New Year, New Plans…

I love the feeling of new possibilities that a new year brings.  It’s a time for planning and reflecting on last year.  So how did last year go for me?

Well, not great, to be honest.   I had a devastating bereavement in May,  which was the result of a sudden and vicious illness which started in January/February.  Most of the beginning of my year was eaten by sadness, caring, bereavement and recovery.  I couldn’t cope with much before about August, and had so much fallout from things that had gone undone that it pretty much ate the rest of the year.  However, for all the bad stuff, there were small, jewel-bright moments – my family has grown much closer, and I realised that money, stuff and tasks are all very unimportant in the light of health and love.  There really wasn’t much which couldn’t wait for 8 months, and my children remained well-fed and loved, and my marriage is stronger than ever.  It confirmed my feeling that this journey isn’t about money for me – it’s about getting time and experiences.

The new year has given us the opportunity to look at lots of smaller things and make changes.  Whilst in the middle of his tax return, my husband broke the monotony and decided to make a couple of phone calls.  With perhaps 15 minutes on the phone, he saved £300 per month on our mortgage and about £35 per month on his mobile phone contract.  He decided that you don’t get anything if you don’t ask for it, so asked.

I was very impressed!

For those who might want to repeat this experience with their own mortgage lenders, the salient points that my husband made in the phone conversation were:

• Interest rates have come down a LOT, but our mortgage rate only gets adjusted once per year, and is currently not reflecting this.
• We want to get a better rate as  loyal customers who are feeling the pinch in these difficult times.

We have also decided to simplify our living arrangements, and will be moving back into our small cottage, rather than the larger rented house that we’re currently in.  This will hopefully save us in the region of £600 per month.  It will, however, necessitate a radical decluttering exercise as we’ve got far too much stuff, and the cottage is considerably smaller than our current house.  This also frees me somewhat from the rigours of running the holiday cottage business (which is what we *were* doing with the spare house!) and allows me to put more of my time into other projects.  This currently looks like being labouring on our new house, which is partly built.  My husband has promised to buy me a hi-visibility jacket, a pair of workgloves and some “toe-tector” boots so that I can get stuck in!  I’m quite excited by the prospect of this as it will also get me a bit fitter at the same time.

My challenge to you today is this:

Look through a recent bank statement and try to find at least one bill that you can negotiate down or cancel – an unused membership, subscription or service perhaps.  Or try to negotiate a better rate on your mortgage or rent ( a friend of mine recently got an £830 per month rent reduced to £650 with one sentence…).