Project Mortgage Neutral Begins

ajmoney · 7 October 2016 at 1:53PM

Swimming again this morning and there was far less lane rage

It is interesting keeping an eye on the daily interest of our larger mortgage, I haven't been able to work out when it will drop below £4 a day but I don't think it should be too far away.

I am looking forward to seeing our MFiT total for the next update, it will be the first true reflection of how our new mortgage is helping up move forward on our mortgage neutral journey.

I seem to have become even more sensible with my money (although I did have a rather large purchase last weekend) and am trying not to spend money on anything that isn't absolutely essential. I want to be able to enjoy every experience when I finish my job in 6 years and the more money I can put into savings or pay of the mortgage in the shorter time, the better this will be.

ajmoney · 7 October 2016 at 2:27PM

Does anyone have much experience of booking apartments abroad for holidays? Which companies do you book with? I am trying to make some holiday plans for next year and would rather stay in self catering apartments this time but they are not something I am used to booking.

ajmoney · 11 October 2016 at 4:29PM

One of the guys in my office has very kindly given me the username and password to his unlimited wifi so I can get online without it being on my mobile data. Not only does this mean I don't have to pay £16 a month for what would be about 11 nights of access but I will also save money as I won't need to go to the coffee shop every time I need to use their free wifi. This means I can check my mortgage balance every day now :j

I finally paid all my sponsorship money in for the Great North Run yesterday, transferred the offline money from my bank and kept the cash. I have £130 in my wallet and am doing my best to only spend this for the rest of the month. My food (lunch and dinner) comes to a max of £5 a day while I am at work and my breakfasts cost approx £9 for the week. I am going to see if this template is going to work each month which will mean I can save more each month

ajmoney · 12 October 2016 at 5:23PM

I love having the internet freely again.

I am going to use it to our advantage as best as possible while living away through the week. I am going to try and keep an up to date food inventory and then I can make meal plans during the week and I will know what shopping I need to get on the way home, that is the plan anyway. Have any of you worked away from home and if so how did you manage to organise things like this? I love organising and I think that is what is bugging me most about being away.

Martin's email struck a chord with me today. I am the one who does all the monthly budgetting on our household finances. It has come to a time when we need to sort through our paperwork again so once it is done I am going to make sure I at least add a spreadsheet that documents what goes where when and why.

ajmoney · 15 October 2016 at 8:26PM

Have any of you ever roasted beetroot? I tried to roast some for dinner tonight but failed kserably. Different recipes said between 5 and 30 mins, our was in for 45 mins in the end and was still pretty tough

maybe I need to peel it a bit better but I am feeling pretty clueless, can anyone help?

muddywhitechicken · 15 October 2016 at 8:51PM

I find that beetroot always needs longer than it claims in the recipes! I usually parboil whole for approx 30 minutes then peel, cut into wedges and roast for approx 45 minutes.

MWCx

Moneyfordreams · 16 October 2016 at 9:37AM

We are a recent convert to @irbnb for travel (as well as income). We have just returned from Lanarote. Nice apartments. But i suppose its all down to what you want and need. This place had a coffee machine, but no kettle and the wifi was ... well it didn't work... or get fixed. But the place made up for it's failings. Stayed in a fantastic loft room above a garage in Reading. Will be using the company again to travel as we have just been given a $100 voucher

Watty1 · 16 October 2016 at 10:29AM

Another for the parboiling of the beetroot before cutting into chunks for the oven. I did manage to get it soft roasting in the oven once but it took forever and I'd eaten the rest of the meal by then

ajmoney · 16 October 2016 at 11:24AM

Thanks for the replies re beetroot, we will try parboiling next time.

5 weeks on from the Great North Run and I still haven't been for a run, my knee doesn't hurt to run but different movements are really painful so I daren't run until it has been checked out and I am pain free, I just hope it gets better! I will be swimming and going to the gym to try not to lose too much of my fitness. It is quite sad but I know I am being sensible.

We started replacing some of our lightbulbs with energy saving LEDs yesterday, £90 spend so far but we know we will reap the benefits. We could have got the bulbs cheaper but we weren't sure exactly what we were looking for, we can now buy the rest of them for the house at a cheaper price. Our living room bulbs have all been replced and half of the kitchen. Next job is our bedroom, en suite and hall way.

We are having a lazy day today, I am planning to finish our Christmas shopping list and maybe have a sort through some of our cupboards.

ajmoney · 21 October 2016 at 8:55PM

I love it when I read other people's plans on here and even more so when they change for whatever reason, especially if it is for the better.

Through having a conversation not at all money or mortgage related while out in Glasgow today we ended up talking about the mortgage/mortgage neutral and freedom. The original plan and therefore the title of this thread may not now be correct. We have decided that as soon as we have the money in savings to cover the larger mortgage we are going to clear it. It will mean we will completely deplete our savings but will be able to start saving again straight away while switching to overpaying our smaller mortgage. It may be a risky strategy and I will probably make sure we have a small buffer anyway but it is going to drastically change our timeframe. Based on rough calculations as I am not entirely sure how much Mr AJM has in his savings at the moment I think we should be able to pay our larger mortgage off by summer 2018 :j it looks weird seeing that written down. If we were to the overpay our other mortgage by the current monthly repayment and OP we would be able to be mortgage free by sometime in 2020 :j which would give me around 2 years to bolster my savings pot for leaving my job. I am sure I must have miscalculated, even with rough workings out but it would massively change things for us if this is anywhere near possible. Needless to say I am about to do lots of calculations to see what we can do. Mr AJM is completely on board with this, especially as we will not be changing our lifestyle at all to achieve this which means we can still go on all our holidays

watch this space while I do some more concrete workings out!

Project Mortgage Neutral Begins

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