Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

parsniphead wrote: »

That's fab news about the sleep in shift/mortgage ratio. I wish I was that good with maths.:o;)

It's worth trying the brand downshifting. You can always change back for things which don't work.

I'm hoping my maths is right... it was a mental calculation based on approximations. Someone on here (sorry I can't remember who) said something to the effect that if you divide a mortgage payment by 30, that is how much you will have to pay to bring your final repayment date forward a day. My thinking is, that about a third of my pay goes on pension/tax/NI before I get it and a sleep in payment is now just over £37, so a third of that is taken off leaving about £22. My mortgage payment is about £231 so if I divide that by 30 I get about 7.5. £22 divided by 7.5 is about 3, hence a sleep in payment pays for about three days off my mortgage.

I think.

That means that without any extra sleeps at work, I take about 51 days off my mortgage with my rotaed sleep each year.

So it's worth doing.

Time I went to sleep now. Savvy critique of my maths is welcome, but any maths teachers out there please note my school didn't teach me to do maths using the word 'about' whenever I felt like it.

P.S. I have just spotted what might be the flaw in my argument - I've based it on the basic mortgage repayment not on overpayment. Not sure how to factor that in?

HairyHandofDartmoor

My maths isn't good enough for that calculation . One thing I like about the idea of mortgage/pension overpayments is that you're not tempted to spend them in a weak moment like you could with an emergency fund .

parsniphead

Cherryfudge wrote: »

I'm hoping my maths is right... it was a mental calculation based on approximations. Someone on here (sorry I can't remember who) said something to the effect that if you divide a mortgage payment by 30, that is how much you will have to pay to bring your final repayment date forward a day. My thinking is, that about a third of my pay goes on pension/tax/NI before I get it and a sleep in payment is now just over £37, so a third of that is taken off leaving about £22. My mortgage payment is about £231 so if I divide that by 30 I get about 7.5. £22 divided by 7.5 is about 3, hence a sleep in payment pays for about three days off my mortgage.

I think.

That means that without any extra sleeps at work, I take about 51 days off my mortgage with my rotaed sleep each year.

So it's worth doing.

Time I went to sleep now. Savvy critique of my maths is welcome, but any maths teachers out there please note my school didn't teach me to do maths using the word 'about' whenever I felt like it.

P.S. I have just spotted what might be the flaw in my argument - I've based it on the basic mortgage repayment not on overpayment. Not sure how to factor that in?

Erm......:eek:.......Yes.......I think.:rotfl:

Too much maths for my little brain.;)

Cherryfudge

Haha, glad I'm not the only one to feel confused! Actually I suppose the important thing is getting it paid off, it's just a bit of a bonus to imagine I'm reducing the mortgage term by however much.

It's a bit cooler here today but still lovely and at 20 to nine I still have some daylight and blackbirds singing. I even managed some gardening - weeded a patch about 4 foot square and you can just about tell. At least I know it's been done. The brambles I cut back there earlier this year had already sent up new branches but they are completely in the wrong place so I've cut them back to the ground (whence they will proceed to send up yet more branches). My cherry tree has lost its blossom and next door's apple is full of blooms instead. What a perfect time of the year!

Perfect or not, I've been tired again today but not too much as I didn't have to go anywhere much and have (figuratively) eaten a couple of frogs. The first is I now have the correct reading for the meter on Mum's old house and a helpful chap at the electricity company informs me there is a hefty cheque coming back to me for overpayment! That's not me personally, it's the estate, but it's nice to know. Next step will be work out which tariff to go for. Almost any has to be better than the one we have.

I've also done some more investigation into current and savings accounts and come to the conclusion that I'll get the best mixture of rates and rewards with one where you become eligible through having their credit card. Now I don't actually want the CC but I reckon it's worth it for the extra money I could get from their current and savings accounts, so I trawled through the paperwork this afternoon and hopefully they will approve my application. I did take the precaution of setting up a DD so that payments won't rely on me being on the ball - it also counts as another DD to transfer when I move to another account which helps as I really don't have many (most of them come out of our other current account).

