And so it begins: The Pig Vs The Mortgage

pinkypig

Don't know what's gone wrong with the quotes . Hopefully you can find my replies in among them - I can't face starting again !!

museumworker wrote: »

ALL my diaries?? Wow, if I could give you a special badge for that I would. There must have been a lot of guff in there :rotfl:. Seriously, very glad you got something out of them. With the pension dilemma, I'm not sure of your take home pay and your current tax band. If you are a higher rate tax payer, just think every payment to your pension is worth twice the take home amount, once you take into account tax and national insurance. You can't double your money on your mortgage. Also, if you earn over £50K and are subject to the higher income child benefit charge, increasing your pension contributions so your adjusted net income falls below £50K will remove this charge, meaning more take home money for you.

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply MW. I'm a basic rate tax payer at the moment but I am at the top end and when I add in this year's other earnings I could be so I'll be watching it carefully and will claim any extra tax relief back through self assessment if I need to.

Also - if you can get rid of £33k of mortgage debt in a week this may be the shortest MFW diary in history :rotfl:!
Ha, I wish!!!! I had saved for several years before my remortgage so I don't think I'll be seen g numbers like that again :rotfl:


Amazed by your food spends - well done! Clearly I need to get myself on the GC board.

My only thoughts on your SOA were that your life insurance, CIC and income protection costs seem high to me (I'm also v sceptical of income protection as there are always so many clauses) but am sure you've shopped around and I don't know what I'm talking about.

My food spends used to be :eek:but I've gradually reduced it thanks to the GC. I'm sometimes over budget but often not by much - it keeps me on the straight and narrow!

My insurances are a bit high but they as I'm a single parent I do like the peace of mind they give. The LI is actually as cheap as chipsfir the cover it gives as I took it out in my youth:o
The CIC policy is one of the old style ones, good coverage and non reviewable premiums so again not bad vfm. The income protection is a big chunk of my spend but it is an own occupation policy with non reviewable premiums and it just helps me to know that we'd be OK if I was unable to work due to illness.

museumworker wrote: »

Especially if you are close to being able to draw on a pension and want to retire early I would seriously consider putting as much into your pension as you can. Your mortgage is a cheap debt in comparison and the sooner you start paying into your pension, the sooner it will start having compound growth.

This is still my dilemma - more ramblings needed :eek:

Don't be too frugal on holiday Hope you're going somewhere nice.

We've got a few things planned - a short city break and the off to the sun. I budget £150 a month so everything's paid for and weve got some fun money to spend.
Who -- me?? I'm the queen of clean laundry in bags :rotfl:
:rotfl:


Lots of great MSE wins to celebrate on your list - could you let me know which credit card that is please? £47.25 sounds well worth the application process!

It was Tesco. Give it a whirl, it took very little time and tracked really quickly .

Hope you and you're are enjoying the school hols
PP x

greent

pinkypig wrote: »

It was Tesco. Give it a whirl, it took very little time and tracked really quickly .

Hope you and you're are enjoying the school hols
PP x

Darn it! Was also v interested in lots of cback for a CC - but hubby and I have already got Tesc0 CC's

x

pinkypig

Yesterday was busy but fun. I managed to go through my tax return and email a few queries to the account so I'll finish that once he replies.
I now know when I'm going to the dentist but I still haven't cleaned the car or got travel insurance. Realistically this needs to wait until the weekend.
I taxied kids about to various friends houses and then spent a bit of time cooking as I had friends round for dinner. We get toether once a month for dinner and a catch up and usually go out. This was my first crack at doing it at home and it was great. I did curry, Dahl, saag aloo, rice, hm naan and used some chappatis and chutneys that I got from Approved Foods so it was all within my food budget. They all brought wine and we had a great night and probably saved about £15 each so will definitely be doing that again. There were also loads of left overs so no cooking tonight :T

Daily MSE triumphs

Socialised at home
Got three Dettol cleaning products so I can claim my free cinema tickets to use when we're on holiday .
Printed off 2 for 1 attraction and food vouchers for holidays
Left overseas for lunch.

Today's goals
Tidy kitchen and recycle the empties
Use up leftovers for lunch and dinner and freeze the rest
Do a bit more work admin - I'm aiming for an hour a day

Off to get coffee and a glass of water - I fear I may have peaked and it may go downhill from here :rotfl:

PP x

pinkypig

Hi greent it was really nice if you to stop by:). Hard luck on already snagging a Tesco cc. There were other tcb offers so it still might be worth a look.

Today I have;

Been mainly rubbish:o. Late nights and large quantities of vino don't make for a lively pig! It might have been cheaper and more fun than going out but we drank three times as much and boy I have I paid the price :eek:

Had a NSD ( some benefits to not being able to drag your sorry !!! Off the sofa :rotfl:).

Last nights leftovers for lunch and dinner

99p eBay sale

Waved DC1 off for a weekend away. Will miss DC but not the mess left trailing in their wake.

Applied for my free cinema tickets and whilst doing so realised that the products were on 2 for £2 but I'd only got the required 3:mad:

Packaged eBay sale ready for posting

Tomorrow will be more productive ( although it would be difficult to be less productive:o).

