Move to Portugal

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In one hand and out the other
2008-04-11 14:12:00
Well I managed to save over £100 on the buildings insurance and the washing machine broke the next day. It's beyond repair. I have another one being delivered today, fingers crossed. The cost £250 for delivery and removal of the broken machine. I went through cashback rewards and then Tesco. Tesco Direct are currently doing triple points on purchases.
More About: Spending , Hand

Renewing the house buildings insurance
2008-04-06 15:17:00
We received a quote from our current insurer for the annual buildings insurance cover, which is due to expire this month, for £270.59. Don't worry the quote said they've checked over ten insurance companies and found us a great deal! Never ever just renew in this way, always check yourself.I went to Money Saving Expert and following the Martin Lewis way of finding the best quote. It took about 30 minutes in all, but I managed to get a quote for £151.98, a saving of over £118. I will be paying the premium outright as the finance charges of 21% APR for paying monthly doesn't seem too attractive.
More About: House , Insurance , Buildings , The House

The great mortgage payoff
2008-04-01 08:29:00
First of all I've been a bad blogger. Things got a bit hectic around home due to a few things but I should be back to normal this week.The April direct debit payment has gone through today and I've sent the overpayment check for £600 so the new balance on our mortgage as of today is £130,305.The percentage figures now stand at:Abbey own 70.44% of the house. We own 29.56% of the house. Small progress, but at least its progress.The target date for owning 50% of the house is 31st December 2009
More About: Great , Mortgage

Week-end round up - Portugal
2008-03-22 20:00:00
I thought I'd start a little ongoing weekly round up of the blogs I read. This week its food week as everyone, apart from me who's talking about tables, seems to be talking about food, eating it or cooking it.Eddie at Algarve Buzz is making Folar da Pascoa- Portuguese Easter cake.Lily at In Love with Lisbon continues the theme with Lily makes Portuguese Easter BreadJennie at Straight From The Farm has been to Portugal and continues the food theme with Simple is Best. Thanks to Lily for highlighting this post.See Portugal is highlighting the Pois, Cafe in Lisbon and Dream Portugal is making Chicken Piri-Piri
More About: Round Up , Week , Round

To ship or not to ship
2008-03-21 10:22:00
I know its a bit early to think about shipping items to Portugal but I've been thinking about it all week. I'm not sure that I want all new stuff when I get there. Besides the environmental reasons there is also the sentimental reasons. I've had the pictured dining table for 21 years, its as old as my eldest daughter, its battered and far from perfect. All those years of family meals, homework, children painting and colouring has had an effect on it. Even so it would last another 21 years. Do I ship it along with other things or is this too expensive to do this? I need to find out.Living a frugal life is having a real effect on how I view things. I've become so accustomed to not buying anything, making do and repairing what we do have in order to save money, that I've actually lost all desire to buy anything again. The consumer spender in me has disappeared.
More About: Ship

Financial happenings
2008-03-17 09:19:00
We've been approved for our new mortgage deal, it seems to have taken ages, we won't be drawing it down until June but at least its in place.We had the woodworm in the roof treated on Friday at a cost of £269 + vat. Its got a 30 year guarantee attached so hopefully this will be the end of it.The Council Tax bill arrived, an increase of £6 a month on last year, an annual extra cost £60 so I will need to adjust the budget slightly.Grocery costs update: I'm working on a Menu Plan File, which will contain a 12 week menu plan, frugal recipes and shopping lists to go with the weekly plans. At the moment I do plan what we eat however if I'm honest I deviate from it too much. I will start to follow the plan next Monday with the aim of reducing the weekly grocery bill, until then we are doing a store cupboard challenge.
More About: Financial , Happenings

