Get yourself a 'Mortgage Pig'

Frugaldom

sashacat wrote: »

nykmedia....have you actually bought your house without a mortgage or are you intending to....hope you don't think I'm cheeky for asking but I'm intrigued?

I haven't bought a house yet :rotfl: I have my own crazy challenge going to save up enough to buy a cheap 'fixy-up'. There are a few of us on here doing similar but, as you might guess, it's a long term project I've studied loads of the property sites and see no problem in finding cheap property, so I set up an imaginary savings plan (another of my 'scrap book' style things) to include legal fees, surveys, land registry fees, removal costs, immediate repairs fund and it all came to £7,100 (I allowed £3000 for emergency repairs and another £1000 for travelling to view plus initial valuations). Each time I save enough to pay one of these bills, I mark it off my list, write it on a post-it note, and stick it in mortgage pig, which is a sealed wooden brick. I've now saved enough to cover all the initial bills and am on to the main body of the purchase fee It's fun, it's all in high interest accounts (ISA + a surplus fund HI account) and it's why I have stayed on my 4k per year challenge.

ecoelle

Hey guys, i'm afraid it's the weight of the pot as well as money, didn't think to weigh it until someone on here had done the same and i'd already started putting money in by then, it's one of those pottery money pots that you can only open by smashing it when it's full. Wish i had thought to weigh it before hand, my sister has an empty one though so maybe i could weigh hers and then subtract from my total? now i've started weighing it though might just carry on and then start a fresh when its full. think it's about 1/4 full at the moment so hopefully full by the summer! woohoo!

djbd1973

This is not technically a mortgage pig but I didn't sleep much last night so I decided to clear a drawer of clutter until I got tired and hidden in envelopes in the drawer I found £15 of debenhams vouchers from ten years ago, £25 M&S vouchers (no theme tune though), and £12 cash including a old tenner with Dickens on the back (I am hoping I can take that to the bank still).

Completely knackered this morning but feeling richer for it!

tattycath

Hi. Have you tried approaching the relevant shops and telling them you've only just found them, or some such, you never know they may just send you replacements or something as a good will gesture-if you don't ask you don't get

djbd1973

tattycath wrote: »

Hi. Have you tried approaching the relevant shops and telling them you've only just found them, or some such, you never know they may just send you replacements or something as a good will gesture-if you don't ask you don't get

Will do it at the weekend. Only found them at 2am this morning. Thanks

sashacat

thanks for the info nykmedia....I think it's an amazing challenge. I am also on your "live on £4000 a year" challenge...but just to see how much I can save as I want to help a friend pay some of her mortgage off.

monkeyman120168

What a fantastic idea! Hubby & I desperately want to get our mortgage paid off ASAP (the thought of 4 kids going to uni & needing financial help is spurring us on to get debt free within the next 7years - being realistic - before 1st sprog flies the nest). Will be bringing my £2 coin piggy bank down to the kitchen for a change of identity to the mortgage pig!!!

bunty109

Hi, I'd like to join in too! I boughta gorgeous pig on holiday in Belgium last year.....not sure if the picture does him justice (he's the one in the middle)!

http://www.s-and-p.be/EN/catalogue_pages.aspx?itemId=182&pageNum=3

Anyway, I've named him Monty the Mortgage Pig.

I've emptied him out of the coppers I was saving and I'll be putting in nothing smaller than 20ps (coppers can go in one of the children's old piggy banks). The idea is every day I save on parking, not having to pay for a club for the kids as it's school holidays etc., the money will go in there. I'll also just add money when I can.

First aim is to stop trips to the baker after school for cakes/gingerbread men!

OH has a tax bill to pay through his tax code from April andso next April I will apportion that to a proper mortgage overpayment every month as we're currently overpaying by about £10 a month, which is not as much as I'd like!

Let's see how much the pig helps! If we can get £500 knocked off the mortgage this year then great!! Come on Monty!!!

Frugaldom

Hi to Bunty and "Monty", nice to see you here and good luck with your mortgage savings.

SASHACAT - Are you sure you know what you are doing with regards to helping pay off a friend's mortgage? It's quite worrying, as I did something similar for a longstanding friend (of 24 years) and it all turned very, very bad. It was help with debts and I paid the deposit for her house. (She was depressed, ill, couldn't work fulltime and recently widowed.) But it all went very, very wrong when she suddenly moved a new (married) man into the house and broke off all contact with me. Result - I can wave bye bye to the house deposit. Please be very careful as I would hate for anyone else to go through this.

Edited in - sorry for going off topic, just that the comment set off alarm bells for me. :eek:

Batgirl

ecoelle wrote: »

Hey guys, i'm afraid it's the weight of the pot as well as money, didn't think to weigh it until someone on here had done the same and i'd already started putting money in by then, it's one of those pottery money pots that you can only open by smashing it when it's full. Wish i had thought to weigh it before hand, my sister has an empty one though so maybe i could weigh hers and then subtract from my total? now i've started weighing it though might just carry on and then start a fresh when its full. think it's about 1/4 full at the moment so hopefully full by the summer! woohoo!

If its a Terimudi pot we sell them where I work and I can weigh one tomo ( as long as I don't do my usual trick of forgetting !!!) for you.

Let me know

Batgirl