Tm's MFW ramblings

turtlemoose · 3 July 2015 at 3:23PM

wow, just realised I've had £888 paid out from Quidco. not bad for money for nothing!

turtlemoose · 10 August 2015 at 12:02PM

Been absent from MFW for 2 weeks, but good excuse, as I have returned as a Mrs

We had a (compared to some!) small budget for the wedding/honeymoon (2k total, and it was only that high because 1k was generously gifted to us by parents), and we have overspent as things got a little spendy last minute! And we were having a VERY good time in Amsterdam so needed a few more pennies to play with!

First day back at work today so lots to do, but soon as I get some spare time this week I will be going back over our wedding spends and working out the total, (my estimate is around £600 extra), so shall have to add that to the debt totals, bit naughty but you only get married once right

(that's the plan anyway!!!)

turtlemoose · 10 August 2015 at 1:15PM

£2949 on the wedding :eek::eek::eek: debt now at £5728.78, ouch! 33% paid off, 8% behind target. Got to get back on track. Next month is our first free hours at nursery month so hoping to start making much bigger payments.

We've bought a dodgy tv box for £50 so I'm really hoping to convince OH to drop sky sports which would save £30 a month - starting today he is using the new box only for sports so hopefully he'll find all he wants!

turtlemoose · 11 August 2015 at 4:43PM

first night not a success, OH did not use dodgybox for the footy, grrr. i've got some more convincing to do!

turtlemoose · 18 August 2015 at 4:45PM

Got my AIP for the remortgage, if approved the higher payments mean we will drop from a monthly surplus of 115 to 20 from the btl, but it will still pay for itself (including mortgage, insurance, maintenance, tax etc). However this will release approx £12k (assuming valuation goes through ok) which we will use to carry out improvements on the home we live in, and any money left over would just go back in the mortgage as an OP and reduce the monthly payments, upping the monthly surplus again. Survey booked for a week's time, then 24 hrs for it to go back to the lender then ????? for them to make their decision. I can't get out of my current mortgage until the 1st Sept anyway so not in a huge rush. Just trying not to get ahead of myself and spend the money (in my head!) before I've got it approved!

Valuation wise, comparable properties on Rightmove at the moment range from 90 to 105 (and the 105 one needs a new kitchen), so I've put in a value of 85k hoping the lender will be happy with a low end option, as it made no difference with this lender between being 75 or 70 LTV, so thought I'd play it safe.

turtlemoose · 18 August 2015 at 5:02PM

Oh and not really MFW but affects it so guess I'll mention it.....we have decided to try for another baby....now! :T:T

If I was able to plan it meticulously (if only!) it would work out fab if I could time conception (hahaha!) so that baby arrives end of July/start of August next year. The reason being that I would then be on 12 months maternity leave and DS would start school in the September. I'd be at home his first year at school so able to take him/pick him up which I'd love so much. It'd have the added bonus of no childcare costs but still accruing childcare vouchers - assuming both OH and I stayed in the scheme the full year that'd be £5832 :eek: 'in the bank' for childcare. So then when I went back to work after a year, we'd have much less childcare costs than now because we'd be able to use those vouchers for nursery (or a childminder who could then do school drop off and picks ups too? Don't know!) and just have to top it up around 3.5k for the first year...much more affordable than now....then the following year assuming the government sticks to what they've said, that kid would get 30 hours a week free (instead of current 15) meaning we'd be able to continue to afford him/her, or possibly even afford for me to drop down to working 3 days a week so I'm home 2 days with the kids.

All a total pipe dream of course, no way we can predict if I even will get pregnant again of course, let alone time it so precisely. But we will have fun trying

sarahevie1 · 18 August 2015 at 10:28PM

Congratulations on becoming a Mrs.

I had dd3 the August before dd1 started school, was nice. Would have been better if I hadn't decided to do a pgce whilst on mat leave :rotfl:

Good luck with remortgaging, sounds like sensible targets

gallygirl · 19 August 2015 at 7:49AM

turtlemoose wrote: »

Oh and not really MFW but affects it so guess I'll mention it.....we have decided to try for another baby....now! :T:T

Crikey. Impressed you managed to keep typing

.

turtlemoose · 19 August 2015 at 10:15AM

gally!! :eek: :rotfl:

turtlemoose · 14 September 2015 at 10:12AM

I'm now considering the residential mortgage. Rate ends 31/12/2015 so time to start looking. Existing lender, (N@twest) will let me switch online but they don't seem very competitive. Currently balance 98300 and value (based on other properties locally) maybe £132k-£135k. So I think we've just snuck below 75% LTV.

My dilemma is - short (2 year) low interest fix (eg 1.64% for 2 years with £345 fee - £426 a month), or a longer fix but higher rate (eg 2.64% fee free for 3 years or £345 fee for 5 years - both £474 a month).

Obviously the lower % is very tempting as it is so low (currently 4.89%!), but when we are planning another child asap (meaning if successful a year of low/no pay and then crippling nursery costs after)...the 5 year fix becomes very appealing for the knowledge of the certainty of the payments.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated!

Tm's MFW ramblings

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free