the available balance on his bank account and none of the transactions have gone through (yet). I'm concerned that it's suddenly going to go through x3 which woud be a huge problem as it would empty his bank acc. and mess up all our DDs. There's always the tiny chance it won't go through at all... we'd be so lucky!

Beckyy

I'm really struggling to budget properly, towards the end of each month I'm finding everything goes to pot. It doesnt help that I get paid 4 weekly either, so I end up getting a bit muddled up with that too.

I didn't check our food budget acc. yesterday and didnt realise it had gone into the minus - We don't have an overdraft on it so that will be a nice £5 fee for me being complacent. First time that's ever happened

I have no idea what I'm going to do about next month because we have expenses coming out of our ears, and I really don't know how to budget for them apart from opening about 10 different bank accounts to use as online pots. Argh!

Spiggle

Beckyy wrote: »

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I have no idea what I'm going to do about next month because we have expenses coming out of our ears, and I really don't know how to budget for them apart from opening about 10 different bank accounts to use as online pots. Argh!

Hi Beckyy,

I'm not sure if this is the sort of thing you're looking for but IF.com have an isaver savings account within which you designate individual 'jars' named as you see fit. It is not the best savings interest rate but it has been a great help for us with budgetting. After doing the Budget Planner we then knew what we needed each month and I have 'jars' for car tax, christmas, birthdays, tv licence, etc. The account is all online and faster payments go out overnight i.e. I'll request payment today, it's in my bank tomorrow. It may be worth you taking a look.

All the best,
Spigs

lilmissmup

Sorry to hear your struggling, I know how you feel at the moment, bills, work, college and family all making me very disorgainised!!!

Hoping to get back on track in next few weeks once a few situations are out the way!

Beckyy

Thank you, me too!

I've just made our main OP for the month, another £500 knocked off. I don't think there wil be any more this month, maybe the odd pound here and there, but as it stands we're down to £97,704.22!

We also recieved our annual mortgage statement today, and was great seeing all the extra payments on it

I'm still trying to get my head around budgeting properly, and have set up some more 'pots' not sure if it will work yet but am hoping it makes life a bit easier.

Our TV license is due for renewal so will have to pay that by the end of the month. Feels like a total waste of money for the rubbish that's on TV now though, especially now the Great British Bake off has finished again

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

Glad I'm not the only one that feels perpetually disorganised at the moment!

Beckyy

I hope things are feeling a bit bit more organised for you now. I'm not sure if they are for me yet or not!

I've been sticking to doing the Nectar adpoints each week, really need to remember to keep at it as it's a realy helpful boost. Have got about 80 of the 250 points so far this week, so will have to watch some more when I'm cooking dinner tonight.

We've had the plastering we were waiting for on our BTL property finished, so we just need to wait for it to dry and redecorate, do a few little bits and it will be ready for tennants. It wll be a huge weight lifted once it's rented out, I just hope the process goes smoothly as I'm quite nervous about it being a first time landlord.

We would both love new cars at the moment, OH especially and I'm not really sure how to go about it. Every month we put a little in the new car fund and a little in teh car maintenance pot, but we have had to dip into both lately, and as soon as there's anything much in one it goes. Finance is horrendous and I vowed never to buy a car on one. The insurance hike for young woman drivers could really get me, so I need to be careful. There is the option of remortgaging BTL property once tennants are in to release some equity, and maybe something I'll look into. That's a thought... taking on another mortgage!