BookWorm's MFW Chapter

mortgage_girl

Happy New Year BW! I hope that you have had a great Christmas.

MGx

BookWorm

Happy New Year! Slightly belated but better than not at all

I seem to be suffering from a case of new year blues at the moment - don't have much interest in... well anything :eek:... so as you may imagine, work is quite challenging at the moment!

MG - thanks so much for stopping in and I'm sorry that I'm so slow to reply to your message. I hope you had a good one too

I'm deliberately having a quiet weekend this week to see if it helps.

BW x

BookWorm

2016 Update


OP total - £4015.92 (beat last year by £84.92)
Mortgage balance now - £80,296.13 (down from £87,694,68 at 01/01/15)
LTV – 69.82% (down from 76.25%)
Predicted mortgage end date – Sept 2032 (originally July 2035)


This means that I have totally reached my own personal target of being below 70% LTV for my remortgage date :j - officially that’s in March but my current provider will allow me to change anytime from now without penalty. I need to have a look to see what deals are about. I do know that I only want another 2 year fix. When I last remortgaged, it was at 85% LTV and I was hoping to get to 75% if I was lucky... and since I have managed below 70% I should have no problem getting to 60% LTV within that time. I feel for me it doesn’t make sense to fix for longer.


When comparing to last year’s update, I’ve noticed that I have been slack on the use of cc’s for the final quarter of the year for the second year in a row – so this is clearly something I do. Perhaps need to have a rethink of the budget for the latter half of the year….:think:

I also said last year that I wanted to reduce food spends…and although I’ve not kept actual figures, I do feel that I’ve achieved that. My shopping bills each week are generally lower, I’m stockpiling less and also waste has been reduced…so I feel like this is a win for me. Would like this to continue.


Surveys:

In 2015 I managed to receive survey payments (mix of cash and vouchers) of £896.65 which was (for me) phenomenal :j

I have definitely been more[STRIKE] lax [/STRIKE] relaxed on the survey front this year and so not surprised that I’ve not beaten this target… however the total is still £695.05 :T… which isn’t to be sniffed at when you consider it’s ‘free’

I will continue to keep a record of it again this year as I find it interesting


Let's see what this year brings!

BW

hiddenshadow

Amazing figures, BW! Well done on smashing your LTV goal.

I agree on the 2-year fix. 60% seems to be the "magic" number as far as the lowest rates go, so if you could get that last 10% in 2 years then you may as well fix for longer on the lowest rate you can.

BookWorm

Thanks Hiddenshadow Always good to hear someone else agrees with my logic...makes me think I'm doing the right thing!

I've just claimed an APG voucher from Mr A...and have noticed something. I tend to keep a note of the vouchers I claim from them and in 2014 the yearly total was £29.92 across 24 shops. The 2015 total was £33.24 across 21 shops. It's interesting that over a year of doing less shops, that I've saved more. I wonder if that is down to the other supermarkets becoming more competitive?

I know that I do use Mr A less as I will quite often pop to the German A since there is now one near to me. I really do notice a difference on my weekly shopping bill when I use the latter. I do sometimes nip to Mr S just for a change and there are some things they do that I can't seem to get elsewhere. My plan for this year is to continue with a mixture of using what supermarkets suit me best depending on what I need at the time

BookWorm

Just had a phonecall to say that my aunt has been taken into hospital - all I know at the moment is suspected kidney problems

hiddenshadow

Oh no - hope she's OK.

BookWorm

Thank you. I will advise as/when I hear more

I've been looking into possible remortgage's in the meantime. Currently possible frontrunner is the Post Office... I don't know much about them as a mortgage provider though. Does anyone have any experience of them? Also, can you view your mortgage balance online and can you make OP's online?

Any comments would be appreciated.

Goldiegirl

Hello there, I'm afraid I have no knowledge of Post Office mortgages, but I hope your aunt will be ok


Well done with the surveys, that must have taken a lot of effort!

BookWorm

Thanks Goldie

Re: the surveys - to be honest that was with minimal effort. As I've been doing them for a few years now, I've found out which ones work for me and now I just keep them rolling along...so somehow seems easier. I definitely spent less time last year than in recent years... as sometimes just can't be bothered!