FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

financialbliss

ShelleyC wrote: »

Welcome back. I was in Yarmouth on a day trip last week - we got drowned in downpour. Hope you got some sunshine too!

Wish my car did MPG anywhere near that :rolleyes:

The weather was remarkably kind, considering the rain in other parts of the UK. We had some wet spells, but these were literally just a few minutes at a time.

The Haven site we were at had an outdoor pool (heated) and we managed to get in there for two of the days we were on site.

As for the car, it's a Nissan Almera Tino - a mini MPV people carrier (5 seats). Ours is a 2.2 litre diesel. On longer journeys, we can get 50+ MPG, but for short hops it doesn't do as well, but still getting around the mid-30's MPG. We had it stuffed to the gills with holiday things.

Considering it's not the latest and greatest of cars (sold from 2000 to 2006) with the newest of engines / technology, our 05 plate is doing ok, touch wood.

FB.

financialbliss

Regular followers may remember that I previously mentioned a pay offer for 2009/10 of 0.5% which was available until 1st June.

Having checked the unison site, they are now suggesting that a 1% offer may be available:

http://www.unison.org.uk/asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=1521

In the current economic climate, I'd be delighted at a 1% pay increase. Yes, it's only going to add about £385 to my annual salary or about £32.15 a month before tax, but after reading about redundancies and pay reductions, a 1% offer can only be a good thing.

If this materialises, I suspect I won't see this in my pay packet until November / December.

Financial Bliss.

taka

God knows what we'll get this year... 0.3% was offered which was eventually upped to 0.5% but that hasn't been agreed on yet. Its supposed to kick in 1st Aug but it rarely does. We usually get it finally agreed/paid increase in November ish backdated to Aug 1st! Oh well I guess it'll be in-time for Xmas and just about pay for my works Xmas party if nothing else... :rotfl:

MoneyQueen

Hi Financialbliss,

Well atleast you are getting a hike... 1% is not bad in todays climate

MQ

financialbliss

MoneyQueen wrote: »

Hi Financialbliss,

Well atleast you are getting a hike... 1% is not bad in todays climate

MQ

True, very true. Having re-read that unison link, it also mentions an extra days holiday, which I'd not spotted in the small hours of this morning.

That said, I'm not actually a member of Unison. When you get on a bus, they don't ask your salary and charge accordingly - and I fail to see why they implement a membership charging policy like this:

http://www.unison.org.uk/join/costs.asp

Can't see that I'd gain a lot from £22.50 a month - that's £270 a year.

Will be interesting to see how this pans out, ie passed or rejected!

FB.

financialbliss

Well it's the 31st July (just). Glanced at the clock and as it was after 11.30, I thought I'd stay up and grab the interest info. Nationwide apply mortgage interest at midnight - if you log in just before and then refresh after midnight, you get to see your mortgage change...

So, we're now looking at 2009 payments and interest from January to July:

Mortgage at start of year: 59,500.00
Overpayments in Blue.
Interest in Red.
Balance in Green.

Month: Payment (Std / OP) / Interest (per day) / Net reduction / Balance

January: 1,200.00 (898.03 / 301.97) / 237.37 (7.66) / 962.63 / 58,537.37
February: 1,200.00 (898.03 / 301.97) / 210.99 (7.54) / 989.01 / 57,548.36
March: 1,200.00 (898.03 / 301.97) / 229.56 (7.41) / 970.44 / 56,577.92
April: 1,025.00 (898.03 / 126.97) / 218.94 (7.30) / 806.06 / 55,771.86
May: 1,025.00 (898.03 / 126.97) / 222.96 (7.19) / 802.04 / 54,969.82
June: 1,200.00 (898.03 / 301.97) / 212.08 (7.07) / 987.92 / 53,981.90
July: 1,025.00 (898.03 / 126.97) / 215.58 (6.95) / 809.42 / 53,172.48

Totals: Payment / Interest / Net reduction.

Minimum: 1,025.00 / 210.99 / 802.04
Maximum: 1,200.00 / 237.37 / 989.01
Average: 1,125.00 / 221.07 / 903.93
Grand Total: 7,875.00 / 1,547.48 / 6,327.52

Nice to see that the July daily interest is under £7.00. Need to do a final check of funds needed to be put in place to cover mortgage and other debits from 1st August onwards.

I'll transfer this out of savings later today once I've first had some sleep.

FB.

financialbliss

Oops. Been absent at a time in the month when I’ve a lot to report. A few posts this evening if I can squeeze them in.

