A Fresh Start

a_fresh_start

Excellent news – even though it felt that we were spending heaps in the supermarket/c0stc0, I’ve tallied everything up and it averaged out over the 5 weeks in January as £62/ week (£312 total). I’m happy with this, as although quite high for 2 people, it covers healthy food and all evening meals, breakfasts and packed lunches J

I was previously spending £13/week and my OH was spending £15 in the sandwhich shops on lunches, so when this is factored into our weekly grocery spend, its pretty good, I’d say! And we are definitely eating much better meals. :T

a_fresh_start

Ooh got my mortgage statement in the post at the weekend. We have already paid off the interest for the year with Jan + Feb’s op’s! So all overpayments from here on in are pure capital reduction J What an incentive!

Worked out that interest is now £7.81/day. When we first got the mortgage (albeit on a 5.37% interest rate) it was a whopping £24.46/day:eek:. We were just graduates and couldn’t afford any overpayments at that time in our lives, and I need to keep reminding myself of this, as it is a bit infuriating thinking if only we’d even just overpaid by £50/month, we’d be on the home straight by now.

Keeping with the comparisons, we took out a 95% mortgage, and now have a LTV of 65%, so have raised our stake in the house by 30%!!! J Hoping to get that up to 40% by the end of the year.

Although I have all these plans for overpayments this year................we’ve booked a holiday! Yay! OH was pleasantly surprised to hear that I had been siphoning off some money into a holiday account:o, so we put down the deposit a few daysago and have 6 weeks before the balance is due. It will be an expensive holiday (outings/food, etc) but it’s something we’ve wanted to do for a while, so we’ve booked it for in the middle of our 30th birthdays, it’s a bit of a treat. J

a_fresh_start

Hello! I can’t believe it’s almost midway through March already! It’s been all go, sticking well with my gym sessions, and have started using the couch to 5K! I can successfully run(slowly!) for a whole minute lol. Hoping to stick with it now the mornings are nice and light, it certainly sets you up for the day J

Managed to OP circa £1200 in March, but have reduced the Aprils standing order by £1000 to £150. We’ve booked and paid for a wee holiday, and now we have £1000 spending money J We can enjoy our holiday, and do plenty excursions without worrying about cost. Plus the car needs tax, MOT and 4 new tires!! There’s no point making things financially tight / miserable just in the name of overpaying... plus it will give me a goal to make up the difference later on in the year. Hoping to only need 1 month ‘off’ from overpaying, and crank the standing order back up in May.

My grocery spend is stubbornly sticking at circa £70-80/ week. Sometimes I can get it into the £60s by eating out the freezer, but this is only a short-term gain as I’ll then have a £100 ‘restocking’ bill a few weeks later!

a_fresh_start

Last week in April already! Where has the time went!

I really needed the long weekend to recharge and get a couple of things that’s been niggling me for a while done:

- Reduced sky package. Save £10/month. Although I phoned up to cancel on 22nd, I got talked into a deal which contracted me back in for a year. Thinking I should call back and stick to my guns and go through with the cancel! Plus annoyed that I was on the phone to them for 25mins costing me approx £2!! Swine’s!
- Cancelled lovefilm dvd post service. Not really watching them.
- Changed utilities to OVO cheaper energy fixed. Via u-switch so gained £21 cashback and hopefully the switch will go through ok, as EDF deal finishing at the end of April. However will still go up to £95/month.

Still to open 123 account and switch all the direct debits over, but will wait till next month for a time that we are less busy so I can keep an eye on what’s happening. Thing is I don’t particularly want to close the back account once the D/Ds have switched over. Don’t like that they force you to do that otherwise you lose the guarantee.

On a not so good side, an essential kitchen appliance is on its last legs, so have to fork out £300 + fitting for that at some point soon. Though I’m trying to tell myself that the chance for improved energy rating is a good thing

Considering this a mortgage free diary, I need to confess about reducing my mortgage overpayments standing order for last and next month. I’m diverting the money for a holiday instead, although it is depressing to see the anticipated MF date edge out with each reduced OP! Even though this is an arbitrary predicted number based on current low rates, it was still nice to see!

a_fresh_start

I’m back! Life has been very hectic, and although I’ve not been updating the diary, we’ve still been making token payments to the mortgage. I will look through my numbers and see where we are. Been on holiday 4 times this year, so massive overpayments have taken a back seat. I think when you focus so much on overpayments, when you do start to spend money on yourselves, then you really do go to town! I’ve calculated that overall we ‘diverted’ almost £4000 from overpayments to pay for our holidays. Would be very nice to try and repay this but seems an unlikely goal!


