£195,000 mortgage for a single mum!

pollyanna24

chelseablue wrote: »

I really need to add my SOA to my diary, just waiting to set up the council tax, gas, and electric.


Plus we're getting a new car at the end of the month which will cost £125 a month :-/

Don't do it! Make a SoA that is. It might scare you like mine just did!

chelseablue

pollyanna24 wrote: »

Don't do it! Make a SoA that is. It might scare you like mine just did!

Good idea! I'll just watch all the direct debits leaving my account haha

pollyanna24

Typical. Not even a month of the house being in my sole name and something has gone wrong. Still, could be worse.

The pump on my water tank has gone and the plumber is fixing it as I write. Always a bit wary of who to call, but this guy serviced my boiler last year, so have used him again.

Think it is going to cost about £280, but we'll see.

Now that the house is in my sole name, my friend has said to me that I should get insurance on pretty much everything like she has. I agree and will look into it, but knowing my luck, I would have had insurance on the boiler, but it wouldn't have covered what has gone wrong this week as the water tank is in a different part of the house.

SueP19

Some insurances are worth having and some aren't.

Maybe if you tot up how much the insurances would be and saved them in a pot :D

pollyanna24

SueP19 wrote: »

Some insurances are worth having and some aren't.

Maybe if you tot up how much the insurances would be and saved them in a pot :D

This be true. Have to read all the small print I guess.

The only insurances I have at the moment are:-

Building and Contents
Car
Dog
Cat
Fridge insurance

Think that's it.

SueP19

I have
house..............if it falls down I am snookered
car.................legal requirement
dog.................but only accident as I resent the way it goes up, so when you really need it it costs a fortune
OH phone........as he is likely to run over it with a forklift :rotfl:

We did have car warranty but they refused to pay out after having £26 per month for 8 years, so am waiting for an MSE reclaim movement on that one :D

pollyanna24

SueP19 wrote: »

I have
house..............if it falls down I am snookered
car.................legal requirement
dog.................but only accident as I resent the way it goes up, so when you really need it it costs a fortune
OH phone........as he is likely to run over it with a forklift :rotfl:

We did have car warranty but they refused to pay out after having £26 per month for 8 years, so am waiting for an MSE reclaim movement on that one :D

I'm not sure what to do about my dog insurance as she is 9 years old now and you're right, it's only going up and up.

I've already decided that if something happens like an ongoing illness or cancer, then the kindest thing would be for her not to continue (before anyone shouts cruelty - we spent £7,000 on our previous dog and it gave him an extra year, but I do wonder at what cost to his quality of life).

So now I'm debating which insurance to get. There's accident, but doesn't cover any kind of illness.

So I guess it's between time limited and lifetime. The difference in quotes is £94 or £227. Ho hum. What to do!

pollyanna24

No more overpayments made this month, but I do have £59.74 still left for this month.

I have gone over my allocated budgets this month, but I'm still getting used to stuff.

Breakdown is this:-

Groceries - £256.79 out of £150 allocated (went widely over there, but upping the groceries budget to £200 from April).

Kids - £76.10 out of £100.

Pets - £12.37 out of... oops, don't have a budget for them, usually lump it in with groceries.

Petrol - £53.56 out of £50, but I do still have almost half a tank.

Me - £146.75 out of £150.

I have spent ridiculous amounts on extras this month. £1,018.98 to be precise. I have mainly taken these out of savings or had it in my account budgeted for the particular purpose.

- House insurance which I paid in full (but budgeted for).

- Child passport.

- Car Service and MOT (budgeted for).

- Plumber (as typically something went wrong as soon as house in solely my name).

- Haven (decided my kids need a trip at the end of Easter hols).

- Dog insurance - paid in full (but budgeted for).

I'm still rejigging things and assessing how much I want to keep in savings, but I think I will keep £1,000 as an emergency fund (am in the process of applying for a Post Office 0% credit card, but they are taking ages in accepting (or declining) my application and any spare cash at the end of the month, I will put as an overpayment.

happydays_70

I've gone off the rails a bit with money myself over the last couple of weeks. It's hard as well when it's the school holidays. DS had a birthday too.
I aim to get back on track

pollyanna24

I thought I'd posted my April update so far, but looks like I didn't. Oops.

I paid £1,000 as an overpayment on 1st April. This leaves me with just over £1,000 in my emergency fund. I now have a 0% credit card on purchases for 27 months with the Post Office, but don't actually know the credit limit on it yet.

I had £53.50 left in my account in March, so I chucked that at the mortgage and received some interest from an old savings account of £1.12, so also put that as an overpayment.

So my overpayment for April is £1,054.62. Not bad, but very likely to be the last significant overpayment for me. Oh well, I'll just keep plodding on.

If I stick to my budgets for April, I will have £250.76 to throw at the mortgage at the end of the month, but I know I won't stick to it, so maybe I should readjust it.

My petrol spend will be high this month as:-

3 April - spent hours driving through London as couldn't find the M25 (oops).
8 April - Luton (visiting a cousin)
9 April - Luton (visiting another cousin)
15 April - Essex (Haven)
18 April - Back from Essex
30 April - Essex (visiting yet another cousin - I'm Irish, I have loads!)

Then there is the spending at Haven which I haven't accounted for. I said I will give my girls about £15 each for spending in the arcades and any trickets, and once it's gone, it's gone.

Then there's eating out in Haven which last year when I went cos me £82 for the three days which isn't bad really for three of us.

So after accounting for the above, I should have about £100-£150 to still put as an overpayment at the beginning of May which isn't too bad. Might keep it in savings until I have £500 so the monthly payment goes down.