Second Time Lucky

amycool

I haven't got the exact figure but we now owe less than £9000 on the mortgage! :j

In other news,
I've cancelled the window cleaner. It was £15 a clean and going up to £16.50 and the clean was getting worse every month. This time the bird poo was still there! We'll be getting new windows in the next year or two so we'll just do the lower ones ourselves for now and not worry about the upstairs ones. They've failed so much now that you can barely see out of them anyway.

I stupidly had an ISA I hadn't looked at and realised it's on 0.6% so switched to a 2yr fix for 1.9%. I know logically I should use it to pay off the mortgage but I like the safety of it.

I also switched my Mum's and transferred some money for her that was earning 0% interest!

I helped my mum to order a water meter after learning she's paying £65 a month!! Ours is £45 with 3 people.

Some roof tiles above the conservatory have fallen out so the plan is to fix them myself at the weekend. It was designed very badly. Most refuse to work in that area as there's no way to safely put ladders/scaffolding but I've fixed it before and the conservatory took my weight. I weigh a few pounds less now!

Car Insurance due this month but the premium has gone down, which is good.

Still not heard if OH is getting a payrise but his pension contribution is going up this month. We pay 1% of his wage to an investment builder so I've just switched that to the ethical option, which annoyingly performed better last year than the default option. His employer is no longer matching the 1% but we're continuing with it.

Easter holidays next week and I have planned literally nothing.

amycool

First spend of the Easter holidays was £6.50 for a bus pass and £10 to see the Lego Movie with DD. Then used the bus pass to visit a park. Well worth the money.

Yesterday I cashed in the £5 I won on a Mother's Day scratch card and spend £3 on Fry's Orange Creme.

Just ordered the refillable shower gel from splosh.com to add to the household products. I love not using so much plastic.

amycool

Hit a milestone today. When the mortgage began we were paying £5.08 a day in interest. It is now at 88p!!!

We are managing to overpay £1000 every month at the moment so we're down to £7614.35. If we can keep this up, we'll be mortgage free by November.

I'm aware that we still need to pay about £2500 to the Bathroom fitters and obviously other things might come up, but I'm determined to have it gone by Christmas.

The plan after that is to start saving for new windows and door at the front (all totally failed now and I can feel the breeze when I'm watching TV), and get that done in 2020.

Then we would like to save for an electric car. Ours is only 4 years old and diesel but most of our trips are really short. Once the electric car is paid for we will start saving for the solar roof. The roof needs replacing in the next 5-10 years anyway so I would like solar tiles.

It's very odd to be able to plan for big purchases without having to scrimp and save but hopefully those years of living with parents and never spending any money will pay off.

Firegirl

88p!!!! That amazing! You’ve done so well and it sounds like your money savings is going to be good for the environment too!

amycool

Thank you firegirl! I've wanted solar panels for so long and to have enough money to be able to live in as green a way as possible.

Think we also need to look at the banking situation and find a more ethical bank.

debtfreeoneday

I've been AWOL for so long on here, but had to come find you and say hello! Sorry to hear you have been unwell, glad to hear you are on the mend now. x

amycool

Thanks for stopping by! Half term has just begun so we have 2 weeks of (hopefully) lie ins and adventures!

I'm very close to paying off the mortgage now!

debtfreeoneday

You are doing so well, but scary to hear you talk about driving lesson for DD! Enjoy half term!

amycool

If you saw DD on a bike you'd be even more worried! Distracted by everything! I'm hoping to start her young on driving as I suspect she'll need a lot of lessons, much like OH and I! Time has flown. The other day I was melancholy as her face is already getting slimmer and more mature. Then I was talking to a Mum of teens and she said "Of course they don't want to spend time with me" and it dawned on me that it's only 4 or 5 years away!!!

amycool

Some good news!
OH is getting promoted!
He didn't think to ask what the salary would be but we're assuming it's going up.

Fingers crossed the pay increase starts this month and we can throw all the extra money at the mortgage.