Twinklie returns to the property ladder

twinklie

Right paid off the summer holiday - so a two week break in Scotland it is. We've made contact with L&C so that we can start the remortgage process - awaiting a call back. And we've been making some progress at the allotment - some time to burn there this afternoon/evening so that we can hopefully get the onions transferred, the potatoes finished planting and finish clearing the bed for the sweetcorn and pumpkins. 

Think I might have to plant my tomatoes in their final homes soon too. I'll plant more peas and I want to relocate my sage so I can plant out some beans. Think the lettuce need moving to their final resting place too. Sooooo much work to do - but I LOVE it. 

twinklie

Day 1 of exam marking - 7.5% done (30 scripts). I'll take it. I cannot wait to be finished though. I'm just trying to get ahead of myself so I can finish as early as possible. 

Although I suspect I'd take on extra if it was offered to me because I'm a gluten for punishment. 

twinklie

It's time to look at remortgaging. When I looked and started putting the information together yesterday - it's looking like 4.10%. It was 3.99% before we went away. Bit gutted, I think we missed the dip in interest rates. 

twinklie

Thought I'd use this post to keep myself on track re: spending and look at how much we spent. I'm not going to include travel, accommodation and entrance to Thomas Land as we already paid for all that before we went. But I will do what we spent there. 

Half Term Breakdown
Wednesday - travelled down - Food  £23
Thursday - Thomas Land - Food and parking  £74
Friday - Thomas Land and return home -  £25
Saturday - Home day -  £48 to retrieve the dog from kennels. 
Sunday - Home day and visit from family - NSD
Monday - Home day - NSD
Tuesday - Home day, dentist and some clothes shopping for the boys -  £63
Wednesday - Allotment and home - NSD
Thursday - Play dates at friends houses (I marked exams) - NSD
Friday - Home day - NSD
Saturday - Home day - NSD
Sunday - Home day - NSD

Total spends -  £233

Home days have involved playing the garden, gardening, playing in the house etc. They've also been playing with the kids from next door too. Just basically not going anywhere. Unfortunately DS2 has horrendous hay fever and is really suffering so he's wanting to stay indoors as much as possible - I feel quite bad for him. 

It feels like we've spent a lot, but given most of it has come about from being on holiday and then over £100 is the cost of kennels and then clothes I'd of had to buy anyway I can't grumble too much. 

Just one big slog through to the holidays now. I cannot wait for summer - works been awful recently. 

twinklie

twinklie said:

It's time to look at remortgaging. When I looked and started putting the information together yesterday - it's looking like 4.10%. It was 3.99% before we went away. Bit gutted, I think we missed the dip in interest rates. 

Ahhh 4.10%...is not what we ended up with - that one was pulled before we could go for it. Sigh. 

We've ended up staying with our current provider for 4.64% on a 5 year fix. I mean I wish it was less, but the day after we locked that in they upped it to 5.24% so I'm not going to complain. Even so it means we'll be paying somewhere in the region of 155 pm extra compared to what we pay now. 

We don't know the exact figure until we switch as it depends on how much is left on the mortgage at that point. 

The bit that does sting is that we'll be paying more in daily interest than we where at the start of this 5 year fix. Feels wrong somehow. But if I'd not been OPing it would be even more, so some positives to take away...sort of. 

twinklie

So I finished my marking a week early, but they ran out of papers so I finished it 40 papers before I was planning to. Bit gutted. 

There’s potentially a secondment opportunity at work which I think I might want to go for. I think it could potentially be amazing. But we will have to see - the devil is in the small print. 

I’m so so ready for the holidays. Just wish they would hurry up and get here, but then never leave. I’m so tired of the treadmill at the minute. 

Want to OP the mortgage but just want to sit down and plan what I can actually afford to OP at this point without risking touching savings. 

I have a savings account where all the fees we saved for the remortgage are. As we are staying put we have no fees. So that’s what we want to OP. But I get a bonus each month I don’t withdraw from it. Sooo I’ll OP my marking money this month, then might OP from that account the next 2 months. 

Hopefully we will then be down to our starting aim of £180K for the remortgage. 

twinklie

Just paid my biggest ever OP of £610, which takes me to £625 for the month. I've literally done it at 6.30pm. Will it be counted as a June or July OP? I'm just conscious I want to OP a decent amount next month but I'm capped at 1K per month, so don't want to get caught out. 

twinklie

Doh! That's annoying. Just checked the mortgage account and the OP hasn't come off the balance. Boo. So it'll actually count as an OP for July. So the plan is now to OP £350 this month and do a bigger OP next month. That will stop us getting stung by the OP charge for going over the OP allowance. It is annoying though. 

twinklie

June update

I work in arrears but even so - totally forgot to do May update - oophs. 

SAVINGS
Aim to save £400 per month to build emergency fund and for rainy day expenses (car, house maintenance etc.).  DONE

 

MORTGAGE 

Current daily interest - £12.93

We now own 29.61% of the house - current rough valuation actually puts us as 42.08% (slightly down on what it was due to drop in house prices).

5 rooms owned (6 if I go with the higher valuation).

Paid off 21.38% of the mortgage. 

Current MF date - Oct Sept August JULY 2037. It's a shame this date will change back when the remortgage kicks in. Sigh. 

Woop woop - own another room of the house. 

twinklie

Lovely start to the month by winning 100 quid on the premium bonds. 

It was the kids school fare yesterday and I ended up cooking food in the kitchen despite it being boiling. But we raised over 3K for our hard work which is amazing. Well worth the effort.