FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

setmefree2

canne wrote: »

Funnily enough, your thread has been the most interesting so far, I have read a few others as well...

Ah - I'm all hurt now Mine is boring. Tee Hee - just joking

financialbliss

Well, it’s been all over the news today. Everywhere I’ve seen, it seems to be suggesting that if you’re earning less than 40k, you should be slightly better off. :j

Short term, we should be (very) slightly better off due to the VAT reduction, the £120 rebate for basic rate tax payers extended and child benefit payments being brought forward from April 2009 to January 2009.

I’m guessing, and it’s just a semi-educated guess at best, about £250 a year better off. That’s oooh, let me see, about £20.83 a month or £4.80 a week. And that’s only in the short term – just wait until VAT goes back up and increased National Insurance contributions kick in.

Trouble is, I don’t feel any better off, despite being “told” I will be. Taking my greatest asset, ie my home – I use the Halifax house price index each month to re-calculate the value of our house based on it’s original purchase price. In October alone, it lost almost £250 a day – that’s a £7,601 drop in October.:eek:

Puts the £250 a year pre-budget “benefits” into perspective.

Not sure that a £2.50 per £100 VAT incentive is going start us on a spending rampage, and I suspect quite a few other people aren’t swayed by the temporary VAT reduction either.

Financial Bliss.

financialbliss

Just a little bit surprised that no one commented on the pre-budget report. I’ve found another BBC article that shows as a bar graph the winners and losers, not that I'm found of charts:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7748694.stm

Hit a bit of a motivational brick wall this week, but while I’m here, I may as well drop in a quick update.

Savings accounts. The Barclays regular saver was funded with £250 on Tuesday. Going to fund it again with £250 on 1st December. Now got an application for for the Abbey regular saver. Mrs Bliss currently working on that and hoping to drop that into the nearest branch along with ID tomorrow. Can’t see that starting before January at the earliest.

Also opened a Tesco internet saver with the intention of replacing the Kaupthing Edge account, as a feeder for the regular saver accounts. The rate on this account is variable, currently 6.5% - dropping to 6.0% from 27th November – oh, that’s tomorrow! There’s also a 1.5% bonus on this account for 12 months, so I’ll set an e-mail reminder to review in 11 months.

Credit card. As I’ve mentioned before, I use Microsoft Money to aid with the finances. I’m getting behind again on entering the credit card bills. Currently in money the credit card looks like a savings account as it has a positive balance due to not one but two payments being posted there without (all of) the corresponding debit transactions. Suspect I’ve about 2k of spending to break down and key in. This all takes time – oh and motivation. I’m off work on Friday and Monday, so I may try and put some time aside to get some receipts in…

Christmas. We’re a good way though the shopping here. Both kids are complete and we’ve only spent a “relatively modest” amount on each – about £125 or so – remember, they’re only four and two. Both main presents – bike and dolls house take a fair chunk of the £125, topped up with other fun and practical presents, eg duvet covers and pyjamas.

Secret Santa / bran tub. Still on the subject of presents, we normally have a one of these in the office at Christmas. Names put in a hat, picked out at random and you buy a present for that person in case you’re unaware of what that is. With the credit crunch ‘n’ all, our office decided to up the budget to £15 a person :eek: Well call me a scrooge, but I decided to drop out this year. I know you get a present back, but that’s £15 we could spend on the kids – get your own house in order first sort of attitude.

December. Can’t believe it’s December on Monday. Looking forward to making payments / overpayments on December 1st. I’m hoping to hit an exact mortgage balance of 59,500.00 come 31st December. December cuts through the “6” balances and brings us into the “5”s. Always a nice feeling to reduce a leading digit.

In addition to 1,055 being paid on the 1st, I’m estimating :rolleyes: that I’ll need to pay a maximum additional amount of 1.19 to bring the balance down to £59,500. I’ll be able to determine this more accurately as I get closer to the 31st – will pay the 1.19 or less on 29th December, giving it a few days to clear.

