Update Paid off! - Six years and counting!!

wishingthemortgaheaway

I think It's because it's every 4 weeks, so moves through the month. I've always been paid monthly so it doesn't fit into my normal financial cycle.

Kat78MFW

The cricket kit hasn't arrived yet in time for DD1s first county match of the season so I've had to ask the other parents for old kit after all. No replies yet.

The £6 TSB arranged overdraft fee has gone back into my account. I won't be making that mistake again.

Have washed the car this morning and found an old pair of my nephew's cricket batting gloves in the garage which will save us the £30 I was planning to spend on new ones this weekend. DD1 had already had a look in there last week and had only found an adult size pair so I'm glad I had a double check this morning.

Have been watching the price of the Harry Potter Lego set on Amazon for the past week and last night it dropped from £80 to £72 so I snapped it up. All paid for using my Topcashback gift card so no real money spent.

When I was looking through my amazon account I saw a CD that DH asked me to order for his birthday. I ordered it in Feb and completely forgot about it. I think DH has too. The order still said awaiting delivery and I could not remember whether it ever arrived or not. I found it in a hiding place this morning thank goodness as I don't think I could have chased it with the seller after all this time. So I'll keep it hidden for him for Xmas now. I have also got him a lovely limited edition football team print and a cheap but fab looking frame. It's the gift that he sorted for our nephew for his 18th and it looked so lovely that I wanted one the same in our house. Cost £17 in total and I think DH will be thrilled with it. I decided to keep that for Xmas too as he'll likely have forgotten about it by then and he'll be thrilled to get it. So DH is nearly sorted for Xmas already!

Kat78MFW

Just logged on for a quick check of online banking and was very surprised to see that I have been paid already. Most unexpected but very welcome. Have paid across the regular monthly £690 to the mortgage (on an interest only mortgage so only the interest goes out by DD - I have to do a manual payment each month for the capital repayment). Should save a few pennies in interest as I've paid it across nearly a week earlier than usual. Towards the end of the year, we will be out of the 50 000s and into the 40 000s.

debtfreeoneday

Have a lovely weekend, good news about early payday and saving some interest!

wishingthemortgaheaway

Woo hoo early pay day (due to bank holiday?)
Enjoy the savings in interest.

Kat78MFW

DH has been paid today - we have made the final payment to my parents to pay off the interest free car loan.

Not spending much during the school holiday as we have spent two days watching DD1 play cricket and had a lazy morning yesterday followed by a local bike ride. I'm working tomorrow so should be another low spend day.

Have opened a new co-op online savings account with 0.75% interest (currently have an old issue savings account at 0.59% interest) as all our higher interest accounts are maxed out at the moment. I know I could get a higher % with a different bank but the money will only be in there for a few days until the credit card bill needs paying. It's just easier to have the extra savings account with a bank that I already have an account with.

Feeling fairly positive about our finances at the moment - I am confident that we can grow our savings and build up a small pot to make a lump sum OP next May. DH is happier at work after talking to his line manager so should be fine to continue with full time hours for the foreseeable.

Kat78MFW

OK own up - who stole the rest of 2019! I stopped posting over the summer as I was too busy being a cricket mum but then forgot my password to login and post again. And now it's nearly Xmas!

I have finally reset my password and thought it was time for a summary of where the finances stand at the end of the year.

Mortgage balance stands at £46782 - only overpayments on here are £100 extra when I miscalculated and transferred the wrong amount and a very generous £1000 Xmas gift to overpay the mortgage from my parents. All my other overpayments are still currently sitting in a regular saver earning 5% interest (8x160=1280 for overpayments). The remaining money in this regular saver (8x140=1120) is allocated for our summer holiday.

Other Savings
RS2 £1140 - to pay car tax, car insurance and extra Xmas credit card spending (matures in January)
RS2 £2500 - £1111 for Easter holiday balance payment and remaining £1389 is emergency fund
RS3 £200 - I'm aiming to start paying the full £400 per month into this in the New Year

Credit cards
CC1 - £2181 (£1434 due at end of Dec)
CC2 - £784 (£690 due mid Jan)

Kat78MFW

DH has had a payrise at work but we don't know how much yet. Will get his payslip to find out when he goes back after Christmas. His take home was up by £300 in December but we think this may have included a couple of months back pay. It'll all get added into savings or overpayments. We won't be splurging! His work is still very busy but

I'm pleased to see how the savings have built up this year and I feel as though we are nearly balanced with the amount in savings (not including pre-booked holidays and the mortgage OPs) and the amount on the credit cards.

Plan for 2020 is more of the same - if possible I want to be saving £950 per month into the regular savers. Although the 5% regular savers will not be available once these mature so I may switch to making the overpayments directly onto the mortgage.

Kat78MFW

Hope everyone has had a great Xmas. We have had a wonderful time. After breakfast today we are going to settle down to play a Harry Potter game that DD2 had for Xmas. She won't normally play board games as she hates to lose but I managed to find her a co-operative game where all the players work together to beat villainous characters.

Have had a letter from M&S that my regular saver matures on 3-1-20. There's just over £1100 saved in there which should cover car tax and car insurance for both cars. I need to have a look around for the current best regular savers. I might switch my M&S current account too to grab another switching bonus. In November, I managed to get £125 switch bonus from lloyds and sorted out £175 for DH from HSBC. Need to look into switching DH somewhere else for another bonus too!

I'm off work all the way through to 7th Jan apart from a long day on 31st Dec. I finished on 20th Dec so it has been a fabulous long break. I have booked myself to work 5 extra paid days over the next three months so that extra money should be able to go on the mortgage too.

Happy New Year!

Kat78MFW

Happy New Year!

Went to see Frozen 2 with DD2 on 1st Jan. It was a lovely way to start the new year. Not too expensive either as we went to a small independent cinema where tickets are only £5 each. I do have 6 cineworld free tickets from my Lloyds Club Account (I switched a donor account to Lloyds in October and made £125 plus the cinema tickets).However, for a kids film like this I hoped that the audience would be a bit quieter at the small cinema.

I have transferred £250 into the NW RS and £300 is due to go into the FD one early next week.

I spent far too much at the supermarket today but we were running short on lots of stuff. I also picked up 6 stocking filler type Christmas gifts for next Christmas reduced down to £1 each (original price £5 each) so feel that I have done pretty well. Didn't buy any wrapping paper reduced as I did that last year but then forgot that I had and bought more full price in November. I think I still have enough for two more Christmases now! I will have to make a list on my phone of the gifts I bought today or I will forget about those too.

Started Day 1 of a 30 day yoga programme today. I'm determined to be better than last year when I took about 4 months to complete the 30 days.