MFi3 & before I am 40 + my MB journey

TallGirl

dingling68 wrote: »

Will also send you PM on a couple of MB matters later but off out to pick my daughter up now so must dash x

Never did get your email Dingling68 feel free to ask anytime about MB. I did manage to get the bets on the Golf on Sergio Garcia knowing my luck he will win it.

Sat in my favorite hotel at HQ and my guests have just arrived. I am showing them around the offices tomorrow so tonight is just taking them out of dinner. They are having a lie down before we meet at 6pm. Not sure what they want to eat but there are many options here and all within walking distance.

Just signed up for an excell course at works which means another trip up here but hey it could be useful and I might even be able to use it on my MFi3 quest who knows.

Getting a bit fed up with the travelling and staying away. I am out for 3 nights this week and 2 next week. However DH's business is really suffering at the moment. They are thinking of laying someone off as they are starting to slip and actually make a small loss each month. I know times are though but getting rid of this member of staff means DH can't really take any leave and I would hate that. Hopefully they can find a solution and business will pick up again. Problem is the £ as they import a lot from the US so that hurts a bit. He is now not coming with me to Cornwall which is a real shame.

Well this is too depressing so maybe I should stop now before I depress everyone else. Take care have a good evening.

TallGirl

Evening, sat at my hotel in Cornwall in front of a lovely real fire in an old Inn. It is a bit shabby but the staff is so lovely and helpfull I am quite enjoying it.

Had a bit of a horrid day realised an hour away from home I had left my wallet behind and I could not turn around. I always carry an emergency spare £20 but I needed diesel and had to put £15 in. That left me with my parking coin stash of £15 so not a lot. Needed to pay my hotel tonight and eat so a bit of a problem. Still had my passport on me from the holiday so went to the bank in the small town to see if they could help. Really helpful did not need any ID just had to ask lots of questions and I got some money. Great problem sorted.

Also left my projector at home but the people I am seeing have one so that is also sorted. Phew what a mess.

Anyway can't wait to get home tomorrow which should be fairly early as my meeting will finish at 10.30am so the 4 hour drive will be a breeze.

Just about to use my free 10 spins at Ladbrokes if it has downloaded. Hopefully that will kill a bit of time before dinner.

Oh also Mike called he is coming back on Saturday have finally got the bespoke showerscreen so happy days.

Dingling thats fine will refer you when I get back tomorrow would rather do it on my own PC

TallGirl

Sorry I have not updated for a while went on the golf weekend but did not enjoy it that much to be honest so bailed out early Sunday instead of playing golf. So nice to have some time at home. This post is going to be a proper finanal update no chat.

Bathrooms
Started planing them just before New Year 2007 and Mike fitted the final showerscreen yesterday so all is done now and we love it. We had hoped it would be around £15k but decided to have the wetroom fully tiled plus go for the complete overhaul of the cloakroom. We also went quite expensive on some of the tiles but here is what we spent in total £18,280.84.

That is for 3 rooms which roughly breaks down like this:

Tiles £1135
Stuff from Bathstore.com £4040
Fans £101
Bespoke Showerscreen £285 (very expensive but best option for wet room)
Ligths £ £180
Underfloor heating £300

The rest is materials suplied by Mike and labour.

So to pay for this we have had to add £5467 to the mortgage in the offset so that leaves us with £21k to pay before April 2010. We took out 12 months interst free on the £4000 from the Bathstore so that will be paid monthly finishing about May.

Just had my breakdown on my mortgage for last year it is as follows:

1st Oct 2007 balance £32,108.17
Monthly payments £1000

I pay the interest added on each month and they change with the interest rate and depending on how much is offset.

This is what we were charged over the year:
£108.17 (Sep 07)
£103.71
£96.96
£78.58
£65.94
£62.54
£61.65
£55.61
£47.84
£49.89
£53.09 (July08 just paid Mike)
£52.87
£56.13
£66.55 (Last month Oct 08))

I think that makes quite interesting reading but it has helped that the rates have come down. I think we pay .85% above base rate fully offset.

Rates we had paid over the year:
6.50%, 6.25% 6% latest rate from end Sep 08 is 5.75%

We have £16,000 left to pay plus the new offset loan. We are paying £1000 a month plus I pay the interest on top to keep a nice round balance. Our statement says our contractual payment rate as off 1st Nov 08 should be £361.79 so should anything happen that is a big reduction just by overpaying.

TallGirl

Right just a quick hello as I am off to HQ later. Not leaving until 3pm so will get stuck in trafic but I am taking 3 of my clients so can't be helped.

Just had a little look at my bank accounts and a chat with DH. He paid the last intallment on the bathrooms so he said he would take some money out of his company as he is a bit short now. We have seperate accounts but he usually keeps about £5k in his current account so he should be fine. He does not claim mileage just petrol but he has had to have his car serviced and pay for car tax so hopefully he will claim for that. It is all for tax purposes I think he takes it as directors pay so it is tax free. I don't really know. He is also paying £400 a month for the bathstore stuff which is further eroding his current account but who need £5k in there anyway. That is one of the reason I went for offsetting as DH is hopeless and transferring money to a savings account or ISA as he gets all worried if his balance drops below £5k so offset is the best for us or he would get 0.01% on his £5k.

I really want to get rid of the bathroom loan that we are offsetting I have seeing that £5467 but I can't work out how to pay it online and right now I don't have the money to pay it anyway. It is DH birthday on the 14th, he would like a burgundy sweater in cashmere hopefully I can find one. Anyway Sisterinlaw has just replied to my Skype about to send her a selfhelp pack on debt.

