Mortgage free in Forever Home :-)

badmemory

I freeze mine without peel, but find it a good idea not to allow them to defrost too much or they can turn to liquid

KajiKita

Thanks for all the tips about freezing bananas 😊 I doubt I’d ever have the room though!  

I had a really nice thing happen this afternoon  
when I went round to to my friend’s house this afternoon her mum rehomed a set of metal and wood garden furniture on me! (They are downsizing and packing up the house atm.) I have been vaguely looking for something super-cheap, but usabley nice is a real result! I prefer wood to either metal or the all weather rattan type. I seem to hurt myself constantly on the metal stuff and I struggle to keep the rattan type clear or crumbs and detritus. 

What was also lovely about this was that I remembered sitting on this set when I visited my friend last summer and finding it comfortable as I drove over today. When I asked what they were doing with it they were both delighted! My friend because her mother was determined not to ‘leave it for the new people, they don’t deserve it!’ and my friend as they absolutely won’t have room at the new place …. Her mother likes me, sees me as ‘sensible’, unlike her own daughter, (her view not mine! 😳😂) and so was delighted to gift them to me 😊

I have also come home with duffel bag full of jewellery they were fighting about where to store it so it wouldn’t get stolen or lost during the move!! Reminds me of when we brought back jewellery and family heirlooms for the Russian Jewish family my dad was doing a research collaboration with back in the early 1990s. They knew that they wouldn’t be allowed to emigrate to the States with any of their personal possessions, it would all become property of the state because they were Jews, so we smuggled some out for them …. all very surreal ….

KK

redofromstart

Sorry to hear about the overpayment of wages. I agree that you should the challenge the breakdown of how and why, and check the calculations. In particular look at your holiday pay and query everything. We don't want to go to court, even though we know we would get a court order for recovery, so may agree a reduced amount, etc.

if they have written and asked you for it then you will have to pay it back.  Spent it in good faith just gives you the 'defence of estoppel' which means you can insist on paying it back over a longer period. Any overpayment of wages is in principle recoverable via small claims, regardless of fault.  Sorry, I deal with these things for work and have done the small claims stuff etc.

KajiKita

redofromstart said:

Sorry to hear about the overpayment of wages. I agree that you should the challenge the breakdown of how and why, and check the calculations. In particular look at your holiday pay and query everything. We don't want to go to court, even though we know we would get a court order for recovery, so may agree a reduced amount, etc.

if they have written and asked you for it then you will have to pay it back.  Spent it in good faith just gives you the 'defence of estoppel' which means you can insist on paying it back over a longer period. Any overpayment of wages is in principle recoverable via small claims, regardless of fault.  Sorry, I deal with these things for work and have done the small claims stuff etc.

Hi @redofromstart nothing for you to apologise for  
I understand that it’s not my money, even if I have received it due to their error and I am okay with paying it back …. ish, just a bit sad that my savings balance will take such a hit. But it is what it is

KK

KajiKita

I had two huge packets of gardening catalogues arrive today (one was Sarah Raven) and put them both straight into the recycling bin without opening them! Hubby was a bit shocked 😂 but as I said to him, I want to focus on getting what I have under control, I’ve got plenty of flower seeds to play with and if I’m careful now I can have some budget to go and play at Malvern spring show in May 😊

Quite proud of myself 😊

KK

Suffolk_lass

Blimey, Sarah Raven. I love her website thumbnail insights but a Spanish Bull comes to mind

KajiKita

Done my weekly catch up, so I am keeping that habit going. However, it has been a bit of an unexpectedly spendy month in some ways:

- My friend and her mother are moving house and had some garden furniture that needed rehoming. I need garden furniture so 'spent' £100 for a bench, table and chair (metal & wood).

- More spend on fuel than usual as I have been helping friend celebrate her birthday and yesterday got absolutely filthy clearing out the roof space and the garage for her - I get all the best jobs! 
I am likely to be overspent on fuel by the end of the month because of this. 

- Meal out at the beginning of the month cost me £93 for the two of us! (it was very good but not worth that and not worth doing as often as our neighbours, who we went with, do!)
 
