FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

financialbliss

..version 8.0 was unveilled officially at 4pm yesterday.

A few links in case anyone in interested in updating ahead of MS pushing IE8 out via automatic updates:

Microsoft press release:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/mar09/03-18IE8AvailablePR.mspx?rss_fdn=Press%20Releases

IE8 home page:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/default.aspx

IE Blog:
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/

Relevance to mortgage? Well, none really. Except it's free, so won't impact on your mortgage free goals, and the fact that I work in IT, so I tend to follow the browser markets as I build web based applications.

Don't personally use IE much though, I tend to use FireFox.

FB.

StuartGMC

financialbliss wrote: »

Don't personally use IE much though, I tend to use FireFox.
FB.

FB, Likewise, I use the open source products as my main tools, Firefox, Thunderbird and Sunbird; I don't use TurboCash but believe it is well rated as a full-blown accounting package.

financialbliss

Excellent news... :D:D

We've fixed the cloakroom toilet! I'm quite pleased about that.:j

Certain DIY things I'd always try myself, while one or two others are an automatic tradesman - plumbing is one of my tradesman DIY tasks as far as I'm concerned - I don't have any plumbing tools and it's something I just haven't got that much confidence in myself.

Despite mulling over the replace / fix dilemma all week, I got up this morning wanting to resolve the problem one way or another. As the fix option is the easiest, I thought - great I'll only pay a few pounds if I fix it and if it doesn't work, I've not wasted much money.

Borrowed some tools and bought not only the arm I linked to before, but a bottom entry filling tube too and in the end was a good choice as I had to replace the original. I think the crux of the problem was a washer inside the fill mechanism that had perished, but I'm pleased we replaced all of it - better to be safe than sorry.

Grant total spend: £5.47 - toilet fixed and everyone happy.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

Financial Bliss.

setmefree2

well done on that FB - result :T

Kaz2904

Well done for getting it all fixed for less than a tenner! Lets just hope it will hold now until you are mortgage free and then you can spend what you want on it!

TallGirl

Yes well done as you say good result and cheap too.

SmlSave

We've fixed the cloakroom toilet! I'm quite pleased about that.:j

Well done FB :T DIY expert

financialbliss

Ok. Feel an update from me is in order. Been quiet for a number of reasons – en suite project, man flu, work and children keeping me busy.

Been feeling very drained / tired lately – resulting in retiring to bed one evening at 20.45 (that’s mid afternoon as far as I’m concerned – I’m a bit of a night owl) – think I may have had a bit of man flu! Just getting over that when #1 suffers a bout of vomiting.

Right, lets get to the point I want to make this evening. As it’s close to the end of the month, I typically start checking sums to make sure I put enough funds in the current account to cover the mortgage, council tax, tv licence, life insurance, monthly savers etc that normally get collected on or around the first of the month.

It recently hit me that we’re going to run out of money. As I’ve spent some of our savings on the en suite project, we no longer have enough to feed the monthly savers. This is going to be a problem until June when the Halifax account finishes.

So, a plan of action was needed.

Currently have 3 monthly savers – Halifax: £500pm @ 10%, Barclays: £250pm @ 7.75% and Abbey. Now I thought Abbey was 6%, but it turns out that it was only 5.5%. So we closed the Abbey account which only had £750 in. Saving of £250 per month.

I’ve also took the painful but necessary decision to drop the mortgage to £1,000 a month, for a “while”, saving a further £200pm.

Savings in April, May and June £250 + £200 x 3 ie £1,350 less than previously needed, plus the £750 from closing the account. Total: £2,100.

More about the mortgage tomorrow… I’m turning in now!

FB.

Bernie

Sounds like you were suffering from Manthrax!

RosieTiger

Everybody knows how bad Man Flu can be - check it out on YouTube !

Mr RT