Ajmoney's mortgage reduction diary

ajmoney

So far on the road to our wedding:

Deposit paid to venue
Vicar booked
Dress chosen (on Friday) and deposit paid.

Things to do this week

Ring vicar to arrange a time to meet
Go to appointment with florist
Work out any questions to ask at wedding fayre next weekend

twinklie

Sounds like you are well on top of it all. You sent out your invites yet or at least started work on your guest list. It's better to get it out nice and early.

ajmoney

Ok so there are other things we have done which I forgot to put on there

So far on the road to our wedding:

Deposit paid to venue
Vicar booked
Dress chosen (on Friday) and deposit paid
Guest list made out
Warning emails/phone calls made to let everyone know of date
Reserve enough rooms for out of town guests

Things to do this week

Ring vicar to arrange a time to meet
Go to appointment with florist
Work out any questions to ask at wedding fayre next weekend

Queen-Bee_2

Congratulations AJ, really nice news to start the year!!
QB

ajmoney

I am sure all we are talking about is weddings. I don't want to annoy my OH but we are still in the decision stage so until we have set our minds to what we are doing I can't help it.

So far on the road to our wedding:

Deposit paid to venue
Vicar booked
Dress chosen (on Friday) and deposit paid
Guest list made out
Warning emails/phone calls made to let everyone know of date
Reserve enough rooms for out of town guests
Wedding rings chosen and deposit paid
Arranged a time to meet with the vicar

Things to do this week

Book venue decorator
Price match the florist
Find and book photographer or work on another for a cheaper price
Try and find entertainment for the evening
Finalise our new guest list ideas

ajmoney

I am soo excited, we very nearly have everything booked for our wedding. Now we can spend time deciding what we want them to do and what we want

So far on the road to our wedding:

Deposit paid to venue
Vicar booked
Dress chosen (on Friday) and deposit paid
Guest list made out
Warning emails/phone calls made to let everyone know of date
Reserve enough rooms for out of town guests
Wedding rings chosen and deposit paid
Arranged a time to meet with the vicar
Venue decorator provisionally booked
Florist booked and deposit sent
Photographer booked, need to send deposit
Found a friend who has a folk band, in the price discussion stages at the moment

Things to do this week

Finalise our new guest list ideas
Go to look at kilt/suit hire for OH

ajmoney

Recently I feel like I have been burying my head in the sand and treading water at the same time when it comes to money. It's probably since I got the new car, maybe I'm trying too hard to do everything but I have finally looked at everything to see where I am.

I am still making monthly OPs of £139.76 and making my monthly payments to my car loan. It would probably make more sense to OP the car loan but I know that has a nearer date for completion and I would hate to stop OPing now.

I had to sell one of my unit trusts before Christmas to help after a few tough months, it wasn't even the strain of Christmas that drove me to it. I have sent a letter off today to sell the final (larger) one too. It actually makes financial sense as I am not paying into them anymore so they aren't making me anything. I have had to dip into a couple of smaller savings accounts just to help tie me over and it will replenish those and give me a buffer towards the wedding.

I have two smaller accounts where I save monthly as a way of budgetting, one for house and travel insurance that OH and I both contribute to and one for all car stuff (insurance, tax, MOT and service costs). I should be able to draw on what is left from this after all the payments have gone out as I won't need to MOT money for 2 years and I don't pay road tax anymore. I changed the monthly amount once I got the new car but decided to wait until payments have gone to do anything. We recently set up a holiday fund too which I will probably save until our Christmas holiday so we have more in there.

So now onto the important bits, how my money compares. I am ignoring the small accounts above as that money is being set aside for specific things, I will just include my ISA investments.

Cash ISA £9411.75
Stocks & Shares ISAs £13047

Total £22458.75

Credit card bill £200.00

Total £22258.75

Mortgage total as of 02/02/2011 £43702.46

Mortgage - Savings = £21443.71

If I can manage to keep all my payments up then the bottom figure should look really healthy by the end of the year. I had my annual mortgage statement through the other day and I have a nice OP bank if I desperately need anything which is good. Once the wedding and honeymoon are paid for I am looking forward to really working on this.

Just one question, my loan rate for the car is 7.5%, would any of you use the savings to pay this off or not? Part of me thinks I am mad for owing people money when I can pay it off quite easily but I don't want to sell my S & S ISAs and I don't have enough in the cash one to pay it off in one go. I will probably keep going as I am but it will be interesting to hear opinions.

On a plus side my dad has been putting a wedding fund aside and I found out the amount last weekend, it will make funding the wedding a bit less stressful now

Sorry for the essay guys, when I feel snowed under I can look back at this post to realise it is not bad at all.

ajmoney

I've had the mortgage for 6 years now, so should have 19 years left to pay but due to the OPs I have already made and plan to keep paying we have got the term down to 10.9 years. It will save £5331.03.

My savings are about to take a massive hit to pay for the wedding and honeymoon...I guess that is why we save. If there is enough left I am planning to use the rest (so long as it doesn't wipe me out) to pay off my car. I might use a few larger OPs on it if not and try to put some money aside to pay it off earlier. I think this is the sensible thing to do but wish I didn't have to see most of my savings disappear.

twinklie

Totally know what you mean. I managed to save up loads of money really quickly once upon a time...then we got married and it all disappeared!! Totally worth every penny though...and we managed to do a white wedding in a country house hotel (sit down dinner and evening reception with hot buffet), big dress, 2 weeks snowboarding in canada all for under 7K

Best day EVER...even now we talk about it all the time and look at the pics fondly!

ajmoney

Twinklie Our wedding is far more than that :eek:

Right, an update on savings versus mortgage, the last update was 2nd Feb so already things are looking better. We have decided to stop OPs for the next 5 months though until we have paid for the wedding, we don't want to go into debt for it and taking 4 or 5 months out won't matter, especially as we may be throwing more money at it after that!

So now onto the important bits, how my money compares. I am ignoring the small accounts above as that money is being set aside for specific things, I will just include my ISA investments.

Cash ISA £9411.75
Stocks & Shares ISAs £13466.98

Total £22878.73

Credit card bill £0.00

Total £22878.73

Mortgage total as of 02/02/2011 £43381.92

Mortgage - Savings = £20503.19

I have also decided I will definately pay off my car loan if I have enough money left after the wedding or at least reduce it.