the daily nudge

couth

You're right, the 284 pair would be perfect, except I don't like the styles they come in... the selection for that size is limited. The ones I like are in the w229 x d229 size which means only a 1.25 gather/multiplier for width. I may be able to get away with it, as I really would use the curtains only from November to February, and mostly at night to provide privacy. There is a large tree in front of my living room which provides enough privacy from March to October (and it's very pretty), so the curtains would stay open during that time, during the day and night. 

Or maybe I can get 2 sets of 229 x 229 and join them together, then I would have a 2.5 gather which apparently works with eyelet curtains. 

Gotta love this site - you can get running and curtains advice on a mortgage/financial-related diary thanks

couth

Things are looking up this week, even though it's a busy one... I'm so happy the govt announced that we will be allowed to play outdoor sports, DD can go back to her athletics training and we can play tennis. My to do list by end of this week: 
- don't work overtime. I don't get paid extra. 
- help DD revise for science 
- finish my book 
- run 10K+
- hoover the flat, clean bathroom today or tomorrow
- deep clean oven, fridge, freezer - weekend project, yuck. I was going to pay a cleaner for this, but it's the last lockdown weekend (hopefully) so I'll try to do it myself and save us some money. 
- donate: clothes, toys, board games. Clothes are ready to go, but we need to choose the toys and board games. 
- pay day is tomorrow and I need to set the budget until next pay day, and also: 
           > transfer some money to savings
           > make a small mortgage overpayment, on top of the regular direct debit one. My tax code changed, as I claimed tax relief for working from home, so I'll be getting a bit of extra cash each month. I can use that for overpayments. 
           > change Amazon Prime to annual subscription + check MSE energy club, as my BG contract is coming to an end
           > start using a separate account for spending. I've always used a single account for bills and spending and I decided to give it a try with a 2nd account. I'll use my new Virgin Money account for spending. It comes with 2% interest rate on up to £1K, not too shabby. My debit card has just arrived (sexy design ) but I need to wait for the PIN.

couth

Budget until 18 Dec (we get paid early in Dec), Excel spreadsheet updated:  

• £1350 bills (mortgage, c tax, service charge, utilities, comms, other subs, insurances)
• £298 mortgage overpayment
• £400 savings and investments
• £421 Barclaycard -- this debt is now gone 
• £133 orthodontics payment plan

This leaves me with £457 left for spending (groceries, clothes, etc.), which I need to transfer to Virgin Money when my PIN comes. This should also cover stocking fillers. I already bought the Christmas presents... this year we're keeping it light. 

Next month's budget will look very different, as I have some extra money coming in, but also more expenses, as I need to pay all my DD's clubs for the Spring term and school lunches for January. I'll get a bonus from work and a relative owes me some money that I should get back by end of December. My plan is to make an extra mortgage overpayment on top of the direct debit OP, so that I get my mortgage balance to <£194K. I will also pay off my Virgin Money credit card in full -- that's currently at £1,332. That will leave me to start 2021 with no debt apart from the £194K mortgage and £1197 left on the orthodontics payment plan that runs until September 2021. I could've paid the the orthodontics fee in full from savings, but the payment plan is at 0% interest so I thought why not keep it in savings and force myself to find an extra £133 a month for the payment plan. 

 

Grogged

Just dropped by to say hi. 👋
Looks like you've got a good budget and plan.
Do you budget pay to pay or calendar month?

couth

Thanks @Grogged I appreciate it

I budget pay day to pay day which is usually the 25th, but this December we get paid on the 18th. I do get some extra income -- child maintenance around the 28th of the month and child benefit every 4 weeks. Most direct debits and SOs go out between the 25th and the 2nd, so by the 3rd of each month my bank account only includes spending money, as all bills are already paid. 

couth

No news is good news, right? 

Since last week: I finished my book, deep cleaned the flat, ran 12km+, paid all bills, overpaid £335 to the mortgage, added £400 to savings, switched Amazon Prime to yearly (cheaper than monthly), and started to use my new Virgin Money bank account for spending. I'd like to be more careful with spending going forward, so this should help. 

