Excited to try and be mortgage free

greent

Belated birthday greetings!!

Also agree that January is a very long month..... ho hum

x

savingholmes

Sorry to hear your DS was ill over xmas- hope he's all recovered now.

Great about the ppi reclaim and the extra hours at work. You are motoring along.

abba1772

You've done amazing getting that mortgage down your defo my inspiration as I want my mortgage cleared quickly too but I still have 20 years left on mine hoping to cut this in half tho with overpayments once debt free xx

chumpy45

Thank you GreenT, Saving Holmes and Abba1772 for popping in and commenting, always lovely to see visitors.  Been out of action for a while due to some very unpleasant goings on at work which left me very overwhelmed and stressed.  Just can't believe the way some "adults" behave.  I was in the wrong place at the wrong time through absolutely no fault of my own and just got caught up in the nastiness.  Never mind it is half-term now and I have finally found my diary on page 6.  My normal shortcut link no longer works since the update. I am trying to find my way around the new format, all I know so far is that my email inbox has around 2000 emails so I need to change a setting somewhere and the fun emojis seem to have disappeared.  With this month's standard payment and OP the mortgage currently stands at £12,503.61.  I have had a tax refund of £460 which is fab.  Atm I have stashed this in savings as the storm last week blew down one fence panel and two panels of trellis which fell against the washing line and pulled it off the wall taking my lovely solar lights with it!  So I think a little fixing is in order.  Let's hope storm Dennis doesn't do any more damage.  My regular saver with FD matures this month so that will go towards retirement savings.  Not sure where to stash this next as the new regular savers have decreased so much.  It was 8% when we first started have regular saver accounts with FD !!  Having said that my Vanguard ISA is performing well atm (although I know it can go up and down lol).  I still like my daily fix of checking the rate. My car insurance renewal is due and I need to cancel the dog insurance as it has gone up by £20/month to over £50/month which is crazy.  I think we will self-fund from now on and cross my fingers he doesn't become poorly until there is a reasonable balance in the pot.  Good luck with the forthcoming stormy weather everyone.  Batten down the hatches!

greent

Hope Dennis has not caused any more damage for you - we've lost some fence panels and posts....  

shangaijimmy

I remember when growing up everyone in our street used to go and find which fence panels where theirs. Fortunately we've got off lightly with the 2 storms. Only 1 broken plant pot.

chumpy45

No more damage in the storm luckily.  We just had heavy rain and blustery rather than storm strength weather.  I feel so sorry for everyone in the west of the country though. Missed the pet insurance policy renewal date so rang today to cancel as it had increased from £27 to £54!  When I rang the adviser said it was not too late to discuss the renewal price and immediately reduced it to £35.  As we were going to self fund with £25/month I decided to go ahead for one more year as the dog is now 10 and things may start to crop up and the vet is so expensive. I still think this is expensive, but probably a little bit my own fault too as I forgot the renewal was coming up despite an email to remind me!  I will try to shop around more next year.  Am tackling some de-cluttering jobs.  Have emptied and washed out two kitchen drawers which contain cutlery etc.  I was ashamed by the amount of rubbish in there (and crumbs!).  They are now thoroughly sorted and I keep opening them to have a peek when I go into the kitchen. Note to self, need to get out more.  Off to walk said pooch soon, so that will blow some cobwebs away.  I think I can actually see the sun peeking through the clouds. Better go quickly before it disappears again.

chumpy45

Hi all, have been missing in action !! where do the weeks go?  Mortgage balance stands at £11,750 with daily interest at 0.80 p.  It is slowly creeping down.  Our FD regular saver has matured, and will be transferred initially to savings.  It was opened with a view to contributing to retirement savings but I am sorely tempted to pay it off the mortgage!  I will have a ponder.  I will probably open another FD regular saver but the rates are so low now compared to the 8% we first enjoyed.  My Vanguard ISA is looking very very poorly.  My obsession with checking at least once a day is not helping.  From the heady heights of over 7% interest about 3 weeks ago it is now hiding it's head in shame in negative numbers.  Hey ho, it's for the long run after all.  Perhaps I should be brave and put more money in.  Isn't it the case that this is a good time to buy?  We are having our own COBRA meeting at work next week to establish how teaching will managed with the inevitable shutdown.  Should be interesting.  Took my elderly mum food shopping to Aldi and Tesco this morning, and it was like Christmas all over again. Car parks heaving, people everywhere and many empty shelves.  What is the matter with people?  Must go now and pick up the pooch who is having his hair cut and then on to collect DS4.   Have a good weekend everyone and stay safe in these uncertain times. 

chumpy45

Hi everyone, hope you are all coping as well as can be in these crazy times.  I have spent the last week trying to come to terms with Microsoft TEAMS, try to teach virtual sessions, reassuring distraught students and turning DS3's bedroom into a home office.  I would like to say I'm exhausted but compared with what our healthcare workers are having to face, my issues are not worthy of mention!  We are currently spread across the globe and the UK as a family and I so wish all my chicks were safely home in the nest.  However, at the moment they are all well (touch lots and lots of wood) and that's the most important thing.  DH had sadly been laid off for the next 12 weeks with no pay.  He has received March's salary payment but it is very uncertain going forward.  The 80% rule should kick in for him and his colleagues, but that is reliant on his company paying salaries first and then claiming the 80% back from the government and it's not sure whether his company have sufficient funds to do so.  I guess that's why we have an emergency fund!. I feel so relieved that we discovered MFW and MSE so that we have an emergency fund to rely on.  (It will be gutting to see it all disappear though but definitely need to count my blessings as so many people are so much worse off).  So all of us kicking around at home for the coming weeks.  May be some "urgent matters" I have to attend to in my home office to keep my sanity lol !  We are lucky to live near some beautiful woods for our "one session of authorised exercise" and it's lovely to go out into the fresh air, see no-one around and experience a little "normality" for a while.  I am popping backwards and forwards keeping an eye on my elderly mum.  She doesn't have the internet and although she can text we can't face time/video call which is a shame, as it would be nice for her to see the grand-children and great-grand-children.  I have asked her to come and live with us for the duration but at the moment she is preferring to stay in her home.  My Vanguard ISA is looking very poorly atm but I'm going to hang on in there, it was destined as a retirement fund for 10 years so hopefully things will have picked up by then!!!  Right off to have some lunch.  Take everyone and stay safe.

Jessy103

Sorry to hear about DH, chumpy. Like you, I'm so glad to have found this forum and have an emergency fund in place.

Take care and stay safe x