Pay off your mortgage in 2 yrs - Episode 3

yorkshireman

I live in the same town as this family and know the exact location of where they are living. There is no planning permission for the site. if you take note of what he says in the programme, he refers to "industrial site around here are closing down and being sold for building with executive homes being put on them", this is true, but NOT the site they are living on. It is made up of a lot of little industrial units not one big company.

I too feel sorry for the girlfriend, seems like a good hardworking person, who deserves better in life.

I think by the end the only Cliff he will be doing is jumping off one!!

xlt_hunter

Ah, thanks for that yorkshireman

So what he did was jumping the gun basiclly - it might/might not happen.

Malestrom

The guy was a complete idiot with no concept of moneysaving or moneymaking. He deserved to get the injunction on his chocolate shop for being such a fool. As above, I pity his poor, hardworking girlfriend who seemed to be basically going along with him just to keep the peace while putting her own ideas/dreams on the backburner. You could see she was dying to get her hands on the chocolate business but was thwarted but the balding buffoon. £1800 for a wig that doesn't make you look, or more importantly sound, like Cliff Richard. Someone was laughing all the way to the bank...

Slinky

I bet whoever sold him that house couldn't believe their luck. Must have snatched his hand off!

MikeLB

New to the forum despite taking sneeky daily peeks for the past few weeks. I thought I would mention I took on this challenge long before the programme came out and I started to embark on 8 months ago and I can tell you - this is possible, but it is a lot, and i mean a lot of hard work.

I will admit to having 3 years of a head start on this, maybe thats where the programme title is misleading, as a lot of the people had their mortgages for some years previous to taking on the challenge.

I sat down and created a spreadsheet one night of how much I was gojng to pay back in total. It was scary, and I will admit the mortgage I have is small (£26K). I have always overpaid by about £20 a month or so. But realised the effect of that was not huge, effective yes, but not huge.

I did the obligatory cost savings, changed insurances for the house, car, switch mobile phones etc. That freed up £75 a month. So instead of keeping that, it went straight to the mortgage.

But the main part was taking on a second job as a freelance auditor, using web sites to find local work, earning maybe only £5 a job. It started off as a few hours a week, taking in £100 a month. Not huge, but I took the decision to perservere. It turned into a few hundred a month then I managed to spot a niche and started offering to travel to remote parts of the UK to work for a day here and a day there. Its now up to £1000 a month. Even taking into account tax liabilities, its proving worthwhile.

As a £ per hour, I would earn more at Tesco. But developing this second job on my terms has been very satisfying. And where does all the profit go, yes, straight into the mortgage, which is now currently being overpaid at 5 times my minimum monthly payment.

It does have its downside, I am lucky to have a total of 4 days a month off in total, swinging between two jobs is tiring, sometimes to an extreme, but the biggest reward is to look at the spreadsheet and see a) How much I have paid off, b) How many years ahead of myself I am in terms of mortgage repayment c) Seeing how much interest I will save. It has put strain on those close to me, but they understand why I am doing it and accept my plans change daily to accomadate work. Being single has helped, I wouldnt want to put a partner through this lifestlye I have had to lead for the past 8 months.

But I know its worth it because I can see the end in sight in 12 months.

All I am basically saying is if you really, really do want to go for this challenge, it is possible in the real world. Dont let the fact its TV make you think its not possible. If you have the drive and stamina, it is! When you work out how much interest you will save by paying an extra £10, £20, whatever per month, you start to get hooked ont he fact you can beat the bank. Its obsessive really!

Great site folks!

Inspiration

Don't suppose anyone knows the name of the woman in the recent episode (16th Feb) who said you can eat on £15 a week or something like that? Does she have a book?

tomstickland

That woman tonight - I was shouting at the TV by the end of it!

jayne26

i think she wanted rene to start the buisnes for her , anyone for champagne

D&DD

Inspiration wrote:

Don't suppose anyone knows the name of the woman in the recent episode (16th Feb) who said you can eat on £15 a week or something like that? Does she have a book?

Sorry can't help with her name but I have a book by Bernadine Lawrence called Feed your family on £4 a day aka the benefit book aka how to feed your family on £28 a week its brilliant but so long out of print you'd need to try ebay for it probably?

savingforoz

Not hard to see why she didn't make it. Her telephone call with Rene (set in the wonderful St Nicholas market here in lovely Bristol) was cringe - making - he made the valid point that over and over she had failed to do what she had promised, and all she could say was she was annoyed at his negativity. No taking responsibility for her actions (or inactions) there!

And £100 per week on food? Needs to visit this website I think. I spend £100 per month for me and the cat, including toiletries, household stuff etc.

I found it quite revealing in that I could see me in her (apart from also being a single Bristolian accountant who lives in a Victorian terrace!) in her being so risk adverse. What a refreshing change to watch the go ahead replacement couple, who really seemed to be motoring on with things. I felt like I'd had a big kick in the pants - life's too short to be so cautious!