Time to Face The Music

Sun_Addict

Happy Friday. Are you off out in the van this weekend?

RelievedSheff

Sun_Addict said:

Happy Friday. Are you off out in the van this weekend?

Yes we are off out into the Peak District tomorrow for the night.

enthusiasticsaver

RelievedSheff said:

enthusiasticsaver said:

Good idea to round numbers down. You hardly notice it and for some reason the balances seem to go down quicker even with just small overpayments. So close to the end on the car loan. Is the interest front loaded or added monthly? I would expect the balance to be lower given you only have three payments of £251 to go. Not significantly lower but make sure there isn’t a bigger payment on last one for something ridiculous like an admin fee. Or does that £951 not show today’s payment yet? That would explain it. 

The last payment has an extra charge included. It's £413 for the February payment.

Ah that explains the difference in the balance.  At least you are prepared for it.  Sometimes these larger final payments take people by surprise.  Well done on culling direct debits and reducing costs. £59 a month is great. 

RelievedSheff

enthusiasticsaver said:

RelievedSheff said:

enthusiasticsaver said:

Good idea to round numbers down. You hardly notice it and for some reason the balances seem to go down quicker even with just small overpayments. So close to the end on the car loan. Is the interest front loaded or added monthly? I would expect the balance to be lower given you only have three payments of £251 to go. Not significantly lower but make sure there isn’t a bigger payment on last one for something ridiculous like an admin fee. Or does that £951 not show today’s payment yet? That would explain it. 

The last payment has an extra charge included. It's £413 for the February payment.

Ah that explains the difference in the balance.  At least you are prepared for it.  Sometimes these larger final payments take people by surprise.  Well done on culling direct debits and reducing costs. £59 a month is great. 

We knew when we signed up that there was a larger final payment with the car. Thankfully with the van there isn't it is just the same payment from start to finish of the agreement.

EssexHebridean

I think things like the NT membership, which get used, earn their keep. We donate to the RSPB monthly, but we also use their reserves a lot, so as well as the charitable side of it we get a benefit too. If you only planned to make a couple of NT visits in a year, then the sums might not work, but even if it was going to just break even, the value for money is there. 

The £59 a month saving is great. An idea for you - we have a savings account which gets an automated monthly payment from the joint account consisting of all the savings we have made over the years by cutting bills. It started off at about £10 a month saved on haggling with Sky about 12 or so years ago, and is now at £166 a month - it will get the £4 a month we’ll be saving on the new BB deal added to it from next month. Originally that money then got shifted across to the mortgage, but now we leave it sitting there either until we shift a chunk to long term savings, or to pay for things like extra trips away when we can squeeze them in, making them essentially “free” to us as they are then funded by savings made over the longer term. It’s a great incentive to keep working to cut costs too, and of course that money is also always there if a previous saving is reversed - for example currently with the rising cost of energy. We refer to it as “money we didn’t know we had” - and hence don’t miss from our monthly budget! 

RelievedSheff

EssexHebridean said:

I think things like the NT membership, which get used, earn their keep. We donate to the RSPB monthly, but we also use their reserves a lot, so as well as the charitable side of it we get a benefit too. If you only planned to make a couple of NT visits in a year, then the sums might not work, but even if it was going to just break even, the value for money is there. 

The £59 a month saving is great. An idea for you - we have a savings account which gets an automated monthly payment from the joint account consisting of all the savings we have made over the years by cutting bills. It started off at about £10 a month saved on haggling with Sky about 12 or so years ago, and is now at £166 a month - it will get the £4 a month we’ll be saving on the new BB deal added to it from next month. Originally that money then got shifted across to the mortgage, but now we leave it sitting there either until we shift a chunk to long term savings, or to pay for things like extra trips away when we can squeeze them in, making them essentially “free” to us as they are then funded by savings made over the longer term. It’s a great incentive to keep working to cut costs too, and of course that money is also always there if a previous saving is reversed - for example currently with the rising cost of energy. We refer to it as “money we didn’t know we had” - and hence don’t miss from our monthly budget! 

I like that idea. Thanks for that. Will look into it further.

Sun_Addict

That’s a brilliant idea. It’s like when you get a pay rise, you managed on the lesser amount. Any extra money can soon get absorbed and disappear. Not that I do any of this but the thought is there 😆

RelievedSheff

It is likely to be a spendy day today. We are meeting an old work mate of the other half's in their campervan at a pub in the Peak District where we will spend the night.

Breakfast is from stores,  crumpets this morning. But lunch and dinner are eating out. Hot roast pork sandwich for lunch and a pub lunch this evening. 

We are meeting up with the friends at about lunchtime at the pub and we plan to take the dogs for a long walk before we settle in at the pub.

Sun_Addict

Have a great time 🍻 

RelievedSheff

I'm sure we will enjoy it 🤣🤣🤣

Need to get the other half and the dog up before we can do anything though. They are both laid at the side of me snoring away 🙂