Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

I have been thinking that my diary is losing focus... however we are finally booked to see a financial advisor who might be able to guide us whether or not to apply for an offset mortgage this far though the existing one (just over 6 years to go) and some other stuff.

DH has done some nice money saving - instead of letting the house insurance renew for £225, he has found us another for £75!

On the other hand, I am wondering, as the work/life balance pulls harder from both sides and I am soooo much busier than can possibly be good for me, whether I should seriously consider cutting my work hours. Would the money I could save by doing things myself outweigh the drop in income? Our house needs so much done and now I'm gaining skills by working on Mum's old house, perhaps I could do enough to make a difference. I could cook from scratch instead of the 3 of us all buying and eating separately due to different lives and my working evenings. On the other hand: reduced pension payments (and my pension fund isn't good as it is) / eventually I would run out of decorating and even the garden might come under control / I would struggle with grey days at home alone in the house...

The answer always seem to be to work smarter but then I would have to cut down on reading diaries and playing on the computer.

Enough of my waffle. Tomorrow we are going clothes shopping because DH really needs more for winter and my tee shirts that I was going to buy last week didn't get bought. Firstly I should go up in the loft for winter clothes of mine, and make up a bag for charity.

HairyHandofDartmoor

I think that you should keep up the work hours, because as you rightly say reduced pension payments, grey days at home and the work on the house is finite. I think you've already talked yourself out of it

Wow DH did an amazing job on the house insurance, it pays to shop around. We reduced ours from £69 a month to £28 a month recently

What is an offset mortgage by the way?

Cherryfudge

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

I think that you should keep up the work hours, because as you rightly say reduced pension payments, grey days at home and the work on the house is finite. I think you've already talked yourself out of it

And my job and I are a very good match. I really enjoy the work and the team I work with, and the work on Mum's house won't last forever any more than redecorating ours but... I don't have enough time and energy for friends, family and interests.

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

Wow DH did an amazing job on the house insurance, it pays to shop around. We reduced ours from £69 a month to £28 a month recently

What is an offset mortgage by the way?

That's a great reduction you achieved! We've probably spent most of what we saved already.

An offset mortgage, as I understand it, means that you keep your savings with the same company that you use for your mortgage, and any money in the savings account is counted as if you'd paid it off against your mortgage. However, it's still yours to spend. So, if you have a mortgage of £75,000 and you have £20,000 savings, you only pay interest on £55,000. Then if you spend £5,000 of your savings, your mortgage payments will increase as if you owed £60,000.

Today DH and I had that rare event: a day to ourselves! Lazy morning and a good run before the weather turned wet, then we went shopping. DH got the shoes he needed and I got more Christmas shopping, a blouse, food... didn't manage to find drinking glasses that I liked but we can cope a bit longer on the motley selection we have already, and which keep breaking. I fetch a few more pint glasses over from Mum's every now and then: not clear why she had them as Dad would have a pint on a hot summer's evening but that was all the alcohol that got drunk. Maybe that's why the glasses lasted well!

I also got a couple of running accessories: lights so I'm safer to run on gloomy days and a jacket which turned out to be a big bargain from that place where there's always a sale. It was marked down to £17.99 but went through the till at £8.99!

It's a good area for gift buying so I got a couple of stocking fillers, one bigger present for DS and DDiL and a present for DH to give me. If that sounds like cheating, we do tend to do this when we see something we'd like as a treat but can't really justify. It saves making mistakes! :rotfl:

Shopping time was limited as we wanted to get back for Strictly so I didn't get the tee shirts but spotted a top in the supermarket which I liked so I have that. Random purchases in the supermarket included oven gloves, DH's shaving gel and discounted chrysanths but mostly it was food, which has been spendy this week due to extras towards the Christmas cake and pudding.

I have been buying the food shop on my credit card but it makes it harder to keep track so DH thinks I should go back to cash and I'm going to give it a try. The idea behind using the card was so I could keep it paid off and improve my credit score but of course using it for small purchases makes it hard to keep it paid off. This isn't me spending money we don't have but remembering what was paid on the card at the end of the day and sorting the payment promptly. Time to do some CC housekeeping and make a fresh start!

Spends:
Clothing (mine not DH's) £30.99
Toiletries £1.00
Household £5.75
Gifts £48.97
Housekeeping £34.39
MS stuff:
No time to do a 'proper' clothes shop!
Big saving on running jacket.

Seeing nearly £50 go in the 'gifts' slot on my spreadsheet is salutary. I know I spend a lot on Christmas but not how much. Reading other people's diaries, I realise how much Christmas spending dominates this part of the year for so many of us. I've reined back the 'silly' spending so, while I love doing stockings for my nearest and dearest, I also know they don't value tat, so last year I made a huge effort to buy stuff they could use... lots of socks seemed to feature! Perhaps the mantra about something they want, something they need, something to wear, something to read should be etched on my purse this year. As they are all grown up and not really readers, that slot might be filled with a small item for a hobby.

Well, I have several days' worth of receipts littering the table so I'm off to update the spreadsheet and maybe sort today's CC payments before they hit the website.

