MFW, What small thing have you done/ will you do today?

weezl74

Floxxie wrote: »

Had a sudden revelation of where I found the info; have highlighted teh important bit. The link is http://www.dwp.gov.uk/advisers/ni17a/smp/smp_16.asp

Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP)

Working in your Maternity Pay Period

If you are getting SMP from one employer and, before your baby is born, you do some work for another employer, your SMP is not affected.
Your SMP will stop if after the baby is born but before the end of the Maternity Pay Period, you work for an employer who did not employ you in the qualifying week. It is your responsibility to tell the employer paying you SMP about your new job. You must do this as soon as possible, and make sure you return any SMP payment you get that covers the week you started work and any part of the period after you resumed work.
If you do any work in a self-employed capacity during your MPP, then such work will not affect your SMP.

Thanks so much! :A:A:A That's a great relief.

And a big 'Hello' to you too phizzimum! I miss all our pals from the 50p challenge

Hope your MFW journey goes well, everyone!

Love Weezl x

Floxxie

Oooh just realised who you are Weezl. Will have to catch up with your diary. Can't remember any mention of a baby on there though! :rotfl:Good luck with trying to get a home birth; I had two of mine at home.

phizzimum, what is the free snack box on Pigsback?

Floxxie

seabright

NSD for me today, although I did drive about 10 miles (first time I'd used the car in a couple of weeks).

Dinner is a money-saver too: leftover sauce from Tuesday's Slowcooker Basque Chicken with some meatballs on pasta, cooked in the slowcooker (not the pasta)

Still trying to get my head round Pigsback. Done another 3 surveys on OnePoll

phizzimum

Floxxie wrote: »

phizzimum, what is the free snack box on Pigsback?

Floxxie

its with a company called "graze" - they send out boxes of fruit, nuts seeds etc. £2.99 for a small box but the first box is free, second box is half price - then you can cancel. if you sign up via pigsback its 40 piggy points.

esthomizzy

I've not been a very good MFW small things person recently

but I saved a stamp that hadn't been franked today. It's small alright

I managed to skimp 20 quid out of my weeks spending money to send to the mortgage for my next OP as well so perhaps I'm not doing too badly.

On the downside I found out that my early repayment charge is a shocking 4% so there is no way of me benefiting from the current super uber low rates. Unless anyone thinks it's worth trying to negotiate a better deal with my current company by threatening to leave them anyway? I would break even if I left them and took a cheaper deal so it would be only worth leaving to spite them.

seabright

esthomizzy wrote: »

I found out that my early repayment charge is a shocking 4% so there is no way of me benefiting from the current super uber low rates. Unless anyone thinks it's worth trying to negotiate a better deal with my current company by threatening to leave them anyway? I would break even if I left them and took a cheaper deal so it would be only worth leaving to spite them.

Does your early repayment charge only apply for a set time? Mine does, there's a fee if I repay during the fixed rate period, but after that no fee. I can also repay up to £50K per year, even within the fixed rate period, without any fee.

Read the small print on your original offer and see if you have anything like this.

esthomizzy

seabright wrote: »

Does your early repayment charge only apply for a set time? Mine does, there's a fee if I repay during the fixed rate period, but after that no fee. I can also repay up to £50K per year, even within the fixed rate period, without any fee.

Read the small print on your original offer and see if you have anything like this.

Thanks trouble is I was living out of a bag at the time of arranging this mortgage thanks to a relationship breakdown and I can't find the original paperwork, the mortgage company swear it's 4% for the term of the fix (another 3.5 years remaining) given most other similar products taper down I'm not sure I believe them but unless I can find the paperwork I can't really prove otherwise. I can overpay up to 10% pa and I'm overpaying what I can but of course that is not nearly enough to reduce the interest paid by any considerable amount.

skint_chick

esthomizzy by the time you've paid your repayment charges and an arrangement fee, valuation and poss solicitors fees for changing your mortgage you'll prob find the monthly saving is cancelled out - unless you have a superhuge mortgage?

I've been very good this week - paid £1800 off my flexible mortgage rather than keeping it in savings account as almost 2% difference in interest rates - and I still have savings left! I've reduced my balance by over £5000 since I started overpaying a month ago. I'm on the Live on £4000 for a year challenge with the savings going towards repaying my mortgage and family loan. My aim is to be mortgage free by the time I'm 40 (only 8 1/2 years and £141k+ of mortgage to go).

Floxxie

phizzimum wrote: »

its with a company called "graze" - they send out boxes of fruit, nuts seeds etc. £2.99 for a small box but the first box is free, second box is half price - then you can cancel. if you sign up via pigsback its 40 piggy points.

Thanks. I'm not a big fan of Pigsback as their rewards are so low. If you want cashback with this then some of the sites are offering £2 for the trial (and an extra £3 if you purchase a full priced box) - www.cashbackguide.org and type in Graze

Floxxie

seabright

Getting a carpet sweeper from freecycle later today - will save me lugging the big hoover up from the basement when the dog walk bits of the garden into the house will him. A tiny saving, but a saving - I hope!