It's a sprint not a marathon!

PusscatT

It doesn't really make a difference, other than it means the lender takes a small overpayment automatically so it nibbles away at the total without me having to remember to do it!

It's been quite a good week, other than paying the builders (ouch) and I scored a small victory at Boots! Went in to buy a tube of Burts Bees lip care which is £3.99 (but lasts forever, well until I lose it) but then found a gift pack of 4 different flavours on sale for £8.66. So, half price! And this stuff goes on and on so I won't have to buy any more for another year. It's a small thing but it made me happy.

Hoping to get my self assessment for 2015/16 done next weekend as I know I'm due some money back from HMRC. Need a holiday before tackling that!

Pusscat

PusscatT

So, another week another dollar! Had a quiet work week, staying local which meant no filling up the car (hurrah!) and a £60 saving. Paid another £1500 off the mortgage and switched a holiday booked for next year to one much cheaper, saving around £1200.
However, November and December are always mega expensive months with birthdays, Christmas and entertaining. We always buy tonnes of food and drink to see us through so the challenge this year will be to do it on a shoestring and keep pumping money into the mortgage. I've not made as much progress on that as I'd have liked. The plan was to try to get £2k a month as overpayments but with one thing and another I've only managed £1.5k which although good, won't hit the target in time. Any suggestions gratefully received!

Pusscat

Katzen

Hard to suggest much without seeing a SOA really. I see you've switched bills already. Is your food budget as low as you can go? Is there and chance of a pay rise or other ways to increase income? If it was debt in the 'scary bailiffs' sense then pushing yourself to the limit for a few years would be the prescription but as it's a mortgage you can well afford them you probably don't want to live on beans without holidays for years. In which case it's going to be hard to make up £500...

PusscatT

Oh crikey disaster has struck this week! Got a text from the tenant with the words that all landlords dread...'the roof is leaking'. Of course there's never a good time for the roof to leak, but the run up to Christmas and the depths of winter is about the worst!

Hubby and I went round to have a look from inside the attic and there must have been some water ingress for a while as one of the beams is saturated and looking distinctly dodgy. We knew the roof could do with replacement at some point but were hoping to avoid for at least a couple of years. The cottage is Grade 2 listed, so we have to get permission to re-roof and it faces straight onto the road with no front garden so scaffolding and skips are difficult (and expensive).

Somewhat regretting the £5k overpayment on the mortgage at the moment but hindsight is a wonderful thing. Hopefully the roofer can get the place watertight with a temporary repair and we will re-roof in spring. Otherwise it's going to be a very expensive and disruptive time for us and the mortgage overpayments will have to stop until this is sorted. Best laid plans and all that....

Pusscat

Katzen

What a nightmare. At least on the plus side you know you can come up with a good chunk of cash in just a few months if needed so you won't have to struggle too much to pay for it.

PusscatT

Happy 2017 to all of you!
Well, the roof turned out to be just under £2k to get it totally sorted which was painful but the roofer thinks we won't need to replace it, so a bit of a silver lining!
Didn't make any overpayment in December due to the roof problem but am planning on a £2k overpay today. It means we're behind where we wanted to be but at least the roof repairs are tax deductible so that's bought us a bit of extra time with the taxman when everything starts to change from April.
In other news I've been avoiding the sales and have only bought a winter coat rather than the usual splurge on handbags, shoes etc. Together with a much reduced spend on Christmas the bank account is in better shape than usual for the time of year.

So, it's resolution time and these are my goals for 2017:

1. Keep overpaying the mortgage by at least £1k a month.
2. Clear out the loft and sell everything in it!
3. Walk more. The day job chains me to the computer most of the time and my fitness is appalling so I need to get out and about a lot more.
4. Go back to meal planning & shopping sensibly. This has disappeared over Christmas and we have wasted more food than I would have liked, whilst having too many takeaways and too many chocolates, crisps etc.

What are you up to?

Pusscat.

PusscatT

Blimey January has been a long month! Got paid on Tuesday but the promised back pay (since July 16) has not yet materialised which is incredibly disappointing as that was extra to pay off the mortgage.

Anyhow, DH has started to add to the pot at long last and so £2k got paid off the cottage this month. The tenant has renewed for another 6 months which is great news and the darling taxman has sent me a good sized rebate so all is well right now and we're on track!

PusscatT

Got the letter from our lender this week confirming the lower mortgage payment due after this month's overpay. Overall since completing on the mortgage at the end of July 16, we have paid off an extra £9k (nearly) but this has only resulted in a drop of around £24 per month! Hardly seems worth it on the face of it, but that's £9k we're no longer paying interest on at just over 3% for the next 32 years so it's a no brainer.
The next step is to really make a start on making extra money by clearing out the loft and selling other bits and bobs. I usually just give stuff away but we need to throw everything at the mortgage so looks like I'll be advertising on the local friendly sales pages. Here we go!

PusscatT

So, haven't got around to selling anything yet but had a good result on the car insurance premium. The renewal quote was £565(!) but shopped around and got the same cover down to £368 elsewhere so a very nice saving.

Today I have bitten the bullet and opened a SIPP. I have a couple of old pensions knocking around from years ago but I'm not in the work scheme due to an inherent distrust of company pensions after growing up in the 1980s / 1990s and seeing the Robert Maxwell and recent BHS scandals. However, I need to get my tax bill down for when Section 24 (buy to let mortgage interest taxation) comes in April and not having a current pension seems madness when they're so tax efficient. Although I will still be paying HMRC more than I'd like, the pension rebate will offset some of it and I will hopefully have a nice little nest egg to look forward to in later years.

Pusscat.

greent

Just discovered your diary, Puss, from a post you made on Caz's diary We're starting to tackle the BTL here now - having merrily sat with it as I/F for the tax benefits - pesky changing rules! Small OPs made last year to start us off but I've just paid £1800 out this week for some rewiring and the new electrical certificate - which has delayed my next OP but such is life!

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