House prices
2008-03-14 20:39:00
I've been thinking, read that as stressing, about house prices a lot lately. Are they dropping? and if there are, are they going to keep on dropping? There is no way to know the correct answer. If we weren't going to Portugal the price of our house would be immaterial as we'd never be moving, but we are going to be selling eventually, and the price we gets affects what we buy over there. At the moment houses in our village are not selling very quickly and I check the property websites nearly every day and they don't seem to be selling much either.Dh tells me not to worry as we still have over 4 years yet and a lot can happen in that 4 years, so as of today I'm going cold turkey on the property sites and not looking at them. I'm going to concentrate on the thing that is in my control and that's our house. I can get it looking so great that it'll sell like lemons on pancake day (sorry that was the first thing I thought of!)I'm going to create a plan and a budget this weekend ...
More About: House , House Prices , Property , Prices

Recommended Reading
2008-03-12 07:15:00
Dh and I read a lot of personal finance books. Having spent years wasting money we wanted to re evaluate our finances and our life. We didn't want to move to Portugal without any money, without any assets and have to come back home after a while with nothing left in the bank. We wanted to have a well thought out plan that will help us achieve our dreams and yet still remain sensible about it.Lizzie at Lizzies Homeworld has a link to our blog that says 'Laura taking sensible action to Move To Portugal ' and this is exactly what we are doing. I couldn't have put it better myself. Sensible does not equal boring though. Trying to pay off your mortgage is fun.As part of our move from consumerism to a more frugal way of life we've read many personal finance books. The best for us without a doubt was Your Money or Your Life by Dominguez and Robin. This book is not just about money but about your relationship with it. This book shows you how to get your life back, so that you can start...
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Saving money - Free toiletries
2008-03-10 07:32:00
I haven't bought any toiletries, shampoo, shower gel, soap etc since last year. I'm trying to go the whole year without actually spending any of our money on them. We use all own brand products except for toothpaste and I buy them with Boots vouchers that I get through Pigsback. Me and hubby both have an account with them and you complete daily quizzes and click through sites to get piggy points. A full explanation of the site is here.There are different rewards available and one of them is Boots vouchers. I now have £20 in vouchers ready to stock up on toiletries for the next few weeks. I always get bog of items and go to the shop when the toothpaste is on a 3 for the price of 2 offer.
More About: Money , Free , Saving

Reviewing our goals
2008-03-09 10:33:00
I'm constantly reviewing our goals, both long term and short term. When I first started out with this blog our goals were a little woolly. I've learnt a lot over the last few months and I have a better understanding of what we need to do to achieve our dream. The goals are more concise now, they are SMART.S = SpecificM = MeasurableA = AchievableR = RealisticT = Time bound2008 1st Goal:S : Our mortgage balance to be under £119,000 at the end of 2008M: Our mortgage statement in January 2009A: Our budget covers the extra £600 overpayment, our annual bonus is guaranteedR: See achievable goal (above)T: We will achieve the above before 31st December 2008.We have these printed up on our goals board in the dining room to remain focused.
More About: Goals , Reviewing

Water Rates Bill
2008-03-06 12:07:00
The bill for our annual water rates has arrived today. It's £360.68 for the year, a 6.23% increase on last years, a £21.15 increase.I prefer to be on a annual set charge, as in our previous house we were on a meter and with five of us the bill was double what we pay now. I assume the Council Tax bill will arrive soon and I dread to think how much that has gone up.
More About: Water , Budget , Rates , Bill

Investing in our future
2008-03-05 10:44:00
We see dh learning Portuguese as an investment in our future, so far we have spent about £25 on a cd/book course , a Portuguese for Homebuyers book and a Dictionary. Learning a language on your own is not easy and so we were very pleased to find out that the local college is running an evening class, starting in September, in Portuguese. The course will run for 25 weeks and if he is accepted (you have to have an interview to join) it will give dh opportunity to actually speak to other people in the language, and will improve his oral communication. The cost is £155, which is not bad for the amount of lessons given.My eldest daughter has actually interviewed dh about learning a language and the difficulties he has found. I will post this at the weekend.Further Reading:Learning Portuguese
More About: Future , Investing , Language

The great mortgage pay off
2008-03-01 12:01:00
The March direct debit payment has gone through today and I sent the overpayment check for £600 three days ago so the new balance on our mortgage as of today is £131,270.The percentage figures now stand at:Abbey own 70.95% of the houseWe own 29.05% of the houseThe target date for owning 50% of the house is 31st December 2009
More About: Great , Mortgage

