Excited to try and be mortgage free

chumpy45

Expensive week as our little dog has been poorly to the tune of £92 with another visit to the vet required next week :eek: Poor little pooch, we do have insurance but I have a sinking feeling that the excess is £100 !

We are currently planning a kitchen refurb and have had our range cooker sprayed black to fit in with new colour scheme (was originally cream) and it looks absolutely fab. Am really pleased with the result, cost £125 which is so much less than replacing the cooker :T

Seem to be endlessly paying out at the moment. On top of dog, cooker and another trip out, DS4 had various monies required for his theatre choir events/exams. Most things are planned and budgeted for, but I don't really like paying out any more since I discovered MSE :rotfl:

Have been trying to ring mortgage company to check latest balance, but can't get through this pm. Will try again in a few minutes. Pay day is in sight. Needs to come quite quickly this month, particularly with half-term next week and DS1, 3 and 4 all at home eating everything in sight !!

chumpy45

Oops, don’t know where those two weeks disappeared to? Have been crazy busy at work with student exams, end of year assignments and endless, endless marking :eek: However, I am beginning to think that the end may actually be in sight, albeit still a long way off in the distance. The normal mortgage OP has been made and all spread sheets updated (as well as the bar and pie charts to which I am secretly addicted!). Have also dipped my toe into the world of Ebay and managed to sell two dresses which have been hanging in my wardrobe, unworn and feeling sorry for themselves for about two years. I made £9.00 once I had allowed for the under-estimation of postage costs lol, so was quite pleased with that. The money will soon be winging its way to the mortgage, once I have worked out how to retrieve it from PayPal. I have listed another dress (which shamefully has never been worn and still has the tags attached – clearly bought before my MSE epiphany:o). Hopefully, if I keep going, I will soon have a MK style wardrobe where I can actually move the clothes on the rail. Had a mini appraisal at work which seemed to go well and there may be the possibility of increasing my hours in September which would be great. However, student numbers seem to be quite low at the moment, so I am not holding my breath. Nearly the weekend, need to go and finish my meal plan ready for food shop tomorrow. Have a good evening everyone.

chumpy45

Finally managed to get through to the mortgage company. Outstanding balance as of today's date is £32,828.89 with daily interest at £2.08 :j Next targets will be to creep into the £20ks and get that daily interest below £2. Getting there !

hiddenshadow

Woo! Sub-£2 daily interest would be amazing, and you're well on your way to the 20s.

EatingTheElephant

Well done Chumpy, good to see those figures tumbling down :T

chumpy45

Thanks Hidden and ETE for your kind words. Have a little confession however, as DH and I went out and seemed to accidentally buy two cars (in the style of GG and her houses lol). To be fair we had been considering trading in our 7 seater as it is very rare the DSs are all home at the same time any more The local dealer had a loyalty event on and we went to have a little mosey and ended up with two new (to us) cars. We are planning to use a T*sco 0% credit card to pay the difference between the trade in value and the new balance. We have the money in savings but may as well maximise the interest and drip feed to the credit card over 30 months. However, the dealership have said a charge of 2.5% will be made for using a credit card so need to work out whether it is still worth it !! Might need the calculator for this one :rotfl: DS1's birthday tomorrow and he is on his way home for a birthday visit :T Probably a meal out tomorrow which will be lovely to be all together. Enjoy your evening everyone.

chumpy45

Aaargh, seems to have been non stop spending this week. DS1 birthday present and meal. DS2, 3 and 4 all seem to have relied on me to actually purchase presents for DS1 with the assurance they will pay me back. Mmmmm, have heard that before lol, and whilst they are generally very good at managing their own money, I may have to do a little "reminding" later today :rotfl: DH has had lots of extra travel with new job which has meant lots of extra petrol and train fares coming out of our current account. Need to have a chat about how this is going to be managed going forward and how speedy his new employer will be at paying expenses (and how speedy DH will be at claiming expenses!). When I get home tonight, I will need to do some emergency reconciling of the bank account to ensure I know exactly where we are for the rest of the month. This is particularly important as we have to settle balance for new cars at the weekend, so need to get sorted. Too many jobs and too little time at the moment !!!!

hiddenshadow

Congrats on the new cars, even if they were unexpected.

Hope DS1 ha(s/d) a nice birthday.

chumpy45

Thanks HS, yes we had a lovely birthday celebration thankyou Yummy meal out (using vouchers of course ).

Have sold a third item on ebay tonight for £9.50. Am really pleased with that as it was another item of clothing which had been loitering in the wardrobe unworn for over one year. I am a little concerned about Ebay fees - how are these charged? There didn't seem to be any mention of fees with the previous two items I sold, so I withdrew the money from PayPal. Was that a bit previous ?? Could any FB experts give me some advice please? I would be really grateful.

Am planning a frugal couple of weeks for the rest of June up to payday. Not sure what has happened this month but need to pull the reins in sharply and keep a very careful eye on the pennies.

Nearly the weekend

shangaijimmy

Great progress chumpy. I to am in car buying mode but cant bring myself to commit to spend. I've been away from here for a few months and now playing catch up. You have inspired me to try and create some charts and graphs with my spreadsheet!! Not sure what to show, but hey ho i'll give it a whirl!