Hope is not an Effective Financial Strategy

shangaijimmy

jeepjunkie wrote: »

PS Not for every one but in my MFW quest the TV license was binned for a £7.99 NowTV box for catchup Not even the kids noticed it as their life is Netflix, Vevo, Youtube etc. Life is so busy I don't think I've watched live TV for years

Great to see you jeepjunkie.

I must be honest i to have considered how much we actually watch live tv as well. But it just seems too much to take that next step!! Even though i know it'll be liberating!! We have a freesat box, and an android box with xbmc which is amazing for films!

shangaijimmy

After posting our monthly budget we noticed that our utilities bill seemed high. So for the last 3 months I've been submitting meter readings on the 1st of every month. We've now been recalculated to £108 per month, a reduction of £12.

I've also made of few more tweaks since I first posted it with some pension increases amongst others. I'll post a current and up to date version tomorrow (got a ridiculously long day at work today)

[Deleted User]

shangaijimmy wrote: »

Great to see you jeepjunkie.

I must be honest i to have considered how much we actually watch live tv as well. But it just seems too much to take that next step!! Even though i know it'll be liberating!! We have a freesat box, and an android box with xbmc which is amazing for films!

Yeah, we went the PLEX route as you can stick that on the NowTV box to stream from the media server, no more DVDs all over the house, also great for all her ipad movies

ourcornercottage

shangaijimmy wrote: »

After posting our monthly budget we noticed that our utilities bill seemed high. So for the last 3 months I've been submitting meter readings on the 1st of every month. We've now been recalculated to £108 per month, a reduction of £12.(

Since moving to scottish power (and having solar panels installed) I've been putting my readings in online every month too to ensure my DD is correct.

It's also a good motivator in getting the daily off the grid electricity used down. February it was 14 units per day. April 5.2! A combination of using energy from new solar panels and not wasting
Electricity in the evenings. Tbh I think I can get it down another 1 or even 2 in the summer!

shangaijimmy

jeepjunkie wrote: »

Yeah, we went the PLEX route as you can stick that on the NowTV box to stream from the media server, no more DVDs all over the house, also great for all her ipad movies

Plex is a new one on me. I'll research

[Deleted User]

PLEX is a spin off from XBMC so both similar to each other. I'm just tied to PLEX as the NowTV can't to XBMC. Now just need a raspberry PI running RASPLEX in the loft to replace the old laptop so a few more watts saved there

Regarding leccy use the lowest average in the summer I've ever achieved was 6.33 units per day though we are all electric with solar panels and heat pump. Though my readings are sporadic... Trying to get it lower is not easy despite the panels heating the water in the summer and mostly LEDs. Though still hopeful as we recently replaced our double oven with a far more energy efficient one which seems to be making a big difference Currently paying £83pm which is starting to look like way to much as now the solar has fully woken up after winter our monthly DDs just throw us way into credit

Anyway from reading these boards I too have started looking at our daily interest, currently £7.57 but was £9.48 this time last year

Cheers

shangaijimmy

Thanks Jeep. Daily interest is very motivating. I've also just started to track and monitor interest saved, which is equally appealing, especially when thinking about we can buy with those savings - i'm thinking cruises currently (with no kids!!!)

atypicalblonde

I really wish I could understand how to track interest saved, but I haven't a clue! I console myself with the fact that i'm saving money nonetheless x

[Deleted User]

atypicalblonde - Can you view your mortgage account on-line? If so you will see how much interest you are charged each month. I simply divide by the number of days in that month. You should be able to see the daily interest reduce month by month as you reduce the capital sum. Though there is probably a better way of doing it...

I guess the daily interest figure hammers home the benefits of OP'ing when compared to looking [or not at all] at monthly/annual interest figures.

Just like on my spreadsheet where I plan/implement savings on household necessities I not only round that up to an annual saving but also the amount saved over 10 years. Makes even small savings look massive and that's the money that will pay off the mort quicker

shangaijimmy - I like your holiday thinking Smaller mort = more hols

Cheers

shangaijimmy

atypicalblonde wrote: »

I really wish I could understand how to track interest saved, but I haven't a clue! I console myself with the fact that i'm saving money nonetheless x

ATB - For interest savings i use the overpayment calculator. At the end of each month i input the starting mortgage balance for that month and years remaining, then add in the months total overpayment as a one off payment.

That then gives you an interest savings figures across the whole of the mortgage for that 1 payment. I then add together each month.

I doubt its totally accurate, but it works for me!!