Starting BEFORE I mean to go on

specialkaye

Well I can hardly believe it but I have been in my little house a whole 3 years now, time has well and truly flown by. As seems to be the theme of my diary the latest update comes as I am on study leave for hopefully my ever set of exams.

So my 3 year fix has come to an end and I was a little worried about what deals I could get as I am now on a fixed term training contract finishing in 14 months so changing providers this time was going to be unlikely. So rang my currently provider and the advisor on the other end said there would be no qualifying questions if I stuck with all the same product I had last time - 3 year fix and same term (less 3 years). they could do that at 1.99% with £250 cash back and no arrangement fee plus no advisor fee as I was doing it myself (same product) - seemed like a no brainer really.

Going to keep my payments at £250 per month which means that the interest rate reduction means an extra £28 per month overpayment.

After Feb I will have finished paying back my Dad for the house deposit/car loan so will ramp up the monthly payment to £350 and put the other £300 into savings for 12 months and then probably ramp up the overpayments again - see what happens! Life so very often has other plans!

specialkaye

Quick update - all my new mortgage paperwork came through so called up to check that the payment will remain at £250 and not go to the new minimum payment. All was well and then made the decision to increase the payment to £300 immediately, I can accommodate this easily and will adjust my additional spends in check as I don't really have much of a mechanism of budgeting every £.

I've also re-fixed by energy until June 2018 through the MSE energy club, I'm not a heavy user of fuel as there is only me and tbh I'm not really in much -my average spend is £40 a month. Should be getting £30 cashback through the club but not really sure how this works and the new tariffs are about a £4 saving per month so protection against future rises which must be coming as the pound is so weak at the moment and I don't think this will get better any time soon as the gov't works on a plan to trigger article 50 in the next 6 months. I am hoping that by the time the fix runs out there will be even more energy produced from renewable/nuclear sources domestically.

Been a cheapy week as I've been in studying meaning all meals produced at home and not eating out, started picking up some Christmas presents as and when I've seen things either good deals or 'perfect' spots- I'm going with a general theme of produced locally- found food, wool rugs/cushions, soap and art so far.

Will have a look at food spending and meal planning again once I have finished these exams next week- better get back to it!

specialkaye

Well hope everyone had a lovely time at Christmas and New Year - it doesn't take long to get back to real life now does it!

Had a little flutter on the lottery on Christmas eve - nice little £25 win which paid for lunch out between Christmas and New Year. I hardly ever play - only 'special' ones and not even all of those.

I think over the last couple of months my bf has graduated up into official SO, we've been having a lot of 'life' chats. No significant announcements to come any time soon however one of the things we did talk about was putting together a plan to buy our first house together. It's a 3-4 year plan, by which time I am thinking if all goes well we may have outgrown this little house . The SO has never owned before so convinced him to open a Help to Buy ISA plus a normal savings account. £200 to the ISA as that the max per month plus an extra £100 to the savings. It's not currently enough to end up with a 25% deposit of a £250,000 house in 3 years (or even 4) so will be looking at how we can increase this over the next few month.

My SO is military so isn't used to having a large amount of outgoings- food and shelter get taken out pre payment so has a large disposable income (no pension payments either) which was spent on nice branded clothes, junk and socialising (think £150 a time nights out!!!!!) Other little things like never using leftovers, not using the last of toothpaste/ shower gel etc. which I reckon must cost an unnecessary £20/£30 a month extra. Trying slowly but surely to change his attitude.

Keep you posted!

specialkaye

Exam results in today - Passed one failed one so mixed bag- pretty gutted as it will add 6 months onto my training and may have some financial implications. As long as I am fully qualified by the end of 2017 I will be happy.

Hosting some friends from Uni a the weekend so trying to get my house spik and span before Friday - it's not going - keep getting distracted.

Paid my final instalment on my bed that I got last year on finance (at 0%) so that's £49.00 a month extra in my bank every month.

That's pretty much it for updates to MFW but I do have some more life stuff - started in the new year on a diet - loosely following an Atkins style low carb. Its actually going really well but my (currently untouched) Christmas chocolate is calling me. Been following it for 2 full weeks now and lost 8lbs so far. Total treats in the 2 weeks - 3 Ferrero rocher, 1 small cheesecake slice, 1 chocolate lollipop and 2 Yorkshire puddings. Considering I could quite easily eat all this and more in just one day I thing I am doing quite well.

Next weekend will be a test with all the people in my house - and the liquid calories we may be consuming!

Happy Monday!

tinkerbel

Hi! I've just read your whole diary from day 1!! So interesting to see how far you've come and I'm subscribing so hope you post regularly!

Shame about the exam but remember they are really really hard and I'm sure you can retake it and pass it next time!

