The "Grand Plan" - Phase One well underway!

EssexHebridean

SmlSave wrote: »

That's wonderful EssexH :T Could you remind me what phase 2 is again? I've forgotton

Glad you're ok from being 'swiped', sounds like you've no luck with the car at the moment, fingers crossed it means a hassle car free year next year!

LOL - I had to give it some thought to remind myself!! Next stage now is that we continue saving, and hopefully up the mortgage O/P's a bit also. The target for savings is that by the time we next change cars - which will be mid/late 2010 - we will have sufficient stashed away to be able to make a straight cash purchase, rather than needing another loan. I need to maintain a fairly new car as without it I can't get to work (the journey is totally impractical by public transport), so the reassurance of a warranty and provided courtesy car is fairly vital to me. If I could have somewhere about 5 or 6k saved by this time next year I'd feel as though I'd achieved about the right level. In fact, I might even add a signature line in the new year to monitor progress.

I'm thinking at the moment that we'll probably up the OP by another £50 - that will take our OP's to 25% on top of the standard payment and would take our estimates MF date from November 2023 to July 2022.

Happy camper here at the moment! I think I shall make my next focus returning to energy monitoring on a weekly basis now that the immersion heater and storage heater are working as they should.

EssexHebridean

Letter now received from NR to confirm the loan is clear! :j :T :beer: Apparently there was still a "small balance" of £148 outstanding but as a "gesture of goodwill" they have adjusted this for me so I'm clear. Yeah, right, because banks do thinks like that, don't they! Not really sure how they would have come to that figure anyway, but as I suspect it's a figment of their imagination anyway, I'm none too bothered!

Can anyone remind me how to change the thread title on this please? I can't seem to do any more than change the title of the first post, but I know I'd managed to change the whole thing before! Cheers!

I've had to lay out the £160 excess on the car insurance, and also am now in a very poor position to challenge the premium for this year which is a shame - the last thing I want to do is to leave Diamond as at that stage they have no incentive to chase the Bulgarian lorry driver's insurers to sort things out, and I suspect they would simply put it all down to my policy. At least if I stay with them for the year I have a bit more clout to convince them to do what they're meant to. The car is now back with me anyway which is a relief - the total bill at the bodyshop came to over £1600 - boy am I glad for fully comp insurance!

Having been rough all week with this fluey cold I've not felt like getting out to the last bit of christmas shopping so I've knuckled down this morning and got as much as possible ordered online. Will still have a few bits to do next weekend but that can't be helped. I hope not too many of you have succumbed to this bug - it's really unpleasant!

SmlSave

Thanks for the reminder of phase 2!

I'm sorry you've been caught by the bug. Hope you get over it quickly!

Congratulations on clearing the NR loan :beer: I find it hard to believe that the bank, especially at this moment in time, care much about making a gesture of goodwill :cool: Like you said they probably made the figure up!

Glad the car is back and all better now.

earthgirl

Hope you are feeling better?! Can't believe you are so upbeat about your car accident - but you are right as long as you are not hurt thats the main thing.
Might join you on trying to reduce our energy usage. Perhaps I can convince OH that one set of fairy lights are enough!
Good luck for phase 2!

StuartGMC

EH
Pleased to see the car is ok now,and hope the insurer sorts things out ASAP. Best wishes with the savings plan in Phase 2.I think cars really do eat into cash and my spreadsheet has a nominal requirement of about £4500 per annum of savings to be set aside so that both cars can be replaced on a cash basis when needed. I used to change mine every two years incurring a price to change of about £6-7k but will keep current one until 2011;which is a long time considering I've had her since Nov 06 (on a July 03 plate) and would indicate that the Jag is not overall a greater cost, based on the £10k price to change originally . OH does much lower milage so we tend to change her's every 4 yrs.

setmefree2

Hope you get better soon.

There are alot of horrible bugs around at the moment.:o

EssexHebridean

Well - the "Cold" turned out to be tonsilitus and the flu, yes, together, and I ended up at the hospital on Monday night with a raging temperature which nothing would persuade to go down! I know with hindsight I should have taken time off work the week before - I ended up signed off right through this week and am likely to go back part time Monday and Tuesday..... probably 10 - 3 Monday and 9 - 3 Tuesday. Wednesday should be a short day anyway - most likely 8 - 1pm. My boss has been great bless him - agreed straight off to the idea of a part time return. I'm damned if I'm going back all guns blazing and putting myself back in bed for Christmas! We get so focused on the medical profession telling us not to make a cold into something more than it is - that I ended up doing exactly the opposite! Anti-b's seem to have killed off the tonsil-bugs and I'm getting back to normal today thankfully - even braved Tesco this morning with Mr EH on driving and trolley pushing duties!

