FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

financialbliss

Well, we're back from our little camping expedition. More about that later. You may have noticed this already, as I've made a few posts in the MFiT-T2 thread - almost at 100 members now.

However, I've been keeping a low profile as my Playstation 3 (original 60Gb with PS2 compatibility) died on Saturday morning. :mad::mad:

I've been on to the Playstation care line, and despite initial thoughts that the hard disc was corrupt, this is now unlikely to be the case. Can boot the PS3 into "safe" mode, then I've tried various options with no joy. Removing the hard disc should force the PS3 to partially boot, but report that the HD is absent, but it fails to do that - just a black screen and no playstation splash screen.

I believe my options are as follows:

1) Do nothing. Cost of zero.
2) Purchase a PS3 slim.
3) Get unit exchanged by Sony.
4) Try getting it repaired myself.

1) Don't really see this an an option, despite putting it down as one. To be fair, our son probably uses the PS3 more than me, so for that reason alone, it's probably a non-starter.

2) These are the new PS3s just out - cost £249.99. This is likely to be the most expensive option, but would come with a 12 month warranty. This is roughly double option '3', so don't see this as an option.

3) My original PS3 was purchased in December 2007 not long after I started this diary. It failed and was replaced under warranty in June 2008 and it's this refurbished unit that has failed again. A bit wary of getting another refurbished unit.

4). Some searching on the internet later and I've found a local company on the Newcastle quayside called Console Doctor (http://www.consoledoctor.co.uk/). They offer free estimates, so I'm very tempted to call them and drop the PS3 in to get a free repair estimate.

If it comes in at under £128, then get it repaired, otherwise go for the Sony like for like replacement.


Of all the Sony products I've ever had, TVs, stereo's, camcorders etc, I've personally found their build quality second to none. My PS2 is still going strong despite it being almost 9 years old, so having 2 PS3 failures in under 2 years is disappointing / annoying (it's a public forum - I'd like to put stronger words in there). :mad:

Clearly, I'd like this resolved with the least outlay on my part. I'll keep you posted on how this pans out...

Financial Bliss.

financialbliss

Just a quick update on the Playstation front.

Having reviewed the options I set down yesterday, I thought I'd call the Playstation careline again today to discuss my situation and see if I could get anywhere with them.

I'm not attempting to drum up business or knock Console Doctor, but their guarantee is for 6 months for the components that failed and were replaced in the PS3.

The Sony guarantee is 90 days for the full machine. After a calm but persistent call to them this morning and despite not being able to shift them on price (the exchange price had recently been reduced from £145 and is non-negotiable), they agreed to offer me a full 12 months guarantee on an exchange PS3 instead of just 90 days.

So, I've took them up on that offer. £128, which gets me a brand new re-manufactured 60Gb PS3 which is being delivered / swapped by courier later this week.

FB.

uzubairu

Good to see the research paid off.

financialbliss

Been logged into MSE for a fair part of this evening, and just getting around to putting something in this diary now...

Mortgage free challenge. If you follow that thread, we've just hit 100 challengers. I've always had a mental note to break this to Mrs Bliss.

Was never too sure how popular the challenge would be and didn't want to break the news with a handful of challengers. 100+ challengers certainly shows there is a strong interest in this challenge, so I feel the need to break this to her! No definitive date - just something I feel I should do.

Mortgage. Payments cleared while I was away. I grabbed then when I came back and the mortgage stood at £51,286.79. I've updated and uploaded the charts on post #1 of this diary. Should have 39 months remaining if I'm on target for December 2012.

We have now paid £10,000 this year towards the mortgage. Interest stood at £1,786.79, so the net reduction was £8,213.21

In the aims for 2009: "Mortgage between 47,500 and 48,884 – ideally towards the lower end of the range."

I'm now looking to achieve a year end mortgage value of £48,500. I've already upped the mortgage payment this month to £1,100, so repeating this until December won't leave me massively short of that target.

FB.

SmlSave

We have now paid £10,000 this year towards the mortgage. Interest stood at £1,786.79, so the net reduction was £8,213.21

Well done :T:beer::T

financialbliss

The site I collect the house price index data from was updated on Thursday, but I hadn't got around to updating our stats, so here goes...