Home improvements and earth tremors
2008-02-27 08:09:00
After a sleepless night due to the earth tremor which made our whole house shake, my thoughts this morning are on the house and the home improvements we still need to make.We are getting a quote for some woodworm treatment done on Friday this week as we've noticed some in the loft space. This wasn't picked up on our original survey a couple of years ago so I'm hoping we can stop it early. I'm estimating a cost of about £400 which will eat our travel savings up but this needs to take priority.There are a few other home improvements listed below that we will need to sort out with the house over the next couple of years. We plan to save for them and get them done when we have the money.New bathroom windowChimney re stackedHall tiles restored/cleanedNew back doorWhen you own a house there is always something that needs doing!Further reading:Renovation projects
More About: Earth , Home , Home Improvements

Ten Tips for Selling at Car Boot Sales
2008-02-25 06:37:00
One way to make a few pounds towards you mortgage payoff is to do a car boot sale. Sales are run throughout the year, however if you're like me then you would prefer to do one during the spring or summer. I accumulate things for my sale all through the winter months, and when I say things I mean everything. If I think an item will sell on eBay then it goes on there, if not, then it goes in the car boot box.I've given up selling books at car boots so they always go on Amazon or get given to friends. I also never sell electrical items.My top 10 tips for running a car boot sale:Prepare everything the day before - Wrap glass, china in bubble wrap. Price everything will small labels. Get a change bag with all denominations including £5 and £10 notes. Take lots of carrier bags, buyers always seem to want these.Pack your car the night before - It takes time and 5am in the morning is not the time to do it.Take a packed lunch and flask of tea/coffee - Don't spend your profits at the burge...
More About: Selling , Tips , Boot

Frugal Living
2008-02-21 09:42:00
When discussing money saving with some colleagues recently I was amazed at how little they know or want to know about saving money. By saving money I don't mean in savings accounts I mean on bills, groceries, purchases etc. They all know how I like to cut back on things and get the best deal that I can on any purchase and yet they seem unwilling to try any of the ideas themselves. I try to explain to them that frugal living is not about being cheap, its about getting the most from your money and using your money for things that make you happy.Many people consider our dream of moving to Portugal just a dream and that it will be unachievable. I say that you can achieve anything you want to if you put your mind to it. That's not to say that you don't need to work hard, it just means that with a little bit of extra planning, a total focus on your goals and the will to suceed you can do anything you want.Further reading:Our Five Year Goals Setting GoalsIf you like this post then please...
More About: Living , Frugal

Blog Carnivals
2008-02-18 12:26:00
The Carnival of Personal Finance #140 was held over at The Financial Blog ger this week and I'm honoured to have my post about re-mortgaging included in the list.Blog Carnivals usually have a theme and this week its Prison Break, the TV show. If you don't know what a Blog Carnival is then you can read all about it here.I'm reading all the posts included in the Carnival but I particulary like The Top 10 Financial Products to Avoid over at Finance Blog.If you liked this post or like this blog then please subscribe to my RSS feed to receive regular updates.

Re-Mortgaging
2008-02-15 20:49:00
Today I took the bull by the horns and started the ball rolling on our re-mortgage. The current fixed rate deal that we have expires on 3rd June. When re mortgaging it pays to give yourself enough time to get everything in place for the switch.Our current deal:Fixed rate mortgage at 4.94% which runs out on 3rd June and converts to the SVR (standard variable rate) of our mortgage lender.10% annual limit on overpaymentsInterest calculated dailyMonthly payment of £805No online accessWe were looking for a new deal that gives us unlimited overpayment facilities, no or small arrangment fee, minimum tie in, daily interest calculations and if possible online access. Not too much.There are literally hundreds of mortgages out there to choose from so we used a no fee broker, who searches the whole of the market, to do the looking for us. He came back with the following.Potential New Deal:Flexible Tracker Mortgage 0.49% (fixed for 2 years) above Bank of England Base Rate (currently 5.25%) so a ...

