We will get this debt down & the savings up

Makingabobor2

Afternoon everybody. Hope you are all well

Yesterday was pension day and  had earmarked it as budget day, but as the weather was good yesterday I did some washing, went out to the local shops in the village and did a load of cleaning. So budget day was put back to today. 
Bit of a late start after a bad night, where for some reason I couldn't sleep. My brain kept thinking about savings pot ideas and different budgets etc.  So I started the day with an extra exercise routine and an extra long coffee. 
 Finally sat down at the laptop with budget book at hand. All the spreadsheets are now done for the 1st 3 months of the new year. I will wait until March to do the rest of the year, when we know what the new council tax, water rates, TV licence etc will be. 
*Started a new savings pot "buffer pot". Never had one of those before and I know some of you have them, so thought I'd give it a go as it will save raiding other pots when the need arises.  Didn't manage to do all that I wanted, as started getting tired, so will  try and finish tomorrow or Thursday.  Although I suspect it might end up being a longer job with new savings pots & challenges I want to start, as well as sorting out which of the F&F deals we will accept first. Had quite a few lately, but suspect there might be better ones on offer in the NY. 
* Paid £150 over payment off the mortgage.
* Paid some money off next years holiday
* Messaged Mr S to find out what has happened to my 1000 Nectar points that I had redeemed the other day, but then cancelled the order. Still waiting for them to be put back on the account. I was told they would take 3 days, well its been 5 days already. So will keep an eye on that
* Been quite mild, so not needed heating on too much which is a saving. 
* ooh and today was another NSD, as I don't count paying the mortgage or the holiday pot at spending. 

So just got to sort dinner out. Yesterdays left overs of chicken casserole, which I will just add a bit more broccoli....that won't please DH...lol 
But before I start on dinner I have time for a quick 20 min online exercise class to get those steps up. 

Keedie

Having a buffer has really been a life saver on so many occasions for me. I try not to dip into it too much, but it's there if I need it. I leave £25 in my account each month and try to only use it if it's something I need but hadn't budgeted for and it's a logical purchase. In 2024, I'm going aiming to get to the point where I have an actual buffer as a separate pot.

I also round up each bill to the nearest pound when doing my budget, so if a bill is £30.79, I add it as £31 in my budget. Over time all those extra pennies have been adding up and I now have £16.90 surplus in that Monzo pot that my bills are paid from. Eventually, I will start a savings pot to get properly one month ahead on my bills. But in the meantime, little and often is helping. 

I hope your mortgage provider got their act together and sorted out that fake arrears situation, I can imagine how stressful that must have been! 

Good to see that your wrist is healing nicely as well.

Makingabobor2

Yes, I like to round up my bills and DD's as well @Keedie. A few pence here and there, makes a difference

Well mortgage provider sent another letter today, after we thought we had sorted it all out last time.  Said they hadn't received our November payment and we were now in more arrears!  I checked bank, DD had gone out on Nov 30th, Checked Mortgage provider (L!*ds) app and payment was showing as received by them. Also the over payments I made since then are showing. So straight on the phone again and was told yes our payments are all up to date and he had no idea why they had sent me a letter....again. So he said he would put me on hold and investigate. Came back 5 mins later and said he would have to talk to someone else, so I said could he please ring me back then, as I wasn't sitting on hold forever. So we'll see what transpires.  Even though I know we have paid and are not in arrears, I find the whole think very confusing and is driving me mad.  We have been with them since 1997, always found them ok and now with only 2 years 7 months to go, they suddenly go downhill.  Hay ho, maybe we'll win the lottery and manage to pay it all off in 1 go. Or as DH keeps telling me....maybe we will inherit some money soon.  Although that is certainly a possibility,  it means that when that happens, we will have lost someone. So not something I think about a lot really. 

Keedie

That's all very strange! They might have changed their operating system/software for managing accounts and it's glitching somehow and the letters are auto-generated and then sent on without being checked. I can imagine it's very stressful though, as you're not only making payments on time, you're making overpayments so definitely no arrears.

Inheritences are a tricky thing as they can be blessing depending on the circumstances, but ultimately they only happen when you've lost someone. I guess the fantasy inheritance is some long lost aunty, uncle or cousin you've never met and have no emotional connection to, but they wanted to take care of you somehow. My friend inherited a house and a car that way. Her aunty passed away and she'd only met her once or twice as a child and had forgotten all about her until she was contacted and informed that she was a sole beneficiary to her aunty's estate.

Makingabobor2

Don't think I have any long lost relatives @Keedie, lucky for your friend though. Ours will be my dad, who we know is leaving his house to my sister & I (provided he doesn't end up in a care home and have to sell it), and DH's parents, who are also leaving the house to DH's sister & him, again, presuming they don't need to sell it to find a care home.

Just had a call back from mortgage people. They say they are launching another investigation and will respond in 7-10 days.  

LittleMissDetermined

Oh my goodness @Makingabobor2 what a mess they're making! I would be certainly making a complaint to them if I were you, there's nothing to set the anxiety going like an arrears letter, especially for your mortgage no less.  I do wonder what has happened for them to have conflicting info by letter and when you speak to them on the phone?  I hope they're not going to make any marks on your credit file, it might be worth checking that when they call you back. 
I hope they can sort it for you, and soon! 
LMD x

Makingabobor2

Yes I did ask about the credit file @LittleMissDetermined. He assured me that they won't do anything until the investigation is complete. In which case there will be nothing for them to mark on it, as we are NOT in  arrears. I just can't understand it, but of course the call centre people, nice as they are, don't know anything apart from what they read on their system, so he didn't even know we'd been sent a letter. That of course is a different dept, in a different building, in ......a different country I think!

nannygladys

It's so as annoying to receive letters and get no immediate redress, bring back people in one place!!
When I was working in an office, many years ago, the company decided to go paperless, we were dreading it and it made an extra lot of work for us as the bosses decided they couldn't fully trust the computers, so the numpties had us running both systems, so we ended up having to update the ledgers and the computers, the company paid out lots of money on computers and we had loads more work to do as it was being duplicated!😂😂 
I hope you get it all sorted very soon.

in_need_of_direction

It might be worth raising a data protection complaint with the bank as information they hold about you is clearly inaccurate.

EssexHebridean

What a lot of shenanigans with the mortgage - I suspect as someone else said above it's going to turn out to be a glitch in the system, but just imagine the panic and distress that could cause someone who is less on top of all things financial than you are? I'd definitely be expecting an official letter from them with an apology when it is all sorted. It goes without saying too I'm sure, but do make sure you keep an eye on your credit files with all three CRAs at the moment just in case they do erroneously put something on there.