Cherryfudge

Nothing spent today. Recent CC payments sorted last night but they had built up alarmingly so one of my tasks for the coming week is to sort the backlog. :eek: All sorts of oddments and some larger ones from holiday and journeys to sort the house out. I clearly am not to be left alone with a CC as I am not disciplined enough to keep on top of every payment, though this is often due to tiredness at the end of the day, so this week I will get housekeeping out in cash which should be a good discipline.

I have at least paid the minimum plus some, I'm still on the penalty-free period for the card and there's money in the bank to cover the payments so I'm only disorganised, not in trouble.

If you're wondering why they have to be sorted not paid outright, it's because different budgets are attached to different accounts.

I've done some of the catching up on the spreadsheet: the rest isn't going anywhere.

Tomorrow I have to work in the morning and in the afternoon I need to check details for the central heating work with the company that's doing it. On Tuesday we have our meeting with the financial advisor (first half hour free ) so I also want to have the paperwork together for that.

It's been really nice to have the weekend off: mostly to spend time with DH but also to see the rest of the family. The next generation is a riot when they're together, and they fixed my running lights (then tried them on and danced about in the dark - of course). It was also lovely to listen to my DIY-minded son discussing his latest project with his 86y.o. grandfather. They are the only ones who actually know what all the gadgets are! I did drop a hint that DS might want to practise on Mum's house but to no avail. To be fair, he gets very little time and has to travel a lot without crossing the country on his days off.

Ten to midnight: time I got ready for the coming week. Hope it's a good one for you all.

HairyHandofDartmoor

An offset mortgage sounds a bit complicated to me, but as I have learnt to my cost I am rubbish with finance We have a repayment mortgage because I only trust very simple things I can understand

Your family sound like great fun

Cherryfudge

It probably is complicated, Hairy, I just need someone who can handle numbers to make these decisions for me!

Yes, the family are a lot of fun: it's a shame we can't all get together every week. It's lovely that the two 'other halves' seem to enjoy it all as much as the original bunch, too.

Morning shift has, as usual, wiped me out (though that's partly because I was late to bed last night). I haven't got a huge amount done though I bought some bits & pieces with change left in my purse - thus I haven't started on this week's housekeeping money yet.

I'm also on a stealthy project to bring the house up to a better standard. I realised that some of my economies are dragging us down disproportionately (as in: I threw out the tatty tea towels a while ago as I dry the washing on the line and however clean they are, if they are stained or holey, they don't look good). Recent improvements have been new oven gloves and a new bath mat. Today's was finally black-leading the grate. I bought the stuff back in the dark ages. It looks a lot nicer, though I've still to solve getting the gold trim shiny again. Gold paint?!

Spends:
Housekeeping £2.85
MS stuff:
Slowly working my way through the tubs of leftovers in the freezer... today's was a beef stew.
Saved the cost of an engineer by cleaning the filter on the washing machine, which had decided not to drain yesterday. Today it's working beautifully! :j

Cherryfudge

The visit to the financial advisor was most interesting and helpful. My head is still full of bits of information which I need to sleep on, but he has advised against the offset mortgage I our case as we have paid off most of ours.

I've therefore transferred the £1,000 I had saved as a possible offset mortgage fee: it's now well and truly reduced the mortgage itself! Over the next few days I want to sort out any 'bits' of money I can throw at the overpayment, and we've made an appointment to see the mortgage company to discuss a new fixed rate and a reduced term.

I really feel as though I can see the end in sight for the mortgage, but as it stands there are still 6 years to go. All the spare pennies I can round up before we fix the rate again, will go to reduce it.

Looking at our savings accounts, the interest rates are negligible! Now that we know we aren't going to be offsetting them, they need to be swapped for something more constructive, though I don't think I'm going to find anything like I remember from my youth. :rotfl: However... an ISA at 0.01%?!

Lots more waffling I could do but I need to have dinner (pizza) and set off to my friend's house soonish so you are spared that.

Spends:
Housekeeping £6.54
Piano lesson £10.00
MS stuff:
Pizza on offer
Couple of till-spit vouchers I might actually use.
Descaled the washer so hopefully making it last longer.
Confession time:
Forgot a carrier bag so extra 5p spent, as if I need more plastic.
Spent £3 on disposable gloves as the £1 ones are far too big. Yesterday's grate blacking is going to become a regular.

I've also made progress on the new heating system for Mum's house.

HairyHandofDartmoor

Saving accounts suck at the moment. Martin recommends the best ones but some of them need you to save a set amount each month and aren't always easy access. It depends upon your needs of course.

Good luck with the mortgage overpaying, we have ten years to run on ours and would love to overpay it one day

redofromstart

I like doing the grate blacking stuff too but no idea on the gold bits. Is it gold metal or gold painted?

Cherryfudge

redofromstart wrote: »

I like doing the grate blacking stuff too but no idea on the gold bits. Is it gold metal or gold painted?

I think it's metal but with some sort of gilt overlay? I think I'll try wire wool on it: if it's the same colour all the way through it will just bring out its true colour, and if not, I can paint it. It's so dull it will improve either way.