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Hettyhound

Hi Jessy :wave:

How's it all going? Fully cleaned and "unpacked"? I still have boxes I've not touched in nearly 4 years!!

Jessy103

Hi Hetty!

It's getting there thanks!

There's still so much to do and some stuff left to buy. I'm dying to get it all done but have to remember I need to build my savings back up too! I'm getting impatient and want to make my first overpayment but again I need to remember that there are other things to sort first and getting into a regular routine with the bills is priority so I don't overspend.

I'll keep you posted!!

Take care

Jessy103

It's been a while since I've posted and a lot has happened!

First off, I managed a rotator cuff injury and haven't been able to use my left arm for a month! I had to go to a&e and got signed off work for three weeks and a staged return to work for two weeks. It was a very worrying time as I didn't know what my company's policy for sick pay was and after just moving into the house I was worried I wouldn't get paid enough at the end of August to cover the bills! Luckily, despite the dislike I have of my job, the company isn't all bad and I was paid in full!! Phew!

It did express the importance of building up my emergency fund again, it is currently at £300 and I will be trying to put £100 away every month from now on.

In other news, I made my first overpayment today of £100! After doing my budget spreadsheet, this will be my aim every month but I still have some things I'd like to buy for the house so it may not be obtainable every month.

My old house in Yorkshire has had an offer (back in mid July actually) so hopefully I will be getting some money through for that soon. I will be signing the final divorce papers this week as well so I should get half of the divorce fees back for that soon too. My plan is to save half of this money and put half in as an overpayment on my mortgage but we will shall see.

Have a lovely weekend!

Jessy103

Hi Everyone,

Hope you all had a great Christmas and have a fantastic New Year!

I haven't posted in a while so thought I'd do an end of year update.

We'll start with the bad news!! We need a new boiler! We currently have a HUGE electric one which is in a cupboard in the kitchen. Unfortunately, one of the pipes into the boiler is leaking and has been since before we moved in. We've had the manufacturer of the boiler out but as it is a pipe that goes into the boiler they said it wasn't their problem. We then had a couple of plumbers out who didn't want to touch it due to the fact that the cupboard that it is in, is so small for the size of the boiler that a bodge job with the pipes was done to get it to fit! Our only option now is to get it replaced. Instead of another electric one, we've decided to have gas connected to the house and a combi boiler installed instead. This is going to be quite costly (£504 to connect the house to gas and £2800 for the new boiler and install) but it's the best option. The silver lining being that the house will have gas, the new boiler will be out the way in the bathroom, with a cupboard being fitted around it, so extra storage space and the old electric boiler will be removed leaving me with a pantry in the kitchen and extra storage space, which is vital in a one bedroom bungalow! I should also say that the boiler does still work and we have hot water and heating, but we are just having to control the leak with towels and bowls.

On the good news front - My bf got a new job and is contributing to the bills (this means I can overpay the mortgage by £300 a month now and put £100 into savings), I got a pay rise at work, and have been overpaying the mortgage, my divorce is now finalised and I got the money from the sale of my old house in Yorkshire! :T

So, here are my end of year figures:
Initial mortgage amount (Moved in June 19) - £72,000
Mortgage amount as of 31/12/19 - £69,000
Total overpayments: £2,464.63 :j
Emergency Fund: £4,716.07 (Unfortunately £2800 will be used for the new boiler. I have already paid the £504 to have the gas connected and this should be done in the next couple of months)
Pension as of 30/12/19: £1,803.47 (I think I might start paying a little extra into this next year). I'm 33 and new to this pension business so any tips and recommendations of whether to do this or just put the money into a savings account instead would be greatly appreciated.

I'm really starting to feel like things are on the up. It's been a tough 18 months since I left Yorkshire and my marriage but I know moving home was the best choice. I am now spending more time with my mum who has MS and the rest of my family, which is lovely. I have an amazing bf who moved from Suffolk to be with me in Lincolnshire, which my now ex husband wasn't prepared to do, so I know he loves me and wants to be with me.

Now just to crack on and get rid of this mortgage!!! Oh, and I think I might deserve a little holiday in 2020! My bf has never been to Devon and it has some of my favourite dog walks and dog friendly beaches, I think we'll have to have a trip there.

Thanks for reading and I wish you all the best for 2020! :money:

Jess

Jessy103

Today my usual mortgage payment came out, making the balance £68,636.45. I was able to cross the £69K box off my house chart!
Then in an unexpected surprise my ex-husband transferred the money he owed me for his half of the divorce, this enabled me to pay the £636.45 off the total, taking the mortgage to £68,000.
A great start to 2020 and my overpayment target for the year of £2,000! :j

Jessy103

Well, it's the last day before we go back to work tomorrow I'm not looking forward to it at all, I'm lucky in that I work in the same village as I live but I do not like my job! I just keep thinking about the money I earn and how it will pay off my mortgage! I believe that if I carry on with the overpayments that I am currently making, I could have the mortgage paid off by the time I am 40, which is in 6 1/2 years. This is my new target!!

We do plan on moving to a 2 or maybe a 3 bedroom house when the mortgage is paid off, so the bf is using his new help to buy isa that we set up before the deadline (Thanks to Martin Lewis!) to save for a deposit. We will then keep my house and rent it out for an income. I'm happy doing this as opposed to selling it because if things were to go wrong between us, I would have my own place still to move back into.

I'm also planning on setting up a DD of £20 a month to go into my pension. It's not much but it's a start and we'll see how it goes.

The T3sc0 delivery came yesterday which was £65 for the next two weeks. We may need a small top up from the local C0 0p but we have a membership card, so the points earned can go towards another top up shop at some point.

Have a lovely week everyone
Jess

Jessy103

Well, the first day back at work wasn't too bad, despite a horrendous nights sleep!
Me and bf work for the same company so it means we can share lunch - half a tin of minestrone soup each and a slice of bread each. After a tiring day we had a frozen pizza and wedges for tea, the T3sc0 four cheese frozen pizzas are cheap but surprisingly yummy!

I had a great email today from M0n3ySup3rM4rk3t,. As I purchased my home insurance through them and have now had it for 6 months, I get my reward, a £100 Arg0s voucher!! Woohoo!

I'm getting close to reaching a £5 payout on Swagbucks too, overall a good day

Have a great evening folks
Jess

Octobergirl

Great diary Jessy, well done for getting through the huge life changes. I'm currently going through a divorce, which seems to taking forever and leaving me in mortgage limbo.

Jessy103

Octobergirl wrote: »

Great diary Jessy, well done for getting through the huge life changes. I'm currently going through a divorce, which seems to taking forever and leaving me in mortgage limbo.

Thanks Octobergirl. I wish you the best of luck and although it feels like it will never be over, it will and it'll all be a distant memory before you know it

Jessy103

Some good news at work today. I submitted a staff referral form when bf got his job and I found out today that as he has passed his 3 month probation, I will be getting the £250 referral reward in my pay at the end of this month! :j

Two no spend days done, yesterday was cheese ravioli on toast for lunch and fajitas for tea. As you get 8 wraps in the pack and we only used 4, I froze the other 4 and only used half of the fajitas seasoning sachet so will have another batch for tea next week. Today was red pepper soup for lunch and pasta for tea.

I did do something silly though. I did a tilly tidy of £6.55 from my current account but instead of sending it to my savings, I sent it to my credit card! Doh! It's not that bad though, because I have a cashback credit card I do tend to use it for shopping and then pay it back straight away so I'll just have £6.55 less to pay back when I next use it!

I do have a few birthdays coming up next week but I intend to make my own birthday cards at the weekend and save some money there.

Have a great rest of the week!
Jess