Skinny Latte's Mortgage Mugging

Kittenkirst

Totally right Skinny, it's fab to plan for the future but not to the point you don't live in the present!

decafonly4me

decafonly4me wrote: »

Hi Skinny, just wanted to say I've subscribed and am all caught up with your earlier posts and am happily awaiting the updates on your new thread. I’ve made the brave decision (with the blessing of my hubbie and children) to leave my job in banking after 25 1/2 years. I’ve signed up to volunteer to assist a department at my local council helping families with children who have learning difficulties.

Well Hello Skinny! I too have not be great at updating any posts. So have recently checked back in and just wanted to update you on whats changed for me since this last post. Wow almost a year since I posted this and yes a lot has changed. Good karma prevailed.:j After volunteering for the LA for 6 months it lead to a 1 year paid contact (albeit initally via employment agency) and I'm fulltime! Totally different to my previous career in banking, so challenging, no two days the same. Long hours in the office and often working remotely at home emailing and supporting parents in the wee small hours. (Unpaid by choice)
I moan about the workload but I am really enjoying it. My friend said 'we know you are happy when you are moaning about work' Strange but true. So rewarding and I feel I am making a difference to the lives of families who are struggling a bit more than I ever have. (Something I am thankful for.) Plus, I'm being paid weekly and manging to use a fair bit of it towards overpaying the mortgage too.
So, I've caught up on your escapades and will continue to check in a bit more regularly. Glad to hear you too have settled into your new job even though sorting those perks out is proving to be a challenge for you. Hope it gets settled soon. Kind regards Decaf
:rotfl:

greent

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

Definitely - life is for living as we go through it - it's all about balance x

Skinnylatte

Aw decaf it's been AGES! So pleased to hear that your change of career has worked out so well, it must be extremely satisfying to be doing such a worth while job, and puts a bit of perspective on life I guess! Welcome back, lets see if we can be a bit better at posting in 2017!!

Well the last roofer man never turned up, his wife phoned in the morning and said he was having trouble getting dressed as he'd hurt his elbow and would be a bit late, then he never turned up, this was after cancelling the week before due to man flu, i don't think I'll bother myself further with him! Why are decent trades men so hard to get?

3 years a go I was contemplating what new car to get, inspired by some-one on here I ended up leasing a new car, going for the most economial none electric version I could find. Its worked out so well, the cars been brilliant and I've got great milage from it, 60-70mpg, about 9p a mile and claiiming back 25p business miles (45p in my last job) well the lease is up and I need to decide what to do this time, I think I will lease again, it's worked so smoothly and I never have to worry about unexpected bills etc. I would love an automatic because of gthe miles I do, but not sure if they're worth the cost, or the drop in mpg, mmm, will ponder on. Milage claim in the last 2 weeks alone is £322 :T

DDs birthday this weekend, I hired a hot tub which is arriving tomorrow (mmore for me really!!) and i got a £25 voucher from experiencedays.com for a makeover and photoshoot for 2 people, although she'll probably ask me, and I'll end up buying extra prints for an extortionate amount of money, so probably not the most frugal pressie in the long run! I can't believe she'll be 20.

I don't think I said that DD recently passed her driving test and baught herself a car, and then asked if I'd help he with the insurance, which was £1300:eek: She's set up a SO for £150 per month to pay me back, as my savings were not easily accessable without losing 5% interest, then it went on the CC, which I'm very uneasy about, hate debt now, in fact hate spending my savings too, I think I may have become a tight @rse :rotfl:

Skinnylatte

hiddenshadow wrote: »

.....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.

Wow I struggle with just 3 accounts, I never seem to have the money in the right place at the right time to make the most of the interest!

Skinnylatte

I managed to go over drawn by £4 on the Halifax account this month, so that's ny £5bonus gone :mad: must be more careful, there was plenty of money around, just not where it should have been.
My dear heart children have been hitting my CC I'm sorry to say, DD passed her driving test and asked if I would pay for the insurance, and she'd pay me back monthly, then DS, after starting his new job didn't get paid for 6 weeks, so I had to sub him until he got paid. The upshot is that I have a CC bill of £1700, they are paying me back at £250 per month, but even so it doesn't feel a good place to be, it feels like I'm having a relapse.
I could pay both cards off tomorrow with all my savings, but then my savings would be deplated and that's a bit scary
Yorshire water very kindly sent me a rebate f £51 on Saturday so that's something.
Working away again this week, and lots of milage so that all helps

hiddenshadow

Skinnylatte wrote: »

Wow I struggle with just 3 accounts, I never seem to have the money in the right place at the right time to make the most of the interest!

It took a couple of months of closely monitoring the accounts to make sure the money was landing in the right place at the right time.

Some banks are more helpful than others as well - yesterday I got a text from one saying I didn't have enough funds to cover and would need to pay in by 2:30pm. Promptly done and no problem, but some won't notify you and just charge a fee.

Skinnylatte

Useless useless new employer only just sorted out the pension, and therefore took 4 months contributions in 1 go without telling me first so £800 down this month will be fine though, I have a plan and an emergency fund :A
My other news is that I have just taken out a massive loan :eek::eek::eek:

The car lease is coming to an end, and the lovely thing needs to be returned next month. I was looking at new leases, which seemed more expensive than last time, I went to test drive a few cars, and one of the cars I test drove was for sale and nearly new, which got me thinking.........
So after doing loads of research on autotrader I found exactly the car I wanted (Volvo V40 auto 70mpg combined 25 months manufacturers warranty remaining and just serviced ) low mileage and £11,000 less than the price of a new one.

Next step was to finance it as cheaply as possible. Applied for a S@insbury's loan and was offered 5.3%, which I complained at as they were advertising 2.9%, so they dropped it to 4.3%.


Not satisfied with that I also then applied for a S@ntander loan (probably trashed my credit rating now!!) and was offered 3% straight away.

S@insburys offer a scheme where if you get offered a better rate elsewhere they will beat it by 0.1%, so I may just get the 2.9% after all. However for 99p cheaper per month I'm not sure I can be bothered to go through the hassle, and feel more loyal to S@ntandar for offering me a great rate in the first place.

So I'm in debt again. However I'm not seeing it that way. I have to finance a decent car somehow because of my job, and am not in the enviable position of be able to pay cash. I feel I've got the best deal on the car (searched nationwide and negotiated a discount) and the best deal on the finance. Thanks to this amazing site, I now have an excellent credit rating which allowed me to get the best finance on the market.


Over the last 3 years I've been paying £297 for a lease on a car, this monthly payment is £353, only the difference is I will own the car at the end.


Today I feel nearly as pleased as I did the day I finally paid off my debts (and its got heated seats too...bliss)


What amazes me is why anyone would EVER by a new car, when you can get one practically new for £1000s less

hiddenshadow

Lame about the pension, but at least it's gone through. My new job is small enough to not even want to handle it, so I'll have to make payments myself post-tax and then (somehow) claim tax back. Still fighting HMRC for tax relief on the pension contributions I've made in the last year, so that should be fun...

Congrats on the new(ish) car! That sounds brilliant. I don't understand why you'd buy a new car when almost-new is so much cheaper. (I did buy new once, but that was with an employee discount as my uncle worked for the car manufacturer. Still would have been cheaper to buy lightly used, I think.)

Moneyfordreams

Love getting a new car, but paying for it stinks
I managed to switch my car loan to 0% cc last year. I did have a small fee for cash withdrawal from my old cc then switched to 0%, but now it's an interest free loan