2008 year end house value: 232,022.54

Month: Change / Value / LTV

January: 1,990.83 / 234,013.37 / 24.94%
February: 859.68 / 233,153.69 / 24.63%
March: 3,167.24 / 229,986.45 / 24.65%
April: 135.73 / 230,122.18 / 24.20%
May: 5,474.79 / 235,596.97 / 23.29%
June: 3,031.50 / 232,565.47 / 23.18%
July: 2,760.01 / 235,325.48 / 22.55%
August: 1,809.84 / 237,135.32 / 22.12%

The Halifax index went up in August, so I've seen an increase of £1,809 for August, plus our loan to value, worked out from averaging our mortgage loan for the same period and comparing against the index has again this month came out at te lowest yet at just 22.12% YTD, we're theoretically up £5,112.

However, this interesting article suggests we're going to see a dip in prices come 2010 as the current rally ends:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/mortgages-and-homes/house-prices/article.html?in_article_id=490604&in_page_id=57

Hopefully more posts later today, but we're off out shortly...

Financial Bliss.

financialbliss

Well I said I’d give an update on our camping trip – seems an age ago already, as we have slipped back into regularity of the school schedule – our son back at school in year 1 and our daughter is about to start nursery next week. She is one of the last intake as they have started everyone by age and she will be one of the youngest, having just turned three at the end of June.

We learned a couple of things - we thoroughly enjoyed our camping trip. This was mainly due to the kids enjoying themselves. On the drive down, our son said he was looking forward to getting the water from the “water tower” – actually just a pipe in the middle of the field, so nowhere near as exciting. :rotfl:

The weather was in the main pretty good, apart from when we were setting up. The wind was so fierce that we had to ask the kids to sit on the tent to stop it blowing away while we got the poles in.

However, in the latter part of the week, we had a serious and unrelenting downpour for about 30 hours. Our tent got seriously saturated and we got drops of water coming through. Lesson learned number two – we could do with a better tent. It was purchased for £40, so perhaps next time we need to invest in a better quality tent, but at least we know the kids like camping.

On to 2010…
We’re now unsure what to do for a 2010 holiday. Kids are perhaps still a little young to go abroad – they will be 6 and 4 next year, but there is also so much to do and see in the UK.

We have pondered over another Haven site, camping again, holiday cottages, narrow boating, log cabin in Scottish highlands, working farm holidays etc, and to be honest, we’re unsure what to do. We have seen a fantastic holiday cottage in Somerset with an indoor swimming pool on site, but at over 7 hours drive, it’s quite a way to travel. Priced at nearly £1,100 for a week in the 6 weeks holidays, it drops to about £560 in the last week of August, which is much nicer, but currently we are undecided!

I’ll let you know what we settle on if and when we do book something…

Any MSE style savvy holiday tips would be much appreciated!

Financial Bliss.

gallygirl

financialbliss wrote: »

We’re now unsure what to do for a 2010 holiday. Kids are perhaps still a little young to go abroad – they will be 6 and 4 next year, but there is also so much to do and see in the UK.

Financial Bliss.

I took my kids overseas from less than a year old with no problems. I looked at some old photos the other day, lovely sunshine & swimming pools (em, exOH didn't do culture, so no museums etc ) TBH personally I'd have thought 5 & 3 was too young to stay in a tent - but that's probably me projecting my own feelings onto them!

Cost is obviously a factor, as is travel time, unless you are happy to fly, but I wouldn't rule it out because the children were too young.

SmlSave

Glad to hear you enjoyed your camping holiday FB I alway love camping, esp in the new Forest.

The cottage in Somerset sounds lovely, as does a log cabin in the highlands - but isn't it midge season in Scotland in August?

One thing I would say re going abroad is that don't forget that while 7 hours in a car seems like a long time to Somerset you'll have to get to the airport and then ...wait....fly....wait.... and my bro and I were terrible at waiting at the airports when we were young!

Ohhhh....now you've got me thinking about holidays ........how about Ireland?

Little_Mama

First foreign holiday was when DS1 was 2.5, he loved it, just popped to France and he wasn't fussed with the travel, added to the adventure. First with two was at the ages of 9 months and 4.5, again to France & no probs.

Have you thought of taking them out of school? We've not found it a problem in the past and this year we took them out in Feb, snowing here and went off to somewhere very hot & sunny. We'd always promised them a beach holiday with unbroken sunshine and this is what they got. We mixed in learning some of the culture and some sports and they probably learned just as much in that week away as they would have at school.

The Canaries in late December/Early January are great value and your little ones get the chance to see Papa Noel on the 6th Jan too.

We still do our fair share of British holidays but some of them have come in at a far greater cost than our foreign ones as we've had to pay extra for things to do due to the inclement weather.

Also all-inclusive deals are great and will give you & Mrs FB a holiday too and not have to worry about supermarket shops & feeding yourselves.......well worth the money in my book.

Anyway, hope that other viewpoint helps.

LM