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with the amount of financial things I have to do, for Mum's house in particular, and am missing my bullet journal which disappeared some time ago, so I went to buy another. Not a posh one, just one that feels right. I'm afraid I also got quite a few pens to use with it! I've been setting up pages for each different financial area as well as other lists.

Spends:
Stationery £7.50
Housekeeping £5.89
MS stuff:
A shop gave me a calendar - not actually MS as I wasn't setting out to buy one but it's quite nice and will come in handy at Mum's old house.
Put back a couple of pens... okay so I bought 10.
One of the pens I put back was £1.69 in R-man's but less than £1 in W!lkos :eek:
Massive refund from leccy company hopefully one its way to the Exec account right now. :j
Hours of research which could mean £35 more in incentives from the new bank account I'm after, than I would have had from a straight swap.
10th coin pot 25p
Confession time:
The new bullet journal I can justify but... 10 pens to write in it?!

Cherryfudge

I'm a little bit amazed - I've just switched energy providers for Mum's old house and it wasn't nearly as stressful as I remember from switching ours! I had to let them estimate usage as I don't have enough meter readings recently to track electricity usage, but even a ball park figure should be a big improvement on the old system. It's also a tariff with no exit penalties so I can change if I'm not happy with it.

Off to bed feeling one hurdle out of the way, even if there are still more to come.

Cherryfudge

Nothing spent today and a shorter work day than expected so I cleaned out the guinea pig and overhauled the smallest of the compost bins which is now empty and awaiting a coat of paint.

I seem to have far too many receipts here... do I just throw them out or do I go to the trouble of trying to update my spreadsheets - not my favourite job. I think I will make myself a condition: if I don't start it tonight they are going. Full stop.

NSD
MS Stuff:
10th coin savings 7p (pot now up to £3.92)
All that work last night - strictly yesterday but done long after I totalled up - which should save the estate quite a bit and thus possibly more for my sister and me in the longer term.
Did the sums on what the ISA money would make in interest if I switched accounts and mentioned it a second time to DH. It will take a few mentions to get him to do anything as drastic as signing up to a new bank account but the ones we have are really not doing us any favours and we would both rather have our money in joint accounts.

ETA: I have done a month's worth of receipts and chucked the ones that are now on the spreadsheet.

Cherryfudge

A few bits from the shops this morning (before anyone spots it I am owning up to buying yet another pen). I also had some blood tests as I suspect my medication needs a review... results next week. Meanwhile I don't have a lot of energy but I'm going to plod on a bit and try not to spend too long on the computer.

Did I mention this is the house of disappearing things? DD lost some gift vouchers which I found behind the shoe rack (!) while looking for her passport... which it turns out she had put on a shelf over her bed, but the shelf is slightly sloping and the passport, in a plastic bag, slid off and into a handbag she wasn't using and which looked empty! Then I lost a cheque book and have had to order another, and this morning DS was hunting for some paperwork he needs for his course. The result is a bit of a turn out of the sort of places things go to hide (and consequent hovering).

Spends:
Stationery £1.19
Housekeeping £3.49
Household £2.99
MS stuff:
Found 6p down the sofa to add to the 10th coin savings
10th coin savings (incl wombling) 46p
Confession time:
Treated myself to another pen AND a smoothie while out. That's £2.69 that could have done something else but on the other hand the smoothie was pear and blackcurrant and the pen is purple so I think I understand why I did it.

HairyHandofDartmoor

At least it was cheapish pen Cherry and not a Mont Blanc .

It's weird the places that lost items can get to, but nice to find things.

By the way, have you seen a doctor about your pen addiction :rotfl:

Sun_Addict

I can confess to a pen addiction too I take a lot of notes at work and like a nice pen. I also have an obsession with notebooks

Cherryfudge

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

By the way, have you seen a doctor about your pen addiction :rotfl:

I have, Hairy, but I wasn't impressed. His nibs didn't have an inkling what I was talking about.