Mortgage free in Forever Home :-)

Suffolk_lass

I found that when we had paid off the debts, the mortgage paying down felt rather daunting so I tracked how much interest my OPs were saving us over the remaining life of the mortgage (I also did not compound it so I actually always underestimated the impact). Most satisfying.

KajiKita

Thanks @SandyShores and @Suffolk_lass 😊
I like the idea of tracking how much interest the OPs will save us, I think that will be encouraging. 😊

Just checked my app for the V1rg1n credit card and the balance was £0.00! 😊👏🎊🎉
So I have now applied to close the card account 😊

Probably ought to update my signature ….. 😉

KK

redofromstart

Hurrah for clearing the card. Tracking the interest saved sounds motivating.

Suffolk_lass

Anyone in finance or a complete Whiz with spreadsheets could devise a better way but basically I looked at the monthly interest, and multiplied the difference pre-OP with that post-OP and multiplied that amount by the number of months left to the end of the mortgage - and I left the amount we were paying off each month the same (rounded up to the next £100), so that this mini OP was also working to reduce interest. Each time I paid an additional OP, over and above the monthly DD they recalculated it (taking the previous rounding into account (I think)). It became quite addictive for the last 18 months. 

KajiKita

Suffolk_lass said:

Anyone in finance or a complete Whiz with spreadsheets could devise a better way but basically I looked at the monthly interest, and multiplied the difference pre-OP with that post-OP and multiplied that amount by the number of months left to the end of the mortgage - and I left the amount we were paying off each month the same (rounded up to the next £100), so that this mini OP was also working to reduce interest. Each time I paid an additional OP, over and above the monthly DD they recalculated it (taking the previous rounding into account (I think)). It became quite addictive for the last 18 months. 

I am not a whizz with spreadsheets, more of a plodder …. 😉 But will take this explanation and play with it, thank you 😊 

KK

KajiKita

Quietly pootling along here.

10 minute tasks x 2 here this evening:

- helped Mr KK stack the firewood delivery when I got home (in the rain!). I will owe him half of this delivery (£55 I think) from a YNAB pot which I can then fill up again before next winter, as this should be the last delivery we need until well into autumn now. 

- I think I have finally finished the ‘application’ form for re-election as a parish councillor - the form is half a tree thick! I have to hand deliver this epic tome - I’m not even allowed to put it in the post. What with having two sponsors and a witness, it all seems a bit OTT for an unpaid, voluntary position with negligible influence or effect 😉 Still, I have moved it on and the activities of our PC are finally starting to get interesting, with the influence of some new councillors 😊

KK

Suffolk_lass

I'm hoping for some new Parish Councillors here. I think the Village needs it and so I am not standing this time (shh)

KajiKita

I’ve had a small win today 😊

Went to feed La Belle Floof a couple of mornings ago and nearly got knocked back off my feet by the smell of rotten fish emanating from the box of F3lix fish pouches …. The pouch I had select had not sealed correctly (I reckon it had slipped / twisted in the packing machine) and so had leaked all over the bottom of the box - the source of the smell. I sent a polite and friendly complaint into Purin@ with various photos, including some of their customer LBF 😸, and after some back and forth (apparently they need they need the batch coding off the base of the pouch not just the box don’tcha know!) I got a £3 PayPal payment today, which is probably 3 x the value of the pouch 😊 Not sure I would have ever bothered doing that before spending so much time on here 😊

I have immediately swept it off as an OP! 😊🎉

Also got my monthly interest payment for my savings of £26.18 - sadly that has to stay in my savings account until I hit my required YNAB and EF numbers …. 😉

No 10-minute-tasks tonight - got held up in work by a salesman (boy can they talk!) so was late leaving, got tangled up in traffic as a result and have got home late. Behind now …. Ah well. Maybe I will be able to parallel-chore as I cook dinner?

KK

KajiKita

Okay, so I have a confession to make …..

Was doing my updating of transactions etc last night and when I was looking at my credit card, noticed yet again (note the again), a non-Sterling transaction fee …. What *is* that, goes I ….? Investigations and rummaging later … I deduce that it is a monthly membership fee for German @mazon prime ….

This goes back to October last year. I had to go to Heidelberg and then Minden for work. It was a horrible journey and in the midst of it my suitcase arrived on the carousel at Frankfurt airport, mostly open. Fortunately, because one of three catches was still secure and I had used the internal straps most of the contents were still in there (I know I definitely lost some items though). 

I absolutely didn’t want that happening on the way home, had no independent transport, end to end work days (we didn’t finish work / obligatory interaction with colleagues until 10pm most nights) and I had no clue where to go to find luggage straps, so turned to online shopping. In order to be sure the straps would arrive before I left again I used a temporary Prime account. I honestly didn’t remember now whether I actually realised what I was signing up to (I was soooo tired at the time as it was the trip from hell) but I obviously was signing up to that monthly membership fee. 

When I got back from that trip, I was straight into a storm of what had built up in my absence without enough team members and having to sack one of them as he was a truly awful person. I managed to claim my expenses back from the trip - took me several hours though, and obviously missed this subscription altogether. I could have spotted it before now though …..

I was SOOOO cross with myself last night that I couldn’t bring myself to share it last night. I have wasted c. £53.94 on the membership fees themselves and £7.44 on non-sterling transaction fees since October. Bah!!! 😡😢

However, moving on ….

- I have cancelled my German @mazon account altogether. 

- I recognise that I need to track better what I am spending on my personal credit card so I can get it to ‘balance’. 

- I recognise that I need to get better at managing my work expenses, including what I spend on the company issued AM3X and my own credit card as the company card is so limited in where it is actually accepted and cash spends as taxi drivers especially don’t seem to take any(! 🙄😳), when I am away for work. The company expenses renumeration system itself has recently been changed and it sounds even worse than the old one …. ! 

I think I will resort to old fashioned pad and pen to track all my spends, in date order, where and on what, whilst away. (I’ve managed to duck the trip that is happening early next month but I suspect I will only get away with that once …. 😉)

Posting for accountability and to ‘own up’ to being a prat!

KK

redofromstart

Oh lord, an easy mistake to make. I have seen accounts of them refunding membership if you genuinely haven't used it 'set up in error, no reminder at renewal' so it may be worth a ping to customer services