Cazmanian_minx's MFi3 diary

setmefree2

Hi

Potterton had a serious problems with some of the circuit boards on their boilers. As far as I know the model involved was the one I have - a Suprima...but go to the WATCHDOG web site and just goggle Potterton and all the details will come up. There was certainly stuff about this on MSE, so searching on the forums should bring up the relevant threads ....its just that Potterton were providing free circuit boards :money:...so it maybe worth a look into, even though I'm not exactly sure it's your model involved....:money:;)

cazmanian_minx

Thanks for that :beer: - interesting reading!

Caz

cazmanian_minx

I've been an absolute Grade I listed idiot.

As I've mentioned up-thread, my mortgage is an offset job with if.com and it's just gone onto the SVR of 7.25%. London & Country advised me to sit tight and not move, a) because my fairly recently self-employed status is going to make it difficult to get a better rate, b) because any better rate is going to come with a huge arrangement fee which would wipe out the benefits of the rate on a sub £30k mortgage and c) because I'm planning to pay it off fairly fast.

Now, IF allow you to offset your savings, which is standard. They also allow you to offset a cash ISA, though mine's empty at the moment because I'm probably going to need every spare penny I've got for my divorce settlement. But they also allow you to offset a current account and that's an option I didn't take up at the time, because I was in the middle of ending my marriage and trying to borrow 9 times my salary out of guilt (long story) and it just seemed a complication too far.

I was re-reading The Money Diet in bed last night (OH is in Edinburgh with his brothers to watch his beloved Scotland play rugby) and it suddenly struck me - my NatWest current account is paying me a piddly 0.1% per annum, but by taking up my if.com current account, I could be earning the equivalent of 7.25% per annum TAX FREE!

Five minutes online this morning and I've been approved for their current account. I'm going to keep my NatWest account as a bills paying account so I don't have to transfer direct debits - all my bills go out between 1st and 5th anyway, so the amount of interest saved is minimal - and then everything else will go into the IF one. It'll be like a savings account with a debit card!

Things seem to be picking up. The boiler is working again :T and cost half as much as I was expecting due to my heating engineer being a wonderful human being and not charging me for one of the parts and most of his time (as in he billed me £60 for labour, which was 5 visits and a total of about 3 hours - this is a British Gas trained, Corgi-registered heating engineer with 30 years' experience - plus the parts at cost). I've had another two transcription files through and by the time they're finished, I'm going to be able to invoice for around £220, which more than covers the boiler. Plus eBay has picked up again, finally, and although I didn't pay myself at the usual time in January, I should be able to take a couple of hundred out next week and then pay myself as normal in 3 weeks' time. The stock bill is more than covered now.

I'd got really downhearted about MFi3, I thought I had no chance of making it last month. But now I have a glimmer of hope again

Caz

setmefree2

Glad to hear things are picking up:j:j:j:j

catshark88

Good to hear things are progressing and WELL DONE! on your stock photography sale, that is flash!

Little_Mama

|Hi Cazmanian Minx,

Just read your thread from start to finish....well done....very inspirational.

Re your mortgage, I asked on the mortgage board the other week about getting a remortgage when still in first 3 years of own business and Dunstonh told me to go back to our current lender and ask for a product switch. I called them and they confirmed that they would switch it over at the time just for the cost of the new arrangement fee. No need to provide proof of earnings as no additional money being borrowed. I'm sure you've probably covered this option but if no it may be worth a try.

Good luck with everything.

Best wishes
LM

chickadee

Hi Caz,

Don't worry, life is full of ups and downs and they usually balance out overall. The trouble is, it just doesn't feel like that when you are hit by one thing after another.

Glad your boiler didn't end up costing you the earth. Good tradesmen are worth their weight in gold.

Keep it up. I love reading all of the MFIT diaries on here, it keeps me going.

chickadee
x

cazmanian_minx

Thanks, everyone :beer: LM, unfortunately arrangement fees with IF range from £499 to £1,499 :eek:, which is 5.5% of the total mortgage outstanding!

My MFi3 participation may be academic from now on - I was browsing the local paper's website yesterday afternoon and discovered that on Saturday night a 17-year-old girl was dragged into the park round the corner, where I run, and subjected to what the police are describing as a serious sexual assault by a number of youths. The local word is that she was gang-raped by five men. Add this to three fatal stabbings within half a mile of here since last summer and I don't really think I want to live here much longer.

OH has been put on the shortlist for an engineering job in Caithness, they're flying him up for an interview some time this month. I really, really hope he gets it so we can sell up and go quickly - they're offering a full relocation package and the top bracket salary is only £5k less than he's on down here, which is astonishingly good for rural Scotland, but if not he's going to see if he can get a transfer somewhere else in the UK with his company.

South London just isn't safe any more

Caz

cazmanian_minx

And yesterday morning a student at the local college was taken to hospital by air ambulance after being stabbed in the hallway between classes. I was talking to OH last night and we've agreed that come hell or high water, we're going to leave London this year. Ideally we'd want to move in the summer - after we've been away and hopefully after my divorce is all sorted.

First day of the new mortgage payment today and because I've opted for IF to juggle things for a shorter term, rather than using the offset to reduce my payments, I'm now automatically overpaying by £70-ish a month, which is good.

Caz

Little_Mama

Good luck with your new plans!

Best wishes
LM