On our way to a mortgage-free day...

debtfreesomeday · 14 May 2013 at 11:44AM

Hello.

Some of you may remember me from debt free diaries such as 'DFSD's motivational ramblings', and 'Boarding the bus of positivity...' etc etc.

Now the debts are paid off (probably around £50K at their highest:eek:), we have recently moved house, taking out a mortgage of £66K. £66,265 to be precise

). The first payment comes out on May 26th.

Although there is not a lot of cash spare in our budget whilst paying astronomical childcare costs and working part time for the next few years, we are determined to clear our mortgage as quickly as possible. Our term is currently 20 years, on paper; but we are aiming to clear it within 10.

So, yesterday I faxed our 'regular overpayment request form' off. At the moment, we are only overpaying a fixed amount of £20.04 a month, which rounds the payment up to £400 a month. This alone knocks a year and a half off our mortgage though.

There is one more obstacle in the way first before we throw everything at the mortgage - we need to save up for a new car. Ours is getting old and creaky and we don't want to rely on credit to buy a new one when it does give up the ghost. We could also really do with a second car now we have moved, as the trip to nursery/work places x 2 is an event in itself most mornings. On the days I don't work, I am either stuck without a car all day or have to drive a 40 minute round trip in the morning and evening, to pick DH up, taking DS with me. Obviously not money, or cranky two year old, friendly.

So far, we have saved £2500 towards it, we estimate we'll need around £8K for a decent car which will last us a long time and be large enough for DH to drive (he's 6'5" and of big build). Once we have reached our savings target, we shall be able to throw a lot more at the mortgage.

So, I guess this diary is likely to be in 2 parts. First, the car savings; secondly, the mortgage.

Wish us luck!

debtfreesomeday · 14 May 2013 at 12:29PM

Tucking into my lunch of last night's leftover gnocchi and salad - yum.
We need to get back into the habit of meal planning. We were doing well before our move, but everything got turned upside down with moving house as it always does. This was the way we saved the most money every month, otherwise we used to go off the rails and the food budget spiralled out of control.

I forgot to say that I have limited internet access for the next week or so, thanks to the delay in our phone/broadband being installed in the new house. :mad: It's driving me mad, not sure how we managed before 't'internet'.

tootoo · 14 May 2013 at 12:46PM

Happy mf journey. Im just starting too

yukkibear · 14 May 2013 at 8:25PM

Yay lovely to see you on the MFW boards and well done on paying off your debts. Have subscribed.

wantabetterlife · 14 May 2013 at 10:56PM

Well helllloooo there :j:j:j. It must feel great to have the debts paid...I meant to post on your last diary and ask you how things went with the move but things have been so busy with the new baby. Anyhow I hope it all went well for you and you are all well settled. I have a diary over here but am not too good at updating it, but am always reading everyone else's. I am so pleased to see you over here

debtfreesomeday · 20 May 2013 at 12:00PM

Thanks all, nice to 'see' you in my new home!

Hope baby is allowing you to have some sleep WABL, have seen some pics on FB and baby WABL is adorable! Congratulations.

We're still sans broadband and landline at our house. Hopefully it should be installed by Wednesday, so I'll be able to update more and get a grip with the banking again. I usually check the bank accounts daily, so it's been driving me nuts not being able to do so.

We still have quite a bit of money left in the bank (for us!) with Payday a few days away, so any leftover will be transferred over to the car savings. This first 'month' of our new budget and expenses will begin in a few days too, so I need to keep on top of that and make it work, without straying into our overdraft.

I have made a bit more money this past week, selling unwanted furniture and baby toys on a local FB selling page. Also got rid of my most favourite, but completely impractical, piece of furniture as it just doesn't seem to fit very well anywhere in our new house. £280 is coming our way for that in the next few days, which is actually more than we paid for it, so haven't done badly.

We have bought some more light fittings for the new house, spending around £80, but found a 25% off code. Now every room bar the downstairs loo has a light fitting or shade, will pick up a cheap one somewhere for that!

I have also sorted out a large box of items for ebay, and loads of things for a car boot sale which we are planning to do when we can borrow my Dad's pasting table.

Have shelved the plan to buy Ds a wardrobe for his room - he doesn't really need one as has plenty of drawers - but do need to buy a bedside chest of drawers for our room. Will be paying a trip to IKEA to get something reasonably cheap.

Just got my first notification of needing to fill in a self assessment tax return for my little craft business, so have started work on that. It's not the most user-friendly form I've ever dealt with to put it mildly.

debtfreesomeday · 20 May 2013 at 3:59PM

Finally got round to doing a 'big shop' at Aldi today. We've been buying bits as we need them in the Tesco store close to our new place, but have noticed how expensive this is.

Total came in at around £45 for a trolley full of fruit, veg and store cupboard goods.

Also found a kindle fire 3G someone left in the trolley I used!!! Have already managed to find the owner though, so happy to have done my good deed for the week! :T

Chocforever · 22 May 2013 at 3:33PM

Hello DFSD (does a mortgage count?!)

Happy new home!

debtfreesomeday · 23 May 2013 at 12:39PM

Hi chocs, welcome to my new home! Haven't updated the old diary with a link to this one yet, will do soon.

Loving the new house, shame we have to start paying for it in the next few days!

This morning I paid £425 in to the bank account; £280 from the furniture sale and £145 refund on council tax from old house. It's payday on Friday, so we shall shove any money left in the account over to the car savings, with maybe a little in the house/car maintenance fund too.

debtfreesomeday · 24 May 2013 at 2:51PM

It's payday today but I'm going to hold off transferring the spare £550 ish over to the savings pot until I have received a few more bills for the new house as everything may cost us a little extra this first month.

I've had a much-needed haircut today, courtesy of a birthday gift voucher from DH.

The day hasn't remained spend-free though...

car needed a new tyre (£68) :eek: and I bought a couple of bits to put towards DH's birthday gifts in a few months (£12). Also, bought a clock for our new house (£14, reduced from £35), bought myself lunch as it's payday and forgot to bring food with me this morning (£5) and the car is likely to need petrol this evening.

I've also just found out that our council tax is going to be £65 a month MORE than our last house... :eek::eek::eek: AND our car insurance has gone up by £73 just by updating my address details!!! I phoned and queried this as we've moved to a quieter, 'safer' area with a low crime rate. Apparently it's correct and they won't budge... grrrrr. Think they make these figures up half the time.

At least we're a step closer to determining our new budget though. Albeit, it's not going to look very good!!!

moohound · 24 May 2013 at 6:16PM

Hi DFSD , I'm an old DFW as well, just got my badge and starting on the road to mortgage freedom.

I will be following your diary with interest, especially on how good habits you learned getting your debts down help in getting the mortgage down as well.

Good Luck with it

Moo xx

On our way to a mortgage-free day...

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