FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

financialbliss

financialbliss wrote: »

Well I'm away for 5 days and this coming Thursday there is a £12 Travelodge sale.

Evening,
Absolutely terrible drive back home on Friday. A 5 hour drive turned out nearer 7 hours (which included a few brief coffee / toilet stops), due to congestion, roadworks and accidents.

Didn't manage to get any bargains - no £12 rooms in the two locations I had in mind, nor had the prices shifted downwards either.

Aiming to do lots in the coming week - catch up on the challenges I'm in / running, receipts and paperwork etc, but just now I'm sorting out the gear for the cycle commute for the week ahead.

Just checked BBC weather and not looking too promising for the coming week. Dry on Monday, wet on Tuesday and Wednesday, thunder shower on Thursday and heavy rain for Friday. Suspect that this will be the week I dodge a cycle commute and take the bus, although I'm aiming to try out a wet commute.

That's enough for me for now. Was just a quick "I'm still posting" type post. More in the coming week...

(Mr) FB.

financialbliss

financialbliss wrote: »

That's enough for me for now. Was just a quick "I'm still posting" type post. More in the coming week...

(Mr) FB.

Ha, That never happened.

Starting to realise that there's no such thing as bad weather - just bad gear. My commuting bag (3 pocketed sections) pretty much fell to bits last week - one of the zips just totally failed. I'm using another bad just now, but took that as an opportunity to review how I'm carrying things into work and back.

As a result, I spent most of the week researching racks and panniers, and a few other odds 'n' ends, thus the sparse appearance on MSE. Got a rack on Friday and that's been fitted, but still pondering over bags.

I'm not going to say, I'm doing "this" this evening, as every time I do that, something crops up.

FB.

financialbliss

Not long settled this evening. Doing a little site checking etc before I turn in.

Bit of a bike post coming on…

Left work, walked over to bike locker stand and got bike out. Rear tyre looked a little flatter than it was previously. Checked it over and appeared ok. As it had just started raining, I decided to leave it alone and see if I could get home on it.

Well, got home and found a small cut in the tyre with what appeared to be some metal inside. Thinking to myself – I’m going to do some damage getting that out, I decided that I’d treat myself to some new tyres. Tyres were original to bike and I’ve had the bike 8+ years, so they owed me nothing. With it being well after 6pm, the Local Bike Shop (LBS) would have been shut, so next best option was Halfords. Purchased a pair of mountain bike tyres @ £16.99 each. Used a credit card I’d previously registered for QuidCo in store cash back, so I should get 4.5% discount off that price providing it tracks.

I’ve then spend a while this evening taking off the front wheel, replacing tyre and putting back on the bike and repeating for the rear tyre. Except I also checked the rear tube for a puncture, but oddly could not find one. So, once the rear wheel was back on and tyre inflated, I’ve just gone for a quick ride to make sure everything is ok.

Spoke to the Halfords assistant about the (more expensive) Kevlar tyres they also sold, but in his opinion I’d be better off getting the Kevlar lining and placing inside a standard tyre, as once a Kevlar tyre has worn down, it needs replacing, while you have to also replace a standard tyre, but a Kevlar lining can be swapped over. A quick internet search suggests I can get the lining for £9.99 per tyre.

I also (yesterday) ordered some panniers to go on the rack I purchased last week @ 44.42 for two fully waterproof panniers – 25 ltrs – 2 x 12.5 ltr.

I'm also looking at a second rear light to attach to the rack, plus I spoke to the owner of the LBS last week and I plan to book the bike in sometime soon for a service when I get the time.

Who said cycling was cost effective? :rotfl:

Also, today I got a text message from Tesco advising my Tesco card balance had reached £5,000. I nearly had kittens – oh hell I’m going to be charged an over limit fee etc, until I remembered my credit limit is £5,200 and I requested a reminder when the balance got to £5,000.

Turning in.

Financial Bliss.

curlygirl1971

Saw a programme in the TV listings for this evening that you might enjoy - BBC 4, 8pm

financialbliss

curlygirl1971 wrote: »

Saw a programme in the TV listings for this evening that you might enjoy - BBC 4, 8pm

Hmmm - The Joy of Stats.

