One day i'll make it!!!

needtopaymydebts

Thanks Katzen
If there's one thing I've learned is really to live within what you can afford. I allowed us to get caught up in the trap of keeping up with the gadgets etc that OH wanted as his friends had them etc and the amount of money we must have wasted doesn't bear thinking about! Honestly I would just say save until you have the money to buy what you need and make do with second hand or without until you get there as once you get something on credit you always want something else before the 1st thing is paid and once the novelty has worn off it's so painful watching the money still leaving the account each month.

Anyway...it's OH who has scored for a payrise so he will be paying more than his way from next payday and NRAM have finally been in touch and for the first time since our Wedding Day we now owe less for our house than we paid for it! woohoo... We're still in negative equity but this is a huge step forward for us and we're now well on the way to increasing payments etc. My student loan will be paid off in October and OH has also been extremely lucky to secure a car allowance which means a significant chunk off our outgoings each month.

So about to remember how to update my signature :-)

needtopaymydebts

Right i've just updated the sig and to compare what we owe now to what we owed in August 2008 is frightening. To think that we actually had advice from a financial 'advisor'!!!! and ended up with a mortgage of that amount plus car finance and credit cards and whilst pregnant and then to cut my hours at work is just unthinkable.

I pretty much know thay my aim of paying the mortgage isn't to clear it completely but to get us to the point where we can safely move home and still provide fun stuff for the kids without the stress of the money problems we've had before. Children are more expensive than I ever imagined although while I do envy friends with perfect wardrobes and homes etc I don't know what i'd do without them.

we've enjoyed a bit of a treat month this month so back on with it next month again. I'm hoping to pay a chunk off one of the credit cards so that we can simply owe the mortgage and that will be it. It mightn't be the best way to do things as credit cards are 0% but I think i'd like the peace of mind that they're gone. I imagine that will be a very nice feeling.

Goal til Christmas... I have no idea if this is realistic or not but we can only aim for it. (mmm £1000 a month may be pushing it a little!!!)
Pay M&S credit card, Pay Barclaycard...(about £2500 in total)
Get total of mortgage & loans below £100,000
Clear Secured Loan

needtopaymydebts

Total mortgage owed as at 31/07/2013 is £104,355.96 and now the real work starts.
All credit cards are now paid and my student loan has also been repaid direct from my wages... I never thought I would see the day! :-) and we have booked and paid for in full, a family holiday to Ibiza in May 2014, such an amazing feeling to know we have paid for it all.

I have £500 set aside already for Christmas, money set aside for car insurance and yet the more we pay the more I want to pay and still seem worried about it all. Maybe it's some kind of nerves as to what i'll do when we are actually in a position to put our home up for sale!

next on the list was Secured Loan which stands at £6861.15 How quickly can I pay this off... I have my fingers crossed that OH gets a bonus or some kind of payrise soon as I am potentially facing redundancy in 2014 but just carrying on as normal until I hear anything definate. x

needtopaymydebts

thought i'd have a look at this thread again...although don't spend much time on the forums these days. Today was a big one as I rang NRAM to request a settlement amount for the loan Secured on the mortgage. Last post it stood at £6861, it's now at £3800 but i have enough to make an overpayment of £6500 to the overall total. Due to make this on 15th August so should have new figures after that or if not then new totals will come through in October time with the statement. Last big step was owing less than we paid... we're now onto FINALLY owing less than the house is worth!!!

will update signature once i've made the payment on 15th