I'm so impressed at you working so many jobs and Long stretched with few days off and you seem to fill them with such good activities! Making me feel like I spend waaay too much time in the sofa doing nothing!!:o

New mortgage deal sounds good and I think you're smart to just immediately change the minimum payment - what you don't see you can't miss if my theory so better to have the overpayment sorted from the start rather than try to see what you have left at the end of the month.

I bought my first place almost a year ago and it took some time to get into the swing of things outgoings-wise but now I think I'm there and am almost ready to start rechecking my contracts once the infuriating terms have expired for Internet etc! Hoping for some savings there (my mobile bill is def too high!!) which I can use to fund a regular OP.

Do you still use swag bucks? Is it worth joining? Any other recommendations welcomed!

specialkaye

Hi tinkerbel - thanks for dropping in, i'm not going to lie - all my spare time is spent on my sofa (I just don't have that much of it)!! The anniversary of my move in date is always exciting looking for better deals, had 3 broadband providers and 2 utilities. Take your time and remember the cash back sites.

Had a fabulous weekend with some old friends from uni coming to stay for weekend - had a mad dash to make the house look presentable before they came on Friday so won't need to do anything for a few days. Feeling a bit worse for wear and the diet went completely out of the window - time to restock and get back to it tomorrow.

A little bit on the mortgage savings - the OH received a letter with a PPI settlement from his bank. if it checks out its over £2,000 which will mean that the £1,200 needed for the help to buy account is there so fingers crossed that will go through okay, Leaving over £800 for whatever he wants to do with it. He is talking about saving most of it- he is changing his thought processes!

Tinkerbel - I do still swag when I can remember, I tend to go through phases and probably get about £15 a year which I put straight to amazon. I used it a lot more when I wasn't working and was saving up because it is quite time consuming and I have been trying to have a healthier lifestyle not sat on my laptop loads.

specialkaye

Awaiting the BF's arrival home from work so thought I would update-

No payout for him from his bank regarding the PPI which is a little disappointing as was hoping to get into the bank tomorrow to open up the new fund - he won't be back now until the 17th Feb so guess it will just have to wait.

I also have made my final payment to my Dad re the deposit for the house, just another 2 payments to go on the car bit of it and then £400 extra a month.

Had to top up the fuel yesterday as I was down to under 20 miles left! Hopefully this will last all month but it depends on any trips away from just work/shop/yoga. The BF has a more economical car for longer trips so hopefully this tank will last until next pay day. Maybe that will be my challenge this month - if it goes down too fast I will just have to make it stretch my walking sometimes -Mondays and Fridays would be good as I don't have any time restraints immediately after (or before) work on those days.

Would quite like to look further into passive/additional income streams- got nothing on the go just a little interest from savings. Having a lodger was the biggest boost however not sure anyone would want to live with my tumble dryer taking up half the room now!

specialkaye

Finally managed to get hold of my old energy supplier - switched in November through here but hadn't received my final bill/credit. I have been ringing for the past week but wasn't getting through- finally got through tonight and was £125 in credit so that should be winging its way into my bank in the next 4 weeks. Not quite as willing to give it back as they are to take it!

I've been struck down by a fluey type bug which is affecting my sleeping and also my work - ive been starting at my computer screen rather vacantly today. I'm currently curled up on my sofa not really wanting to do very much. My washing pile is starting at me and I have more ironing than I know what to do with but seriously just want to veg out and keep warm.

giblet1979

Hey sk,
Loads of great updates! Such a lot has gone on since I last checked in
Glad that things are going well with so and with money saving
Hope you feel much better soon tho
Gib x

specialkaye

Hi Giblet, welcome back, yeah lots of things going on which is fab. I managed to stave off a full blown cold so was back to normal (ish) the next day.

Not a lot of money saving things going on right now. My overpayments for the mortgage are going smoothly so my focus now is to get my credit card down to where I can pay it off in full every month. It's currently on 0% but it wont last forever. It has a limit of £1800 and it goes up and down. Up over Christmas and then down again and now up again as I have just paid for holiday flights on top my normal monthly spends. I try and put all my spending on it as gives my supermarket points for days out and things.

Trying to keep my spends down - thinking about listing on here the things that I have bought - just monthly, on things like new clothes, shoes make -up etc. I will also list if these items were replacing something as I am trying to limit the growth of my 'stuff'

Shoes
Grey heels- £16.90 (down from £55) - real leather
Black flats -£20 (down from £40) - real leather and replacements

Clothes
Purple dress - £19.80 (down from £35)
White shirt -£7 (down from £16)
Grey cosy leggings - £6 (it was cold!!)

Other
Earrings x2 - £6 (down from £15)

Make up - NONE!! Nail Polish - NONE!! Perfume - NONE!! Non-Essential toiletries -NONE!!

Could do better on the clothes and shoes front but it was the tail end of the sales last week and there was loads of nice things 60-70% off. It has refreshed my wardrobe and shoes so shouldn't need anything else during Feb. Need to continue some of the weight loss so that more of the existing pieces will fit again!!