One plus-point is that as a "drop a dress size for christmas" diet it's worked extraordinarily well - I put on my usual size 16 jeans this morning and they promptly fell down - so a sort out of my wardrobe is now needed. May have to go and buy some work trousers tomorrow as I get the sneaking feeling I slung everything "smart" and too small in the direction of the charity shop on my last declutter. :mad:

Earthgirl: start small on the energy saving front and see where it takes you. I found that monitoring regularly helped - particularly in the early stages we were reading the electric meter every second day. If you can borrow an energy-meter from friends or family (or find one to buy at a good price) then that will help you identify particular appliances which may be heavier on use than others. Our dishwasher we discovered actually uses less power than we expected - whilst the immersion heater is quite high-drain. If on an E-7 tariff then work out what you can put on overnight rather than during the day.....even changing to energy saving bulbs will help! Read SMF's thread for inspiration - it was her that got me going!

Stuart: I have been considering the possibility of paying for the extended warranty on the car and keeping an extra year or so - may be worth me giving some consideration to that plan against simply being certain that there is enough in "emergency funds" to repair anything that should go wrong in the fourth year quickly - my problem still comes with the fact that the dealer/manufacturer warranty does pretty much make a certainty of a) courtesy car and b) fast service though - not being able to get to work at all without the wheels does cause a problem. I also need to factor in further depreciation of course. IIRC the depreciation whilst greatest in the first 6 months, takes another jump once the first MoT becomes due. As you say - kept for nthe length oif time you're looking to, that Jag is proving god value isn't it!

SmlSave: I wonder how much of the "gesture of goodwill" is to do with the fact that they know I'm looking to do a PPI reclaim at the moment - perhaps they think I may be as "full of goodwill" as they evidently are, and will drop the claim?! Oh dear me - they have a shock coming!!

Thanks SMF2 and everyone else for your good wishes - hopefully normal service can now be resumed, although I think Her Ladyship hopes not - she's enjoyed being allowed to stay in and keep me company all week!

SmlSave

(((hugs))) to you EssexH. Poor thing, there you were all ill and we had no idea. Hope you feel well enough to have a good Christmas - stress free too!

Congratulations on dropping a dress size :T Least the sales should be fairly decent in Jan - only 10 days to go - and hopefully you should be able to refill your wardobe without, hopefully, emptying your purse.

Merry Christmas!

StuartGMC

EssexHebridean wrote: »

One plus-point is that as a "drop a dress size for christmas" diet it's worked extraordinarily well - I put on my usual size 16 jeans this morning and they promptly fell down - so a sort out of my wardrobe is now needed. May have to go and buy some work trousers tomorrow as I get the sneaking feeling I slung everything "smart" and too small in the direction of the charity shop on my last declutter. :mad:

EH, very concerned your health was so poor; if you hadn't said that the above looked like a typical British farce or Carry-on sketch :rotfl:However, well done on the achievement. As SmlSave notes, there are a lot of bargains to be had (just been doing the family clothing shop at the Next VIP sale with 50%+ discounts - online of course!). Post Christmas there should still be a lot available and the rumours on the money markets are a number of other retailers may be going base-up...

Stuart: I have been considering the possibility of paying for the extended warranty on the car and keeping an extra year or so ..snip...
- my problem still comes with the fact that the dealer/manufacturer warranty does pretty much make a certainty of a) courtesy car and b) fast service though - not being able to get to work at all without the wheels does cause a problem.

Take care to see what is covered. To be honest a car at 4 years old with nothing but average milage should be fine with just normal service. Other things like brake pads won't be covered, simply wear & tear.... Also be careful of any "clauses" they apply to ensure cover is in place. Good luck

I also need to factor in further depreciation of course. IIRC the depreciation whilst greatest in the first 6 months, takes another jump once the first MoT becomes due. As you say - kept for nthe length oif time you're looking to, that Jag is proving god value isn't it!

