Spend Nowt, Buy Nowt, Owe Nowt

HairyHandofDartmoor

It's very useful that using the garden so much is helping to improve your plans for it.

I must be very lazy but I can't see the point of ironing anything if I'm not allowed to go anywhere 🤣.

With a mortgage holiday don't you just have to pay it all back along with your normal monthly payments after the three months holiday? If you weren't better off financially after the three months then wouldn't you be worse off as you'd have a lump sum to pay back as well as your normal payments? Or am I not understanding how it works?

f0xh0les

No Hairy, they spread the 'non payments'  out over the whole mortgage term. No lump sums. No extended term. Just a slightly higher monthly repayment amount.

HairyHandofDartmoor

f0xh0les said:

No Hairy, they spread the 'non payments'  out over the whole mortgage term. No lump sums. No extended term. Just a slightly higher monthly repayment amount.

Oh I see thanks F0xh0les . Now I see why people are going for it. 

brizzlegirl

Sounding good XS. You’ve got this xx

XSpender

janb5 said:

I googled the Wee treatment- did it take out elderly stains?

Yes it did on the landing where I tested it.  This is on a wool carpet.  I haven’t used it in the other room yet.

XSpender

HairyHandofDartmoor said:

With a mortgage holiday don't you just have to pay it all back along with your normal monthly payments after the three months holiday? If you weren't better off financially after the three months then wouldn't you be worse off as you'd have a lump sum to pay back as well as your normal payments? Or am I not understanding how it works?

As foxholes says the payments and additional interest are spread over the remaining term. I have a eye wateringly large mortgage payment and this will increase my monthly payment by about £30.  I remortgage in November so it will drop again as we have a much better LTV now.

I can’t work out how to do a multiquote!

brizzlegirl

I think there is also the peace of mind to factor in here. You know you can at least keep a roof over your head and have something to eat if you take the holiday. As you said before, it'll be a struggle if you don't. Certainly it would be for us if I was made redundant as my salary contributes the most. If things pick up you can always come off furlough early.

Enjoy the sun

XSpender

Peace of mind is definitely a factor Brizzlegirl as I do not want to be spending the next 3 months worried about every penny and getting into further debt.  There will be a surplus at the end of furlough which will either be paid off debt or cover the mortgage for further months if I am made redundant as I will only receive statutory redundancy pay.  I am also the higher earner and am doubtful that I could find a job with a similar level of salary based up here in the North.  It certainly confirms to me the need for 3-6 months expenses, or even just mortgage payments, as an emergency fund.  

Not much to report money wise.  Debt payments are dribbling through and we should be at £2500 paid off by the end of the month.  I know I will be very tempted to pay off the smallest 2 debts once the mortgage holiday goes through.  These will be about £874.31 and the payments come to £120 but are both 0% for the term.  Not mathematically the best use of the money with other 0% deals due to expire but the it would be a motivational boost and would help the debt snowball as I would continue to pay the £120 off the debt.  We are still waiting for our holiday refund to be processed.

DH cooked a meal at the weekend in the slow cooker.  He NEVER cooks.  It was really nice and was a version of a dish already on the meal plan so no additional ingredients bought.  He is now looking for something else to make.  He did buy a meat box from a local supplier though.  We were expecting the meat box including 30 eggs and an additional bacon pack for £50 but got the meat box (excluding the mince), eggs and a breakfast box instead.  I now have an extra 18 chicken breasts, 45 slices of bacon and 18 sausages in the freezer and a black pudding in the fridge!  We are way over the food budget but are well stocked up and should be able to spend much less next month.

We have a skip coming at the end of the week to remove the rubble and garden waste from the garden.  It worked out as the most economical and reliable way to get rid of it all. DH tidied the garage yesterday and we have a box of rubbish from there to put in it and he is going to sort the shed out too.  It’s a big shed and the previous owners left a few old cupboards in there which we will skip.  DH wont use them as he has a proper fear of spiders and thinks they are waiting to pounce if he opens the door!  

We have someone coming to pick up an item this morning which will help towards the cost of the skip and a few low value items have been offered for free.

The garden is looking great, I am so pleased with it.  Once the waste has been removed ( a large concrete footprint where the old greenhouse stood, a brick BBQ in a really silly position and small wall still to be dismantled) we will have another area to turf, a border to put in, one border to sort out and a rockery to clear out.  The new border and rockery will require some plants and we need a couple of shrubs to fill in gaps elsewhere but are not planning to buy these yet.  DH has fixed the shed roof and we have enough paint to paint the fence and shed.  We will have completely transformed our garden (including all the turf and the skip) for under £500 and have realised that we don’t need a lot of the changes we were planning to make it look good.  I was expecting it to cost £3500 to get it where we wanted with paying someone to do the work. We will probably have a new patio and paths laid at some point as some of the slabs are cracked and it is uneven but it is OK for now. Oh and we have also acquired a new compost bin that our neighbours were chucking out.

We have rehung the old living room curtains and they look good with the new colour.  The dining room curtains are also to be rehung but I have lost the sliders for the track so have ordered some new ones.  I am enjoying shopping from home and have also found a couple of pots to decorate the utility room.

Today’s plans are to clean the bedrooms and bathroom, do something with the rest of the turkey joint we had on Sunday and make some stock from the carcasses I have in the freezer, sort out the shed, home schooling with DS (maths and PE today) and putting up the utility room blind which will arrive this afternoon.

Oh, nearly forgot to mention, I have signed up for a 14 day free trial of DRs Financial University and DH has agreed to take the lessons with me. 

apple_muncher

This is such a positive post to read! Well done on the garden, and on all the other things you have done!

brizzlegirl

apple_muncher said:

This is such a positive post to read! Well done on the garden, and on all the other things you have done!

Echoed. Think making over your garden is like extending your house, especially in this lovely weather you can really make use of if. DR course sounds good too.