FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

setmefree2

financialbliss wrote: »

Quick update this evening.

Electric / Gas. Got a letter from our electric / gas provider at the weekend saying that they’re putting our direct debit up again – this time by only a fiver a month. Still, that’s 60 pounds a year that would be better in my bank account. Combined electric and gas payment now standing at 77.00 per month :eek: FB.

Hi FB,

I have just started a "big push" to try to reduce our gas and electricity usage. The SMFs are protected from price rises at the mo because I was sooooo fortunate to take a cap with BG that lasts until 2010. However, when our fix is over I know we are in for a shock:eek:. I have started (yet another) spread sheet to try and help me. Hopefully we can save money and reduce CO2 levels...;)

Have a good holiday

SMF2

financialbliss

setmefree2 wrote: »

I have just started a "big push" to try to reduce our gas and electricity usage.

Hi setmefree2,

Would love some tips on how to reduce electric / gas usage!

FB

setmefree2

Hi FB,

Well I've only just started. Over on my diary thread I've listed our usage for the last 2 years. It ia amazingly consistent year on year, so it's going to be a real challenge to find areas to cut down.

GAS
I've put our water on to just once a day. However, most of our gas costs seem to come from the central heating in winter. Don't know how we are going to cut this down Pretty well insulated apart from our front door, which has the orginal Victorian leaded glass - looks nice put the wind blows through it.:o Curtain? New porch ?(seems a shame to hide beautiful door), Extra glass somehow

ElECTRICITY
We do all the usual - energy light bulbs, don't leave things on stand by,etc. Just bought an OS carpet sweeper and am trying to stop using my washing mach, drier, etc so much. Watch my thread,we'll see how I get on with this one.

Of course I could stop posting on MSE...but I reckon that saves me money!

I'm open to suggestions too.:D Do you have a capped rate tarriff. I can't see energy prices going down in the future so might be worth considering? Dual fuel and paperless billing also saves money.

All the Best

SMF2

SwitchyChick

Hi All
I've been 'lurking' for a while too! This thread has convinced me that I am a MFW. Our fixed rate mortgage is due to come to an end this October which is an ideal opportunity to get something more flexible/offset which will enable us to make overpayments.
We have a £130k mortgage on an interest-only basis at the moment. The repayment part is via ISA investments currently worth £53k. We have 60%+ equity in the house.
OH is a higher rate taxpayer, I am basic rate taxpayer. We have worked out that we can afford to pay an extra £700/month off the mortgage. There may also be a lump sum later this year of around £25k.
Any advice from MFWs out there as to what product they would recommend for making overpayments like this? I can't quite get my head around offsetting but feel like I'm being swayed by the tax efficiency for OH...
Thanks in advance
SC

Edit: I don't hang around. Got lots of good advice & 'booked' my new 2yr fix with FD 18-6-08 (rates went up again yesterday :eek: )

financialbliss

Hi SwitchyChick - thanks for putting in an appearance.

Setmefree2 - thanks for those fuel tips.

Ali007 - I'll try and document "soon" how I put graphs onto this diary.

However, I'm off to north Wales in the morning so no more posts from me for a few days...

Hoping for an early start - leaving around 08.30 so that we can be there for 12.30 or 1pm. We're back next Friday (20th).

See you all soon,

Financial Bliss.

BACKFRMTHEEDGE

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=674625



There is a thread (above) on driving in a fuel efficient manner:money:

financialbliss

Hi all :hello:

Back from North Wales…

Weather could have been a bit kinder, but despite the BBC 5 day forecast I did just before we left showing heavy rain for 5 days, we just had a few showers during the day, with all the heavy rain overnight.

Took some stats from the various car on-board displays and got the following on the way to and from Wales:

To Wales: 4h 07m / 215.8 miles / 51.9 mph / 49.3 mpg
From Wales: 3h 58m / 209.8 miles / 52.8 mph / 51.1 mpg

First is time in hours and minutes. Second is miles. Third is average speed and fourth is average miles per gallon. We’ve a 2.2 diesel by the way.

Took a slight wrong turn and thus racked up a few extra miles on the way there. Via postcode to postcode it was reported as 206 miles. Times shown were when the key was in the ignition, ie stoppage times aren’t recorded.

On the outward journey, I didn’t look at the mpg display much. On the way back, rather than accelerate, brake, I tried to ease off on the accelerator rather than brake when the opportunity arose. Despite doing the return leg slightly quicker, the mpg was slightly up. Never broke any speed limits either – just nearly all motorway driving.


Holiday itself was good – didn’t try to pack as much in as the Lakes. Chester Zoo was a great experience and a much larger zoo than I appreciated. Kids seemed to enjoy holiday and #1 didn’t want to come home as he “wanted to stay for 10 weeks”.

No further holidays booked at present, although we discussed camping while away. Not sure how practical this is with two small kids, but we may have a dry run in the back garden first!

MSE – spent a little time this evening reading through this mortgage free board and nice to see a few new names / threads.

Thanks,
FB.

StuartGMC

FB, good to hear you and the family had a good break and that you are balancing the MFW date whilst still enjoying time with them. Keep us updated, I started my own thread after seeing yours, so thanks for the incentive.

financialbliss

Quick post to say I've been having some woes with our Playstation 3 (60Gb)...

It decided to start not playing the PS2 games, yet continuing to play PS1 and PS3 games and DVDs. Been in contact with Playstation careline over the last two days and have received a replacement 60Gb today.

Been distracted with this for a few days...

FB.

StuartGMC

setmefree2 wrote: »

GAS
ELECTRICITY
I'm open to suggestions too.:D Do you have a capped rate tarriff. I can't see energy prices going down in the future so might be worth considering? Dual fuel and paperless billing also saves money.

I hope you've all checked if you can get a local grant towards insulating your home; yes, even if you are higher rate tax payer it doesn't matter. If you don't have 250mm (10") insulation in the loft for example then it is less than the recommendations.

We arranged ours via the local council link, and for a few hundred quid (less than we could buy materials for alone) all pipework and tanks were double-insultated, loft from just 2" insulation was filled to 10" and hatches insulated.

Do check this out as it's a first-come-first-served principle.