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

savingholmes

Unless the benefit of over-paying outweighs the cost I would be tempted to build up a big emergency fund.

ruby_eskimo

Actually had a look at our mortgage terms last night and apparently we should be able to repay up to 10% as OP's each year but that hasn't been happening because I kept getting notifications saying I've reached my limit and would be charged for each additional payment.  Managed to actually get through to someone at the Halifax and it turns out that we've still had a limit on our account after a fraud attempt 2 years ago!  This has been an ongoing saga with them where up until a couple of months ago, I couldn't actually move any money in or out of the current account, despite speaking to numerous people at the fraud team.  So now we should be able to just overpay as we like (there's no way we would reach the 10% limit this year!).

We're working on building a bigger emergency fund savingholmes and £5k will give us 4 months of expenses.  I do actually have over that in various savings pots that can be called upon if needs be, but would still like the dedicated savings pot up to that if I can.  

savingholmes

Great you managed to speak to someone and resolve it.

ruby_eskimo

Thanks savingholmes, certainly one less thing to deal with now once this is all over!

Just got my redeployment assignment for next week and I think it should be ok - going to be in a relatively high turnover ward so definitely won't be bored!  Only problem is that I'm going to have to drive into work and while parking is fine, I'm already paying £480 a month for a season ticket loan out of my salary and while that's going to waste, I'm going to have to pay about £50 a week for petrol.

savingholmes

Won't yet get a refund on the season ticket at some point?

ruby_eskimo

Hi everyone!  Popping back in to update where we are now that things are starting to get back to some kind of new "normal".

savingholmes - I've finally managed to get a season ticket refund processed, backdated to the beginning of March which I should hopefully receive in my June pay.  Looks like it will be about £1000 which will be nice but will confirm when the payslips get released later on.

On the work front, my redeployment has now ended and I'm back to working from home.  Taking this week to get back into the swing of things and do some online training before I properly get stuck in next week and start transferring all my training materials back into online resources.  We've been told that we'll be working from home for the foreseeable future, with indications of not going back to the office till October time, but that might still change as our site is going to be redeveloped and we may not have an office to go back to!

On the finances front, working from home means I'll be bringing home an extra £400-ish each month as I won't be paying for my season ticket.  I've also been in contact with the Student Loans Company and we've set up the direct debit to start repaying the final bit of that.  Should all be gone by the end of the year and that will mean an extra £250 a month back into my pocket!  Have been paying regularly into the LISA but I'm really keen to max that out this year to get the maximum bonus so will focus the extra cash on that where I can.  Natwest offered me a new savings builder account this week that pays 1% interest if you pay in at least £50 a month.  As I've been paying in £250 a month into my other Natwest account where the interest rate had dropped to 0.1% (!), I've switched over immediately!  I use that pot as a sinking fund for the house so money usually sits there for a while as we save for the next project; this time we're getting some trees cut back in the garden as they're almost touching the house.
 

We've got about 18 months left on the fixed term rate on the mortgage and then we'll be looking to negotiate a better deal.  I know we can get a better interest rate now as I'm on a lot better salary, DH has got rid of his debt and I'll be free of my student loan.  I'm keen to keep the same repayments on a better interest rate and maybe a shorter term but we'll have to wait and see what deals we could get.  Until then I'll just keep chipping away where I can and have been making at least £100 a month in over-payments each month.

savingholmes

Well done Ruby it sounds like your storming along. 

ruby_eskimo

Thanks savingholmes, looks like you're doing well with your goals for the year if your signature is anything to go by!

Think I'm going to have to buy a new coffee maker we currently have my parents old, original Nespresso machine which they gave us a couple of years ago when after they upgraded, but this week I've noticed that it's constantly leaking from both the front and the back when it's in use.  Have started a new pot in my Monzo app to save for that over the next few months so we'll see if I can get it to carry on working for a little bit longer!

savingholmes

Thanks Ruby - we have zig zagged along rather than being perfect but have now more than halved our CC debt compared to when we started so are on the right track overall. Best of luck with the coffee machine fund. Perhaps see if you can get one on freecycle or similar... 

ruby_eskimo

savingholmes - I don't think anyone can claim that they've had the perfect debt free journey but as long as you have the intention to get there one day and try your best that's all that anyone can ask.  Easier said than done I know!

Had a look at the market place that you can find on a certain social media app over the weekend and there's a couple of people selling the exact coffee machine I wanted for about a quarter of the price so have saved those listings and will see if they're still available around pay day.

Really didn't sleep well last night; we had our bathroom refitted just before lockdown and have had a few issues with the toilet cistern which is now free-flowing because I think they didn't set the float in it correctly (if my googling is to be believed).  Anyway it started doing it yesterday morning but we can't access the cistern because it's hidden in the vanity unit and they've sealed the entire thing with some weird silicon that DH couldn't cut through to take the panel off.  Anyway our water system in this house is abysmal at the best of times, but with that free flowing (it's literally like a non-stop tap running) the entire water system is just making sounds all the time.  We tried turning off the water flow from the tank last night but no luck so I was just drifting in and out of sleep because I could just hear whooshing and banging all night.  DH couldn't understand why I was so stressed about it yesterday until I told him that we're on a water meter and all I kept thinking was how much extra this was going to cost.  We have a 2 year warranty on the bathroom so I'm hoping that DH has contacted the plumber this morning to come and fix it because I can't take a second night of all the noise.

On a brighter note we've had our new office chairs delivered this morning.  DH's was paid for by his company so he went with a £40 one but I've got back issues so I went for the next model up at £150 (eeek!) and my work have said that they're looking at making some kind of contribution towards equipment if there's a need for it so who knows.

Right I'm off to make a large vat of coffee to get me through today - just hope I don't lose too much on the worktop.