Busy Mee's Last Leg

Busy_Mee

Another weekend, another storm. This time Storm Jorge. We were battered by strong winds and rain last night. No damage but I didn't sleep very well.

Happy extra Leap Year day today. To celebrate I am chipping an extra £500 off our IO mortgage as part of Shanghai Jimmy's challenge. There are no magic numbers involving 29, because I need a nice round  number. My IO mortgage also operates as my current account and I need a round number to aim for at the end of the month.

It was also pay day yesterday and my favourite time of the month. I rounded off all my accounts and we actually had money left at the end of the month and this was shuffled into various savings pots.

Anyway our finances for February are as follows:
Repayment Mortgage.             £48,201.36
IO Mortgage.                         £167,000.00
Total mortgage.                      £215,201.36
Repaid this month.                     £1,937.43 

Ring fenced savings.                £210,000.00
savings offset mortgage to.          £5,201.36 

Odds and sods account.                £508.51
Principality reg saver.                      £500.00
Total.                                              £1008.51
saved this month.                            £199.35 

I am really pleased with our financial results this month, but in all honesty  February is a very cheap and short month for us. We benefited from some unexpected funds that we were owed which meant I could pay extra off the mortgage this month. The O&S account was also boosted by some expenses I paid in, and I will try and continue to pay all my work expenses into this account.
March is a much longer month, with five weekends so I am not sure we will fare as well....excuses in already 
We will however have some regular savers that mature this month and I am thinking of chipping another chunk off the IO with the capital. This doesn't really make any difference to our overall position, as I will simply be moving capital from the savings total and paying it off the mortgage. However it will make a psychological difference, as I will have a smaller sum to pay off out of savings when we come to pay off the mortgage in 4 years time.

In other news I am losing a rather tedious but steady 1lb a week and I did get out for a run this week. I am starting back on C-5k but I have restarted at week 5. I was quite pleased because I ran for more than the app required....17 minutes non stop. I am hoping to get out again today but the weather is looking a bit grim at the moment.

We had some free food this week. DD had a free trial of H€ll0 Fr£sh and three meals worth of food for three of us. It was one of those things where you have to set up a DD and make sure you cancel it. It was quite impressive , a box arrives with all the ingredients for your chosen meals, meat, veg herbs and spices etc with a recipe card. The produce was all really good and the meals tasty but I am not sure I would personally fork out the £45 it would have cost for three meals but could see it would suit some (less tight) busy professionals. It is definitely worth a free trial or even a 50% off trial though. Although the meals were meant to be for three people, we got four portions out of each meal.

And Mr Mee and I went out for tea last night at the local pub. We just got there in time for the early bird - two meals for £15 and the food was very good. I think that is the only spend on entertainment this month, we have been hibernating a bit as the weather has been so horrible. Have a good weekend x

Suffolk_lass

You too Busy_Mee, have a good weekend. I have also joined Jimmy's challenge, using some matured Regular Saver money to pay down £5,292.90. DH just looked bemused when I told him why

South_coast

£45 for 3 meals 😮 I was just about to say you could eat out for £15 - and then I saw that you did 😂!

savingholmes

Free food is always nice. Impressively low entertainment budget. You are progressing well with your goals too despite the weather.

Busy_Mee

I am a bit late with my update this week. We were away at the weekend sorting out another set of elderly parents. Nothing much spent other than petrol for the long journey and food and drink in the services on the way back. 

In financial news, Mr Mee's switch to TSB is going through which should net us £100 as a switch reward each and £50 each through Quidco. I am not sure I am going to bother putting £1500 in the accounts though as the interest rate has now dropped to 1.5%.

In other news, we have had a holiday cancelled because of Coronavirus. It looks like we should get a full refund from both the holiday company and the flight operator as they have cancelled. I am not quite sure what to do about booking something else though and think I will wait until a couple of days before to see how things progress. I am not particularly worried about getting the virus, as we are both healthy but I don't want to get stuck anywhere in quarantine. I have the leave booked and will make a decision nearer the time.

Everyone seems to have gone slightly over the top here. There are no toilet rolls to be had in the local shops, so we may be cutting up newspapers shortly ( where is the eek emoji when you want it !)

The good news is that a lot of non essential travel has been cancelled at work and people are being forced to think about working differently. Let's hope that some of this sticks once the crisis is over.

I have just seen the budget news and a reduction in mortgage interest......we will be paying 0.94%. I feel slightly guilty as we don't really need this reduction and lots of people who do need it probably won't benefit. It might mean I need to change my strategy of paying down the mortgage though ....

themadvix

They were giving away a free Sun newspaper to customers at the newsagents when I popped in yesterday (although maybe you had to buy a paper, as I didn't get offered one). The man in front seemed bemused, but I refrained from suggesting that if nothing else it could be used as loo roll! (Not knowing, but suspecting the newspaper-reading proclivities of the staff member serving.)

Agree about the hope that some of the changes will stick - imagine the improvement in carbon emissions if people worked from home more, had meetings via Skype etc. and spent less time in the shops for the sake of it. I think you're wise to wait and see about a holiday - imagine if you can travel that there'll be a lot of bargains to be had too. I'm beginning to think we may not be going to the States... although Trump's response has to be the most over the top yet. Stupid man. (Sorry, didn't mean to get angry on your diary!)

Busy_Mee

Feel free to abuse Trump as much as you like on my diary. The man makes my blood boil and usually has me ranting at the TV.
I managed to track down toilet roll today, so crisis averted. I did feel the need to justify my purchase to the checkout person, telling them that we actually have run out...not stockpiling honest !

savingholmes

I've just bought loo roll on Am**** as couldn't get it in the local shops. 
What will you do Busy-Mee if you don't OP your mortgage?

South_coast

Never mind the loo roll, in Lidl this evening they didn't have enough staff to man the self-checkouts - absolute carnage while we all queued for the 4 checkouts they had open 😢 Is this the shape of things to come? 

Oh, and our business held a conference at a venue 30 miles from the office, with no transport laid on so everyone had to travel alone (mass gathering and massive emissions), only to get back to the office to find an email from head office telling us not to go to any conferences!!!

themadvix

😳🙄 to your conference palaver SC! (And who knew that Lidl had self-checkouts? Not round here!) 

Had a feeling Trump-rants would be OK here 😉