Excited to try and be mortgage free

chumpy45

TTd 52p this morning. Had a very long teaching day. All day in one centre and then back to do a 3 hour evening class. Am shattered now. Took a portion of Shepherd Pie that I cooked last night with me for lunch and warmed up in the microwave. Was really yummy and I felt very smug. Also took a pack up for tea so no monies spent despite a long day. Have recovered from yesterday's rant but am still determined to focus on FIRE as well as MFW and have remembered that I have a free appointment with an IFA coming up in February which was arranged via work. It will be interesting to review pensions with him and hear his advice. Pay day today so when I have more energy tomorrow I will do some money shuffling and spreadsheet fiddling. Always my favourite time of the month :rotfl:

greent

I've just opened a 2nd S&S ISA with V*nguard - my first was a retirement fund one, this is a lifestrategy one x

shangaijimmy

chumpy45 wrote: »

II want to try and find the daily interest figure now which I think will mean a call to FD in the morning. I still can't believe this online only bank has such poor resources when it comes to mortgages.

I may be a bit late to the discussion but we're with FD, and i recieve a text message every Sunday with mortgage info (all payments in and out from the last week), and i also see mortgage account when i log onto my account on the app. Strangely it doesn't appear on website on a laptop, but definitely works on android app,

chumpy45

Thanks GreenT, will add that to my research . Thanks also SJ, I wasn't aware you could receive text alerts. I will investigate further. That sounds very exciting. At the moment, I am switching between my Ipad and my laptop. Ipad to check the mortgage balance and laptop if I want to transfer money. Crazy for an internet bank but I do love FD. Customer service is so fab.

So finally found 5 minutes to work out some scores on the doors. Following a £309.38 OP (£300 regular OP + my TTs for the week, + a little bit of rounding to get a nice round mortgage balance :rotfl:) Figures stand as follows;

O/s mortgage - £21,200.00
Daily interest - £1.29
Regular Saver (for pension) - £1800/2400
Emergency Fund - £2000
Owed to us by DS1 & DS3 - £4250 - this will be added to EF once received in the next couple of months. I will feel more comfortable with that amount in the EF.

The plan this month is to find another £201 so that we break into the £20Ks with the mortgage. The teens are so close now :T

We do have some o/s balance on a 0% CC which needs to be sorted by October. This is all planned for but I am annoyed we let it creep up in total. It was originally just for the bathroom, but other things were added in a dangerous way! We succumbed to the temptation that is the 0% CC. It's annoying that it is not being directed at FIRE but you have to have some balance along the way I guess and the bathroom is very nice lol.

I have the morning at home as I am teaching an evening class tonight, so time for a cuppa followed by catch up with some diaries. Must try and avoid just spending this time doing more teaching prep/marking etc. Will do some housework (have already wiped all kitchen cupboards and mopped floor), but might also try and fit in a little relax time. Have a good day everyone.

chumpy45

TTs stand at 97p this week, ready for Sunday's transfer. Have to pay a deposit of £50 for a residential trip for DS4 tomorrow. Also have a big family birthday to celebrate which is proving a little costly. Have organised the birthday cake, just hope my nephew remembers that he agreed to pay for it! Really looking forward to celebrating with the family and various cousins that I haven't seen for a long while. We are very spread out geographically so don't meet up very often nowadays. All the DSs are home this weekend :T so some lovely times to be had. Just a shame with my new working pattern that I haven't managed a food shop yet. Good job we are eating out tomorrow or I would be in trouble. Not sure when it will happen, but the cupboards are bare at the moment. Some serious meal planning and careful shopping required for the rest of the month to keep us on track. Right, need to go to bed I am absolutely shattered and tomorrow is going to be a long day. Happy Friday everyone.

greent

Awww - have a lovely weekend with all the DSs!! :T x

chumpy45

Thanks Greent It has been lovely to be all together again for the weekend. DS1 and DS3 have now returned to London and Uni respectively. Family birthday went well. It was a surprise party which I was a little concerned about, but it all went well and was well received by the recipient (phew). Expensive time was had as two meals out in all. We decided to have another lunch out today while everyone was home in honour of DH's birthday which is next week. Somehow I don't think my Topcashback payout today of 71p is going to balance things out :rotfl: Once in a while though it's lovely to just indulge. Hope you all had a good weekend.

chumpy45

Not such a good week as mum admitted to hospital with pneumonia. Should hopefully be home tomorrow or Monday, fingers crossed. Cue lots of very expensive hospital car park charges together with some rubbish and expensive meals due to the "emergency" nature of the situation. Message to self, get sorted with some home cooked emergency meals to save on take aways. Food budget cowering in shame in the corner. However, mum was more important than worrying about food. In other news, I have just received my car insurance renewal and have managed to save £80 by using Go Compare and Topcashback, so very pleased with that. Money is in the budget account for this, so shouldn't be too painful. Have also managed to change tarif via MSE Energy Club but staying with the same provider. However, something seems to have gone wrong as I am not on the tarif I signed up to, so will need to try and ring on Monday. I am sooooo glad it is half term and I won't have to get up on Monday morning. I am completely shattered. Can hopefully "regroup" myself over the coming week. Definitely need to do an "eat out of the freezer" meal plan, as it desperately needs defrosting. Perhaps that challenge will help balance out the costly week this week. Right a quick cuppa then back to the hospital. Hoping DH or DS2 (who has just passed his test) will drop me off and pick me up to save the charge. Enjoy the weekend everyone.

chumpy45

So mum safely back home and tucked up in bed with magazines and goodies to tempt her to eat. Sharing nurse duties with my sister and thankfully it is half-term next week so I am around to look after her. I have spent this morning having a look at YNAB. Have read lots about it on various diaries so thought I would have go with the free trial. I think I have just about set up the budget categories so will see how it goes. I am hoping I can find another £200 OP by the end of the month so that we can dip into the £20s. Teens are almost in sight :T In theory this should be doable, but in practice DH has a lot of expenses from a recent overseas trip that came out of our current account. I am trying to persuade him to take out a cashback credit card so that this no longer happens and we benefit a little from the cashback. According to him I have never mentioned this before, according to me I have suggested this at least one million times :rotfl: Perhaps if I actually fill in the application and sort the card it will actually happen. A TT this morning of 17p. Take that mortgage !

chumpy45

Sent off confirmation for new car insurance and cancelled old one. TCB has tracked. £80 savings and money was already saved so win win. Sorted out energy company. We really need to try and reduce this as it is a lot of money each month. I am hoping that after a couple of months they will reduce the monthly DD as after May we will be down to 3 at home as DS2 heads overseas for a year :eek: As persevering with YNAB, I think I am getting to grips with it. It will become easier when we get paid at the end of the month I think as then all the "budgeted" pots will be filled and there should hopefully be some left over which I will clearly see where to allocate. However, I don't think atm that I will subscribe as it doesn't seem to do much more than a spreadsheet could. Just a slightly different way of looking at your money. Some lessons learned however, not sure it will be worth paying for. I have tackled the Himalayan Mountain Range that was my ironing pile this afternoon, and was feeling smug until I remembered there was one load on the airer, another in the tumble dryer and some more washing waiting :rotfl: The next pile can wait until tomorrow. This is supposed to be my holiday week :rotfl: