FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

financialbliss · 31 May 2008 at 9:35AM

Haven't had the time to put aside for this diary lately. Thought I better get an end of month interest snapshot in...

Today my mortgage interest for 2008 is: 1,324.01

This can be broken down as follows:

January 279.86 – 9.03 per day
February 249.23 – 8.90 per day
March 271.85 – 8.77 per day
April 259.23 - 8.64 per day
May 263.84 - 8.51 per day

Will be doing a small overpayment tomorrow to supplement the standard mortgage of 898.03. I've decided to "only" top this up to a total of 1,000.00 this month.

Hopefully I'll get around to explaining why over the course of the weekend.

FB.

financialbliss · 2 June 2008 at 10:42PM

I really haven’t had any sort of inclination to put in much of an appearance here lately for quite a few reasons! Still, I’m here now, so I’ll get a few things out of my head…

Work. We’ve been offered a 2.45% pay increase, that was rejected. Now balloting for industrial action, starting with a 2 day strike.

Fuel costs. Over the course of about 5 or 6 days, watched our local Asda store increase it’s diesel almost daily from 118.9 to 124.9. Still, I get 2p off via our Asda credit card. Other retailing are in excess of 130 / ltr for diesel.

On the subject of fuel, been doing some reading up of peak oil. This suggests that we’re at or past our peak oil production and from herein, fuel costs will only rise. Anyone for > 150.00 a litre of diesel by the end of the year? This may not be too far fetched!

Drilling (Sorry for bad link). Mrs bliss is having some teething problems with, erm, yes you guessed it, her teeth. Needs to have some work done and this is going to cost 198.00. Another budgetary kick in the teeth – ok sorry, I’ll stop that now!

Wallpaper borders. These have now arrived from the USA. Should hopefully be painting #1’s room this weekend, but we’ve yet to sort out paint colours, never mind the acutal paint.

Playstation. Big oops here. This was connected to wireless broadband while initially downstairs. Since moving it upstairs, I’ve been meaning to connect this back up to the broadband for ages, but on reading that the operation system was way out of date, I re-connected this up and have since spent a good few evenings doing online gaming.

Due to esure charging car insurance early – insurance didn’t start until 29th May, card statement date is 28th and they charged the card on the 27th, plus the dentist costs, I’ve decided to only overpay the mortgage to 1,000.00 this month, which I did yesterday.

Standard mortgage payment hasn’t been collected yet, but once this has, I’ll do my usual update of signature and graph on page 1.

FB.

setmefree2 · 3 June 2008 at 6:31AM

financialbliss wrote: »

On the subject of fuel, been doing some reading up of peak oil. This suggests that we’re at or past our peak oil production and from herein, fuel costs will only rise. Anyone for > 150.00 a litre of diesel by the end of the year? This may not be too far fetched!

Nice to hear from you FB - It was frightening oil watching oil climb to $135:eek: Whilst I think it's (hopefully) a short term blip due to speculators in the commodity market, I think it's scary because it reminds everyone that oil is gonna run out sometime. Particularly, horrible thought when you have kids_pale_ I'm gonna try being "greener" not only because it's better for the environment but also because it will save us money:j. So I've started putting my used kettle water into a thermos and bought myself an extra washing line, so I can do bigger loads of washing using my washing less. Has anyone else got any ideas

- I already do energy saving light bulbs, not leaving things on standby, use the car less and keeping the thermostat low on the central heating.

financialbliss · 4 June 2008 at 1:32PM

Yeah!:j

June payments have finally hit mortgage account. Balance: 64,111.07

Signature and graph update this evening...

FB.

financialbliss · 5 June 2008 at 8:27PM

Hi all,

Graph and numbers…
I’ve done a chart and numbers update this evening. Chart moves ever so slightly month on month, that you may think I’m not actually updating it!

Minimum balance (blue) and average balance (green) are creeping towards the 12/12/12 schedule line. Providing at the end of each year, I can keep the minimum (blue) under the 12/12/12 schedule, I’ve a chance I can make my goal.

In 2007 I had a 4,813.67 overall reduction in my mortgage. So far for 2008, I’ve already beat that – 5,542.15 as of June recalculations :j

I’ve also attained 23.83% of my mortgage free in three target, although I don’t think I’m going to hit that target. I’ll try and explain why in a separate post.