Switching Utility Suppliers
2008-02-13 21:58:00
Just a quick post tonight, well a vent actually. Do kids ever turn lights or tv's off? Regular readers will know about my ongoing battle with the utility costs, however I'm convinced that when the older two go to university in September our electricity bills will be halved! They seem incapable of using the off switch despite my constant nagging:)Anyway I'm looking at switching suppliers tonight as Martin Lewis of Money Saving Expert says that the time has come to switch.Energyline are currently offering £15 cashback if you switch through them and Moneysupermarket is paying £30 for a dual fuel switch. Be careful though as some companies haven't put their prices up yet and could do in the near future.
More About: Suppliers , Utility , Switching

Extreme measures
2008-02-10 10:42:00
I found this article on Yahoo about a couple who went to extreme measures to pay off their mortgage in less than 3 years. Now I wouldn't recommend this to anyone as it is very extreme, however there are some good tips in the article.One of them I really like is living on the same income you made five years ago.''Live on what you were making five years agoOnce you adapt to a more expensive lifestyle, there's no going back - but continuing to live the way you live right now is relatively easy. Vow not to increase your spending by more than inflation for the next five or 10 years. You won't have to give up a thing you enjoy now, but if you get regular pay increases and save the difference, you'll soon be putting away buckets of money.''
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Mortgage pay off requires patience
2008-02-09 13:57:00
Paying off your mortgage requires lots of patience, which I will happily admit I don't have. What I try to do to combat this is achieve little mini goals as every week goes by. De cluttering a room, selling a book on Amazon, cooking a frugal meal is one step nearer to reaching the overall goal of moving to Portugal.I'm currently in the middle of a massive budgeting project where I'm trying to breakdown every area of cost/saving until 2012. It's taking a while but all we have at the moment is a broad outline of where we want to be at the end of every year. I want to break all the numbers down so that we can track our progress month by month.
More About: Mortgage , Patience , Budget

Mortgage Overpayment
2008-01-31 08:16:00
I've sent a cheque off to the Abbey today for £600. This will take the mortgage balance to £132,130.We now have 4 years, 5 months and 16 hours until our deadline. I'm not sure if the counter on our desktop is a good idea as the days seem to be going very quickly. And much as I want the mortgage to be paid off, I really don't want time to go as quickly as it is!
More About: Mortgage

Menu Planning
2008-01-19 17:29:00
Some weeks I do a full menu plan, other weeks I go to the supermarkets and buy all the offers. It depends on how much spare time I have. This week I went to Mr T's, Morrisons, Aldi and the market.Menu Plan looks like this for the weekBreakfast:Porridge/Bran Flakes/ToastLunches:Sandwiches, Soup, Fruit, Raisins, Tuna/PastaDinner:Sat:PizzaSun: Chicken Fajita'sMon: Spaghetti BolognaiseTues: Mushroom Omelette'sWed: Fish/Pots/VegThurs: Chicken CurryFri: Tuna Pasta BakeAll meals served with veg or salad. Fruit and yogurt for pudding.Drinks water or squash.There was a similar post to this on an American blog I found last week, however at the moment I can't find it.Some costings: Half Price Items500g Bran flakes 82p500g Special K £1.25Granary loaf 49pCoffee £1.40Pizza £1.49Teabags (80) £1.291kg Porridge 69p500g Natural Bio Yogurt 74p6 pints milk £1.96 x 4500g Steak Mince x 2 £4.0010 Eggs 83p Aldi500g Sun Maid raisins £1.29340g Peanut Butter 78pSour cream 84pValue Biscuits 23pValue Choc B...
More About: Planning

British Gas to increase prices by 15%
2008-01-18 21:59:00
When we've caught back up with the amount owing on the Gas and Electric in March I'll be on Uswitch!Article on MSN news today - British Gas increase prices by 15% Further reading:Ongoing Utility BillsReduce Utility Costs
More About: British Gas , Prices