Difficult to gauge the situation now; usually yes, 20% loss in first year then a curve which approximates to exponential to a residual value irrespective of age for a running car. However, consider that there are very few people buying new cars now, so the stock in 3yrs time for 3yr old cars will be very limited, but will it mean better retained value? In the meantime, many "new" vehicles will be stored in the open anyway....

I think I would simply justify purchase now and watch market for the best time to replace based on "price to change".

Best wishes for 2009

EssexHebridean

Thanks for the input Smlsave & Stuart. There was indeed a degree of farce about the jeans falling down thing - at the time it seemed like a bit of a disaster as I couldn't remember having anything left which would fit! I've been a comfortable size 16 for a good while now and, while I'm aware that I am a little overweight, I'm far happier sticking at the size I am than I would be frantically dieting. One plus point I have is that although we don't possess scales in the house I am fairly good at staying at one size judged on whether or not my clothes fit. Fingers crosses the same will apply now that size is smaller! I shall have to keep an eye on the sales for new walking trousers as my beautiful soft comfy Craghoppers trousers bought for holiday last year are now rather too big! :mad:

Well, everyone else seems to be doing it so I shall also try to sum up 2008 from my perspective.

The mortgage: So far any inroads we've made on this have been almost "without trying" as it were, using cash that we would not otherwise have had from tax changes, savings on utilities bills etc. We currently stand at OP'ing 18% by way of our regular DD. Our current intention is that from the February payment we will add an additional £50 to the monthly payment - this will have the effect of in one hit increasing our OP's to 25% which was our 2009 target! Anything more added on after that will depend on any more "unexpected" gains.

Northern Rock Car Loan: Target well and truly achieved on this one - loan paid off in its entirety in 13 months rather than the projected 30 months, leaving us in a good position to be able to start saving for the next car purchase, whenever that ends up being. I'm proud of my achievement on this one - Mr EH really didn't think I could do it, and whilst not always easy I was sure it was possible so nice to be proved right.

Planned Expediture: The upgrade of the camera has ended up costing somewhere about £230 - I'm pleased to note that prices for the 40D have changed little if at all in the three months since I bought it. The laptop was another purchase which I was pleased with - thanks to going through a contact of Mr EH's I've got a business spec machine for the price of a personal spec - and thanks to increasing RAM to 4gb I also have a machine which should now see me through several years. I used cashback credit cards for both purchases and balance transferred the total onto a long term 0% card. One remaining planned purchase for the time being is the second freezer which will be after christmas - we've asked for cash from the In Laws towards this for Christmas and we will both also get a small cheque from my great-Aunt - hopefully that will pretty much cover the cost of the freezer.

Unplanned expenditure: Relatively little. I had intended to shop around for the car insurance this year and hopefully go through Quidco but with the accident hapening just a fortnight before renewal I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and have opted to stay with Diamond. I had to increase the mileage slightly as I went over last year but the £30 extra they wanted to charge me on that I was able to beat down on the final premium anyway. The good news was that in spite of the crash Diamond didn't load my premium. The £160 excess should be repayable once they sort the Bulgarian out!

Holiday: £100 deposit on the cottage paid already, with £390 to pay mid february. Regular savings take account of this spend and will also deal with ferry tickets (reduced in cost this year as a result of the Road Equivalent Tariff kicking in). So far as spending money / food etc are concerned, we have nearly £100 cashback amassed in the Capital One CC account - and some more (unsure of amount) in my Egg Card account. These both pay out in the first quarter of the new year. The "change pig" is near as anything full - I had to give him a shake to drop some coin in there yesterday, and there will also be a build up in the Tesco Clubcard Plus account of hopefully in excess of £200. All in all this should give us a sum approaching £500 which will deal with pretty much all our expenditure.

Savings: Looking a bit lean at the moment but that will change quite rapidly now the loan isn't being paid each month. I've got a final £100 or so of scope in my ISA before it will have reached entitlement although there isn't anything like that in there since the paying off of the loan! Roll on April and having a new years entitlement to fill! :rotfl:

Thanks to all for help, input and inspiration. I will aim to continue as I have started through 2009 although I'm well aware that motivation might start lacking now that the intial big target of the loan to clear has gone.