Update Paid off! - Six years and counting!!

Kat78MFW

I have managed to do 5 days straight of my yoga. Really chuffed and can feel my core strengthening.

My M&S saver has matured and I have transferred it into TSB (3% interest). In timely fashion, the car tax bills have arrived today. In previous years, this has stressed me out arriving so soon after Christmas but it feels great this year to have the money ready to pay it.

I'm fed up to see that 6 days into 2020 we have already been charged £15 in interest on our mortgage. I just can't wait until we get it down lower so that we are not wasting so much money on interest payments.

Kat78MFW

On Monday I took DD2 to the Legoland Discovery centre in Birmingham. Train tickets were only £5 with our family railcard and I used a Kelloggs Grown ups Go Free voucher to get us both in for £20. We took packed lunches so nothing else spent. DD2 took some of her Christmas money to spend in the shop but she decided everything was too expensive in there and didn't buy anything.

Yesterday was a much needed NSD. I went to a new Zumba class in the evening but it was a free taster so nothing to pay. It was really good fun so I will be trying to go every week. It is pay as you go and only £5 per class. Plus she is doing a loyalty card so you get a free class after doing 10 classes. I am also managing to keep up with my yoga so i have done six days straight.

Today is an expensive day - have already spent £56 on petrol and am currently sat waiting while my car has its MOT. Fingers crossed for a pass. Then I need to go and do a supermarket shop.

ElmoR

Hope the MOT went well, I used to dread those with my old car! :eek:


ElmoR xx

Kat78MFW

MOT was great - passed with no problems.

I have been absent again as I forgot my password again. I am hopeless with passwords.

January payday came on Friday so I paid our first mortgage payment for 2020. As we have an interest only mortgage, it's a little difficult to work out the size of our overpayment. Last year I paid a standard £690 per month off the capital plus the £109 interest direct debit. For 2020, I am aiming to make £790 our standard capital payment. Mortgage is now just below £46 000.

We can pay a maximum of £11 800 off the capital each year. I would love to max this out in 2020. We have a regular saver maturing in April or May which should have £3600 plus interest by then. I plan to split this between the mortgage and our summer holiday. Although I'm not sure if we will be able to get away for two weeks this summer due to DD1s county cricket. Hopefully we'll know her fixtures by end of April and then I'll see what we can fit in.

Kat78MFW

MOT was great thanks - passed with no problems.

I have been absent again as I forgot my password again. I am hopeless with passwords.

January payday came on Friday so I paid our first mortgage payment for 2020. As we have an interest only mortgage, it's a little difficult to work out the size of our overpayment. Last year I paid a standard £690 per month off the capital plus the £109 interest direct debit. For 2020, I am aiming to make £790 our standard capital payment. Mortgage is now just below £46 000.

We can pay a maximum of £11 800 off the capital each year. I would love to max this out in 2020. We have a regular saver maturing in April or May which should have £3600 plus interest by then. I plan to split this between the mortgage and our summer holiday. Although I'm not sure if we will be able to get away for two weeks this summer due to DD1s county cricket. Hopefully we'll know her fixtures by end of April and then I'll see what we can fit in.

Kat78MFW

Have been looking at Martin's new university parental contributions calculator. It looks as though we need to budget at least £13 000 for each daughter if they go away from home for a 3yr course. My original plan was to pay the mortgage off and then redirect the mortgage payment towards supporting the DDs. However DH really wants to retire early and it will be 10-11 yrs before they are both through uni, depending on whether they take a gap year. I will be encouraging this as they are both summer birthdays and I think moving away from home at only just 18 is too young. They are both very hard workers at school with a tendancy towards perfectionism so I think a break from the pressure of studying and exams before starting uni would do them the world of good. And if they can get a job for the year, then they can get some extra cash saved up for themselves to add to our contribution. My nephew has done this and DD1 is definitely feeling this is the route she would like to take.

So the calculator says, without the gap years, we need to be saving £180 per month for DD1 and £125 per month for DD2. :eek:

Kat78MFW

Still haven't made a decision about what to do about the university savings. If we are going to start putting extra away, it would make sense to put DD1s into her junior cash ISA (currently about £1800 in there) with Coventry as the interest rate is 3.6%. But then it is locked away until she is 18 and we cannot borrow the money back if we need it in an emergency.

I think I will start off by putting it into their Halifax monthly savers at 4.5%. Currently they just drip feed their monthly savers from their HSBC savings account without us adding any extra money but I think I will start boosting this with parental money now. I will have to set up a couple of spreadsheets too so I can keep track of what is their own savings and how much we have added for uni savings. I can only add £100 per month to this one though and they mature in September so will have to move it elsewhere then.

No idea yet if DD2 will want to go to uni - she really just wants to go to Hogwarts!

Kat78MFW

The new split ticketing on Trainline is good (I only buy my tickets to travel to Nottingham to visit my parents on the day of travel in case anyone is poorly and I have to postpone the visit - so I never pay a booking fee).

I thought I was being clever and moneysaving by buying a peak time ticket for my local journey and then an off-peak day return for the longer portion, getting on a 9.30 train. The new 2020 timetable has moved the train forward to 9.28, making that journey peak time prices too. But with split ticketing, it looks as though next time I'll be able to bundle the local journey into the longer section and travel peak time for about £5 less than I have been paying up until now. I'm trying to focus on the future savings rather than being annoyed with myself for not checking the split ticketing sooner. I think I only thought it would be worthwhile on much longer journeys and I thought you would have to book on a specific train, whereas I prefer more flexibility.

Kat78MFW

I have updated my mortgage repayment spreadsheet. My old repayment date was 1st Jan 2025. If we can manage to pay £790 every month, I can bring that forward to May 2024:T

If we can also pay off an extra £1700 every year in May when our First Direct Regular Saver matures, we can have it finished by November 2023! Now that doesn't sound too far away! :j:j:j

Kat78MFW

The new forum has taken a bit of getting used to. I view on my mobile and I can't tell what date posts were made. Otherwise, I'm getting on fairly well with it now for browsing. Let's see what it's like for posting.