Going Out
2008-01-13 09:28:00
Most of the time not spending any money and living frugally is fun. You have to make it fun. In general both me and my husband think it's funny that we've gone all week and not spent any un budgeted money. I'm sure that moths will come out of his wallet one week:)This week however I've been going a bit stir crazy staying in every evening, so we went out last night. Total cost of the evening £6.25. Three of us went to an Italian restaurant, used Tesco Deals vouchers for the food(£30) and spent the money on three drinks. I know I'm obsessed with these vouchers but they are a great for providing treats. We could of asked for tap water I suppose and saved a few pounds but sometimes you've got to live a little!Further reading:Clubcard DealsIncreasing Your Income

Ongoing Utility Bills
2008-01-12 08:59:00
As in my previous posts we are still having trouble costing the price of the gas and electric in our house. We are currently using £3.22 a day on gas and £1.46 on electric, far too much. We've had our monthly Direct Debits increased to £164 and £82. We need to pay these amounts until March and then British Gas are going to review the payments. Most of this has been caused by a mix up with estimated bills, however after March we should be back in front a little bit with our payments. We are still trying to reduce the costs as well. (Duvets on the sofa to keep warm!)Paying extra for these two bills in the next 3 months is obviously going to stop us saving £200 into an ISA until April which is frustrating. At least all the new ISA deals will be around at the end of March so that we can open the best buy.
More About: Utility , Saving , Bills

Doing it yourself
2008-01-11 21:15:00
We currently have a large tree/bush growing at the front of our house which desperately needs cutting back or removing. We've had quotes from tradesmen ranging from £80 to £180, which we can't afford so we're doing it ourselves.I hope its not too windy tomorrow!
More About: Property

New Year De Clutter
2008-01-03 22:15:00
It never ceases to amaze me how much stuff children accumulate. It's been a while since we did out their bedrooms, and they've had birthdays and Christmas since, but the amount of clutter they have amassed is amazing. We've finally got it all sorted, with a small amount of help from them, and we now have a car boot sale bag, a charity bag, a textiles/recycling bag and some things for Ebay. We also had a few items for Ebay so I'll be listing all these at the week end.I've sorted out my packaging cupboard, which was full, as I keep any jiffy bags, envelopes etc that I get through the post and then reuse them when I post things. I have loads of bubble wrap that came with my wedding list delivery so this will get used over the year. I don't want to buy any stationery this year so I'm going to try and make do.Finally I've sorted out all the linen. I've kept two sets of bedlinen for every bed and got rid of the rest. I don't think we need twelve single duvet sets for three singl...
More About: New Year , Year , Clutter

January Net Worth
2008-01-01 20:07:00
First of all Happy New Year to you all. We had a quiet night in for New Year which was lovely, and cheap! Today I've spent the day de cluttering the girls bedroom. All their clothes are currently on the dining table ready for them to sort out tomorrow. There's a few things for Ebay, however most of the unwanted stuff is going to my next car boot sale. I'm feeling really positive about 2008 and I can't wait to increase the momentum on our mortgage free quest.The January Net Wort h figure is £55,881, only up slightly on November's due to the wedding costs, but at least its up.Assets:-£58 Joint A/c-£2 E Saver-£700 ISA's-£0 Sharebuilder-£185,000 House-£3,125 JewelryTotal £188,885Liability-£133,004 MortgageTotal £133,004Net Worth Total=£55,881
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Mortgage overpayment
2007-12-29 23:44:00
Tonight I've written out the mortgage overpayment cheque for £616. £600 normal overpayment and £16 from our Mort gage Pig.The mortgage pig was an idea on The Money Saving Expert forums. You get yourself a piggy bank and place it in a prominent position in your house with a speech bubble over it encouraging people in the house to deposit all their loose change in it. You then use this loose change to overpay your mortgage with, working on the principle that every little helps. Our pig is in the dining room with a personal to our family message above it.I'm sending our over payments by cheque every month with an accompanying letter stating that the money is a Capital Repayment and confirming the monthly amount should not be changed. I will also check that the money has been deducted correctly from the outstanding balance. This advice was given to me on the MSE forums (thank you) as it appears that the banks/building societies sometimes get it wrong!