I managed to negotiate a new mortgage deal, after much tribulation.
We're apparently in negative equity, so no mortgage provider will touch us with a bargepole.
But I was able to renew our deal with our existing provider, as we didn't need to go through any new evaluations or anything like that. By paying an extra £50.00 per month and with a lower interest rate we've shortened the length of our mortgage by 5 years, to 15 years. Go us!
My husband thinks I'm such a nerd :-D
I started a little tea and coffee club in work. There's about 16-17 people in it, so far everyone has paid 3 quid and I bought plenty of tea and coffee to go around.
It's actually proven to be quite successful, #NerdFTW! There's nothing like a guaranteed cup of coffee every day to brighten up your day!
LOAN
Loan overpayment:
Total OPs made to date: £242.22
Months left until loan is cleared: 19
ISA
Isa balance: 2950/3000 (done by March)
MATERNITY
Balance: 300/700 (done by August)
NOTE: I am not pregnant. Now that I'm married it may happen, so I've been squirrelling away some money since the wedding. I didn't mention it before as I felt it might jinx us or something, but I'm happy to have saved £300 already so I wanted to brag about it! I think I can save about £50.00 per month.
HOUSEHOLD EMERGENCIES
Balance: 220/500 (end of year target)
I managed to sell quite a few items on eBay, so I'm happy about that. Books do not sell though, unless they're recent best sellers!
I managed to sell some teddies, a DVD box set, body butter and perfume. Perfume sold very well.
So far I've earned about £60.00, woop woop!
The money I have earned so far is still pending though, hopefully PayPal release it soon.
I totally have the eBay bug now, I'll need to find more stuff to sell!
1st month of 2014 down, 11 to go!
Loan overpayment: £49.00
Total OPs made to date: £170.00 / 1930
Months left until loan is cleared: 20
I highly doubt we'll be able to clear this debt before the end of this year now (it would mean overpaying by almost 2K, on top of our normal payments) but we'll continue chipping away at it and who knows, we might get lucky.
We have saved about a tenner in interest so that's also good, right?
We'll certainly be better for it, even if we can only shave off a few months from the 30 month total.
January was a very tough month money- wise. I am usually well organised but I've been counting down to payday for weeks now (I got paid 6 weeks ago, I always get my end-of-December pay before Christmas) so it's been tough (great at the time, but tough now!!)
The budget for February is good to go so all I need now is the actual cash :D
I listed my very first item on eBay today!
I set up an account before Christmas to buy a item, and the Android app is so handy for both buying and selling that there was no more reason for me to procrastinate and start listing some items.
I literally took a pic on my phone and uploaded it eBay immediately, and the app linked me to my PayPal account seamlessly - it was so handy.
I only have one piece of feedback though (from the person I bought from) so I don't know how that may affect my chances of actually getting anything sold. I'll keep a log here!
If it all works out I'll list some of my other items too. I know I'm jumping the gun but if I do manage to get anything sold I'll need to start thinking about what to do with the money! We're talking about pennies though, I really shouldn't get overly excited. I just hope someone else gets to enjoy my unwanted stuff.
December is now officially over so here are our latest stats:
Loan overpayment: £50.00
Total OPs made to date: £121.00
Months left until loan is cleared aprox: 21
2013 is now behind us, and I am nursing a healthy hangover! I have some financial new year's resolutions, but before I post them I need to figure out if they will actually be doable or if I'm aiming too high again!
More on that too follow, but in the meantime... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
