Skinny Latte's Mortgage Mugging

hiddenshadow

Congrats to you and DH, even if his good news is bittersweet for you.

Seasidegal58

Hi skinny

I only rejoined the boards again recently, but used to enjoy your previous diary. Have subscribed.

Glad to hear job is proving lucrative and excellent news re DS!

Skinnylatte

Seasidegal58 wrote: »

Hi skinny

I only rejoined the boards again recently, but used to enjoy your previous diary. Have subscribed.

Glad to hear job is proving lucrative and excellent news re DS!

Welcome, I never seem to get round to posting these days!

I've broken the 5% paid off mark, although that's taken 19 months and I'm only on track to pay it off one month early as this rate! Daily interest is down to £6.90, £54.75per year saved

I do regret taking money out of the Virgin card to do the home improvements, even though it is interest free, I should have saved first really. I do have over half of it put away in another savings account, but that's not the point. I'd convinced myself it was OK, but it's not.

DS still hasn't got a date for his medical, and he's been a pain the butt recently. He's 18 in 3 weeks, and has asked for me to set up a pension for his birthday!! I'd like to say he was that sensible with his money, but actually he's not really, howver I will do the pension thing for him as I can't think of anything else, and I know he can't waste it until he's 55 :rotfl:

DD has also been quite down, I think it's the time of year, but she has booked herself in to see a therapist, paying for it herself..I'm really pleased that she's recognised that and taken some action. I'm going to take some more time to spend with her in the coming weeks.

New job is tough. lots of travel which I'm trying to get my head round, also means lots of travel expenses! I'll get my first proper pay on Friday so will be able to redo my budget.

Other half has got a free work trip to Las Vegas lucky b. Although he's not that bothered about going, says he'd rather stay at home with me

He's also asked me to move in with him, not now, when the kids have moved on and the time is right, so god knows how long that'll take, but it's a lovely thought to look forward to, and financially we'll be very comfortable.
So highs and lows this month, and lots to look forward to

Skinnylatte

Its pay day :j:j:j
And this month I actually got paid, last month which was my first payday it never arrived and I had to chase it. There was a bit of a moment when they said I'd started after the cut off date and would be paid in November, however that was swiftly sorted by my line manager!

I even had money left over this month, so I've done a clean sweep of the accounts and moved £242 over into the offsett account, which takes my emergency fund over the 50% target mark :T

I've been away working all week, got home late last night to find DS had done an amazing job of cleaning the house, not just a tidy, but proper shiny bathroom and all, it was lovely.

DD didn't come home last night, I think she's at a friends, hope she makes it back for her councilling this morning.

I've been to bootcamp this morning, and now can't get warm, even though I'm in bed with the electric blanket on .:o
Working from home today, but also got a docs appointment for cystitus that I've been battling with for the last 3 weeks, and the cars in the garage this aft for a horrible scraping noise everytime I break, oh got to go and see my accountant too, and there's no milk in for a cuppa

MrandMrstrying

congratulations on the new job. Been off the forums for a long time now. Need to buck up on the savings and being more frugal. The most inspiration i have had is being on these forms so decided to come back.

Skinnylatte

MrandMrstrying wrote: »

congratulations on the new job. Been off the forums for a long time now. Need to buck up on the savings and being more frugal. The most inspiration i have had is being on these forms so decided to come back.

Yes, I'm with you I need to be more frugal for sure, and don't post enough on these forums. I hope you're inspired to be more frugal now, I think Christmas focuss's the mind a bit more
Christmas is all wrapped up, I've stuck to budget and not one penny has gone on my credit card
I still have DSs pension to pay into and DDs birthday at the end of January to pay for, but I have a hefty expense bill to submit to work so that will cover both.
Saving accounts and mortgage all checked and signature updated. :A
DS has had a problem with his knee so marines is off the agenda for a while, he has got him self a job working at Ralph Lauren, 50% discount, but will still be miles more than my lovely old charity shop.
DD is talking about moving to the city and getting a job in a hospital, she wants to try and get on the new nursing apprenticeship program that starts next September. Talk is talk though, we'll see what happens.
I'm currently typing this from Austria, how exciting. T'other 1/2 invited me on a skiing holiday, it's fairly frugal (as sking holidays go) the flights were paid for me, and there's 15 of us sharing the chalet. I borrowed all the ski stuff, apart from some thermal stuff from Aldi. I decided on some skiing lessons before we got here, and had a slight accident involving a twisted knee and A&E. So I'm here in a very nice chalet on my own while they're all off skiing. Looking on the bright side, I've saved the price of the ski pass and gear hire and get to spend a whole week doing nothing in some beautiful surroundings! I can catch up on stuff I've been meaning to do for ever! So list for this week involves

