Our Patch of England

Cinny91

Payday!

We have:

Put £1000 into our savings. Currently at £4000, aiming for £5000 before September.
Put £400 into LO's savings, also at £4000. Aiming for £5000 by 2019.
£50 from the scrap man to start off the Christmas Tin Fund.

DH is sorting out the mortgage OP form, it's not as straight forward as I thought with having no online access but people used to over pay on their mortgages before the internet even existed so I know it's not impossible. Watch this space! The whole point of this thread will happen, honestly!

Signed up to an annual pass (for free through our mobile providers ) which'll save us a few ££ here and there on entry to ~*attractions*~ we're going to a local zoo with DH's siblings in a few weekends time so it'll save us £5ish there. It all helps! They also have 40% of cinema tickets, which I'm sure will come in handy too

Meatloaf was another success last night, lots of hidden veggies for LO and just generally tasty for me. Downside was DH hadn't eaten all day so no left overs. Did get some YS bread buns, so will be sandwiches for tea. Won't lie, I did over do it in the kitchen yesterday (meatloaf with mash and veggies, peach cobbler for pudding plus a batch of cookies to use up some eggs) so don't fancy turning the oven on when the world is already an oven Also grabbed some lemons so will be making fresh lemonade. Always goes down well!

beanielou

I have my mortgage as a payee on my internet banking & OP that way.

Cinny91

Oh, perfect Beanie! Did you just set it up like any other kind of payment? Like when you send money to friends etc?

julicorn

That's how we do our overpayments as well Our mortgage provider has an overview of 'different ways to pay' on their website, maybe yours does to? Basically, we have a mortgage account number that also doubles up as a bank account number which we can make payments to.

wishingthemortgaheaway

This is what I do too, it's set up as a bill payment on each current account. I always, no matter what the payment do a £1 year transaction to make sure everything is ok before committing decent amounts of money.

Cinny91

That sounds like it would be the perfect way to OP - all I can see online is the option to make regular monthly or lump sum payments. Might be a question for someone with a face! Hoping once they've sorted their online banking issues it'll be much more straight forward.

beanielou

wishingthemortgaheaway wrote: »

This is what I do too, it's set up as a bill payment on each current account. I always, no matter what the payment do a £1 year transaction to make sure everything is ok before committing decent amounts of money.

This.Always this.

beanielou

Cinny91 wrote: »

That sounds like it would be the perfect way to OP - all I can see online is the option to make regular monthly or lump sum payments. Might be a question for someone with a face! Hoping once they've sorted their online banking issues it'll be much more straight forward.

Just phone them.
They sould be able to give you the details.

starnac

Hi Cinny, nice to find your diary on here. Sounds like you are doing really well. I can't believe that LO is 2 though!! Where did that time go?

beanielou wrote: »

I have my mortgage as a payee on my internet banking & OP that way.

This is how I overpay too. So much easier and it means I don't need my card reader to send a payment either, which is handy as I'm always putting it down and then can't find it again!:o

Cinny91

Lovely to see you posting, Star! Hope you're well.

Keep coming on to post and then realising I don't really have anything to update on so leaving it :doh: I've been feeling a little down in the dumps about our finances, I've not been using it as an excuse to cut loose on the budget but with the loan I have been feeling a little What's the Point™ and generally a bit glum about it all. Still, I figure the world doesn't really care and DH and I are the only one who can fix our problems so it's Chin Up, Onwards and Upwards etc etc time.

Yesterday I finally got in touch with the bank, and as you all suggested sent a tester payment of £1. And it cleared! I moved what we've saved this month into the main account, rounded the mortgage balance down to a nice even £120,450.00 (because I can do that now) and come Monday when we've been paid DH's wages and the mortgage interest has been added on we're going to make a bigger payment to make sure we rock into September firmly in the £119k zone

Also downgraded our Netflix account, saving £2pm so not huge but it's the equivalent of a months phone contract over the year. It all adds up!

Over the weekend we counted up our change jar for our holiday in a few weeks and it now stands at £378. I'm hoping we'll have enough left on the last day to pay the balance for our cheapie newspaper holiday next March, I don't see us spending a great deal but evening meals/fuel always adds up quicker than I expect. I'm incredibly excited for our little break! I know it's not everyone's cup of tea but there's going to be so much for LO to do, and it's under 2 hours from home so not massive travelling with a toddler.

Spending wise, I bought LO a Hi-Vis coat in the sales yesterday for £5 - my Mum loves taking him on bike rides and it settles my nervous mind to know that he's visible from 20 miles away We've generally managed to keep a close eye on our general spending this month, although hair cut time has rolled around for all of us this week. DH and LO went to a new barbers on Saturday, and it's my turn today! It's under £30 for all of our cuts (I still shudder to think I used £30 of my Christmas money to have my hair cut at a fancy salon and hated it :rotfl:) so not too shabby.

Currently writing up a to-do list as DH is taking LO away to see his family over the weekend (They're on holiday in a cottage somewhere further North, and I'm staying at home with our dog) so I'm using it as a great excuse to deep clean the world. Borrowing a carpet cleaner, tackling the oven, cleaning all the windows and jetting the patio. Whenever my Mum friends and I fantasize about a mythical "day off" I always say I'd deep clean everything while listening to podcasts :happyhear Looks like I'm getting my wish!