Excited to try and be mortgage free

chumpy45

Hi SJ, great to see you popping in. Good luck with the graphs (I have got a little carried away with them). They are very basic but I am having great fun creating them, and it really highlights the numbers when you can see bars (or sections of pie) going up and down (especially with meter readings !!)

Well should have been picking up the new cars tomorrow but disaster has struck. Ordered the 0% credit card in DHs name, card arrived, pin arrived yesterday :T then between going to bed last night and waking up this morning DH has lost the pin. How is that even possible ? Cue entire family spending the evening upending bins, checking every scrap of paper, looking under sofas (not a good experience) with an ever increasingly angry DH. DS3 and DS4 retreated to safety of their rooms, never known them to have such an early night :rotfl: I am afraid my suggestion of "just let it go" (not musically expressed, I hasten to add) did not go down well :rotfl: Am thinking weekend may be better to pick up car after all !!!!

shangaijimmy

Oops...I'm just picturing it in the same way as my boys and Mrs SJ doing a vanishing act when i have DIY to do. Especially curtain poles! All part of the memories of the new cars!

chumpy45

Haha, you are so right SJ. We are finally picking up the cars today, as this afternoon DH decided randomly that he could remember the PIN that he had memorised and can now use the card !!!!! Quite excited to pick them up and even more excited that tax on my new little car will only be £30 p.a.:T 2 NSDs this week and have taken packed lunch each day at work so quite pleased with progress. Off to collect DS2 tomorrow who has just graduated. Waiting for results :eek: I suspect a few tears tomorrow as he had had such a fantastic time, it will be very difficult to leave his friends. Have a lovely weekend everyone.

chumpy45

A crazy weekend. Collected the two new cars :T Salesman was very "thorough", and the whole process took over 3 hours :eek: Collected DS2 and I thought of GreenT's recent post as the kitchen was "minging". Only DS2 and one other student remained. The other 5 had taken their own belongings over the course of the week and taken their leave. Cue cupboards still with random unclaimed items and unidentifiable bits of food stuffs. I braved it with some rubber gloves, a bin bag and a lot of bleach :rotfl: I did feel a little sorry for DS2 who had been cleaning for two days solid (but not that sorry as he had also "indulged" on the vodka the night before and was suffering :rotfl:). My house now looks as though it has been invaded, with a trail of belongings from the porch to DS2's bedroom. He has been working hard all day to try and fit 3 yrs accumulation of studenty random belongings into his small boxroom :eek: Could take a while me thinks. In money news, I needed extra petrol to manage the Uni pick up trip, but on the other hand it did give me a reason to have a lovely run in the new car. Right, off to get things ready for the morning. How can it be Sunday night already ? Have a good week everyone.

shangaijimmy

And with his return he'll transport the mess as well...! Totally with you on how quick the weekend has gone, especially when the week seems to go so slow!

greent

STudents and minging kitchens..... bleurgh! Have already transported DD's kitchen stuff and some bedding to her new flat - saves it hanging around here all summer!

Ebay fees (playing catch up here) - you might already have the answer by now, though. They charge 10% of the final sale price (Final value fee - FVF) and also 10% of the postage price charged. So if you sell an item for £10 + £2.50 they will charge you £1 + 25p for doing so (unless you have a special offer from them - but that's often by email invitation only) They send you an invoice (mine is month end) and debit paypal a few days later. If you don't have the funds in paypal you probably have a direct debit to you bank account/ a card to fund it. So your dress selling for £10 is only really £9 - and if postage cost you £2.50 you are out of pocket on that by 25p (not taking into account any packaging costs or fuel to get to PO) Paypal also take a cut of money rec'd - it used to be (not sure of current rates) 3.4% + 20p per transaction.
x

chumpy45

So, scarily I have been absent for just over a year due to a combination of factors plus a visit from the Black Dog. Thankfully, things are just about restored to normal and I am very much looking forward to kicking the mortgage into touch. Clearly our original target of 2 years did not happen (I have just had my four year anniversary lol), however I have kept chipping away. Our mortgage currently stands at £24,769.47 with daily interest of £1.73 and 4 yrs 11 months to run. We are in the process of re-mortgaging to First Direct for a two year fix. It would be so fantastic if this could be our last ever re-mortgage and if we could smash the balance during that two years.
I have continued to read everyone’s diaries but have been a lurker. So I am now looking forward to coming out of lurkdom and contributing again. Some fantastic achievements have been made.
From reading Gally, Tilly, PinkyPig and others’ diaries I am also much more mindful of FIRE and have started a £100/month AVC alongside my TPA. At my age this is far too little too late, however better than nothing. The plan is to really blast the AVC once the mortgage clear. I am also buying £100 premium bond every month. Initially, I have planned to do this for a year and see what happens. I may just up the AVC to £200 after that time. I have also started a regular saver with Santandy of £200/month. Hopefully all of this will help boost retirement funds.
Sorry, long post but am really pleased to be back and looking forward to posting on some of the fab diaries of my “virtual friends”. Will try and change my signature if I can remember how to do it!

chumpy45

Inspired by SJ I have resurrected my TTs over the last few days. I am using an old every day saver account with FD that has been empty for ages. After only 4 days, and combined with a £25 win from Lotto (I know not very MSE but you never know !) I now have the grand total of £29.14 including today's TT of 56p. Again, copying SJ, I plan to OP at the end of each month and it really does help to keep motivation combined with a little bit of smugness as you transfer a few pence and think, Ha, take that mortgage!

Am going to try and work out some targets, as from other diaries I can see that also has a big motivational effect by seeing the count down or count up (if that's a phrase) if it relates to savings.

An ironing pile is mocking me from the corner of the room and I have no real excuses to avoid it apart from the heat. I can't even take the dog out as it is too hot for him too! Perhaps a little catch up on other diaries before I start

hiddenshadow

Nice to see you back - good luck smashing the mortgage in 2 years, that would be brilliant!

chumpy45

Thank you Hidden, and thanks for popping in. Yes, 2 years would be fab and in theory should be achievable but we all know life tends to get in the way :rotfl:

TT of 23p this morning. Seems to be spending horrendous amounts of money on food atm. Four DS, plus we now have 2 girlfriends on the scene, and also have to cater for one veggie and one vegan. It seems as if every piece of food and every utensil we possess is used every meal time! I am very happy though to have them all back home, it's lovely having them all here, even if somewhat chaotic.

Still waiting to hear from FD for our remortgage to a fixed rate deal for two years. We have completed the application and been "approved" but apparently can't book the rate we want until we have spoken with one of their mortgage advisers. Their earliest date is 19th August! I will be really annoyed if we lose the rate we are looking at. Want to get it sorted so that we can lose another 8 months off the end date and start the new OPs.

Copying other MFWs, I have created my own Excel house today and am looking forward to colouring in some squares. Must be running out of ink on the printer thought as my nice red bricks look a rather dodgy pink. Looks like the house has a "ombre" effect :rotfl:

Right need to finish my cuppa and start to think about preparing dinner for the hungry hordes who will be back from work soon.