This week's to do: clothes and toys donation, shop around for a new energy provider, buy Christmas cards and stocking fillers, and help DD with revising for Math (science test done!). On the energy provider, I might switch to E.ON, although they require changing the smart meters. 

In other news I joined a couple of December Strava challenges and I also joined my company's "December 500-min" challenge, which consists of minimum 4 sessions of physical exercise each week in December. Each session must be minimum 30 minutes and they must be on different days. Anything counts - walking, running, cycling, swimming, tennis, dance, pilates, yoga, etc. Plus, we are doing one 20-minute "active group session" on Zoom with my co-workers on the 15th of December - apparently it's a surprise as they invited some sports personality to run it. We are speculating it might be Joe Wicks but no one really knows apart from our marketing director who organized it. These challenges should rekindle my running motivation for 2021! (I was very good when parkrun was on, as I did 2 x 5k runs each week, with one being parkrun). 

Hope rain stops as my tennis club re-opened yesterday and we booked a court for tonight! BBC weather says 80% chance for rain at 6pm, then it drops to 50% at 7.

And SNOW tomorrow morning?! 

couth

I've been inspired by others (thanks @caeler and @frankersBri) to calculate my daily interest and give myself a deadline to pay off the mortgage. Officially 22.5 years left (:sigh:) but  with the current level of overpayments and similar interest rates (fingers crossed) it should be paid off in 15 years. I'm actually hoping for 10, but I would need to more than double my regular overpayments for that, or sell to a cheaper area. Here's the lowdown on it - I've actually added this to my excel spreadsheet and to my signature, to see the daily interest go down and celebrate each £ reduction. 

Daily interest: £9.69 
MFW date: December 2035 

newgirly

Hi Couth, best of luck with the new mortgage and the overpaying 🙂

caeler

Good effort! @couth I think you are already ahead of the game with your approach.  I only seriously starting overpaying in the last 4 years so starting early in the mortgage term makes all the difference!  

couth

Thanks everyone, hope you all had a good weekend. Busy one here - all clubs restarted so we're back to 'normal' - athletics and dance for DD, tennis for me. I even managed a 5k run, so I'm pleased on that front. Christmas tree is up, we bought it from DD's school as it's a big fundraising source for them. The unbudgeted (but regular) expense made me think - well this happens every year but it's never in my bills list. I've also just made Amazon Prime annual and I have a couple of other smaller bills that are quarterly... 

So I decided to give YNAB a try. We (with my ex) bought a YNAB 4 license a long time ago but we never got around to using it as the relationship broke down and I just forgot about it. YNAB 4 is no longer supported, but the purchase gives me a 10% lifetime discount to the online version if I decide to subscribe. Last night I sat with all my accounts and added all income, bills and spending from 1 December until now - just to play with it a bit to see how it works, and also see the full December picture, and it's now looking up to date. I will test it until end of Dec then decide if I pay for the annual sub. It's $75.59 for the annual sub (roughly £57, so <£5 per month). The $11.99 monthly subscription comes to £9, so no point in choosing monthly. 

This week looks good busy. I really need to post some overseas Christmas cards otherwise they won't make it. We have to decorate the rest of the flat. I have my December 500 active work challenge, so I need to plan for at least 4 exercise sessions: run 5km x2, play tennis x1. The 4th session is covered - we booked ice skating with friends quite a while ago, for Saturday. I'm happy that current restrictions allow it, so looking forward to that... forecast showing no rain at the moment. 

Long rant over. Have a good start of the week everyone! 

PS. This might sound quite shallow, but I have to say I really like the "Net worth" report in YNAB... the value of my flat has increased quite a lot since I bought it in 2012, and although we're not moving anywhere in the next 5 years or so, it's good to look at that positive balance even though it's only on paper. One thing that I need to increase though is the value of my pension.