FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

financialbliss

abouttimetoo wrote: »

I also did it via Topcash and earned £10 for doing it so I'm really pleased with that too.

Well done there too. Just re-read your post and while I checked QuidCo and they didn't appear to offer anything, I forgot to check any other cashback sites.

I need to be more focussed!

FB.

abouttimetoo

financialbliss wrote: »

Hi abouttimetoo,

Ha - guess you've been in the credit card forums - I made an enquiry as to when the 5% cash back rate starts. I just applied last Saturday (31st July) and waiting for pin and card.

Notice that in this weeks MSE email, Amex are now offering 0% deals for the first 6 months on this card. I may have just missed out on this though, although I applied for the cash back, not 0%

Good news while I'm here. BoE kept base rate at 0.5% today, plus my mortgage payments for August cleared (yesterday). I'll get an update in this evening. FB.

Hi FB

I applied 30th July and when I came home last night after being away for three days the card was in the post and the PIN came today.

Re the 0% cashback, I didn't apply for that either but when the bumph came through I noticed that I was eligible for it anyway. Unfortunately I've thrown away said bumph so can't quote it here so have a look when your own comes through.

PS Yay to BOE rate

abouttimetoo

financialbliss wrote: »

Well done there too. Just re-read your post and while I checked QuidCo and they didn't appear to offer anything, I forgot to check any other cashback sites.

I need to be more focussed!

FB.

For some reason when I was first looking for a cashback site I didn't much care for Quidco though I know many people on here really like it. I didn't really want to apy an annual fee and anecdotally on various internet sites users were saying things like 'it's not as good as it used to be etc' In the end I went with Topcashback and although I don't use them often I've been very pleased with them so far.

Now, ahem, not sure whether to tell you this but.... apparently Quidco are offering a £60 cashback on Amex card so I'm not sure where you are looking but if it makes you feel any better than perhaps I need to widen my focus on cashback sites rather than just Topcashback

financialbliss

abouttimetoo wrote: »

Now, ahem, not sure whether to tell you this but.... apparently Quidco are offering a £60 cashback on Amex card so I'm not sure where you are looking but if it makes you feel any better than perhaps I need to widen my focus on cashback sites rather than just Topcashback

Ho hum. Having a bad spell on the luck front. Just re-checked and found it immediately. BUT, the cashback card is offering £10 via quidco:

http://www.quidco.com/american-express-platinum-cashback-card/?ac

Phew. Loosing out on £60 would have put me in a bad mood - a tenner's not so bad. The other Amex card offering £60 cash back is just a Platinum card and not the cash back card.

FB.

financialbliss

Mortgage. Payments cleared yesterday.:j

Mortgage yesterday was £38,323.73

Good news in that it's now less than my gross salary. Also, the year to date reduction is past £10k at £10,176 and will exceed the 2009 reduction of £11k next month. :j

I've updated the balance summary charts and payments v reduction v interest chart on post #1. I've also updated my signature and updated the last 100 steps spreadsheet.

FB.

chirpchirp

Must be a great feeling to get below your gross salary. Well done!!

financialbliss

Good news. Our American Express Platinum cash back cards arrived on Friday and the PINs on Saturday.

Both cards now active and put a few items on already!

Depending on if the 90 days at 5% cash back starts on 31st July or 7th August, then this means I've got until between 28th October to 5th November get my spending in at the 5% cash back rate.

Full review of credit cards this evening - I've four now :eek::eek::eek::eek:

FB.

financialbliss

Quick catch up on some numbers...

Scottish Power.
I generally log these on the first of each month to Scottish Power - electric and gas providers, but I've failed to log them here for a while:

Gas / electric costs.
Passed meter readings on to Scottish Power on the first of the month. Looks like this for January - July:

Electric (Units / Cost):

• January: 353 / 37.76
• February 298 / 32.09
• March: 316 / 34.16
• April: 293 / 31.32
• May: 243 / 27.06
• June: 236 / 25.32
• July: 244 / 26.67

Gas (Units / Cost):

• January: 73 / 88.42
• February 59 / 71.75
• March: 46 / 56.56
• April: 26 / 30.71
• May: 18 / 22.71
• June: 9 / 11.91
• July: 7 / 10.43

Total, ie Electric and Gas (Units / Cost / Balance)

• January: 426 / 126.18 / 10.31
• February 357 / 103.84 / -31.53
• March: 362 / 90.72 / -60.25
• April: 319 / 62.03 / -60.28
• May: 261 / 49.77 / -31.05
• June: 245 / 37.23 / 10.72
• July: 251 / 37.10 / 52.62

Bad news though. Our monthly direct debit has been revised upwards from £62 to £79 - a £17 monthly increase. :eek:


House price index (HPI).
Again, similar story - been updating my own indexes, but not published anything. Here's January to July:

2009 year end house value: 244,917.64

Month: Change / Value / LTV

January: 2,533.79 / 242,383.85 / 19.49%
February: 678.69 / 243,062.54 / 18.91%
March: 2,669.52 / 245,732.06 / 18.19%
April: 4,343.63 / 250,075.69 / 17.37%
May: 2,307.56 / 247.768.13 / 17.14%
June: 4,117.41 / 243,650.72 / 16.80%
July: 2,850.50 / 246,501.22 / 16.08%

As I've not updated this in a while, I'm just looking at the values and god only knows why I'm reporting to the pence. I suspect it's because A) I've calculated them to 2DPs and not rounded; I coped off diary post #1342, which also had it in pence.

Loan to value still dropping and 16.08% is our lowest value yet.

Interestingly, there's a 3 bed detached for sale a few doors down. Garage converted to a play room, bigger conservatory than ours, but no dining room, only 1 toilet (we have 3) and we have 4 bedrooms.

Cost - it's up for £238,000, so I suspect an average estimated price for us of around £245,500 based on the above HPI data isn't a million miles off.

Year to date - we're up by £1,583, but no plans to sell

Financial Bliss.

financialbliss

Similar story to the MFiT-T2 thread post I've just made.

We're off on holiday this morning - Legoland for 2 days (Wednesday and Thursday - travelling down today), then Frome, Somerset, then stopping in at Peterborough on the way back - away for 12 nights.

Just noticed I've not updated this in a few days - got a few pointers jotted down for updates, which will now have to wait until we return.

Financial Bliss.

JonnyBravo

financialbliss wrote: »

Interestingly, there's a 3 bed detached for sale a few doors down. Garage converted to a play room, bigger conservatory than ours, but no dining room, only 1 toilet (we have 3) and we have 4 bedrooms.

Cost - it's up for £238,000, so I suspect an average estimated price for us of around £245,500 based on the above HPI data isn't a million miles off.

Year to date - we're up by £1,583, but no plans to sell

£238k asking price.
They'll be lucky to get full asking price in today's market. Make sure you check www.houseprices.co.uk to see what it actually sells for..... if they sell it of course!
That'll give you a better idea of the value of your house. Better than any index or even any asking price.