Starting afresh in paradise

ManekiNeko

I'm feeling pretty rough these past few days, still dealing with conflict in my family and I'm just not coping. I don't know what else to say about it rn. I'm just a solid block of misery. Struggling to keep my MH stable. So if I'm quiet, this is why.

In money news, found 5p in Tesco on Saturday, now OP'd. Also got another £1.75 of cashback (from a big Amazon order), so I'll move that over this morning. There is actually more to order off Amazon as well, I've got a lot of things in my basket waiting for me to do something with them.

Aside from that, finding myself quite looking forward to the weekend and doing my next budget, although I feel bad for wishing time away in a sense (I don't mean to). Anyway, the reason is because it'll mark 10 per cent repaid to my DS. I'll also be moving on to the new, higher monthly amount I'll now be paying her, which hopefully will help her out a bit with money, as well as help me by meaning I start repaying her faster.

Obviously, I'd like to repay her as quickly as possible, but more specifically because the extra payment will also help relieve the pressure on me, because I always worry about "what if we fell out." It's just something I fear almost whenever I owe someone, but it looms especially large when it's a such a huge amount of money, and when my family aren't seeing eye to eye, you know? So I'll feel increasingly better as the total owed reduces. I wish it wasn't so slow, but I feel I'd be being a bit foolish to OP her all the time and ignore the mortgage, which is small for most people but sizeable enough for me, on my low income, to worry about higher interest rates.

Another good thing will be that I start overpaying the service charge as well from May's budget onwards.

Still feel really anxious 😬 going to go OP my cashback now and then head off to meet my support worker.

ManekiNeko

Right, productive day, and even found 20p in the street on the way back from Morrisons. Now OP'd. 🪙

I also had a little T&C's check and it seems it's definitely better to physically OP the money onto my mortgage before it reaches 3x the standard monthly amount. This is because if it reaches or exceeds that amount, it won't be allowed to use it for 'underpayments' of my mortgage should I fall on hard times in the future. I don't plan to use that feature, but in an emergency it's better to have it than not, so lower payments it is.

Also had a letter from PIP today asking me to fill out the renewal forms. It's strongly implied to just fill out "no change" or give a really brief few sentences, but for what I've read online, you're better off treating it like a brand new application and giving full details, new medical evidence, etc.. it's basically so if it goes for assessment/to tribunal you can show you gave high quality, consistent evidence all the way through the process. So, it'll be the usual process, which is pretty rough on my MH. It's what I was expecting to do, just nine months earlier than I'd thought I'd need to deal with this (apparently their backlog is so big now they're asking people to send their forms back up to a year early).

Oh - and my living room light has fallen down a bit, so that's a new thing to look at. Typical eh 🤦‍♀️ lol. Might need replacing, I'm asking my partner about it - electrics aren't my wheelhouse.

LadyWithAPlan

Well done on all your OP progress and focus! 

On your tracking .. I have started using empty jars and labelled food, travel, fun etc and as I go thru the month I am adding my receipts into each so I can see what I am spending on a monthly basis. I am also adding notes in where i can see DD's going out - I am good with spreadsheets but there is something about paper and pen so i use a paper budget I can scribble on as I go through each month

ManekiNeko

Thanks @LadyWithAPlan (great nick btw), I must say I do quite like the idea of physical jars. Do you update your paper budget before putting the receipts in the jars?

What does your paper budget look like - basically a spending diary in a notepad? Or a bit more involved? I'm intrigued.

LadyWithAPlan

I am self employed so never know when i get paid so i always do a paper budget .
Printed sheets with the main categories on (I can then copy loads of amounts from the previous months) plus I then put all my categories - from home improvements, groceries, entertainment  in.
 I like this as I can scribble as i go, something always comes up but I can then move amounts around so less more on entertainment if a sudden forgotten bill comes in
I also can just add an extra peice of paper on the back if something else needs adding eg costing a diy project or how I am going to pay a big bill. Each month I staple the papers together and label it April month etc - so I can look back if I want.

The paper budget gives me peace as I already have apportioned out my money

I like to use virtual bank pots for all my categories as I find with cash it all gets muddled up. So I will transfer say £150 to food banking pot, £30 for bulk buying food etc into another bank pot and as I spend thru the month I will transfer out of the bank pot into my current acct.
I use 2 banks Monzo and Halifax as I can have loads of virtual pots for free. Some banks you cant do this.

