Macgirl's "Stop Procrastinating and Get on with it" Diary

macgirl

Cheers Purple
I expect to see less of that procrastinating after the 31st, when you'll have a bit more time on your hands!

Lemon_Tree

hi thought i'd pop by and say hi after seeing you on hypno's dairy.
good luck with your travel along the debt free road.

macgirl

Hi Lemon Tree and thanks!

Yes, it is going to be a long road I fear....
I was awake all night after starting the CC vs Mortgage debt debate on hypno's thread, but after a chat with DH, we've decided to hedge our bets and snap their hand off for a 5 year fix.
Now is not the time for gambling on interest rates in the MAC household.

Today, I have won 20p on the scratchies and only have to wait 218 minutes before I can withdraw £25 bingo winnings and then play my free fiver from today! :j

Oooh The Glamour :rolleyes:

macgirl

Just got off the phone to the mortgage company.
Have reserved funds for a 5 yr fix when our current deal ends.
Have knocked 3 years off the term which increases payments by £180 per month.

I know it's not a popular method, as I have all this other debt, but this cash comes out of our household budget, so it's money that would usually be spent on nursery fees.
We've decided to divert this cash straight off the mortgage. Then, now we're both contributing to food shopping, I'm trying to eek every last spare penny out of that and any leftovers will be thrown at my debt.

Don't know if that makes any sense, but I feel positive that I'm started to be pro-active.

hypno06

It makes perfect sense to me :T

macgirl

Thanks hypno
Sorry for hi-jacking last night - but at least it steered chat away from Bingo for a nanosecond!

hypno06

hijack away - it was useful for me to think about too. I am very much at the stage where I want to put more emphasis on paying off the mortgage, and just let the rest bumble along a bit!

macgirl

My friend is about the same age as me/us and she has already paid off one house and is 3 years away from paying off the second. :eek:
Her OH is obsessed by it and they cut years off their mortgage every time they switch deal and overpay where they can. They are very focussed but still live, go on hols etc. They are by no means loaded - just ultra focussed.

They will have paid it off before they're 40 - but that doesn't stop her drooling over £500k lovelies! That's my girl :rotfl:

I guess it's all to easy too take out a mortgage over 25 years and stick with that. I've heard so many people say that don't want to move as the mortgage is only £200 a month - and they both work! Why would you not try to pay that off?

However, I'm all too aware that my personal debt prob will NOT go away, so I do need to focus hard on that now..... (God don't I go on?!:rotfl:)

miemie

Hi Macgirl, loving the diary already, goodluck with getting debt free and keep us posted.

Lemon_Tree

your decision makes perfect sense to me as well, you have to do what's right for you in your life and with what you know now. I decided last time to fix for 5 years instead of the usual 2 i had been fixing for. In hindsight if i'd fixed for 2 i would be looking for deals march next year and probably get a lower one but the best thing for us was to fixed for a longer period, at the end of which i will be debt free and more options will be open for us.
My first mortgage was 100% over 34years which was basically the most i could do that i could afford, the next time i fixed it i reduced it by 7 years and kept the payments the same. I did that at a time when lots of people were keeping the length the same but reducing their payments and they thought i was nuts, but i just saw how much interest i would save in the end.