Statement of intent

StuartGMC

SmlSave wrote: »

Sounds like you need a hug Stu, so here's one ((hug))

SmlSave - what will my wife say when she reads that!

Many thanks though, much appreciated.

SmlSave

SmlSave - what will my wife say when she reads that!

:rotfl:you're quite right - here's a hug for her too ((hug)) :rotfl:

StuartGMC

A quick update. Today we have dropped back from 100% offset as expected with holiday monies paid amongst the credit card bill. This puts us at about 86.5% offset and an equivalent interest rate of 0.67%.

However if you look at our Funds ISAs as well then we are net positive by £3500. I hope this really is the low point now and we'll soon be up to 100% offset and that the savings and investments keep going up.:D

OH will be paid Monday and mine is paid on 26 June, so with a more normal credit card bill expected once we pass the 18 June (hence today fasterpayment will take funds over at midnight 2 days before due) I hope we can minimise spend for a while. Will just need to check on when my car service falls due based on mileage and the MOT expires early Sept so likely to arrange for mid-August if possible.

I hope we can look to increase the extra OP from £200 to £263.13 this month so mortgage capital owed will be £16,000, just need to review once OH has been paid.

StuartGMC

Decision made, in addition to the normal OP of £211 I've upped the extra OP this month to £263.12 so our mortgage now stands at £16,000 :j:j:j

Filled up with petrol today, and it has gone up again by another 1p per litre. In my area in January we were paying 85.9p, it reached a low of 83.4p in February and then has been rising slowly until start of May and now stands at 101.9p today or 18.6% increase since January.

Meanwhile groceries are definitely increasing too and our average monthly bill (which does include a few extras like coolbox and similar things you can get when required) at £437.01 per month. Food is £359.25 which includes lunches for OH and DD each month, plus alcohol.

Whilst some things may have dropped in costs, those relevant to us are not doing so.
Thankfully our Funds ISAs are up 29.3% since January in real growth above the investments made in that time. Hoping to see a breakeven soon and then into profit.

setmefree2

StuartGMC wrote: »

Decision made, in addition to the normal OP of £211 I've upped the extra OP this month to £263.12 so our mortgage now stands at £16,000 :j:j:j

some people have that on a credit card

Thankfully our Funds ISAs are up 29.3% since January in real growth above the investments made in that time. Hoping to see a breakeven soon and then into profit.

evab_2

Good news Stuart, well done!

StuartGMC

For those of you thinking about fixing your mortgage interest rate see this article in the FT regarding expectation of these rising very soon:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/b726b16c-577c-11de-8c47-00144feabdc0.html

SMF2 - we had 50% of that on last month's bill! :eek:

Evab thanks - I must check your thread for an update

StuartGMC

Thinking about the way we can defer costs, I thought I'd note the situation with Next. I have an account with them so we can order online. Of course we do so via TopCashBack too so that earns a small return. Then if we time it right like April, items were ordered around 22 April, so then appear on bill of 1 June which as it is due to be paid 24 June, I pay via credit card on 19 June (day after the credit card bill is generated). This means I'll get it on the July credit card bill which will be paid 10 August.

So that's interest-free from mid-April to mid-August or 4 months so that cash sits and offsets through this time and the TBC gives us something back plus the points on the credit card too. :beer:

OH salary is a bit more this month with some overtime, so offset will be back to 91.8% tomorrow with an effective interest rate of 0.44% for the mortgage :T

In addition, despite the holiday costs we are still overall net positive when adding our current a/c, savings and investments vs the mortgage balance outstanding :j

StuartGMC

I had to buy two new batteries for our camcorder. It doesn't get used much apart from the annual holiday (last year's not yet compiled and edited as I still haven't purchased replacement software to run under Vista... ). Whilst I make sure on mobilephones to cycle the batteries properly I forget to do so on the camcorder, so on the trip to York the two batteries had no capacity :mad:

We thought about replacing the camera as it is quite old (DV tapes, original batteries being 7yrs old) and it was a replacement from the time we were burgled, but, as Mexico may result in theft we thought to leave it for now and just replace the batteries.

A quick check online then via TopCashBack and for £19.58 two new batteries should be coming our way from DirectFoto (free postage) who give 15% cashback on them so that's £2.94 discount on what seemed like a good price already. Here's hoping they are reliable.

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

Also thanks for reminding me... I need new batteries for my digital camera. I've been using it plugged in for over a year which wonit be much use for our holiday in August! Will of course be finding the best deal with/without cashback online