£161,044.25 reasons to be mortgage free

ajmoney

Welcome, these guys are a great bunch. I am here to reduce my mortgage to be able to put a bigger deposit on a new house but reading other people's diaries has made me reduce my mortgage by more. It gets addictive so I look forward to watching your progress.

wantabetterlife

Thank you everyone for posting and for your words of encouragement:j. Weezl our mortgage is with halifax, £144,000 of this was fixed at 6.14 until 2 months ago when we signed up for a new 3 year deal with halifax fixed at 4.99. £17,000 is on a lifetime tracker at 1.5% above BOE. I really didnt know whether to go onto SVR in october or get a new deal. At this time halifax valued our house at £180000, giving us a LTV ratio of 90%. In reality we would be lucky to get £140,000. When i checked the halifax on line last week they are saying that we have no equity in the house now:eek::eek: so i have to say i am glad i took the three year fix at 4.99 because they certainly wouldnt be giving it to me now . I am a bit lacking in a plan for the MFW journey and am not great at spreadsheets. I kept a spending diary before and it was the best eye opener ever- we were spending £100-£150 per month on takeways. I know, I know- its absolutely terrible for the purse and the waistline! One of the best tips i have read on here is to make the op as soon as you get paid every month because if you wait to the end, there will enevitably be a lot less in the bank. Since joining MSE in january this year the main focus for me was paying off a small loan, clearing an overdraft and getting the famous "emergency fund" in place, all done whilst on maternity leave, so anything is possible. I am determind that 2010 is going to be the year for turning things around, and i love coming onto this board and reading everyones diaries. If any of my "real life" friends knew about my MFW plans i think they would be horrified and think i was tight, boring, miserable ....etc, and i really dont want to be seen as that kind of person, hence only me and oh now about this, and you guys of course

Thanks again for all your support

Little_Mama

wantabetterlife wrote: »

If any of my "real life" friends knew about my MFW plans i think they would be horrified and think i was tight, boring, miserable ....etc, and i really dont want to be seen as that kind of person, hence only me and oh now about this, and you guys of course

Know exactly what you mean, even friends who have paid theirs off early say "Don't tell anyone". Nothing to be ashamed of but your secret's safe here!

LM

wantabetterlife

I have decided that as part of this diary i am going to list all the ways in which i plan to maximise my overpayments throughout the year....so no.1....In true MSE style i have been making the most of the sales and have started making headway on next years birthday/xmas gifts :j. We have a fairly large extended family and it just seems to be a constant stream of kids parties, weddings, babies ....etc. I done a lot of this years xmas shopping online with boots as they had some really good offers on extra points, with the result that i earned £64 in points , so todays presents didnt actually cost me anything. The idea is that whenever i use any of these presents during the year that i will put £10 in the mortgage pig. This is the first time i have tried this, as i am usually very disorganised and end up putting money in a card, or spending more than i had planned. Lets hope it makes a difference, as you folk always say, every little helps!!!

setmefree2

and Good luck

weezl74

wantabetterlife wrote: »

Thank you everyone for posting and for your words of encouragement:j. Weezl our mortgage is with halifax, £144,000 of this was fixed at 6.14 until 2 months ago when we signed up for a new 3 year deal with halifax fixed at 4.99. £17,000 is on a lifetime tracker at 1.5% above BOE. I really didnt know whether to go onto SVR in october or get a new deal. At this time halifax valued our house at £180000, giving us a LTV ratio of 90%. In reality we would be lucky to get £140,000. When i checked the halifax on line last week they are saying that we have no equity in the house now:eek::eek: so i have to say i am glad i took the three year fix at 4.99 because they certainly wouldnt be giving it to me now .

I'm so pleased you got your fixed deal just in the nick of time .

I guess a useful goal might be to try and get your equity up to 10-15% before the fix expires, but I don't know enough about your circumstances to know if that's realistic for you and your family.

It depends how you feel about posting your private information, but maybe a SOA would help people to comment on what's realistic?

All the very best of best luck with your challenge,

Weezl x

wantabetterlife

Hello everyone, just uupdate signature and cant wait until next month when the the mortgage will go sub £160k. Psychologically i think it will give us a bit of a boost. Trying to get oh on board as much as possible and even let him read the start of this diary. Have joined the grocery challenge for january and am aiming for $250n to include all groceries, toletries and milkman. Hopefully this is realistic for 2 adults and 2 children. Weezl i think i will take your advice and pust an SOA tomorrow, the thing is i know there are quite a few areas we could cut down on but i still want to have a bit of a life, i suppose its finding the balance. Unfortunately oh is a bit of a golf fanatic and this happens to be quite an expensive sport :mad: . Happy new year everyone

wantabetterlife

OK, here is our SOA, lets see what you think


Income £3283

Expenses
mortgage £960
childcare £325
sky £47.50
phone and BB £25
Sofa 0% £37
Life Ins and CI £51
Rates £66
Electric £50
Diesel £120
School exp £25
Annual Bills £250
Car £40
Social £250
Take aways £50
Hair £30
Presents £70
Emergency £100
Nappies £20
Formula £30
Groceries £250
Milkman £14
Alcohol £50
Clothes £70
Charity £8
TV license £12
Mobiles (2) £30


Total £2980.50

Mortgage o/p £302.50

I think i have included all possible expenses. We have our emergency fund in place. The annual bills include car insurances (2), tax and MOT, Golf membership for oh and building and contents insurance. I know we could make more cut back but i am trying to start the process gently so i dont get put off. So guys what do you think................

Rob71

Aside from cutting down on the insurances when they come round for renewal (which I'm sure you do anyway), the only obvious things I can see are:

• Can you combine you Sky+Phone+BB for a better deal?
• Milkman? Maybe buy at the supermarket with your groceries?
• Is you heating all leccy? Do you not use Oil/Gas?
• How long to pay on the sofa?

Wishing you all the best on your MFW journey! :j

wantabetterlife

Thanks for your suggestions rob, much appreciated

Sky- i have tried getting broadband through sky but because of where we live, unfortunately no can do
Milkman- yeah it would be slightly cheaper to get all the milk from the supermarket, but we know the milkman personally and i really dont want to cancel the order as it is only £3.50 per week (silly I Know!!!)
Oil Oops, forgot about this, estimate £50 per month
Sofa I think we have about 9 payments left on this, which will almost offset the oil that i forgot to include

Have joined the grocery challenge for the first time this month and am hoping to make a few savings in that department... tesco value here we come..............