Time to get my house in order!

South_coast

Yes, I normally find myself obsessing about it at exactly the moment I need to go to sleep 😡

longway2go

Me 2. If I can't make a payment I read diaries and play with the calculator and my spreadsheet. 

Thick_n_Thin

Right today I’m going to be productive! 

I am I am i am! 

Yesterday wasn’t a great day, I actually slept for 10 hours straight last night so I am forgiving myself for my wallowing yesterday! I need to remind myself that all the little things I’m doing each day like eating food we already have in, NSD, not using the tumble dryer, sending electric readings, keeping my home clean and tidy is all moving me in the direction that I need to be, keeping my mind occupied is also important, when I allow myself to wallow I run the risk of treating myself in some way, usually a bottle of wine or chocolate ect which involves a spending money! 

So plans for today 
mow the grass
start my research into pensions ( trying to understand the basics)
all meals from what we already have in!
a walk
continue with my ongoing attempt to get a refund from TUI for my cancelled holiday!

Thick_n_Thin

I’ve been thinking today and have come up with a slight adaption to my plans...
so we have 1 credit card left from our spendy days... £970 on 0% ( not sure when the 0% ends)  and the minimum repayment is around £10 per month however we normally pay between £50 to £100 per month so I’m thinking if a throw my grocery underspend each week at this to try and get this gone ASAP I will then have that £50-£100 each month to throw at the mortgage. Then I started looking at other direct debits that I want to be able to pay off annually rather than monthly.
my car insurance- due feb
Oh car insurance- due june or july
house insurance-due june
council tax - due april
water rates - due april
tv license- due October 
so I pay around £350 per month for all these combined, if I could pay annually and then pay £200 a month into pots set up ready to pay for the following year then I could throw the additional £150 to the mortgage therefore increasing my total overpayment to the mortgage to roughly £600 each month! So I’m order to keep me focused and have some other challenges running alongside my mortgage overpayment that’s what I think I’ll do, I’m in a position to be able to pay OH car insurance and house insurance in full when the renewal comes in so I’ll just have to continue to top these up. The aim is to eliminate as many unnecessary Direct debits and monthly payments as I can ....

Mortgagefreegonnabe

Great ideas TnT.  Clearing the cc and throwing it at the OPs will be doubly satisfying! 
I was going to do that with the bills but I'm just too impatient 🤣 

Thick_n_Thin

Quiet times here.. just been browsing some diary’s and noticed MSE has teamed up with OU to deliver a free training course on everything financial from budgeting to investments and retirement planning! I have had a look and signed up, there are six segments which all take aprox 2 hours to complete, I’m particularly excited about the investment  and retirement planning segments as these are completely on my radar at the moment! 

MovingForwards

TNT, I spotted it earlier and signed up, same segments appealed to me too.

Reviewing financial position is good, even if you target one monthly payment for a bill to swap it to an annual one, that's a good step.

Try for one where it costs you more for the 'privilege' of monthly payments such as car / home insurance / TV licence. But pick the one which is cheapest throughout the year, that way you can potentially pay that straight off, saving up to target the next one.

I think council and water charge the same, with no money on top for paying monthly. So I would leave them until last, or leave them as monthly payments; they also tend to cost a lot!

Thick_n_Thin

MovingForwards said:

TNT, I spotted it earlier and signed up, same segments appealed to me too.

Reviewing financial position is good, even if you target one monthly payment for a bill to swap it to an annual one, that's a good step.

Try for one where it costs you more for the 'privilege' of monthly payments such as car / home insurance / TV licence. But pick the one which is cheapest throughout the year, that way you can potentially pay that straight off, saving up to target the next one.

I think council and water charge the same, with no money on top for paying monthly. So I would leave them until last, or leave them as monthly payments; they also tend to cost a lot!

I think your right regarding the council tax and water, no additional cost for paying monthly so probably best to concentrate on the bills that cost me more to pay monthly. Currently waiting for my renewal quotes to come through for my car insurance and house insurance so I can start research on new prices. A NSD and I have managed to stay away from top up shops this week so my food budget is still in tact! 

longway2go

Was going to suggest the ourse to you. I think loads of us have signed up

Thick_n_Thin

longway2go said:

Was going to suggest the ourse to you. I think loads of us have signed up

Thanks longway2go! 

Managed to get my grocery shopping for £5 under budget so that will be sent over to the Halifax card, got my home insurance, the policy has increased by £20 for the full year. Old me wouldn’t of bothered comparing quotes and just renewed my policy but new me is all over the challenge of trying to reduce this, the fact that I want to pay it in one go is definitely making me more interested in beating the renewal quote!