If I've "disappeared" for a few days, I'm sorting out the credit card bills!

Financial Bliss.

evab_2

Have fun sorting out those bills

And well done for getting to the £50's a great milestone.

setmefree2

financialbliss wrote: »

Just a little bit surprised that no one commented on the pre-budget report.

I think that is because we are trying not to get depressed. ONLY.

JonnyBravo

financialbliss wrote: »

Just a little bit surprised that no one commented on the pre-budget report. I’ve found another BBC article that shows as a bar graph the winners and losers,

I don't want to get started on it.... I might not stop.

Come 2011 it'll be a noticeable amount with the NI hike.

Let's just say I won't be supporting this Govt in the next election. I'll be voting for anyone who can throw them out. That's likely to be Conservative here.

StuartGMC

financialbliss wrote: »

Just a little bit surprised that no one commented on the pre-budget report. I’ve found another BBC article that shows as a bar graph the winners and losers,

I was busy getting sorted for a business trip to Norway so haven't had chance to review in detail, but, I don't think it will help us overall and the payback looks like it is going to hurt too. Car tax changes will help me due to the deferral of the big increases planned.

Our plans and budgeting won't change, the only impact may be on the weekly shop (ie a reduction in cost for the VATable items) and if we spend less then we'll look to save the difference.

If we remain on the ambitious plan to be MF in Feb 2010, then the increased costs expected from the NI etc will be absorbed but it will impact the plans for savings at that time.

khc

"Christmas. We’re a good way though the shopping here. Both kids are complete and we’ve only spent a “relatively modest” amount on each – about £125 or so – remember, they’re only four and two. Both main presents – bike and dolls house take a fair chunk of the £125, topped up with other fun and practical presents, eg duvet covers and pyjamas."

We found that at that age, quantity rather than quality was the key - socks and undies were also wrapped up - we used a different paper for each child so that items could be wrapped as bought - and I still knew who they were for.

JonnyBravo

khc wrote: »

We found that at that age, quantity rather than quality was the key - socks and undies were also wrapped up - we used a different paper for each child so that items could be wrapped as bought - and I still knew who they were for.

Yep at that age they're playing with the box after an hour cos they are bored with what was in it!
Get yourself down to Argos and buy all the cheap tat you can!

financialbliss

As it's the 30th November, I've just checked the mortgage and worked out the monthly interest. Last month I revised the format used and I'm now extra information to give a more rounded picture, not just interest charged. Interest is red with daily interest charged in brackets.

Year starting balance: 69,653.22

Month / Payment / Interest (per day) / Net reduction / Balance.

January: 900.00 / 279.86 (9.03) / 620.14 / 69,033.08
February: 1,250.00 / 249.23 (8.90) / 1,000.77 / 68,032.31
March: 1,250.00 / 271.85 (8.77) / 978.15 / 67,054.16
April: 1,250.00 / 259.23 (8.64) / 990.77 / 66,063.39
May: 1,250.00 / 263.84 (8.51) / 986.16 / 65,077.23
June: 1,000.00 / 252.53 (8.42) / 747.47 / 64,329.76
July: 1,000.00 / 257.78 (8.32) / 742.22 / 63,587.54
August: 1,125.00 / 254.75 (8.22) / 870.25 / 62,717.29
September: 1,025.00 / 243.06 (8.10) / 781.94 / 61,935.35
October: 1,050.00 / 247.84 (7.99) / 802.15 / 61,133.19
November: 1,055.00 / 236.68 (7.89) / 818.32 / 60,314.87

Totals (Payment / Interest / Net reduction):

Minimum: 900.00 / 236.68 / 620.14
Maximum: 1,250.00 / 279.86 / 1,000.77
Average: 1,105.00 / 256.06 / 848.94
Total: 12,155.00 / 2,816.65 / 9,338.35

Now having a good handle on the interest charged each month, I can calculate that we will break through the 3k interest charged on Christmas Eve.

Funds in place to pay 1,055.00 tomorrow, ie 1st December.

Financial Bliss.