New tunnel - no light yet

girlatplay

Hi everyone

I am not a newbie around here. I hit rock bottom during the first quarter of 2007 and proudly became debt free in December 2011. I have had two diaries: HERE and HERE but briefly; I am a single parent to Little Miss Gap (age 14). We have two cats. I have an interest only mortgage over a shared equity flat and I have been slowly trying to bring the balance down over the past couple of years.

So, why am I back?

Well, I have just borrowed £20,000 from the bank :eek::eek::eek:

I have contacted MSE Badger to have my debt free badge removed.

The story:
While everyone around me has been seeing an increase in their property prices (my sister sold hers last month for £10k more than she paid for it 4 years ago) the property prices in my street have gone down and are showing no signs of coming back up just yet (the flat next door to me sold last month for £32k less than what I paid for mine (7 years ago) and other property in the street has sold for similar prices in the past couple of years). I had a valuation done on 18th May and it is currently valued at £110,000. That means I have to pay £33,132 to the HA. The HA have agreed this and once all the paperwork is finished, the flat will be all mine (and the bank's of course, until I figure out a plan to change that ). There is no way I would be able to remortgage to the full amount (negative equity, big LTV, blah blah), hence why I went for a loan. I have some savings which I will be using too. I have (had?) a sparkly clean credit history which I worked so hard to build up since the first diary. It has totally paid off.

Being not new here (grammar??) I am quite in control of my finances. I have a budget and a spreadsheet that I check and tweak every day. I have tried the YNAB free trial a couple of times but it is so very similar to my own spreadsheets that I feel I am posting the information twice and I worry that I might miss something on one of them and screw it all up. My spreadsheets have been going since 2008 and I don’t know what I would do without them. If I screwed them up I would be…well…screwed.

I don’t need to post up an SOA as I am happy that I can afford the monthly payments and still have money to get my hair done! (just). I have a small 'rainy day' fund for just in case.


So, the point of my diary is this: it is a £20k loan at 3.9%, £366.81 per month for 60 months. Total amount payable £22,008.60. I have already made the first month's payment plus a small overpayment of £65.60, so 59 months to go. I need this diary so I can be accountable to myself. It really helped the first time round and I have every intention of getting rid of this loan as quickly as possible.

59 months eh? That sounds like a challenge to me!

girlatplay

Debts at 9th June:

IO mortgage -£91,360
Loan -£19,615.86

I'm planning to focus on the loan for now.
Interest on the mortgage is 2.54% until April 2017.
Interest on the loan is £3.9% for the life of the loan. The bank are calculating interest daily and adding it on to the balance on the 1st of each month.

20p going into my sealed pot today.

The sun is shining! It's a happy day

satchmo1

Good luck with paying down your new loan early.


I can never get the sealed pot idea, preferring to either see it in an interest-bearing account (even if it's just 0.5%) or paying it off a debt. Am I missing something? Is it to have easy access cash that would need justification to spend it?


Is there anything money-savvy you can do to increase the value of your property (either now or in the future)?

girlatplay

Hi satchmo and thank you.

I use my sealed pot for any odd change that I get. I just chuck it in if it's not otherwise needed. I found 1p in the street last week. That will go in when I remember to take it out of my jacket pocket. If I have 50p or a couple of £1s left at the end of the week I will pop that in, etc. It all adds up and because it is just pocket change I don't miss it. When I opened my pot in November last year I had £70 odd in it. Just from small change! If I have money in my bank account that is odds, e.g. child benefit = £82.80, I would pay the £2.80 off the loan (and I will be doing that). I use my pot contents towards Christmas. The folk on the sealed pot thread are a friendly bunch too.

There are lots of odd jobs needing done in the flat which would certainly improve the place. I will get them done eventually but it is liveable for now. The value being low at the moment works in my favour. If it was valued at much more I wouldn't be able to buy them out. I want to get the loan shifted first, then I can concentrate on works needing done. Hopefully all of this will pay off in the future.

girlatplay

Got tax credit today so £1.57 (the odds) to the loan. New balance -£19,614.29.

Found 50p hiding behind a receipt in my purse so popped that in the sealed pot.

I need to do a meal plan and shopping list for later. I'm thinking that will include a salad or two this week. Today is another beautiful day here

Paid off the credit card today (I do this every month - I don't spend what I can't afford on it. I only use it for points).

I think that's it for now.

beanielou

Shiny new diary :j

girlatplay

Hi Lou :wave: nice to see you!


Came in £9 under budget for groceries yesterday :j (Much better than last week when I was £4.50 over ) Forgot milk though but will get that at some point. Mr M tried to rip me off for 75p so got that sorted! Got 2p in the change so put that in the sealed pot.

Had a really enjoyable salad last night. When I see that written down it sounds really boring but it really wasn't!

Little Miss Gap wants some caramel syrup as she has discovered iced caramel lattes from Starbucks. Luckily for me, she has also discovered that she can make them at home for a fraction of the price and have them whenever she wants. Also luckily for me, I like them too and sometimes she will make me one as a surprise for when I get home from work Anyway, the point here is that I can get caramel syrup from Amazon. BUT, we are on a budget here and that is a treat! So, I decided to "earn" the treat by doing surveys and I now only have about 41 points to get on Swagbucks for my second £5 Amazon voucher (got the first one before I had decided what to do with it).

No other financial (or any) news today.

Weather report: I have a sleeveless top and the fan on! Gorgeous! (the weather, not me )

beanielou

You are braver than me.
Sleavless and me are not friends :eek:
Unfortunatly I have frock on & have truly dire legs :eek:

girlatplay

I probably should have mentioned that I was in the office with no sleeves. I had a cardy for outside, I'm not that brave! LOL at your legs Lou (not literally). I'm sure they're not as bad as you make out.

I got the points needed for the Amazon voucher I am just waiting for it to be delivered then I will place the order. LMG is very pleased.

I have managed to not spend any money since the grocery shop on Wednesday so I am happy with that. I am holding on to my pocket money this week as it's my turn for the coffees this weekend.

Payday is two weeks today :cool:

girlatplay

Morning

I was a wee bit spendy over the weekend but it was required stuff that comes within a special budget.

Coffee (Costa) came to £6.05 for the three of us so that was quite reasonable.

I had some odd change so potted that in my sealed pot. It included a lovely £2 coin

I ordered my medication a day too late so had to buy some for over the weekend. It's only £1.50 (was 95p last year!) for 4-6 days worth (depending how I feel) but when I can get it on prescription it is annoying having to spend that. I will keep what I haven't used for emergencies in case I do it again (likely ). Need to remember to pick up the order tonight.

I managed to go into the supermarket this morning for milk for work and not spend anything on myself! I was very tempted but I managed to control myself. I have lunch with me so it would have just been greed. I'm quite proud of myself for bringing lunch and not spending all last week. Goal for this week is the same again.

I have £5 left of my pocket money (until Thursday) which is good.

girlatplay

Oooooohhh!!! I have just been given a monetary gift!
An elderly relative has just given me £200. She has her reasons and I have tried to argue and not accept it but my mum told me to take it. I have just paid it off the loan :j

Thank you Auntie M. xx