SazM's loan busting mission

Lemon_Tree

glad you're still here with us and doing well.

SazM030306

Wow lots has gone on since February!

Baby Max was born on his due date 11th June weighing 8lb 6oz He is fabulous.

The house went up for sale on 1st July, we had a very interested viewer on 31st, but haven't heard back from him yet. Not getting hopes up too high, though we are viewing another house this afternoon!

LBA is currently at £3702.72!! How did that happen?!

We need a bigger car, so some of this money might get spent soon...and the rest might go on EA fees, but we are still plugging away to clear the loan by the end of December 2011.

Must go and feed the baby! xxx

Lemon_Tree

lovely to se you back Saz. Blimey you've been busy in the meantime.
Congratulations on the birth of Max, glad he is 'fabulous'

well done for gettingyour loan down to £3702 that's great. Mine is ticking along but couldn't save as much against it this month as i've been spending too much recently. Back on the wagon again though.

SazM030306

So we got a new car today. Much more room inside to fit us all in!
LBA is down to £2405.77 leaving £9257.22 to find by Dec 2011!!
Still no interest in the house.

Lemon_Tree

sorry to hear you've had no interest in the house, it's funny times at the moment for selling homes.
yay to the new car

SazM030306

Update! Yes it's been a while again I know, but I'm still here!

What's occurring?
-We have just over £2000 in the Loan Busting Account.
-No interest in the house.
-Refreshed energy for boosting the LBA yet unsure whether to now use it for the mortgage to help with a bigger deposit on the next one, or to pay off the loan then start on the mortgage.

Plans:
-Cancel child trust funds x3 for now. (£40 pm)
-DH stop smoking/use spending money for fags (fag budget to go) (£17.50pw)
-SELL THE CAR!!! (£55.71pw)
-eta - Take house off the market for now.

This will roughly save us £83 a week! Losing the car will be a biggy but if we want to afford a half decent house then drastic measures are needed. Am I being realistic?
This amount, along with the leftover money each month will go straight to the LBA, its fate to be decided

I have worked out the budget (roughly, might change due to new tax credits in April and Council Tax etc) for each month until the end of this year. We should have over £10,000 by then if all goes to plan.

Next thing on the list to cancel Trust Fund DDs. We've planned for the car to be gone before April, and he has the fag budget until the end of March.

Off to bed now, I've been number crunching since 9pm Love it!

xxx

Lemon_Tree

hi Saz glad to see you back.
I've having to make the same decisions as you re loan v mortgage.
the decisions i have made are:
my loan is at 7.9% my mortgage is at 5.63% therefore i clear the higher interest rated debt first
if i clear the loan off my credit file then it will make it easier to get a bigger mortgage.
i can overpay my mortgage once i have paid off the loan without prejudice which will help getting equity in our property

i did use most of my savings recently to replace our windows and door but that's because it improves our standard of living and adds value to the flat.

well done for making tough decisions on the car and smoking, i'm sure they'll work out for the best in the long run.
Look forward to seeing more of you around here.

SazM030306

Hi Lemon Tree! I can't believe how alike we are! We also had new windows and door mid December It is so much warmer, we should have done it years ago!

As for which to pay off/towards first, well our loan is 6.9%, but the interest has already been added on... I know we'll get some knocked off though if we repay early. To pay off in December we'd need £11662.99 It would save us £229.46 a month, but we'd still have less equity in the house..
The mortgage is only 1.09%! We owe just under £39000 and could bring it down to just over £27000 by the end of Dec. This would give us more equity (valued at £85000) but we'd still be paying out for the loan.. Hmm decisions!

DH has decided he will get to work on his bike that he's currently doing up. I will have to get food shopping delivered and can walk to MrT for topups as it's only 5 minutes away. We can walk to the park and the swimming baths, and Family can visit us! I'm sure there will be times when we really could do with the car but we'll get over it. At the moment we're aiming for December, makes it seem more do-able, but who knows we might take it further if we are coping well and pay off even more.

WE CAN DO THIS!!!

xxx

SazM030306

I've been reading the threads on OS and there are some fantastic ideas for stretching meals and cutting food costs! I currently budget £300 a month for us all; 2 adults, DS8, DD6 and DS8m. This includes all cleaning stuff, toiletries etc. It seems I should be able to do it for half this amount! I shall aim for £250 to start with, then go for £200. The money I don't spend can go straight into the pot
I have a meal plan sorted up to the 19th I think, so at some point I will plan the rest of the month, as cheaply as possible, and do a shopping list.

Tomorrow I need to find the paperwork for the trust funds / savings accounts and suspend the payments for now. I also need to drop the signed form into the Estate Agents telling them to take our house off the market.

We have decided it will be best to pay the money off the loan at the end of the year, get rid of that for good then put the payments towards the mortgage. DH would rather put it towards an Evo and race round for fun If only!

SazM030306

I took the form into the EA but it was the wrong one, so now I have the right one to sign and take back.
2/3 DDs are canceled for trust funds, one to do one Friday after this months payment has gone out.

Had fun this morning when I realised DH had taken both sets of keys to work with him! I had to call my Auntie to bring the spare key round We were only an hour late for school...

Off to finish tidying DS and DDs bedroom which I started yesterday... how much stuff??!!