So what’s been keeping me busy? I’m a bit of a gadget freak – I do like my toys…

Mobile.
You may remember last September that I bought a top of the range Samsung C300 mobile phone which had features such as texting and voice calls for only £8.98. Reasonable phone and it ticks both boxes for me – no internet access, blue tooth, internet, MP3, GPS and suchlike.

One small problem. It’s locked to Virgin mobile. It’s just a PAYG phone, but I’m paying 3p for texts and 15p for calls to other Virgin users, but 12p per text and 40p for calls to other networks. Off the top of my head, but I think they're correct. Ouch :eek:

So, since we’ve got back from holiday, I’ve been researching unlocking this phone so I can use it on any network. Trouble is that I’ve just had an email today reporting it could not be unlocked remotely via a code (paid £2.99 + VAT – should get this refunded) and the suggestion was to try either my network provider or someone locally via a cable.

Was intending to move to Asda mobile – 8p for calls and 4p for texts regardless of network. Nice and cheap – will do for us. Not interested in per month phones, even if it’s “just £15” as a friend told me he paid per month.

So, my options now are

a) Attempt cable unlock. May cost between £10 to £15, possibly more.
b) Get cost from Virgin mobile. Suspect this will be relatively expensive, if they even do this at all - they need to protect their revenue. I’ve just emailed them.
c) Purchase an Asda phone. These start from £22.00 with £4.95 postage

The Asda phone option could be offset with trading the Samsung mobile on mopay.co.uk – they would give me £4.20 for it. Not bad considering I’ve had it 11 months and it only cost £8.98. Additionally, the Asda phones are not locked to any one network.

The aim is to get our mobile costs down. Still researching options and not in too much of a hurry to switch.

Sat Nav.
Managed to navigate the A1 down to Peterborough no problem, but the problems started when we wanted to find our way around Peterborough to our destination. Took a few wrong turns, but we eventually got there. On the final part of going to Great Yarmouth, we also took a wrong turn, so I’ve been pondering over a Sat Nav box of tricks.

Again, I’m just researching the options at present and not even sure if we’ll purchase one. Like any purchase, you can often go overboard, so we’ve just been looking at the relatively basic models such as the TomTom classic and TomTom IQ UK versions, ie systems at about the £150 or less mark.

Still not 100% sure if we would benefit from the purchase, ie would it be a cost effective purchase, or is it the big gadget / techie streak in me that wants one. For anyone with a Sat Nav system – are they worth their price?

I’ll keep you posted on how we proceed both on the mobile and Sat Nav fronts...

Financial Bliss.

gallygirl

financialbliss wrote: »

Again, I’m just researching the options at present and not even sure if we’ll purchase one. Like any purchase, you can often go overboard, so we’ve just been looking at the relatively basic models such as the TomTom classic and TomTom IQ UK versions, ie systems at about the £150 or less mark.

Still not 100% sure if we would benefit from the purchase, ie would it be a cost effective purchase, or is it the big gadget / techie streak in me that wants one. For anyone with a Sat Nav system – are they worth their price?

I’ll keep you posted on how we proceed both on the mobile and Sat Nav fronts...

Financial Bliss.

FB I have the basic TomTomOne and also Europe version (DS now has TT1). I use them all the time & love them. We did have a Garmin but hated it. TT's are not perfect and you do need to use a bit of common sense but they remove a lot of stress and are great if you travel a lot, especially on your own with no map reader. Oh, and Sean the Irishman has a lovely voice (although the free downloadable Geordie is funny )

financialbliss

Barclaycard point programme.
Got a barclaycard Goldfish credit card. This card has a rewards programme where you can exchange points for vouchers.

One point is earned per £1 spent. The points required to redeem a £10 voucher has just increased from 1,750 to 2,500 points.

Was hoping to redeem points for Argos vouchers and purchase a Sat Nav system via Argos at a much reduced price, but in light of recent changes, I'm more likely to be mortgage free before I have a Sat Nav system, so I've kicked that idea into touch.

Currently have £30 of Argos vouchers and four Cineworld cinema vouchers to use, care of their rewards programme.

FB.

financialbliss

gallygirl wrote: »

FB I have the basic TomTomOne and also Europe version (DS now has TT1). I use them all the time & love them. We did have a Garmin but hated it. TT's are not perfect and you do need to use a bit of common sense but they remove a lot of stress and are great if you travel a lot, especially on your own with no map reader. Oh, and Sean the Irishman has a lovely voice (although the free downloadable Geordie is funny )

GallyGirl,
Thanks for the quick/useful response. Not sure we need the Geordie version - I've Mrs Bliss for that - [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]Ye knaa what ah mean leik

FB.
PS - Mrs Bliss is / was a cartographer and is rubbish at reading maps in a timely fashion :rotfl:
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