Cheery's path to fulfilment - finishing the DIY, looking after myself, appreciating the garden 🌻

rtandon27

Cheery_Daff said:

I thought for a second you were rounding to the nearest £1000! 😱😂

Haha - if only I had that kind of money floating around! 🤣 

greenbee

Cheery_Daff said:

greenbee said:

I'd forgotten about the new mortgage payment next month I did switch to Agile today though, so hoping to save enough to fund the difference in the mortgage payment. 

Ha, we're likely to save about £5 a month i think, still bit to make up! 😂

I saved a lot last night as my solar/battery system didn't pick up the budget charge I'd set so the WM, DW and towel rails ran from the battery! Hopefully the panels will start generating soon and I won't use anything from the grid during the day! I suspect it's because I didn't set my tariff to Agile until quite late in the day, and I won't be around to adjust the pricing thresholds tonight (or need to - the battery will probably end the day full given that the sun is going to be shining all day!) so will have to see what happens. There's definitely some experimenting to do before I actually NEED the cheap night-time electricity - it'll be tedious if I have to set it manually every night, but not a disaster. 

Cheery_Daff

I've still not switched yet - will get on the case over the weekend.

Funny old day 🙄 Still, it's over now, and my out of office message is on until Tuesday, thank goodness. 

Had a letter from the mortgage company confirming our rate switch (a relief, as the last letter, which I assume was a mistake, said we would be going onto their standard variable rate, even though we'd previously had paperwork confirming the switch...)

Anyway, actual new rate is £1051.57 (not the £1035 I was remembering). End day would be, as planned, Feb 2043 - the full 25 years, taking us til I am 62, and Mr C is 80 😬

In reality we will throw lots at it once we have Mr C's state pension (and it's reasonable to assume we may move back to civilisation at some point before then anyway). 

In the meantime, setting a standing order for £1060 a month shaves 2 months off, having it finish in Dec 2042, so that seems a reasonable starting point. 

Figured out what was wrong with my spreadsheet. I have a box which automatically calculates when the end date is and shows it as a particular month/year - I've got it showing the first month that there is a below zero figure. But the figure is BEFORE that month's payment is made. So it is currently showing March 2043 - but at the start of March, before March's payment is made, there is -£21 left - which means it would actually be paid off with February's payment.

Make sense?? I think I get it now - will adjust the box on the laptop later.

I was confusing myself because our payment goes out on 1st of the month, so there's actually no time during the month that the balance would show as before the payment being made, if you see what I mean 😂

I haven't figured out the best way to adjust the 'interest saved' box though. At the minute it just compares the interest paid column at the point it's paid off with the original interest we were due to pay - but of course our initial fix was at 1.8% so now it's saying interest saved is MINUS £44k 🙄 which is quite demoralising 😂 

How do you all calculate your 'interest saved' figure through increasing interest rate fixes??

KajiKita

“How do you all calculate your 'interest saved' figure through increasing interest rate fixes??”

Thank you for asking this question….

KK

Cheery_Daff

Hmm, ok, if I keep it simple, ignore everything that has gone before, and just use the MSE OP calculator starting with our current balance/interest rate now, rounding up to £1060 saves us £910 over the next 18 years.

Not loads over that period, but better than nowt!

Cheery_Daff

And if I rounded up to £1100 (which I won't, because it's already £130 a month extra anyway, without adding another £50 on top) that'd save us £5k in interest. 

OK, definitely need to start making OPs again, however teensy 😊

Cheery_Daff

Had an email about the stupid parking fine i got at work the other day - 'although your PCN was correctly issued we have cancelled it on this occasion'. 

Then some standard issue stuff about the offer having to be able to see the permit in order to record all the details (ok,they couldn't see the print out of the email, which is all the 'permit' is, but ALL the details were there, which isn't acknowledged).

Blah blah. At least it's been cancelled, that's the main thing!

rtandon27

Phew - glad to hear it was cancelled! - how about an extra mortgage payment instead? 

Cheery_Daff

😂😂 Ha, good suggestion - I would have done that if I'd deserved it and it got cancelled 😂

Cheery_Daff

Evening MSE chums 😊 

Gosh, it's been a long week. Lots has been going on at work, I worked an event on Saturday too, and had a funeral on Friday as well. Today I got up late and just curled up on the sofa reading a book til after lunchtime, then we went out for a cuppa.

Some MSE (ish) things: 

* got a free cake in the cafe with a loyalty card

* found an excellent new coat in a charity shop. John Lewis, floor length, black, shaped, swishy, lovely satin lining 🥰 £27, so far more than I'd usually pay for a charity shop coat, but it fits beautifully, and I can get rid of at least two others in its place. Anyway, Mr Cheery made me buy it - that's my story and I'm sticking to it 😂

* friend gave me a load of apples from her tree, so I've finally got round to stewing some of them. I'm going to freeze them stewed, without sugar, in small portions (ie silicone bun tray size) for use in smoothies or porridge or pudding over the winter. They've been stewed for a bit and are now in the hay box stewing a bit more.

* started freezer excavations - gooseberries are currently boiling in some water, and then they'll go in the haybox, then be strained overnight ready for gooseberry jelly tomorrow. 

* also got blackberries - some from Mr C Snr's garden, and I promised I'd make him some jam, so I'd best do that first. Then I've also got blackcurrants and damsons - contemplating throwing them in together for a bit of a hedgerow style jam but we'll see. At some point I'll run out of pans, jars, and/or patience, and I need to defrost the freezer too! 

What else...?

* need to make a transfer to Mr C's new regular saver and set up a standing order - I've already forgotten and not made October's manual payment yet and I don't want to miss the interest. Mine's on a standing order, but apparently I can't set up a standing order to Mr C's regular saver from the joint account, I've got to be logged in as him, or some such nonsense. 

* also need to contact the building society to set the new mortgage OP amount

Nothing else money-saving i don't think. Mr C's friend is coming to stay so we need to have a tidy round tomorrow and rescue the spare room a bit. I need to collect my prescription in the morning - dare I risk the swimming pool?? I've not been back since I got my foot infection, but that's properly healed now and I have flip-flops 😂 Might risk it, I miss swimming! 

Mr C is planning to make a nice lentil soup for tea, so I might need to remove the apples from the big pan. I'm going to have a nice bath with my book i think. Trying to properly embrace the move to autumn with some autumnal activities, so jam making and today I've also raked up 4 bin bags of leaves for leaf mould too. 

Right, pan swapping, then a nice bath.

(Not switched to agile yet, which is why I am being free and easy with my use of peak electricity for jam making 🙈😂) Will make the switch tomorrow, no idea if it's instant or not but will find out before making any more teatime jam!