• Make a shed more load videos for youtube
• Find a better internet deal know I'm out of contract
• Cancel sky, as my 6 months free is up and I forgot to cancel so I'm now paying for it - whoops
• Sleep a lot
• Do nothing

I'm less than 3 months in to this job, and I've aready had 3 colds, a urinary tract infection and now my knee :mad::mad::mad: which doesn't give a good impression as a new starter. However I was really cross to find out that they'd forgotton to send me my bupa membership pack, and I have no health cover, very annoying as I need a scan and physio on my knee, also I'm not sure when I'm going to be able to drive again.


Other frugal news is that I have got my self a Monzo card and lurving it. It's a new banking app, at the moment I can only use it like a prepaid credit card, but the app is great, it groups all my spends so I can see at a glance how much I've spent in each store. Also I've set budgets for things like groceries, eating out, fuel etc, and it sends me a text alert if I'm spending too quickly, so clever, and I'm sure it'll help me be more frugal, when I start using it properly after next payday (assuming they actually pay me this month!)


Well that's my update for now, hoping you're all in budget and on track for Christmas xx

hiddenshadow

Nice to see you back SL! Holiday sounds nice, aside from the knee.

Hoping the Bupa paperwork is just that...missing policy info? If so, you should be able to get all the scans done easily enough once you have the info to hand. (Says I, who had a Bupa policy for a year and never used it, so for all I know it's a nightmare! )

My coworkers are all over Monzo. I can't really see the appeal myself, but we're also in uber bank hacking land of maximising interest over close to a dozen (!) bank accounts. And I keep an eye on our budget on a daily basis. Guessing I'm not really their target audience.

Skinnylatte

I'm afraid hidden shadow that my BUPA was never set up so I'm not covered (their fault), did I say I stubbed by toe on my crutch and broke it :rotfl: god you couldn't make it up, was the toe on the other leg too.

Payday has been yay :j seemed to have £300 more than last month, but as they've failed to send me even 1 payslip yet I do not now why. HR department is terrible, I still haven't had any pension info either.

I'm doing lots of resting but not much else. Today I will cancel Sky, that is my 1 goal, oh and I'm going to make lentil goulash for 15 too!!

Skinnylatte

Christmas came and went, new year came and went, my christmas savings dissappeared, but nothing else luckily. My knee is nearly healed and I still haven'tlearned to ski!
Have been updating my signature and am making some slow progress.

Pay day today and I made it with a few quid left in the back which will be moved into the offset account, which is building nicely.

My TSB 5% saver comes to an end soon, and I will have saved £3250 to oay off the CC, how I resent that, hard earned savings dissappeared in to a black hole, but that's cards for us, not doing that again, If I want something I will save up for it properly!

I seem to have a problem with my roof, its damp and mouldy inside, I've had 3 roofers round so far
1. "Your ridges have lifted, I can replace those for £950"
2. "It just needs a bit of ventilation, we can fit some vent tiles for £300"
3. "You need a new roof, it'll be around £5500" :rotfl:

I've got a final guy coming round tomorrow so will see then, I think I'll try a bit of ventilation first!

This week I've been down south for most of it, and clocked up 829 miles which is £207.25
There was a work email came out a couple of weeks ago, changing the milage rate from 25p to 11p, there was that much uproar (unsuprisingly!!) that it today reverted back to 25p, yay a victory for the workers :T

I'm doing dry January, and I haven't cracked so far, so feeling very proud of myself :A , and a whole lot better, infact I might even continue, thinking even further, assuming I used to buy 3 bottles of wine a week at £5 each, if I put this money into over paying my mortgage and became totally tea total....
"Overpaying would save you £2,095 in interest alone, and mean you pay the debt off in full 1 years & 6 months earlier"




Mmmm, interesting thought although I'm not sure I can stay dry for the next 15 years!! Technically I could give up sociallising, hobbies, holibobs, and sit in the cold all night around a couple of tea lights, and probably pay of my mortgage a whole lot quicker, but life might be a bit pants. I enjoy the frugalling, but I enjoy living a life too

Seasidegal58

Skinnylatte wrote: »

Mmmm, interesting thought although I'm not sure I can stay dry for the next 15 years!! Technically I could give up sociallising, hobbies, holibobs, and sit in the cold all night around a couple of tea lights, and probably pay of my mortgage a whole lot quicker, but life might be a bit pants. I enjoy the frugalling, but I enjoy living a life too

....I absolutely agree with you skinny!