uzubairu's Mortgage Free Journey

uzubairu

OH has been offered a position with his current employer where he will be doing IT work linked to the transition.
This work will be for a minimum of 6 months (and up to 18 months) and in that time he can apply for several suitable jobs that have recently come up within the wider business.

That is a relief to us both, although a little bit of him wanted to take the £36K redundancy and chill out for a little while before looking for another job.
He is due a bonus in December (paid twice a year) and he reckons it will be about £1,120.

The only thing we need to do is just get on with reducing the mortgage as much as we can.
I rang First Direct today and checked the balance and it is still £73,064 with the first payment of £581 due on the 3rd October.
I know it's sad, but I've just made a direct overpayment of £99 to cover the booking fee and have the balance starting £72,XXX.

We are going to San Francisco in early November.
We've never been before, but we've read about and heard good things from friends who have been.

Flights have been paid in full with Airmiles (1,500 discount per flight at the moment ), currency card is already loaded with dollars (for spends), so we are still debating hotels.

uzubairu

Phoned First Direct and our mortgage currently stands at £72,914.

We don't have a borrow-back facility with First Direct and we can get better savings rates elsewhere, so we have several Regular Savings accounts for the overpayments.
I am only listing savings accounts specifically set up for our mortgage overpayments.

Reg Savers / Sept / YTD
Northern / = £250 / £1,130
Northern / = £250 / £880
Cheshire / = £250 / £750
Cheshire / = £250 / £500
Saffron / = £200 / £600

Fixed Cash ISA = £2,000
Total Overpayment Savings = £5,860.


Direct Overpayments to mortgage account
Month / Amount / YTD
Sept / £150 / £150

Mortgage remaining = Mortgage - Savings = £72,914 - £5,860 = £67,054

Queen-Bee_2

Pleased to hear your OH has been offered the option to help with the transition - it is easier to find another job from an existing position of employment.

Well done on your savings too. What interest rate are you earning on your savings and how does this compare to your mortgage? I'm always envious when people can do this - I took a 5 year fix ending in March 2011 at 4.59%
QB

uzubairu

Queen-Bee wrote: »

Pleased to hear your OH has been offered the option to help with the transition - it is easier to find another job from an existing position of employment.

Well done on your savings too. What interest rate are you earning on your savings and how does this compare to your mortgage? I'm always envious when people can do this - I took a 5 year fix ending in March 2011 at 4.59%
QB

We had to pay an ERC on our old mortgage to get our current deal as it had 6 years remaining.
New mortgage rate is base + 1.79% (with First Direct).

Savings are at 3.2% and 4% after tax.

uzubairu

The first mortgage payment to First Direct goes out on Monday.

Received another £5.00 from my Halifax Rewards account today and have transferred that to my VSP.
I'll be putting the contents of my VSP towards the cost of my car insurance renewal next month.

It probably won't cover it all, but hopefully at least 60%.

uzubairu

Quidco have received £55 which will be transferred to my VSP in the next week. :j
That will give me a total of £350 towards the cost of my annual car insurance.
I'll have to start getting some quotes as renewal is for next month.

I've also got another £140 validated which I'm hoping that I receive before Christmas.

October's overpayments of £1200 have been paid into the Regular Savers.

Next month, I should have reached my MFW 2010 target to get the mortgage down to £65,000 and I will still have December's payment to go.
It will also keep me on target for my MFiT-T2 challenge to get mortgage down to £32,000.

uzubairu

Still looking into accomodation for our trip to San Francisco next month.
OH got so stressed out looking, that I told him not to bother.

It is now stressing me out too.
So many choices, I don't know what to do for the best.
I saw someone post on another MSE forum about vacational rentals (vrbo.com), so I am looking into that today.
They do seem a lot cheaper for a wider and nicer range of specifications.
I hope that I can find a solution soon.

Now that OH doesn't have the responsibility for making the choice that we will have to live with for a week, he seem so much happier and keeps asking me where I am up to with it all.
I want to tell him where to go. :mad:
He also keeps on sniggering when he hears me sighing whilst trawling through page after page of San Francisco hotel descriptions/reviews.

Thankfully, we have a reasonable budget, so we don't have to stay in a youth hostel or near the airport.
My head hurts.

SmlSave

Hi hun. Try not to get too stressed and remember to breath.....in......and out.....

Its a case of almost too much choice isn't it!?! See if you can pick 10/20 that you like and then get your OH to pick out some he likes. If the accomodation is on trip advisor then discard any that are under the average stars.

Keep at it hun

uzubairu

I've started looking at vacation rentals in San Francisco and the choice and price are much more appealing.
I have a shortlist of 3 now, and I am in contact with the owners for more details before we take the plunge.

I should have been at a car boot sale today, but I was asked to do some overtime yesterday and I couldn't really refuse the double time pay and the work isn't too demanding.
It should bring in an extra £150 in next month's pay, which I'd probably get standing in the cold at the car boot sale.

I will still try and do one in the next fortnight, as it will be extra spending money for our holiday or overpayment money.

Break is nearly over, so I'd better get back to work.

uzubairu

Phoned First Direct this morning and the mortgage currently stands at:- £72,429.92

I do miss the lack of online visibilty for our mortgage (which we had with Nationwide), but I am sure that I'll get used to it.

We don't have a borrow-back facility with First Direct and we can get better savings rates elsewhere, so we have several Regular Savings accounts for the overpayments.
I am only listing savings accounts specifically set up for our mortgage overpayments.

Reg Savers / Oct / YTD
Northern / = £250 / £1,380
Northern / = £250 / £1,130
Cheshire / = £250 / £1,000
Cheshire / = £250 / £750
Saffron / = £200 / £800

Fixed Cash ISA = £2,000
Total Overpayment Savings = £7,060.


Direct Overpayments to mortgage account
Month / Amount / YTD
Oct / £000 / £150

Mortgage remaining = Mortgage - Savings = £72,429 - £7,060 = £65,369