Hurrah, my MFW quest has started

abouttimetoo

Hi Tilly, lol, at the minute I would gladly swap you my sparkly bathrooms for your non existant filing, I don't know where all the darn stuff comes from, I'm sure it's secretly multiplying when I'm not looking!

I've managed to bring a bit of further order to it this morning but still plenty more to do and I've left two large piles in the dining room for later, one that is neatly sorted into 'types' and ready to be filed, the other that is still a mess!

When does your cleaner start? FWIW I think you have done exactly the right thing so well done you, you and Mr T have enough to do and a family to enjoy without worrying about the other stuff too. Mind you, on the cleaning note I had a bit of an idea this week and it worked a treat. I had an old pair of exfoliating mitts that I was about to chuck out. Instead I put them on and then used them with the cleaning fluid to clean the shower doors, they worked a treat and I'm definately going to do it that way from now on If there are any gents looking in who may be taken by this idea, please refer to a lady in your life as to what exfoliating mitts might be :rotfl:

Had a lovely time out with my mother, and yes, we both wrapped up well. Neither of us has a sweet tooth but oddly when we got there both said we fancied a dessert with our coffee and I don't think we have ever done that before. The coffee was delicious too and served with cream, I really like it served like that but it seems terribly hard these days to find places that serve it with cream as a matter of course?

Regards
ATT

abouttimetoo

Grr, off to look at my budgetting spreadsheet in a mo, I still seem to be paying in too much money! I know that is better than too little but it's really annoying that it's not right. I know part of it is because I've now paid my phone line rental a year in advance but that still doesn't explain why I'm transferring money back to my current account at the end of every month

I've also opened a separate car account last week as previoulsy I've been transferring the money into my bills account but that's just getting messy and not helped by the fact that as I've said I seem to be transferring too much into the bills account

abouttimetoo

Right, got it sorted! I'd forgotten about one small bill that is paid half yearly for my ISA administration; as well as this I had also - for reasons that escape me - put extra money into the bills account last month for the gas bill when the bills transfer already covers it - doh! So, i've made a couple of adjustments and with the phone line already paid for have been able to decrease the monthly bills s/o by £29 :j

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi, cleaner starts this week and I can't wait. I love an empty filing tray - didn't used to be like that as I got stung a number of times donkeys years ago by a couple of late CC payments, in the days before DD - never again. So much paperwork I never noticed the bills. :eek:

Anyway, I read your slow snoozing post on AGs diary and may look into that. We are disciplined enough, and have the right saving pots in place now so that could work well. Will give it some thought.

Tilly x

abouttimetoo

Hi Tilly, yay to the cleaner and definate yay to your filing tray, mine is getting better and I am normally on top of it I just seem to have such a lot of 'stuff' come in the last month or so. The two piles are still glaring at me from the dining room but should be sorted by the end of the week

Yes, definately have a look into the stoozing, it could work amazingly well for you bearing in mind your pots and offsetting.

I wished i'd known about stoozing years ago in the days when there wasn't any handling fees for the balance transfer types of stooze and as you can imagine there was a lot of money to be made borrowing thousands for nothing and then getting good interest rates on it, or, offsetting it against the mortgage. These days typically there is a 4% handling fee for the cash transfer types so not much to be made in view of saving rates at the moment.

That said, there is a rather clever wheeze that can be done with M&S (and I know FB looked at it too) the T&C's escape me at the moment but it was something along the lines of if you take the money out as travellers cheques they only charge 1%, you then pay the TC's into your bank account (the bank consider them cash) and away you go, you've just managed to stooze/borrow some cash for a 1% handling fee

Regards
ATT

abouttimetoo

Well I've just been having a bit of a play with my spreadsheet...

I have 77 months left before my MRF date of 1/8/18. If I assume nothing changes, e.g. salary, interest rates etc, this will mean that on my current rate of overpayments I will still owe £33, 000 by that date. That's not too much in the scheme of things so I will have to see what can be done to increase my OP's and i know it can be done as I still have quite a lot of 'disposable' income at my current rate of OPing. That said, that means I need to find an extra £428 per month which is just a bit too much of a stretch at the moment but as they say, every little bit helps

I set the MFW date back in April 08 and it was a stretch target so it's good to know that i'm not too far out, well, if you can call £33k not too far out :rotfl:

My next target milestones are for the overall balance to start with £140k and the IO part to start with £65k; if my forecasting goes to plan then that should happen around August this year. I don't think one can ever say they are 'comfortable' with owing £140k but I'm certainly a heck of a lot more comfortable then when it was just short of £200,000 :rotfl:

Regards
ATT

abouttimetoo

I've also just been having a quick double check of where I am with repaying my parents for the tax loan. In total I borrowed £4948 and have so far repaid £3048 since September last year. This leaves £1900 still owing and that is on track to be fully repaid by September this year with a stretch target of August. All in all I'm pleased with that as I don't think repaying nearly £5k back in 12 months is bad going.

Once repaid that will then free up an additional £300 pm to go towards paying the 0% credit card and then once that is done will then go towards overpayments, though I have factored that into my above post re still being £33k short on my MFW date!

Regards
ATT

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Morning ATT, I love the feeling of clearing something, for me it has been saving for a holiday later in the year, and then switching it to save for something else. The offset has made such a difference. It will be super when your family loan is repaid as that will be real closure to the tax debacle. :T

Hope your week has been ok and not too stressful - as I have had the week off I truly haven't thought about work at all

Best wishes Tilly

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi ATT, where is April going? Hope all is going well with you.

Tilly x

abouttimetoo

Hi all

Just a quick note to say I'm still around! I've been totally laid low with some kind of viral bug for the last two weeks. I'm still not quite right but I think I'm starting to come out of it now

I did make my April OP more than two weeks ago and couldn't even summon up the energy to come on here and update my signature, that's the first time ever :eek: I don't even have my numbers to hand now to do it now but hopefully will have later on

Hope you are all well, I'm sure I've got lots of lovely diaries to catch-up on

Regards
ATT