Balance in the force

FlacosFloozie

Managed an overpayment of £155 this month, which takes me past my original target for the year.

I get paid on Monday and this will be the first installment of increased salary so have adjusted some of the savings targets in YNAB. Once its through, I'll increase my pension contributions. I'll need to contact HMRC about changing my tax allowance. I did get a tax refund so once that's through it can get added to next month's overpayment pot.

I also need to start to look at savings accounts as some are starting to offer more than our mortgage so may be better off saving and paying as a lump sum.

Merlin's_Beard

I think when you can get a 4.5% regular saver, you're almost certainly be better off saving then either overpaying with the lump sum or transferring to a high interest account at the end. The BoE base rate might be increased again next week so potentially even more products appearing.

South_coast

Remember with regular savers though that the interest is calculated daily, so you wouldn't get 4.5% of the final balance, as you wouldn't have had that much in there throughout the course of the year. I think the rough rule of thumb is that they tend to work out at about half of the headline rate

savingholmes

I am using savings and pension rather than directly overpaying. Although South Coast is right - if you had an upfront lump sum but can only drip feed it in - then that reduces the actual interest you get. There are ones though where you can put up to £5K in and get over 5% (B)

FlacosFloozie

Thanks everyone. I have a B account so will set up their saver and transfer some of the emergency fund over. I'm waiting until mid month to see if the regular savers rise.

The mortgage we have is on an extremely low rate until Jan 2024 so the current regular savers would beat it but the fairly small amounts you can save each month limit the overall interest. I think there's a psychological benefit for me too seeing the mortgage being cleared.

FlacosFloozie

Tax refund arrived in my bank this morning so overpayment of £250 to start the month. Have been goos so far this week taking lunches in to work. This is where I often fall down and end up buying a supermarket meal deal- not good for my wallet or waistline. Think I need to aim for a different type of NSD- no sandwich days. Lets try for 17 this month so 2/17 to start.

savingholmes

Well done on the OP. Hope the planned NSDs work out too. 

FlacosFloozie

Thank's SH. I actually forgot I have a week of holiday so the NSD taget will be way off but have managed 8/17 so far.

FlacosFloozie

I ended up with 14/17 NSDs- not bad considering I had time off. December has been bad for buying lunches already so will aim for 10 days going forward.

Managed £350 mortgage overpayments in November so have passed the original target. The December challenge is not to leave everything for Christmas to the last minute and go overboard panic buying. I have a budget and should be able to stick to it.

savingholmes

Well done on NSDs - I need more of them too.