Aim to get mortgage down before increasing again

Schoolworker · 29 January 2017 at 6:10PM

Well just done final shop I think for January and we spent £325.60 over 4 weeks of January. Now I have something to work on and try to get it down a bit for February. I have allocated £350 for food at the mo but would love to get this down. This amount includes stuff for packed lunches for me and kids as well as toiletries, cleaning stuff and alcohol.
Got bank meeting tomorrow to open vantage account and have taken a chunk money out of my is a which is now payi g only 0.85% so it will work better in this account. After Monday will need to sort out 2 DDS to be set up there. Not sure if you can set up a dd to transfer money to an access saving account but will ask this as well as try to get the charity we already pay to change to this account.
Still waiting for builders quotes which tend to be slow in coming so time will tell if this happens in 2017 and 2018.
Hubbie talking about if he wants a party for his big birthday in October or talk of a big holiday to new York. He wants to spend whist I'm trying to save. The joys. He has to decide what he wants so I can try to budget.

Schoolworker · 30 January 2017 at 10:48PM

Well opened up the vantage account and put in £4K from my iSa so just need to contact a few companies to change the account which the direct debit come out of. Glad this is done.
Bit a spending spree today as got several birthday presents to buy. 4 bought sco far and only 1 more to buy for later on in February.
Received one more quote which seems reasonable at the moment, still waiting for 2more quotes to come in and compare. Can't do anything until building warrant is issued by council and we have strutted the engineer to do their report. Planning on continuing to overpay as I can until we decide if going ahead this year or need to wait until next year.
Received mortgage statement the other day and notice that nationwide do not charge you for reduce or extending your term - which has s good as we will need to extend if doing this extension but previously we were charged for reducing our term. Very pleased no charges.

Schoolworker · 3 February 2017 at 9:10PM

Well glad January's over but its only early February and got a very high credit card bill of over £1k. So been trying to claw back some money which was due to go to savings so this can be paid infull. I'm trying to live normally whilst paying for extras and trying not to touch savings. High cc due to council fee for building warrant, holiday paid for in July and theatre tickets as well as hubbie petrol and expenses.
So managed to sort out how to pay which is fine but at end of this month 2 car insurances due which I usually put on cc and take from everyday savings account. - I think there is just enough so with be starting again in march to build this up. Also need to pay a friend our half of another weekend break so with have to go into savings for this.
Need to try to sort out this so I don't dip into savings - I hate doing this.
Will try to keep food budget to a reasonable amount and see if this helps.
Just seems we are constantly paying out for stuff all the time - hope this changes in march.
Got parents and in-laws and my brother over tomorrow night for Turkey pie (last of the turkey) - nipped to the shops to get stuff for that earlier. Big shop will be done over the weekend but I think we have most dinners in the freezer and fingers crossed the spend if not too high.

Schoolworker · 6 February 2017 at 10:52PM

February grocery figure is £74.50 as had to buy stuff in for Saturday night as well as wine etc. The good news is there are several dinners in the freezer so hopefully will try to curb the grocery spending this coming weekend.

Paid an overpayment of £200 today and will see if I can try to make another wee payment later on in the month if expenses are put in and paid to us.

Schoolworker · 12 February 2017 at 2:02PM

Grocery spend for February at the moment is £122.70. Spend today was not too bad and we have most of the dinners for this week in the freezer but out 2 nights to my mums on Monday and then out with family for my birthday. Will keep a check.on this over the next 2 weeks and see what the actual figure is for February.

Hubbies is a rate is going down to 0.5% so was looking for another tber account to put a chunk of this money into to get better interest - was all for the tesco o e but they suspended all new applications at the moment so will see if this comes back or any other bank accounts with a rate if over 1%.
Fingers crossed my other dd is set up in the next week or so on my new vantage account so I get decent rate for my £5k.

Still await builders quotes - they tend to not rush to let you have a quote. 2 quotes in but at either side of the scale so would be good if another quote came in - awaiting 3 to answer so we can see if we ate proceeding with thus extension this year so next year.

Schoolworker · 18 February 2017 at 10:57PM

Hiya went food shopping today and running total is £200.50 which is s good for one more week to go in February and freezer got quite a few dinners. Will c how long we get the food budget down.

Received a cheque of money I paid out for a school thing so waiting for this to clear and then its going to the mortgage so its £40 plus anything else I can get. Not missed this money so OK.

Looking at mobile phone for dd for her birthday so pricing this up and a sim from tesco which is month-to-month to see how we get on. She is going to be 10 but everyone in the class has a nobile but they all seem to have iphones. I have explained no and was not too excited about the smart phone we saw today - coning round to that is on w as I said she could save up for an iPhone . me and hubbie not got an iPhone. Will also need to look for insurance as on r taking the risk and do not have bank account with this perk. Any ideas but not too dear. I know how much vodapgone for their cheap insurance for the year.

Schoolworker · 20 February 2017 at 1:24PM

Well paid in £45 towards the mortgage today - think this will take mortgage to £57k. Will keep on plodding on with tilly tally. Decided since its only a cheap phone maybe not advisable to take out insurance but DD will have to get replacement herself. Still shopping about for a reasonable phone and see what one DD likes.

Hubbie thinking about going for a sim deal only for his mobile so will see if he goes through with this or not. Got the PAC code but does not like change I think.

Schoolworker · 27 February 2017 at 10:22AM

Grocery spend for February is £289.64 which I pleased about and will see what march holds for us.

Hubbie has requested a new sim card from his original supplier at a new rate of £7.50. He can't keep his mobile number so getting a new one - even though he has the PAC code they say they can't do it. Well he will need to notify everyone of his new number but it will save us £8 a month And its a better deal of his data. Its mo th-to-month so may look into this for did mobile when we buy.

Need to pay structural engineer invoice which I file away and forgot to pay and arrange for him to do a house visit. Nothing else happening re extension. At most me t. Waiting for builders to come back with quotes and building warrant to give approval but do not think this will happen until end march at earliest.
Still awaiting hubbies expenses but he gets normal wages tomorrow so will see when expenses come through and see where to allocate this is either mortgage or cc as multi car insurance just went on cc so will be fairly high but not as bad as january.

Schoolworker · 6 March 2017 at 2:43PM

Grocery spend for march so far is £56.93. Will see if we can keep under £300 for march even though we have both sets of granparents coming for dinner on mothers for dd birthday.

Paid £200 towards the mortgage and hope to make another payment during march.
Paid wee holidays for April/ may and sept so not as much sent to savings. Both 2 birthday presents and trying to sort out dd present as she wants a mobile so ordering the phone and then to get the sim deal.

Still awaiting hubbies expenses from last month and hope this comes in the next week or two as going towards the cc.
Was out Saturday night with friends to Greek restaurant which was great.

Maiden_Mum · 6 March 2017 at 8:37PM

Hi Schoolworker. You are doing great with your over-payments! Will the interest rate be the same as what you are on when you borrow for the extension?

Aim to get mortgage down before increasing again

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