And now we go again...

savingholmes

Glad your energy bills are about right. 

PennysIntoPounds

Tube strikes have just been called off for tomorrow and Friday @EssexHebridean!

enthusiasticsaver

It sounds like you are well on top of things in your new home.  That month went quickly.  Hope the furniture restoration cost is not too high.  

EssexHebridean

See Ladywithaplan this was my thinking - it's something that will want to just be out ready for use rather than something that goes "away" - we're going to order it and see how we get on/if we feel that it's OK on the island if needed anyway.

Morning SH & ES!

PiP - MrEH called me yesterday afternoon to say that he'd be travelling into town after all as the tube strike was off! Sort of annoying, but not the end of the world and after an absolute devil of a commute AGAIN last night I'm not too sorry not to have to drive today! 

How's everyone's Wednesday shaping up so far then? It was distinctly nippy down here this morning although the house still seems to be lovely and cosy - we half wondered if the heating had kicked in first thing but the IHD suggested now, and certainly no radiators were warm. I think it's going to be quite interesting seeing how the house deals with the falling temperatures outside as certainly so far it's retaining the heat far more than we would have expected for a far larger space than we are used to - I think the flat would have been cooler by this stage, certainly. 

MSE Stuff:
- We only went and won another £100 on the PB's this month - and embarrassingly that was on a current holding of just £190 which is entirely ludicrous, I feel I should apologise! We're just planning to leave it there for now anyway - our expectations currently are that we simply won't see any wins, so anything that lands there will be seen as a bonus!
- Banks checked and all good, although those demons over at Sant-And-Er STILL haven't transferred my flipping fixed rate ISA into a standard one so I still can't transfer it out. It's infuriating as the longer they take, the longer I have the money sitting there at a grim rate of interest. Sigh. Trying to remind myself that this time last year that felt like a GREAT rate of interest, but still...  
- £22 sent to the OP pot to account for reduced Broadband bill again this month - we are getting the advantage of the remaining credit that was given to apologise for the disconnection mess up. 
- Monthly mortgage payment amended to £815 rather than £813.40 - the odd amount was always going to annoy me eventually! Loving the effect all those small amounts make on the spreadsheet too! I wonder how long before I'll start rounding the odd pennies off the outstanding balance, too - that's when I'll really start annoying MrEH! 
- Monday was a NSD - today won't be one because of MrEH's Oyster feed and ordering the multicooker (and yes, I'm paying £3 for delivery tomorrow as we need to know when it's actually arriving - I don't want something that expensive left sitting on the doorstep!) No reason not to add another tomorrow, though! Yesterday wasn't one for the sake of a £2.28 spend by MrEH in the big orange DIY place - on the bolts we need for securing the TV to the bracket. 
- Looked at the weather forecast and decided to leave any more washing now until the weekend as currently both Saturday and sunday look sunny - we don't have much to get through right now anyway. The bedding which was washed Monday evening dried beautifully on the line yesterday and I folded and put that away last night.

I've currently got the heating on in the office to check it all runs OK before we reach the point of actually *needing* it on. All good so far - and I confess it's taking the (slight) chill off quite nicely! 

Now we're both in London today current me is feeling quite grateful to past me for setting aside that curry for tea tonight - means tea will be ready inside about 10 minutes this evening which will be a win. Minimises the time before we get to sit down with last night's Bake Off, anyway! 

Another win is that apparently MrEH doesn't have a rugby match on saturday - they were going to arrange a friendly but it seems there wasn't much enthusiasm for it (if you ask me, waning enthusiasm levels at this stage of the season are likely to be problematic later, but there you go!) so although there might be a training session at some stage that should give us some time to get odds and ends done which will be useful. 

EssexHebridean

I've been playing with my mortgage spreadsheet.

As things stand, and allowing for the OP's we've already made, plus the small uplift to round off the monthly payment:
- By the end of year one we will have just over £110,200 outstanding.
- By the end of the fix (5 years) we will have just over £87k outstanding.
- we are currently due to clear it in 170 months. 

My current aim is to try for £100 per month to OP - the deal is that anything we can allocate to OPing from usual income goes to the Mortgage OP Account first, and we will then OP from there when it reaches £100, and in round £100 amounts.  If we could *just* OP that £100 month then that would leave us with the following:
- By the end of year one we will have just over £109,400 outstanding.
- By the end of the fix (5 years) we will have just under £81k outstanding.
- We would be due to clear it in 158 months (and that assumes that all OP's stop at the end of the fixed rate, which realistically wouldn't be the case).

I think those are going to be our first targets then -

- Sub £110k by September 2024
And let's be bold about this:
- Sub £80k by the end of the fix. 

themadvix

They look like great targets, EH, and I’m sure you’ll smash them 😊

beanielou

If anyone can do it then it’s you 😊

rtandon27

EH - I totally agree with you on not wanting a package left on your steps!!!

My latest monthly suscr1be & sav3 order from the big river was dumped on my front step despite my having selected to have it kept at the post office so we could go pick it up.  Needless to say it was not there when we got home as our frontage is on a well used road!  Took me 4 hours of trying to use their abysmal on-line customer service portal on Friday and Sunday and another 1/2 hour on the phone yesterday morning to get my 50ish pounds refunded!  I've also got a complaint in with Snail Mail and have been promised a form to fill in for a reimbursement once they have investigated the complaint - SIGH - In this instance I have no qualms about having a double refund as 4+ hours of my time is well worth it!!! (...and now have spent another hour picking up missing items in person from the town centre!)  I hope that whomever walked off with it is well pleased with their year's supply of magnesium and 2 month supply of feminine care items!

All that to say that paying for a timed delivery can be well worth it to save the hassle and frustration of dealing with Bureaucracy!

Sun_Addict

Sounds like a great plan EH and I know you’ll achieve your goal. 

@rtandon27 that’s dire 😡 What makes someone think it’s ok to take a delivery that clearly isn’t theirs! Thieving 🤬

redofromstart

Ooh nice result on those PBs, so pleased for you