Mr & Mrs Mintedmatty MFW's Diary

mintedmatty

2011 is flying by! Cant believe it is almost June? Mrs MM & myself will have been MFW for 2 years in september and I am really pleased with how things are going. Having saved oursleves almost £8,000 in that time in interest. Every month of progress will make a big difference in equity when it comes to selling our house and finding the family home.

A burning question maybe you MFW peeps could help with? Me & Mrs MM have set up our own home and have everything we want? for a wedding list we have thought about asking for money towards a deposit for the new house, I'm not 100% comfortable asking for money, or do we ask for money in the context that what we want is a grand table and chairs for the new house where we can have dinner with family and friends, i.e what we enjoy doing most!

Any thoughts appreciated?

Still looking on other threads and great to see everybody doing so well

RosieTiger

These days that's not that outrageous. In reality, if you have been together in your own home for a while, the likelihood is that you would be bought things that you don't really need. Using the excuse of putting it together for something expensive is fine. Sod the embarrassment, how many sets of glasses, towels, etc do you what to end up with?????

FlowerPower

On our gift list, we said we didn't need any gifts, but if people really wanted to contribute we'd really appreciate money towards our honeymoon - felt really cheeky asking, and probably upset a few of our older guests, but it's not so unusual these days - and really we have no room at all for traditional wedding gifts. Psychologically, asking it in context like you said will make people feel a lot better rather than saying it's towards a house deposit... not sure why!

mintedmatty

We seemd to have hit 2 'milestones' this month! We have broken the £8,000 barrier in saved interest on the mortgage and I have broken through the 20% paid off barrier on my own mortgage. It does seem to have been one of those months where I just dont save anything but then saying say that at the very least I have my £250 into my HSBC regular saver!

mintedmatty

Help! I'm suffering from the impending doom of my 30th Birthday which is tomorrow!!!!!!

By the time my mortgage payment comes out in 2 weeks I will be below £44k which I am well happy with! The next door neighbours has had an offer and an intersting development. Because the previous owner of my property bough some of the adjacent land on the sly, the people who are buying my neighbours want to buy the land off me! TBH the land isnt worth what I would consider i.e £2000 isnt worth sellling, it would have to be £7-8000 to make it worth while and I have been honest and told them the land isnt worth that much so I have suggested they rent it off me. I've not suggested a figure but they want to use it as carpark space for their camper van and if I can get £40-50 a month for it, its another steady income stream for me!

Wedding planning is coming along nicely, met some photographers (some good, some bad and some def ugly!) Also the stag weekend fund is over £4000 and we are looking to book it next month for next easter.

On the home front, we are avoiding looking as we are bound to find something we like and just cant contemplate selling currently as the market appears very stagnent.

FlowerPower

Happy birthday for tomorrow!!! I turned 30 last month - if it helps, I found that the dread of turning 30 was much, much worse than the reality!!

mintedmatty

Payday and we are approaching our second anniversary of been MFW's, looking at what I where we have come from having reduced the main mortgage by 10k in 2 years and at the same time having overpaid on my own mortgage, various holidays and saved for a wedding its certainly been an interesting journey and will continue to be so! Its interesting to see how much we have overpaid and although it would have been nice to have the £10,000 I estimate we have overpaid on the mortgages I know that it has been used to best effect and will be better for us longterm. Oh I've bought a new car aswell, upgraded to an Audi A3 but its not brand new but i reckon i got a good deal on it!

Actually get married a year today (just realised!) its certainly going to be a busy year preparing everything for that but I am dedicated to continuing the level of overpayments and savings that we are currently doing so. It maybe a bit of a struggle, a day never seems to go by without some economic doom and gloom in the news but I'm confident that people who frequesnt this board will be in much stronger positions when we come out the other side. A message to everyone, keep going it will be worth the effort!

Onwards & Upwards

mintedmatty

Ooops is it really 2 months since my last post? What have we been upto? We went to Tenerife which really his the spot, lovely weather in Los Cristianos and a really nice break. Back to work and the possibility of promotion and continuation of the wedding plans. Mrs MM bought her wedding dress at the weekend ( a bit over a budget but I've said il pay for it, cant exactly say no can I?) and we are almost sorted! I booked my stag do in Vegas!!! and I am now saving pennies for my spending money over there. We have room for one more holiday this year but cant decide between skiing or a week in New York.

I have intensified the payments on the mortgage and hope to tweak may payments up a little in preparation for selling next year. I just think a little bit extra will snowball between now and next summer, Cant believe in a couple of months we will have hit the magic £10,000 saved in interest.

mintedmatty

It was between NYC & Skiing and we agreed on neither! Mrs MM & I thought it was better that we keep a lid on the finances and just go somewhere in blighty so are thinking of a week in cornwall prior to Xmas, always fancied a trip to Jamie Olivers Restaurant 15 at watergate bay so might treat the missus to a slap up meal prior to the festive period! Overpayments a continuing and looking forward to next month when we will hit the big 10k, think we deserve a treat for that too! The wedding fund is steadily increasing, we are both paying £300 in each per month and we have just short of 5k now and we have paid for reception deposit, chair covers and a few other things already.

What surprises me in regards to saving money is that how many people we see on MSE who want a house now but cant afford to save a deposit, when will some people realise it takes commitment. If there is a couple and both in employment both parties saving £5-600 per month over a period of 18 months gets you there or therabouts. It does take this kind of commitment.

Oh well, off my soapbox, look after number #1 I say and we are doing very well, no debts barr the mortgage and steadily increasing equity which will benefit come the day we sell the house.

Onwards & Upwards

mintedmatty

A very very busy run upto Xmas for the Mintedmatty Family! I have only just got round to posting the good news that the interest saved this month has broken £10,000!!!!!!! £10,003 to be exact and we have been MFW's for 28 months! The time has flown by and I'm really pleased we took the decision to overpay.

Slowly and surely we are completing the prep for our wedding next year, just got my suits to sort and the honeymoon which and I quote the missus ' Lets wait and see if the Stone Roses do a world tour next year and we can organise the honeymoon around a gig' It would be class to see the Roses in Rio De Janeiro or someplace!!!!! Rio is high up our list of possibles!!!!