I also track my sinking pots on the budget so I will put a small amount away each month for home stuff, clothing or gifts even if I dont actually spend any. I let it build up til I need to or want to. T

The jars are to separate the receipts when I get home and then I can look at the end of the week/month and add up what I have spent

The jars are used in cash in the youtube series Til Debt Do Us Part - fascinating if you have not seen it. I dont use cash but plenty of people do and love the discipline of it.
Hope that helps.

ManekiNeko

Thanks so much @LadyWithAPlan, that's really interesting to learn about how you budget and there's lots of food for thought there for me too. Especially when it comes to my food budget and those jars! I love the idea of having an archive you can look back through too if you need to.

I haven't actually watched that show but I've heard good things, I'll see if I can find it.

Thanks again ☺️ appreciate you taking the time to explain.

ManekiNeko

Well, it's another month and I've received a healthy amount of savings interest (£16.81), OP'd the service charge help (£65), and got a few pennies of other interest/cashback/found money.

I've now OP'd more than two standard mortgage payments so far this mortgage year, which is probably something like four months of getting MF sooner. I'm away just now but when I'm back I'm hoping to update my spreadsheet and calculate it all properly.

It's that money time of the month, so enjoy your brand new budget everyone 🤓🪙 hope you're making good progress towards your goals.

ManekiNeko

Oh, put another way, I'm now only about £10 short of OP'ing the entirety of my monthly interest charge. Can't pull it up any further yet, but it's a nice feeling.

One day I'd like to be OP'ing one month's capital repayment as extra each month. (Buy one get one free, kind of? Haha.)

ManekiNeko

Very glad it's a bank holiday weekend, I'm ill for a rare change and planning to just rest up, the most we'll do is a food shop and maybe a stroll somewhere locally if I'm feeling a bit better.

You know ... I'm not a mortgage prisoner per se, because I wasn't affected by the financial crash in 2008, nor the tighter affordability criteria brought in during.. 2014 was it? But in practical terms I've realised I don't think I could remortgage either, unless I'm back to work by a year or so before my mortgage fix ends. Apparently I could only borrow about £30k on a mortgage as things stand, e.g. while not having a job. (At least, this was according to my broker a month or two back; she did say affordability is crazy tight just now with the cost of living, so to give it another look in no sooner than six months).

My mortgage lender's SVR is currently 7.49 per cent. If I run the numbers based on the total I originally borrowed, the repayments would become £464 a month, more than double what I pay now at £219.48.

Alternatively, if I look at it based on what my remaining debt would be after 7 years (just based on my standard monthly repayments for now), I'd owe £57,347 and my repayments would be £413.

Hopefully, the world will have turned by then and rates will have improved rather than worsened, and maybe I'll have had enough support to help me get back to work, even if it's just part-time, but it's still good to keep an eye on these figures. It's somewhat sobering. It's not that I need extra motivation exactly, but it's good not to be surprised by these things at least.

In other news, although my PIP award doesn't end until next spring, I've already been sent my review pack to complete, which was a big surprise for me as they'd previously told me to expect it in roughly December of this year. They said they're having to do them earlier now because of their backlog. I've got a few extra sessions with my support worker booked to try and deal with this. I'm also asking my doctor, therapist, etc to write supporting letters. It's a big stress on me though to fill out these forms, and I need to be very blunt about the level of difficulty I experience, which is very hard for me to express in a clear, short way.

I do really worry about the outcome as well, I don't trust the PIP assessors to be fair as sometimes they're amazing and really empathetic, but other times they're awful and won't listen to a word you say. I'll have to ask my support worker if she'll attend the assessment with me, as I can't cope with going alone. The thing is, PIP is almost half my income and I rely on it heavily. I wouldn't mind losing it if my health had improved drastically, and I was therefore back in work, but neither of those things are true. So if I lose it, it'll mean using up all my savings pots on essential living expenses only until I can get to an appeal tribunal, which I think can take a very long time. If it takes a super long time, it could mean having to borrow money, get into utility debt, use a food bank, etc. And that's not even saying anything about the impact all this stress will have on my mental health (which judging by the last health assessment I had, will be severe).

So like ... even though I know I'm still unwell and my health affects my daily life a lot ... I'm scared they won't see that. You know?

Merlin's_Beard

Worth remembering that you should be able to switch to any other product with your mortgage provider without going through an affordability check, so the SVR won't be your only option as long as your bank/building society hasn't failed (which is when people really get trapped).

Only sympathy for the  PIP appeal, the whole system doesn't seem fair or just or aimed at getting help to people that need it.