PP x

pinkypig

Woke to wind bent branches and rain lashing the window - it must be nearly August:rotfl:
Its also pay day:j:j
Having had an early night and a lie in I feel much more livelier than I did yesterday:o
Today's goals are ;

Sort out travel in insurance using tcb if possible
Buy and collect train tickets
Laundry
Go for a run
Post eBay package
Work out exact OS payments made in July
Detail one off payments needed for bills arriving in Aug so I can do an accurate account shuffle on the 31st
Visit mum and dad
Find a notebook to jot down things to do/small success. I get on here and I can't remember half of them!

Off to find my wellies and waterproofs:(

PPx

pinkypig

Its been a weird weather day , sunny one minute and torrential rain the next. I actually used the Met office weather app which was useful for shower dodging to get outdoor stuff done. Shame I hadn't thought about that before ,years before...

Successes :j

I have travel insurance, very reasonable thanks to Martin and £1.06 from tcb

Train tickets ordered but still to collect. 2for1 vouchers downloaded but need printing

Finalised amount for large August bills and set aside

July's ops checked

August's budgets checked and timing of dds and income checked so I know what I can op and when

Notebook found and used:)

Laundry done and line dried during rain free spell this pm ( jeans on airer as they are a bit damp) still to iron and put away

Mum and dad out so phoned later instead . will call in tomorrow

Another eBay sale - £1.20. Two items packed and posted.

Went for a run - accountability guilt got me out of the door. This forum clearly isn't just going to help my finances :rotfl:

Tesco/Dettol voucher codes for cinema tickets arrived. Will use to see Planet of the Apes when we are away

Leftover saag aloo, mango chutney and naan bread for lunch , Chinese style pork rice out of freezer for dinner and hm Bircher muesli for breakfast which was cheap and easy and yummy and I didn't feel hungry for about 4 hours afterwards so no snacking


Counter successes (?? Trying to avoid fails )

Ordered a cable for my tablet because the one it came with is ludicrously short and I could do with a spare for work as I'm often caught short of charge . it arrived today shortly after a found one that fits it in the junk drawer. £3 wasted :mad:


New goals

Sort out a clear, simple and easy to use recording and reporting format so I can report spends and saves weekly, monthly and annually. I think this will keep me focused and motivated .

Post daily while I'm off work on hols. Hoping if I get into good habits over the summer then I'll keep it up when I'm running around like a loon come September.

Clean car - its getting embarrassing:o

Pack for my hols:j

Collect train tickets

Print off vouchers etc

Off to bed now, was aiming for 10.30 but that hasn't happened!

PP x

pinkypig

I've woken (at 6.45 not 5.30 - settling into holiday mode:)) to a much brighter day. I hope it lasts.
I've done my new morning routine - fed the dog, put the coffee on, cleared the worst of the teenage detritus and checked my online banking
Early in the week I collected up bits and bobs of savings that were scattered around to try and make the most of meagre interest. Today the cheques cleared so £3950.57 into my offset account plus a 33 p TT :j

I have one more savings account which has interest of around £6 payable on 3rd August so once I've got that I'll close it and move the balance to my offset. That will mean for the first time in forever that I've got one current account, one savings account and one mortgage. As they are all online and the payment into my OS saver is set up it should be quick and simple to op and keep track of the mortgage. Let's hope its not famous last words...

I've decided that my weekly,monthly and annual recording and reporting will be done using the following categories (always have Keith Lemon in my head when I say or write that :rotfl:);

Grocery- this will include food, cleaning,pets and toiletries

Petrol

Gas and electricity - nice and easy with my smart meter which I love

Personal spends. - I'm giving myself £150 a month for me, the house, garden etc. Given that nothing is actually needed, the kids have pocket money and jobs and annual stuff is budgeted elsewhere it just requires willpower and mindful spending

Offset/remaining mortgage amount

New mortgage term/original mortgage term

New mortgage amount / original mortgage amount


I'm going to record my holiday and annual spends and review those annually.

Need more coffee ( and maybe a bit of reading time) before I raise the teenmonster:)

PP x

greent

Am sure the charger won't be wasted - they do 'go' after a while, I've found (I've just bought 4 new ones this week after going through a pile I found, only 1 of which was working... - 6 of us in the house - 3 tablets and 3 phones can all use the same type of charger - and we have some in bedrooms (phones are alarm clocks in this house), 1 in each car and 1 in the caravan. OH also works away from home in the week so has one in his travel bag) - it's just a spare ready for when you do need it
x

Moneyfordreams

Hi, good luck with your plans,
My mortgage is a little bit bigger than yours, but our plans look similar. I want to retire at 55 in 71/2 years. I'm aiming to get the mortgaged cleared as not to eat into my lump sum... but time will tell. After being a successful MSEer last year, this year I'm taking the scenic route...

shangaijimmy

chargers, plugs and wires...they rule our house for tablets, phones, ipads, laptops, chromebooks!! I swear we need to arrange our furniture to coordinate with plug sockets!! And they seem to spawn off each other, until you are mega desperate for one and then they all vanish - I swear our eldest is a magician!