Just noticed that the kitchen appliance I refer to in my last post still hasn't been replaced! :rotfl:though its steadily moving up the to-do list

a_fresh_start

I desperately needto get a handle on my grocery spend. We are coming out at a pretty consistent£500/month for the two of us!!! This includes toiletries and all 3 meals a day..

I’d be very happyif I could get it down to £350/week. Ithink I could keep a better grasp of it if we had a card that covered allhousehold stuff. That way I’d know the balance at any one time, rather thandoing the settling up of accounts at month end, then realising that although Ihad thought I had been good spending £80/week on shopping, OH had also spent£40/wk on his card on top ups!

I am pretty on topof everything else, or at least have a mental list - though I’m sure there’smore. Here’s the upcoming to do list:

Phones
- I needto phone Everything’s Expensive and give notice on my account. Going Sim onlyto GiffGaff J So is OH so should give some savings!

- needto give notice to BT to ensure we don’t auto renew the phone contract. Will bemoving this over to our BB provider in November once my annual line rental has expired.


Finances
Actually sortingout my banks is a 3 prong approach

- Thinkingof moving the joint account to Santander 123?

- Shouldget the 123 credit card for household stuff too?

- My NW5% account is running out in October too, so need to see where I can move mypennies to for the interest.

Roll on the weekend!!

a_fresh_start

And I’ve still not sorted myself out!

So things I’ve still to do......

- Sell iphone5

- Change to Santander123. I’ve worked out that there’s a quiet spell in all my direct debits from the 15thto the 28th each month. So I think the best time to transfer would be on the 16th, then the 7 days will be cleared before any DDs are taken. I’m hoping this minimises any chances for messing up!

- Get a house hold CC. Getting sick of divvying up who owes what at the end of each month.

- Shop around for house insurance quotes – URGENT

- Get energy efficient bulbs for kitchen

- Cancel Netflix (can alwaysrenew when house of cards s3 airs!)

- Cancel amazon prime once the year is up

- Get OH to change his mobile deal to a better one.

So things I’ve done......

- Ordered new oven. Got a supersuper efficient one J Awaiting delivery (manufacturer to call to organise). AND £50 cashback

- Moved phone line and call package to BB supplier. Saved £100 over the coming year.

- Reduced sky to basic package.(cancel 20th March) Contract up 22 May. Hopefully get a deal – I’ve been a customer for 8yrs and never been offered one!!

- Switched my mobile phone contract. Should save £240/year!

I really need to get everything in order,as *hopefully* we are going to have some big changes next year and I want to be as prepared as possible! :T

DanW87

Wow you are organised. I would love to be mortgage free by the time I'm 35.. 8 years to go until then! Me and the wife are hoping to start overpaying with nationwide in the coming months.. Nearly cleared the wedding debt!

a_fresh_start

Dan - having no wedding or kids probably helps us Tho for us, holidays are non negotiable and are a necessity!

We're down to a projected 48 payments to go at our increased overpayment sum we make each month:j lately I've suggested taking a few at a slightly reduced OP to have a total splurge at Christmas/New Year, but OH has been the sensible one and said that we are soooo close now, lets keep at it.

so back to the todo list:

Home insurance quotes sought, and surprisingly, for the firs time EVER, our renewal quote was cheaper that a new customer!

New oven was ordered but manufacturer called to say there will be a delay, so have offered us installation & removal of old one, worth £90 for free as an apology if we were willing to wait a week. No probs - though I don't know how relaxed I'll be the nearer it gets to Christmas!!!

OH was good and rearranged his mobile bill. he's got it down from an average of £67/mth :eek: to £16.50 / month. so he will really notice that!

Opened up a new savings account which allows DD to be set up. so will use this for transferring to new accounts that need 2 DDs set up for the bonus To open up a new NW account through quidco for OH

and start buying Christmas presents for folk!!!!

a_fresh_start

just done a bank account switch for OH to NW (£75 £co) plus I recommended him NW earlier through the refer a friend thing, so hopefully £50 each from NW too.:T £175 in total if it all goes through - not half bad! Plus its for the 5% interest account, which I had last year (now off the introductory rate ) and its very good.

yay! thats another thing off my list, spurred by the increased £co cashback rate ending at midnight!!:D

still not got anybodies presents despite a few hours internet shopping, but I did spot a very nice pair of brown leather gloves for myself - away to drop hints to the OH :rotfl: