Getting it together...one £ at a time!

Lucifa73

I keep a 'stuff I forgot to budget for' line in YNAB for the sneaky (usually child related) expenses and it has saved me on several occasions!

Homegrown0

You're one step ahead of me Lucifa! I don't use YNAB so that wouldn't work for me necessarily but it just means that our spending account runs out quicker! It's not normally disastrous or anything, it'd just be nice to think that one day we might have something left in the spending account at the end of the month!

Homegrown0

Good morning all! It's Thursday and it's almost the weekend

I've been moaning (to myself mainly) that I've barely added to my sealed pot this week which is irritating but it just dawned on me that it's because I've got 5p in my purse and that has been the case for the last week +. We have obviously spent money but it's all been on the card and for essentials. I've spent a lot of time in the house this week and husband has only been out in the dead of night to work so not a lot of spending!

I'm tired today and I think I'm on the edge of coming down with something. Hoping that I can keep it at bay!

Homegrown0

Balance Transfer AHOY!
You may remember me mentioning that our credit card 0% deal ended just before Christmas and I wasn't aware until I checked the statement and saw interest. Because of our remortgage (which was just completed last week) I wasn't keen on applying for credit until the mortgage went through. Scared to damage our credit with an application.

Now that it has completed, I took a look at the deals available on the site and managed to secure 0% for 27 months balance transfer with NO FEE. Delighted The transfer hasn't been done yet but i'll keep an eye on the emails to see when it's complete.

As soon as it's done, i'll make a note on my spreadsheet so that I don't forget again.

Homegrown0

A small balance
My son has been collecting sponsor money for an activity he's doing to raise funds for a club he goes to.

He had a massive amount of change and it was getting unmanageable so I bought it off him.

£10 note in and £10 in coins out + £2 belonging to my husband. So £10 total I to my pots.

Feels good to have made a contribution to the pots again.

A much larger deposit
Now that our remortgage has been processed, we had the payment we made on 1st February refunded. Put that straight into the savings account until I know when the first mortgage payment will be. If it's not until 1st March then this will be excess funds.

Sore head, so a pint of water then bed.

teafor2

Great news on the 0% transfer. Wish I could get my outstanding balance on one of those but no chance. That's a good deposit into your pots. I never have any change, hubby always has loads so I buy it off him. Never get a discount though and I'm a really good customer.

Have a lovely day. xx

kindofagilr

Yay well done on the 0% it's so nice when they are on there isn't it xx

Homegrown0

Tea, you should definitely get a discount from your husband. Begin negotiations ASAP. All of our money is joint so there's no need for reimbursement for my husband. But i do try to make sure i don't leave him short (i.e. in a shop with no money in his wallet when he thought there was some in there!). I'm considerate like that...

Yes, it is kindofagilr. I panicked when it came to an end, worrying that I might not get another one, but I was relieved to find we were accepted within minutes. Well, i say 'we', it was actually my husband as it's 'his' card (even though it was joint spends). I want to keep the debt split between us as much as possible. Stupid really, as I have no intention of separating from him, but if the worst were to happen, i'd hate to be in the position that my BIL was in years back. He was the only one that could get credit so everything was in his name and when they split it was all on his shoulders.

Anyway, i'm pleased! I'll be more pleased when they email to say the BT is complete as it still hasn't been actioned. (<-- I'm so impatient - I only applied two days ago...)

The only issue with it being in husband's name is that if there's an issue, he has to call and he hates using the phone. It results in me badgering for weeks and him 'forgetting'. Hopefully it won't come to that and it'll all go through smoothly.

Good news
Just heard from the new mortgage company and our first payment will be taken out on 1st March and since we just had the February mortgage payment refunded, it's technically a mortgage free month this month.

My husband pointed out that it'll technically just mean out mortgage is one month longer than it was before, but i don't see that as an issue for right now. In a few years when the house is the way we want it and we're in a good position financially/ savings-wise, we'll begin making proper overpayments to the mortgage to bring the term down.

I'd like to be mortgage-free by 50 and as it stands right now, i'll be 57 before it's paid off so we have some work to do but it's not unmanageable. The sooner we get overpaying the better, but it's quite far down the priority list at the moment.

Pleased though, as that's £600 added to the savings pot that we wouldn't have otherwise had. Our first mortgage payment will be around £300 higher but I've already put money aside for that. Beyond that, we'll be saving £15p/m on the mortgage payment

Also our LTV has gone down below 75% which (considering we remortgaged our house 2 years ago to free up equity to buy the home builder out of the shared equity on our flat) is great. We're playing the long game with the flat after some really bad advice when we bought it 10 years ago! I'm sure it was 85% or 90% 2 years ago. The value shot up £20k in 2 years and £35k since we bought it.

It's Friday!!

Not sure why I'm quite so excited about that because I've got a busy weekend ahead but I'll just be glad to switch off from work for a couple of days. It's just relentless right now.

Days until pay day: 19
Loan payments left: 11
Childcare payments left: 18

Homegrown0

A few little extras
Husband has got a small job on tomorrow and has quoted for another which, if it comes off with yield a couple of hundred pounds.

Fingers crossed

teafor2

Negotiations are under way HG Thanks for kicking PA up the backside, I've done really well with them today, how about you? Got another one for £2.10 and then 3 little ones. I knew they'd start to miss my opinions before too long :rotfl:

Your hubby is a star working the extra jobs but I know you already know that.

Hope work quietens down a little for you soon and that your busy weekend is also a nice one. xx