Ruby's Bought a House, Now I want to Own It!

caeler

Oh wow that is fantastic news!  How early can they switch you over?!  @ruby_eskimo

ruby_eskimo

caeler said:

Oh wow that is fantastic news!  How early can they switch you over?!  @ruby_eskimo

I know, was thinking they'd offer us something around their SVR , which would still be 1% lower than our current rate but was pleased to see that the progress we've made is paying off, especially since our only debt now between the two of us is the mortgage.  We have to wait another 5 months before they can switch us over but they said it would be the same deal "most likely" if our circumstances stay the same.  DH is actually applying for a new job at his company which if he's successful (and he's fairly confident based on the initial feedback he's had from the recruiting managers) will be a £5k pay rise for him which can only help.

ruby_eskimo

Morning all!   Not a lot going on around here at the moment but Toilet-gate has finally reached a conclusion!  The water company sent me a letter saying they took a meter reading and we've had substantially higher consumption over the last 6 months; might have had something to do with the couple of months where our toilet just free-flowed and drained the water tank 🙄.  They wanted us to confirm that we didn't have an internal leak before they processed the next bill.  Called them up and explained what had happened and that Wickes were willing to pay the difference between our usual bill and the new one.  The lovely lady at the water company explained that they have a policy of a leak allowance, so rather than charging us extra, they'll take the average use from our bills and charge us based on that, effectively wiping out the extra charges and starting again!  The best bit was when she said that the new charges are now £14 cheaper a month compared to what we have been paying.  Think this is also to take into account that we're in a bit of credit now.  Really wasn't expecting any of that so it was a lovely surprise to start the week with.  Oh and when she told me what the actual usage was, I was very glad they were wiping out the costs; we went from an average daily use of 120 litres to over 1400 litres a day 🤯 I hate to think how much that would have cost.

The next thing on my to-do list is to get on the phone to Virgin Media and try and haggle our internet costs down.  We're a bit stuck with them as we don't have a phone line coming into our house so can only have fibre, and there also appears to be no space in the comms box so another provider can't install a new connection for us, not that it would be any good, because everyone else can only supply 6MB connections and I need at least 10MB upload speeds to actually do my work.  VM want to increase the charge to over £50 a month which is just ridiculous for broadband only, so I'm going to try every trick in the book to see what deal they can give me, even mentioning that we're both public sector workers who haven't had pay rises for the last goodness knows how many years.

ruby_eskimo

The LISA for 20/21 is maxed out 🥳  Wouldn't even have managed to save that much if I hadn't been working from home for the last year or so.  That money would only have been paying 2/3rds of my season ticket so happy to have it doing something for me instead; the rest of the "extra" cash has gone into OP's.  

After the regular payday shuffle I've also hit my overall savings target for the year 🎉🤯  I've not quite filled the emergency fund but I've gone over in other categories like the Holiday and House pot which can be called upon in an emergency anyway.  Need to try and work out what my goals for the next financial year are, but I already have an overall target in mind.

South_coast

Whoop, whoop - well done 🥳🥳🥳! I can imagine going back to paying that for a season ticket at some point in the future is going to be very ouchy though 😮!

ruby_eskimo

Thanks SC!  Hopefully (🤞) I won't actually have to go into the office that much going forward - they're taking away half our desks so there won't be that much space anyway!  Looking at probably 1 day a week and to be honest I'd be willing to drive into London for that; not only is it quicker but the £15 a day to park plus petrol is a lot cheaper than the £40 train fare!

South_coast

£15 parking 🤯! Good old London 🤣!

ruby_eskimo

That's actually pretty cheap for an entire day in Central London too!  Kind of makes me miss the days when I could claim parking and mileage as an expense!

ruby_eskimo

Happy St. David's Day!  First of the month is here again (really can't believe it's March already) and the money shuffle has been completed.  Just have to wait till the mortgage payment clears tomorrow to see how much I need to OP to round it off a bit.  But we're finally on the home stretch when it comes to getting the EF to the initial £5k mark. 

I've looked at the savings targets for the next financial year and most of them I want to keep the same as last year e.g. double the overall total but save the same as I did last year.  I think this is doable if I keep to budget and stop spending on the frivolous things.  I managed the 20 NSD's in February and will be aiming for the same again in March, although I did just buy a gift for a friend who's currently pregnant and all her family live overseas so thought she might need a little pick me up.  For those interested it was some Mama Mio body care bits that I found a 20% discount code for so very MSE 👍

ruby_eskimo

£204.51 overpayment sent to the mortgage this morning, giving a nice round £250,400 left to go 😳 

Car insurance renewal quote has come in and it looks like I'll be saving over £100 this year - just need to go to a few comparison sites and see if I can get a cheaper deal elsewhere now.  Feel a lot more comfortable with a £300 annual bill compared to the almost £800 I had to pay when I had an accident a couple of years ago!