Take care

TallGirl

Ups I am on page 3 pretty poor at updating recently. All is fine been to HQ and back with visitors so that was a bit hectic but all in all a good week. Seriously fedup with my job really would like a change but won't get anything down here at the wage I am on now. I don't want to get a job in London and having so spend 2 hours commuting every day or more. Also I think the train ticket would eat up a lot of my wages. So better carry on just so fed up.

Looking forward to the weekend that will be nice I am spending the whole weekend doing nothing. Invited my friend over but not heard back from her. I hope she is ok.

Did the Icehockey offer on Partybets and Gamebookers last night. Won on two accounts and two I will have to claim the refund. Need to do some serious WR so better get on and do some at the weekend.

Really surprised at the large cut in interest rates of 1.5% I heard Martin Lewis on Radio 2 just afterwards and you could hear how surprised he was. I think our mortgage track Barclays Base Rate so doubt we will see much change just had a look and as of 9th Oct it was 4.50 so we should currently be paying 5.35% so if they cut it that would be nice. Mind you with so little borrow (£21k) it does not make a huge difference.

TallGirl

Right getting things done is what this weekend is all about. Had a nice evening with my friend on Friday so suffered a bit Saturday due to going to bed at 2pm. Did order DH birthday present from M&S online should arrive before Friday. Got 4% cashback with Quidco but forgot to enter the free delivery code so that cost me £3. Have emailed to see if they will refund.

Just got up so this is what I must do today:

1. List Advent Candles on Ebay - I have 9 to sell but sadly lots of other people are selling Danish Candles this year. Did the photes yesterday. done
2. List Holmegaard vase which my dad wants me to sell done
3. List Oboe but do some research first as I don't have a clue as to its value. done but not listed will do on Thursday for 10 days.
4. Sort out flights to Denmark for Christmas which also involves talking to most of my family. too late to use airmiles will now cost us just under £500 - never paid that much before - own stupid fault springs to mind.
5. Do some more MB on Gamebookers done
6. Tidy up the house
7. Sweep up leaves and cut the grass. done just before is started raining
8. Take bottles to bottle bank done

Right it is 10am better get on with it.

TallGirl

It was really good having that check list yesterday and as you can see I got did do most of it. The tickets to Denmark is a disaster as I could have had them for £70 each plus taxes if I had booked them 3 weeks ago but now they are £250 each incl taxes. Rubbish as I have never paid that much before. I am going to have to ask my manager if she will let me have the 22nd Dec off as time in lieu. I have never asked her but I do stay away a fair bit so it would not be too cheeky. I think she got a bit fed up with me on Friday so will have to catch her in a good mood. That means we can go on Sun the 20th which will be cheaper although not a lot. Having Christmas at my sister and my mum and her partner is coming too. My dad usually have Christmas with my sister but at least she invited my mum this year. My inlaws will also be on their own as we are in Denmark. It is so hard as you can't spent time with all of them.

Anyway back to money saving I have paid off £967 off our bathroom loan taking it down to £4500. Also showing it im my signature now as it needs to be cleared in order for me to be MF.

Better get on with work, take care all.

TallGirl

Did anyone see that Panorama program about the debt crisis with Jeremy Vine? They were talking to people affected by the credit crisis and talking about can't pay and won't pay. Well 1st Credit came out really badly as expected a man who had been sectioned and they refused to play ball. However there was also a man who owed Natwest £35k and they put a charge on his property and went for an order for sale. Turned out he had 8 other properties and shops worth over £800k but it did not occur to him to sell those to pay off the debt. He blamed the banks for not suggesting it. I could have hit the TV.

Off to HQ again again, 3rd week in a row so getting a tough now. However staying with a workmate tonight and seeing the manager today. I am going to ask her about having the 22nd off better to do it in person so wish me luck.

DH said to me last night if we had not spent £18k on our bathrooms we would have been so much better off. I agree we spent too much but we got what we wanted and it is for us not because we want to increase the value of the house. He has also agreed to not buy a new car and stick with the Golf he really does not like. Once we have paid off the mortgage we might still keep the loan facility going to get a car on the offset. We shall see what works out best. Still a while to go.

For those of you in the MFi3 I am getting more updates now from people who we thought we had lost. Quite nice to see the list growing again and to note we have paid off just under 2million pound. Go us.

TallGirl

Back from HQ long trip as usual but good learned a lot and had a nice night with work mate and her family. Today I need to get a lot done as I have 3 birthdays coming up really really soon.

1. My M&S order is at the post office that is DH's present so need to pick that up.
2. Buy birthday card for DH
3. Buy birthday card for nephew
4. post nephews present
5. friend is about to have a baby + her birthday is the 20th Nov.
6. appointment at 2pm for work about 45 min drive away
7. write sales reports
8. check on ebay

That is it I am not sure I will get it all done today but some of it is getting a bit urgent.

Oh just booked my flights to Denmark as my nice nice boss gave me the 22nd off. We fly on the 21st and come back on the 29th so just over a week but they cost for 2 of us wait for it £563.40 :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: so cross I did not get them on airmiles before they sold out.

That is it take care

Dithering_Dad

TallGirl wrote: »

DH said to me last night if we had not spent £18k on our bathrooms we would have been so much better off. I agree we spent too much but we got what we wanted and it is for us not because we want to increase the value of the house.

We've spent quite a bit on decorating our house - we've just paid £3.6k to install a home office (though this is covered thru my business, so is tax deductable) - and we have had a patio, garden and other decorating bits done. While we do think sometimes of how much further along in MFi3 we'd be, we also really enjoy having a nice house and garden.

I think it's hard to keep motivated to pay down a mortgage, especially over a 3-5 year period so having a break once in a while to do essential maintenance or give yourself a treat is all part of the challenge. Far better to have little breaks and keep motivated than to slog along and give up after the first couple of years.

It's great news about the 'missing' MFi3ers reporting back in. It's brilliant to hit such an amazing milestone as £2M repaid!