Twinklie returns to the property ladder

twinklie

Yes thank you. We have a nice new (to us) car. It’s shiny and gadgety (our car was a 2006 model) so feels quite fancy right now. It’s crazy how reliant we are on cars though. It was a 3.5 hour and 4 bus round trip to get the boys to their swimming lessons, so in that respect it was a good job it happened in the holidays.

twinklie

Daily mortgage interest is now down to £15.94 per day which is a reduction of 51p since the start of the mortgage.
We now own 13.2% of the house and have paid of 3.2% of the mortgage!

twinklie

Just tracked my entertaining of the kids for July (since the start of the summer) on my DFW thread - turns out it was a no spend to the start of the holidays so I can't complain at that.


August has been £4 so far, just on a superhero party and a SEND playgroup this morning. :j So we aren't doing to bad thus far, but August is bound to be more expensive when compared to last month.

twinklie

Decided with Brexit being so uncertain and how it will affect jobs, I'm going to continue to focus on paying down debts and building an emergency fund rather than OPing the mortgage for now.

So initially I'd love to have a 10K emergency fund (which would be about 3 months cover of our joint income or 6 months for one of us).

I have approximately achieved £550 in one pot, £2100 in another pot and £2000 in another pot. So approximately 46.5% of the target I'm aiming for. I'm not 100% sure of accurate figures because we have slightly more in one of the pots but it's ear marked for other things. But I'll keep plodding on. I've set up a standing order which will save £75 per month and DH has an account which basically does a tilly tidy for him into a savings pot. He saves approximately £25 per month.

I've increased childcare vouchers to £80 per month, so see where that takes me in terms of keeping the childcare costs at bay. I didn't really notice it much in my pay packet tbh, so I'm not going to worry about that and will just leave it ticking over.

DH has also deferred on his training course for a year, so it will be at least another 15 months before any pay rise for him. I would normally get an increment in April but I'm not counting on it, what with the whole Brexit uncertainty.

twinklie

Got my mortgage figure through this morning and we've paid off £7,272 off the capital since we got the mortgage. which means we've paid £4,482 in interest. The interest figure is a tad depressing, but hey ho. I'm trying to look at it as a "this is the most we will ever pay" type figure.


I've decided that from January I will tilly tidy the ten's an pence of the mortgage balance each month. Hopefully I won't notice that so much and I will have paid off my debts by then.

twinklie

So we've paid off 3.6% of the mortgage and the daily interest has reduced by 56p since the start of the mortgage. So approx. £18 less in interest being paid this month compared to November. Better than nothing!


Managed to entertain the kids for a grand total of £156 this summer, which includes days out whilst we were on holiday. So I can't grumble at that - I do wonder how long I'll manage to keep the costs that low though. At least I don't think that's bad, opinions welcome though.


September is going to be ok moneywise I think, all childcare is already accounted for. Both kids birthdays are this month but presents are already bought, just bits for their party to pay for. And I'm taking my Mum out for afternoon tea for her birthday which will be approximately £30.


A few unknowns however, Dad is having his knee replacement surgery on Thursday, so I'll be doing more running round. Not sure how that will impact on finances.


My caseload has changed at work too so not sure how that's going to impact travel expenses. Although I can claim it back, it takes a while to come back in.

twinklie

Dads been discharged from the hospital, his op went well (but more complex than they’d hoped).

Found a new MSE family activity. Junior Parkrun. So we did that together then came home for breakfast and play. I’m spending the day doing chores probably, but the kids are happy enough.

I’ve also dug out my library card, so rather than buying books I’m going to take them out from the library and make the most of that whilst I can. I really enjoyed reading on holiday, so I’m looking forward to getting back into it.


Oh and the utilities debt is down to £142, so I'm pretty happy about that.

twinklie

So I've updated my signature to show the latest figures. Utilities debt is down to £26, so I'm happy with that.


I successfully managed to cater a party for 30 children last week, by myself. DH got man flu and so I literally did it all myself. I've done myself in though, I'm super exhausted.


The downside is I ended up with a £60 parking fine last month, one of those, I parked for slightly too long without realising so I didn't have a leg to stand on.

twinklie

Home insurance renewal came in. I managed to get it for £100 cheaper with £44 cashback via Quidco still to come. So can't really complain at that. :money:


I think it's a bit cheaper (probably talking a couple of pounds) than last years, although I did up the cover slightly. So again pretty happy with that. :beer:


I also managed to sort the utilities out and ended up staying with the same provider but on a cheaper tariff.

longway2go

Looks like you are doing great. I also like to track daily interest and see it coming down and do think of it as the worst it will ever be aswell.

Thank you for the junior Park run idea which I'm going to look into. It may be that atm mine are 2 young but something to consider further down the line so thanks for the idea.