May tag and bag that, ie get the PVR to record that and save for later viewing.

I immediately thought - is this a play on words, but maybe that was because we have just finished tea and daughter was talking about a clothes free day at school when she meant a uniform free day...:D

Got the bus in today. Tyre totally flat when I got up this morning. Left work a little earlier ad removed rear wheel. Substantially inflated rear tyre and placed in bath. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Had a moment of clarity and decided to put the cap back on the valve and as soon as I did that, it started slowly releasing bubbles. Cap back off and there was still an occasional bubble. Writing tube off as valve failure. Got another on just now and keeping an eye on it - tipping it down outside, so haven't ventured out to test.

About to put kids in the bath. Probably be back later.

FB.

financialbliss

Grrr. Isn't it just frustrating?

Been up since around 7am - tried logging into Nationwide on-line banking shortly after that to get mortgage balance to be greeted with a "We are having technical difficulties..." message.

Just tried again and no change. Don't they know I've a mortgage balance to capture and plug into a spreadsheet, so I can generate stats and graphs.

Actually, don't tell Nationwide,but my mortgage should be £19,743.83 today. A difference of £9.45 over last Sunday due to interest charged, or £1.35 per day.

Financial Bliss.

financialbliss

A bit late in posting month end stats.

Had today off to get a few things sorted. Pretty much achieved nothing of what I planed to do. Got a few irons in the fire, one of which has had some progress. Hope to mention that this week.

On to month end stats:

Opening Balance: 23,172.41

Overpayments in Blue.
Interest in Red.
Balance in Green.

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

January: 900.00 (887.41 / 12.59) / 47.36. (1.53) / 852.64 / 22,319.77
February: 900.00 (887.41 / 12.59) / 41.14. (1.47) / 858.86 / 21,460.91
March: 900.00 (887.41 / 12.59) / 43.71. (1.41) / 856.29 / 20,604.62
April: 900.00 (887.41 / 12.59) / 40.56. (1.35) / 859.44 / 19,745.18


Totals: Payment / Interest / Net reduction.

Minimum: 900.00 / 40.36 / 852.64
Maximum: 900.00 / 47.36 / 859.44
Average: 900.00 / 43.19 / 856.81
Grand Total: 3,600.00 / 172.77 / 3,427.23

Balance outstanding: 19,745.18

Ring-fenced mortgage savings: 6,700.00

Net mortgage: £13,045.18

Rather than being a mill stone around our neck each month, I find I start looking towards the first of the month, as our mortgage payments come out then.

With yet another month of throwing £2,000.00 at the mortgage due to slow stoozing on the credit cards, we should see the balance somewhere in the region of £11,085 come the end of May. June should see sub £10k! :j

Feel I should now also start reporting the credit card debt, as it's the debt at 0% which is helping to free up the cash to throw at the mortgage / savings. If you scare easily, look away now

Tesco CC @ 0% : 5,156.63
Nationwide CC @ 0% : 811.45

Total CC debt: 5,968.08

Funds in place for direct debits and savings overpayment which are coming out in the morning...

Financial Bliss.

financialbliss

Quick update to say that the May mortgage payment cleared yesterday. Don't have all my stats to hand (I'm at work just now), so updates this evening.

Still can't quite believe that I've potentially got 7 (seven) or less mortgage payments to go.

Now have a very firm date in my by which I want to be mortgage free. I've always liked the 12/12/12 date, which was always something to aim for, but I'm now hoping (and expecting) to exceed that.

For those of you who have a partner and they're not fully aware that you're chipping away at the mortgage, anyone care to enlighten me how to break the news to the other half?

Mrs Bliss knows we're reasonably close, but looking at the mortgage alone still shows £18k outstanding. Was wanting to clear it and then break the news to her...

Financial Bliss.

Peonie

Oh my goodness, she does not know! Do you think she will be upset or over the moon?

Does she like a drink? You could always buy a bottle of champagne and have a fancy label made with a mortgage free message on it.

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi FB, I think that is such a beautiful thing to be planning. No idea how to do it, but perhaps choose whatever she thinks is extravagant, meal out, new frock, and when she says, we can't afford it, tell her you can

Good luck and you really aree an inspiration


Tilly x