MissCreative's journey to financial freedom!

MissCreative · 21 July 2016 at 11:01AM

Hello! This is my first post on my first thread as I'm hoping to have some company over the next 10-15 years whilst I pay off my mortgage! :hello:
I know you wouldn't really expect a 25 year old to be scrimping and saving to pay off her mortgage early, but here I am! :rotfl:

So, some details about us and our mortgage:
DH and I bought our first home - a little two-bedroom flat - in November 2014, just after we got married that Summer. (Just celebrated our two year anniversary! :j)
Our mortgage started at £155,000. The interest rates were looking like they were going up around that time so we thought we'd get a 5 year fix - in hindsight maybe we shouldn't have, but we made the right decision with the information we had at the time, and at least we know how much we're paying each month.
Right now we're at £144,556.01 due to normal payments of £780 a month and having overpaid £5900 so far too.
We both work full time for about £2500 total a month, although that will be going up by a few hundred with DH's recent promotion! We also just rented out our spare room to friend who will be paying us £470 a month, which is much more than the previous part-time renter we had who was paying £200 a month.

I'm hoping to update this daily, since this is a diary after all, and let you know what's going on in the MC household

I'll pop a SOA on here very soon so you can see more about how I'm looking at saving, and hopefully receive some helpful tips!

Looking forward to sharing on the forum and following lots of other's journeys :beer:
Let's get this show on the road! :j

Updated goals:
Overall:
Be mortgage free before we're 40.

2017 goals:
Overpay £5000 on mortgage this year - £1200 so far / 24%
Get below £135,000 on the mortgage total - currently at £141,153.78
Save £1000 for a lovely (hopefully all-inclusive!) holiday before September - saved £220 / 22%

gallygirl · 21 July 2016 at 11:36AM

Welcome

.

What mortgage rate are you on? With regular savers and TSB/Nationwide paying 5% you'd probably be better putting your money into savings - and when the regular savers mature you can then use that lump sum for overpayments.

You both sound like you've got your heads well screwed on, well done both of you :T.

MissCreative · 21 July 2016 at 11:41AM

gallygirl wrote: »

Welcome .

What mortgage rate are you on? With regular savers and TSB/Nationwide paying 5% you'd probably be better putting your money into savings - and when the regular savers mature you can then use that lump sum for overpayments.

You both sound like you've got your heads well screwed on, well done both of you :T.

Thanks GallyGirl!
We're on 4.34% so not much difference there, but it sounds like it's worth looking into so I'll put that on my agenda for tonight

The good thing about popping it on the mortgage though is that it's out of reach for the rest of the month and we can't spend it haha

MissCreative · 21 July 2016 at 12:09PM

Look into better current accounts and switching bonuses, and see if the same bank also does a good savings account over 5%
Also look into Cashback credit cards - never had a credit card before, scary!
Reach £20 on Prolific Academic and create a PayPal account to get paid
Post a SOA on the thread
Do the food shop on Sunday for under £20 - we already have some bits and bobs in the house and we're away next weekend
Finish painting the skirting boards and window frames in the spare room (and not get paint all over my hands this time!)
Don't overindulge on pizza night with friends this Saturday!

Already taking a look at current and savings accounts - wow there's a lot to choose from! Me thinks I need to snuggle up on the sofa with a glass of wine this evening and do a pros and cons list :rotfl:

PennyJar · 21 July 2016 at 12:29PM

Hi Miss creative,

Also just started a diary 'Penny by Penny...brick by brick'. I'm 33 and only wish like you I had seen the light sooner. What a difference it will make to your lives...similar to you I'm now on a mission!

PennyJar

abi_a_mfw_mum · 21 July 2016 at 12:51PM

Hi Miss Creative, welcome to the MFW community. You'll find a surprising number of under 30 year old mfw's, at least I was surprised and pleased to find others. We're also aiming for mortgage free by the time I'm 40, in 12 years. Good luck with your journey.

LadyGnome · 21 July 2016 at 12:56PM

Welcome to the MFW board and good luck.

MissCreative · 21 July 2016 at 1:29PM

PennyJar wrote: »

Hi Miss creative,

Also just started a diary 'Penny by Penny...brick by brick'. I'm 33 and only wish like you I had seen the light sooner. What a difference it will make to your lives...similar to you I'm now on a mission!

PennyJar

Hi PennyJar! I'll go and check out your diary now

wishing you all the best with your own mortgage adventure

abi_a_mfw_mum wrote: »

Hi Miss Creative, welcome to the MFW community. You'll find a surprising number of under 30 year old mfw's, at least I was surprised and pleased to find others. We're also aiming for mortgage free by the time I'm 40, in 12 years. Good luck with your journey.

Oh that's great! Nice to know my generation is getting it's act together haha. Good luck on your journey abi a mfw mum - maybe we'll finish at the same time!

LadyGnome wrote: »

Welcome to the MFW board and good luck.

Thank you LadyGnome :j

slowlyfading · 21 July 2016 at 8:26PM

Welcome to MFW

I started my journey at 25 too! Good luck with your plans

MissCreative · 22 July 2016 at 1:06PM

Good afternoon!
Everything seems so much better when the sun is shining :T

Forgot to charge my phone last night so this morning my alarm didn't go off and I missed arm day at the gym - annoying, but I'll just go tomorrow instead

Isn't it always the way that when you have good money intentions, something will come along and mess with your plans?
The car needs a new part (don't ask me what one - that DH's thing!) which will cost £900, plus the service is next month which will be about another £300. DH is going to see if we can get a slight discount on the service if we do both at the same time as the car will already be having work done. You don't ask, you don't get!

So overpayments will have to wait until September because we won't have anything spare this or next month (we had the service charge for our flat this month - £860! And that's just half a year's worth :eek:)

Buuuut...we did sell a lot of furniture and other items because our friend moved into our spare room with his own furniture. We made £170 from friends and Gumtree, which, by the way, is my new favourite way of getting rid of anything ever! Everything was snapped up within minutes :rotfl:
Plus, although Prolific Academic is being slightly frustrating at the moment by not giving me any surveys, I'm slowly getting there and am at £14.65 - only a few more surveys and I'll be at £20.
So that's £190 towards the car repairs

I'll probably post an overview SOA soon, and follow that with next month's budget, which I can refer back to and check I'm on track!

MissCreative · 25 July 2016 at 9:13AM

Don't you just hate it when you're weekend has been so busy you don't feel like you've had a weekend at all?

Helped fix up the spare room this weekend for our friend who's moved in.
We were trying to keep the costs down because we need all the money we can get for next month's car repair costs, so when DH came back from B&Q with £110 of materials to build a wardrobe in the room's alcove I sent him straight back! We managed to reconfigure a few elements and in the end spent £51 - much better!
Then went to Fabricland ( :happyhear ) and bought material for curtains to cover the alcove, which came to just over £7.

Spent yesterday sewing curtains - if I ever contemplate doing that again, please remind me of yesterday! They turned out quite nicely though, and I think the only thing left is a bit of skirting board and window painting which we didn't get round to this weekend.
All in all, pretty happy with the overall result

The food shop yesterday was £21, so only just over budget. It will do some meals for next week though as I got a big pork joint in bbq sauce for £2.50 as it was reduced and almost closing time :T

Will post my SOA and this week's goals later

MissCreative's journey to financial freedom!

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