Small Steps Out Of Massive Debt!

another_casualty

Just catching up..
congratulations on PB win ..and of course finally ending up in your new home ! 

So many positive steps which you should be proud of . 

Keep going ! 😼

EssexHebridean

Hurrah to it feeling really real now - it's funny how different it feels paying mortgage rather than rent, isn't it! Pleased to hear that you're getting organised on the work that needs doing, too - and reduced expenditure freeing up money for other things is massively helpful isn't it! 

GeorgianaCavendish

June 2022 Round Up 

House Repairs - 34.32%

Extra Income 

Prolific Academic - £68.03
Ipsos I-Say - £10 (Amazon Voucher)
TopCashBack - £2.13
YouGov - £50
Shoppix - £10
Bank Acc Switch Bonus - £125
Tax Refund - £1240.72
Interest on Savings - £31.75 (includes interest paid quarterly on sole and joint accounts)

NSDs 

20/15 for June
Target for July - 16

GeorgianaCavendish

I had a really good month for extra income which included a tax refund, the switching bonus from a new bank account and cash outs from YouGov and one of my receipt apps. It was also a month where I received the quarterly interest on my savings account which bumped things up a bit.

I didn't receive any response to my letter to HMRC so I ended up phoning them. The person I spoke to this time around was really helpful and sorted everything out over the phone - I had a cheque a week later. I will be able to make another tax refund claim over the summer for the tax year ending 2022 - they couldn't do that this time because they need the P11D (or P60 ... I get confused) from my employer, which is generated during July. 

I sorted out the "joint" credit card (in reality an additional cardholder on my Virgin card which has cashback bonus) and I completed the bank account switch to Nationwide and received the bonus. That took 2 weeks from start to finish, so I'm very impressed!

On the list for this month is for DH to do a bank account switch to NW. He'll go for one of their premium accounts so we can get the packaged "free" international breakdown cover ahead of our holiday to France in August. Our car is over 20 years old, so breakdown cover is very expensive usually. We checked the T&Cs to make sure that it would be covered by NW - and it is a relief that it is! There is also no minimum term that he has to keep the premium account open, so he can close once we get back from holiday. Even if he ends up paying the premium fees for 3 months, he should still make around £80 still make around £80 from the switching bonus - hopefully we can get it down to 2 months. And we don't have to pay anything for breakdown cover abroad which is great!  

Work on the house is going well. We got a lot of work done during June - mainly ripping things out which was satisfying! We also paid out for a few things, so our house savings pot has been slightly up and down although we are 34% of the way to target. I don't think there will be any big updates over the summer as the big work will likely start in September, but there are a few smaller tasks that we can arrange this month (like getting the chimneys swept). 
A big expense looming before September is filling up the oil tank (following my ILs advice on best time to buy oil - this is all new to me!). I'm putting money aside for this but it is a bit of an unknown. 

We bought half a Howdens kitchen on ebay   We needed to replace the sink in our kitchen, and we got that and the cabinets & oak worksurfaces for the sink-side of our long galley kitchen for £200. When we turned up to collect, the seller gave us another 3 cabinets for free!
I'm going to set up some alerts for units to replace the remaining units on the other side of the kitchen - we're in no rush, but it seems like there are a lot of people selling units on ebay and marketplace, either when having their kitchen redone or fitters selling extra stock, so perhaps we can gradually get the whole kitchen done. If not, we can either live with it being mismatched for a bit or we can probably find something from B&Q or Wickes that is a close enough.

GeorgianaCavendish

I've decided to dip my toes into the MFW boards - my new diary is here Fix Up, Look Sharp 

Naomim

GeorgianaCavendish said:

I've decided to dip my toes into the MFW boards - my new diary is here Fix Up, Look Sharp 

Hey GC,

Just catching up. Loving the Basement Jaxx reference 👌 

Just remembered it was Dizzee Rascal 🤦‍♀️ I used to work for their record label. 

GeorgianaCavendish

Thanks @Naomim ! Come and join me on the new thread ... there is not much mortgage overpaying going on at the moment, and a lot of moaning about my house renovation   
Would love to hear more about the record label!