Statement of intent

StuartGMC

Shopgirl
Many thanks for your comment. In reality this focus on planning has only been a significant item in the past year with MSE pushing me to really hone down the detail. Before this we had planned of course, but it was along the lines of we'll always OP against our income and knowledge of spend (but didn't look too hard at impact of end date), have always tried to save for items not had loans and been "within budget".

Getting the spreadsheet improved before MSE and enhancing it with input from others here on things like effective interest rate, groceries spend etc was a motivation to then further improve the position.

I guess if we had done this in the late 1990s maybe we'd be ahead of the 9yrs and 4 months saving on paying off the mortgage which seems just about achievable.

Regarding cars, the S-Type is very nice too, but the XF, launched this year as the replacement, is even nicer; both on screen and up close

EssexHebridean

Stuart - our MD at work has recently got an XF - he visited our depot last week and parked it in the car park - I almost crashed my poor little Clio rubbernecking at it as I drove out the gate at lunchtime!

StuartGMC

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Stuart - our MD at work has recently got an XF - he visited our depot last week and parked it in the car park - I almost crashed my poor little Clio rubbernecking at it as I drove out the gate at lunchtime!

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
I assume at least you wouldn't have hit the XF, but the accident report for insurance purposes would make an interesting read

Yes, they are lovely cars inside and out... but I'm no MD, just a manager hence I have to buy my own and thus have a used one, but I know not everyone can afford (or choose to waste money?) like this.

Of course, as I buy my cars for cash no one can take it away unlike a company car; saw plenty of that in the last recession when the Merc & BMW went "back" and hubby (or to be PC, the main bread winner) was now in the family runabout

Remember I drive 54 miles a day commute on motorway and dual carriageway, plus some single carriageway A-road in the country; I wouldn't be driving such a car for an urban hop. I haven't always had cars like this, started with a Fiesta, Escort, Cavalier, Cavalier SRi, Laguna (never again will I buy a Renault most unreliable/costly car I've owned!), Mondeo Si (curved bodyshell), Mondeo Ghia (previous bodyshell to that launched this year) then the Jaguar S-Type as my treat. A few cars I guess since 1988, but I'm gradually keeping them for a longer period as the first 6 covered 12 yrs. Had the Jag for 2yrs now, and based on plans need to keep her for another 2 1/2 yrs when she'll be 8 yrs old (with no trade-in value :rotfl:)

StuartGMC

I did a quick check using Egg's calculator and Loco's spreadsheet. These seem to indicate a potential saving of around £9800-10,000 of interest by our offset and overpayment vs term to 2016, which is even more if considered against the original 2019 date of the 25yr mortgage. I hadn't really taken that on board in consideration of how little mortgage we have left (£21.7k), so that is an eye opener and more of an incentive to achieve the goals as we've saved some £1270 on offset alone since June 2006, plus the 3yrs and 4months we pared off due to the original OPs.

frazzmunch

wow...impressed with the planning!!! must admit the figures blind me (i have the mathmatical skills of a two year old!!:rotfl: ) but it certainly sounds good!!

not sure about the car myself....i'm afraid i love motorbikes and see cars just a mode of transportation!!

keep up the good work stuart...you are an inspiration even if i can't get my head round the maths!!:D

setmefree2

StuartGMC wrote: »

However, here goes for the target, wish me luck! :rotfl:

StuartGMC

Thanks all for the support. I've updated page #1 briefly on the new plans.

Frazzmunch, yes the numbers look good, but they will look far better in retrospect if it all works out at present they are targets to aspire to :rolleyes:

SMF2, you've been spending too much time browsing free images and clip art listings; I hope you've still been doing all your MSE things too? :D:D

frazzmunch

i am sure that they will work out...you are far too organised for them not to!!:D

StuartGMC

Have just returned from a weekend with family, and had a great day back in the land of my birth in South Gloucestershire when we went to Westonbirt arboretum; thankfully Friday was a day of clear skies so the contrasting colours of the autumn foliage really showed up well, even if it was a little "bracing". We still ate lunch outside like many others though :eek:

Just back home in East Anglia and see I have a cheque from ScottishPower for the credit on the electricity account (£51.06) but have also found that they'll use an old Direct Debit reference tomorrow to take a further £36.00 against the gas account even though we were in credit to £174 on 1 Oct and the usual £71 was taken on 3 Oct :mad:

I did cancel the dual fuel direct debit after 3 Oct, but didn't think about the "dormant" dd for gas.... lesson learned, cancel them once they are not being used by the supplier!

Anyway, ScottishPower don't run customer service on a Sunday so I have sent them an e-mail and hope to get the thick end of £220 back from them once they finalise the gas account. I may use this total of £270 towards our needs for christmas presents (although in effect most was spent on daughter's new bike).

Meanwhile, British Gas telephoned in response to my e-mail advising I had problems submitting online meter readings... very apologetic staff member who explained the system is not meeting the requirements they had of it, and offered to take readings for gas, and to upload the "stored" readings for electricity. I remained polite because it was not her fault and she confirmed that for the present I am best to phone the meter readings through, as I like to have ongoing data on consumption which I was getting with ScottishPower. So for the enxt couple of months it looks like I'll have to ring data through to them. I'll also have to convert the m^3 gas data to kWh to keep aligned with known consumption previously.... another "little" job to do!

Looking ahead, usual DD goes out tomorrow on the mortgage and my new plan kicks in this month with the additional £200 overpayment (giving an OP alone of 108% :j). Same in December would leave us at about £20500 out-standing on the mortgage.... not sure I can extract £500 from "somewhere" to drop it to £20k, other than drawing down some of the offset saving. It amounts to the same thing interest-wise, pyschologically it may be nice, although that said in mid-Jan we'd be sub-£20k anyway so little in reality is gained...

I just wish I had kept data on our earlier mortgage position and OP from 1994-2006 as it would be nice to retrospectively calculate the savings we'll make over the life of the mortgage, especially as our early payments were at mortgage rates of 8.5% or so. Anyway, I think for now I'll just have to be content with the £9.5-10k saving we're making in the remaining period by paying off early :beer:

StuartGMC

OH can still claim overtime in her role and submitted for 21hrs worth today. Hopefully close to £300 in our hands once it goes through :j

So we can either put this plus the returned monies from ScottishPower towards Christmas costs, or, drop £453 into the mortgage in December to make it £20k on my calculations.... :rolleyes:

£570 extra in our hands in one month is nice, pity it doesn't happen more often :rotfl:

Just checked NatWest and at last they have advised reduced interest rate for their offset mortgage; 5.95% or 6.4%APR. Now I need to try to remember the figure I used before, as my spreadsheet is based on 6.45% which means I'm using the former not the APR figure if the full 0.5% reduction has been passed on. Need to check it is correct to use this in calcs as I think this is the AER figure.... but if it is, then with today's balances in accounts we are paying interest on 32.34% of the mortgage and have an effective interest rate of 2.41% as they have reduced the rate on the savings account (1st reserve) used in the offset. (The effective interest rate accounts for interest opportunity lost from savings, less tax and the actual interest paid on the capital not offset).