Searching for Security: Our MFW Diary

Bluefire

It's been a busy weekend!

SuperSecretSquirrel

Wow bluefire!

Little one and I made rice krispies cakes this weekend, we're not quite at the same level as you yet! :rotfl:

Will we be seeing you on bake off next year???

Bluefire

SuperSecretSquirrel wrote: »

Will we be seeing you on bake off next year???

Haha, if you did it would only be for the first week, I don't know a thing about bread & pastries!

Speaking of watching GBBO, we added the TV license back into the budget today, theoretically we could have held out until Christmas but it's not like we can't afford it & we do tend to use iPlayer a fair bit.

Bluefire

This month saw the beginning of us slowly starting to pay off our stooze, by using the interest we're earning from various current accounts. £63.38 so far this month, with an addition £15 or so to come when the Tesco interest comes through.

It's amazing the difference in interest compared to a year and a half ago before I took over the accounts. We've gone from earning pennies to 3 x Club Lloyds accounts (4% on £5000) 2 x TSB plus accounts (5% on £2000) 1 x Halifax Rewards (£5 p/m) & 2 x Tesco current accounts (3% on £3000) Obviously there are still some more accounts we could open, but I'm waiting to see what happens with interest rates & our credit ratings first. I have a feeling most of our accounts will soon be going the way of Santander 123. Good while it lasted though!

Bluefire

A few bits & bobs paid off the mortgage this month has managed to bring the total down to below £1800.

Most of it is cashback; £90 from our landlord insurance with Direct Line, and £8 odd that I rounded up to £10 from our Cineworld Unlimited card. I also sold one of my practically new cake stands for £60, exactly what I paid for it in the first place so pretty chuffed with that.

Really need to start selling again with Christmas coming up. It's my birthday next week, so as soon as that's out of the way I shall make a start!

Bluefire

Long time no see diary!

After the base rate drop back in August 2016 we made the decision to stop overpaying from DH's wage & drop to our minimum payment of £8.56 a month. I decide to pay off the rest of the mortgage using any money I considered 'spare' - profits from selling, cashback, interest, that kind of thing. By September 2016 we'd reduced the mortgage to just below £1800, which is around when I stopped posting.

So what's happened since then?

Work wise, DH's temporary promotion was extended & when the position was finally advertised he was able to secure it, bring our gross household income to around 36k. The extra money has mainly gone towards the renovation fund for the house. We've been through another round of him having to re-apply his own job with the threat of redundancy since then but touch wood things seem to have settled down now.

The money that used to go towards paying down the mortgage has been put towards a family debt instead which we'll be paying off a year earlier than planned thanks to savings from our recreation fund last year. Looking forward to being able to get out & do a bit more in the coming months!

Speaking of adventures, we took a trip to New York in the spring for our fifth wedding anniversary which took all of our holiday budget for the year (~£1800) plus a bit more. Totally worth it though, we had a blast. Still not decided exactly where we're going this year for our 10th anniversary as a couple but I'm leaning towards colder climates. It's always been my dream to see the northern lights.

Renovations wise we have a healthy 17k saved in the bank & will be adding a further 6k to that by summer before getting quotes for our new conservatory & bi-folds. No idea how much it's going to cost but hoping we have enough! DH also came into some inheritance earlier in the year which he's planning to use to buy a new car & start a lifetime ISA with before the end of the tax year. We've nearly saved the money for the ISA payment for next year too.

As for the mortgage? We finished the last year with just under £500 to go. 2 Clydesdale Bank switches later & DH was able to make the call tonight to authorise the final payment to be taken. Less than 48 hours to go & we'll be mortgage free!

SuperSecretSquirrel

Congratulations on becoming officially mortgage free Bluefire! :j

Bluefire

Thank you SuperSecretSquirrel! Just the buy-to-let to go now, and I'm planning on setting up a new diary for that. Quite looking forward to starting all over again from the beginning!

Bluefire

I feel like I've been logging into HSBC every single hour today to see if they've taken the final payment yet! No luck though, apparently it must be very difficult to work out the tiny bit of interest we've generated since the 1st. Fingers crossed for tomorrow, I'm waiting impatiently to celebrate!

Bluefire

Just had the letter from HSBC confirming the mortgage is redeemed. It's official! Time to celebrate :j