However:
- Tracking my spends v. budget etc. means I was constantly aware of the big meal out spend at the beginning of the month and we haven't had any take-aways as a result. Food shopping is at 58% of budget and I would expect that to remain so until pay-day on Friday (next groceries delivery is booked for Saturday). That will help offset some of the spendiness above. 

- I bought a new power lead for my laptop, hoping it would resolve the charging issue. It didn't so I had a £16.99 power lead floating about uselessly. In times gone by I would have shrugged and stashed it somewhere. Not now - I have decluttered / 'returned' it through Amazon and will drop it off at the local UPS store next weekend as I drive past Ross. (I will literally walk it downstairs now and onto the passenger seat of my car so it is 'looking at me' all week to remind me! 
I won't count it as a decluttering point until I have done that though, or the monies as mine, until they appear in my account. 

- Tilly-tidying for February currently stands at £10.47 as opposed to £1.23 for January! I had the satisfaction of having both my current account and my savings account ending in 3 zeros this morning! Flukey 

One job completed in the garden - cordon sanitere on east side of greenhouse completed with 2 further bags of bark chippings 

KK
 

KajiKita

This wet and drich afternoon is not one to be gardening in, so I have been considering my options for my small savings.
 I read the MSE articles about Premium Bonds and I can see they aren't really worth bothering with until you get to c. £10K or so (the odds are too low below that balance of PBs to win anything), so on doing further reading I have opened an Atom Instant Saver. My interest rate has now increased from 0.01% to 0.75% and I still have instant access to my money if I need it.

I will link this new account to my MoneyHub so I can see what the interest is as it comes in on the 20th of each month. It won't be huge but better than the diddly-squat I am getting atm.

Feeling like I have swallowed a frog and like I am a 'proper grown up' with getting that done - been in my mind to *do* something about this for aaaaages   

Right, now to plant some shallots!

KK

KajiKita

I have woken up with an idea and a question but I would appreciate the feedback of here before I decide.

Thought: 

So, I have well and truly got the bug now for wanting to pay down the mortgage especially as in c. 3 years time we will need to get a new fixed deal. Through a quirk of our finances that will never change (we met late in life and like to have some sense of financial independence from each other, however illusory ), as well as independent accounts we also have a joint account for the household bills. Each month there is a small buffer in there - we aim for c. £100 but sometimes it’s a little bit more, say £20 to £50. 

I am wondering if it is worth starting to use these little scraps of money to overpay the mortgage when we have them to try to improve the asset to loan value ratio. Or, would we be better off saving them somewhere for the inevitable fees that would come with the remortgaging process? 

(Note: I don’t see this money as ‘mine’ for use to pay down my CC debt because it’s joint funds. I am taking care of the CC separately.)


Question:

Context: In my new job I get a car allowance. There are qualification criteria for this including things like not having a car that is more than 5 years old etc. I will need a newer car within c. 18 months. If I save all my car allowance separately that will work out fine (at current prices anyway!). 

However, historically we have always had an arrangement that we contribute to the joint expenses on a ratio of earnings. When we met hubby earned more than I did so he contributed more, now I earn more I do. It means we both get money to call our own at what we see as a ‘fair’ ratio of what we do for work. When my first full salary lands in my account this week I plan to recalculate the ratio. The question is, should I include the value of the car allowance in this as my earnings or not? I’d be interested in people’s thoughts on this and why you think it. 😊

KK

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, an interesting one! 

First of all, the earlier question - yes, I think I'd be sending those extra bits off the mortgage, they'll add up nicely over the year. Don't assume there will necessarily be fees associated with remortgaging - our building society sent us a list of about 17 options and many of them didn't have fees upfront. That was staying with the same place though (in our case sensible, but not in all).

I suppose I'd be asking are car spends usually from joint funds? Will OH get any benefit from the car? Where does the dosh come from if he needs a new one? 

I suppose I'd try and think about the practical consequences. If you DIDN'T include it in the calculations, then you'd have to ring-fence the whole of the car payment outside individual/joint money, and only use it for the car. In which case - where is OH's car money coming from? 

If you DO include it, that means you're paying a higher amount to joint bills, but also getting a higher personal spending amount - in which case, where is the payment for YOUR new car going to come from?

I reckon working out both scenarios and seeing what the numbers are will help you make a decision.