House price index…
Each month, just out of interest, I take the house price index and apply the change in this index to the theoretical price of our house. I’ve been doing that since 2003 when the offer was accepted and I’ve just applied the index for May.

This has gave a drop this month of 6,560.71 to 273,060.89. Obviously the value is only ever worth as much as someone is willing to pay, and I’ve currently no intention of selling, but that figure suggests we’ve around 200k of equity in the house. House price crash proof I'd hope!

Decorating…
Bought some paint today for #1’s bedroom. As I mentioned a few posts back, the borders have arrived from the USA. We’re planning on decorating #1’s room this weekend. Theme: Roary the racing car – matching quilt and curtains with Nascar chequered flag border.

Both kids being shipped out on Saturday morning – room needs clearing, existing border stripping, ceiling, walls and gloss need doing on the Saturday. #1 having a sleep over on Saturday evening, which hopefully gives us enough time to reinstate the room with new border, new curtains and new blackout blind on the Sunday.

Wish us luck!!! It’s going to be like one of those 24 hour make over programmes… :rotfl:

FB.

financialbliss · 5 June 2008 at 8:48PM

PS,

I've just padded out post #1 - section "in numbers" slightly as follows:

In numbers...
Monthly payment required to achieve goal : 1,334.29
Current monthly amount towards mortgage : 1,000.00

Nationwide estimate to be mortgage free : September 2015
My own current estimate to be mortgage free : October 2014

Monthly payments. My thinking here is to show what monthly payment I need to make to hit my 12/12/12 goal compared to what I'm currently throwing at the mortgage.

Mortgage free date. My lender Nationwide estimates that I'll be mortgage free in September 2015. My estimate is currently October 2014 based on ongoing total payments of 1,000.00 per month.

FB.

abouttimetoo · 5 June 2008 at 9:07PM

Hi there FB

Thanks for the updates, you are still doing great:j You sound like you have the decorating in hand and your DS will love coming back to it all being done (good plan and shipping them out:D )

I've not got much to update on the mortgage front myself at the minute as I've only been going two month but so far have overpaid by £650 and plan to increase monthly OP's at the year end once I have settled into the MFW thing.

My main problem at the minute is I just have no time to do anything as I'm working mad hours at the moment and I really just need to get a couple of hours free during the day; I need to resolve a problematic share situation (trying to get the company to admit I own them!) as well as get british gas to explain why my gas bill is twice as much as my neighbours - my gas is on c.6hours a week (I work away Mon-Fri and it is off during the week) and my neighbours is on nearly all day and night 7 days a week :eek:

gallygirl · 5 June 2008 at 9:20PM

FB just been looking at your chart. Why are other people's details so interesting

? As far as I am concerned any of us who stay below our top line are doing well, even if we don't meet the bottom line.

I'd post mine on here but don't know how

. In addition to the MFIT target I'm aiming to pay off total amount by Aug 2011. I have a target line and am managing to stick fairly close to it, but currently due to be £-2751 by end of June :eek: . That should come down to £-2300 by end of month, but need to make inroads into arrears asap :rolleyes: . Poorly car won't help this......

Enjoy Roary this weekend! DS will love it :T

financialbliss · 8 June 2008 at 10:55PM

One word...

"Wow!".

That was #1 when he saw his room make over this afternoon. Worked until about 11pm on Saturday evening and then put the room back together today.

Exhausted and tired.

Throwing in the towel very shortly. Only a 4 day week next week. Off on Friday as we're off to north Wales.

FB

financialbliss · 9 June 2008 at 10:58PM

Quick update this evening.

Electric / Gas. Got a letter from our electric / gas provider at the weekend saying that they’re putting our direct debit up again – this time by only a fiver a month. Still, that’s 60 pounds a year that would be better in my bank account. Combined electric and gas payment now standing at 77.00 per month :eek:

Savings. There’s been a discussion in the savings and investments section for a while regarding the Halifax 10% regular saver which I’ve been quietly following. It launched today, and Mrs Bliss signed up for this account this evening. Intend to feed this account (not directly though) from the cash in my Lloyds TSB monthly saver 8% 2 year product, that I get taxed on, so that’s 6.40% after tax.

Should get the full 10% rate with no tax taken off, as Mrs Bliss isn’t earning.

Other than the savings account to try and offset all the other increases in bills, not got a lot to report. Holiday in Wales starts this Friday and we’re far from organised so far, this time around :eek:

FB.

FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

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