I'm going to do a diary too :)

gerbiljo

I don't post on here much but I have been really aspired by some of the diaries on here so I have decided to start one also.

I am currently on the MFiT and am number 115. All is going well.

I'm not sure now how I come to be on this website now as I have browsed it for a while and can't remember how it started. My nan became mortgage free at 40 and my dad at 42 so I feel inspired to beat them as it were!

I have always been a spender until recent years and I've almost tricked myself now into getting as much of a kick in saving money as spending it.

Bit of back ground...

I am 31 and live with my husband of 2 years who is 26. I bought my house in 2003 for 190k but had a healthy deposit from my parents of 60k which I pay back at £500 a month interest free, leaving me with an initial mortgage of £135k. Back then I was single and struggled to make payments on my own on my 5 years fixed rate which i think was 4.5%. I had a car loan and loan also. My parents are superb and were happy for me to skip payments when I got stuck.

I met my husband in 2004 and having 2 salaries eased the financial burden significantly and we enjoyed a few holidays, another loan for a new kitchen, couple of new cars and then a rather expensive wedding at which point saving hadn't especially occurred to me. Also in our house we have 2 dogs, 7 cats, 4 gerbils, 2 ducks and 5 chickens so lots of mouths to feed.

We both work full time on just over 70k a year joint income and I especially worked long hours sometimes over 90 a week and I started to find my job difficult. It was during this time that I started to think about reducing our outgoings so that we could have a better quality live together not just at work. As I found my work more difficult the company I work for became more and more hostile to me. We decided to try for a baby. We had our little girl in November 2008, managing only on my husbands salary and SMP was tough but our mortgage came up for renewel and we decided to take a chance and go on a tracker mortgage at 0.94 above BR, of course at this point things became easier.

Since january last year we started overpaying the extra we saved on our mortgage payments despite me being on maternity leave and it has grown from there. We started cutting back our expenditure and was surprised by how little we could spend, everything extra went on the mortgage. When the time came for me to return to work I had to go back full time or quit. At this point I was determined to overpay the mortgage and not be pushed from my job so I decided to go back so now we are dedicating nearly all of my salary towards clearing our debts so that then we can quit our jobs and go for an alternative quality lifestyle as a family. My wonderful parents are having our daughter full time to help us out also.

I hope to clear the mortgage, tesco loan and parental loan mid 2013 in that order at which point we need to get an extension on our house (already have pp so just need to get foundations done so that it is started) and hopefully have baby number 2 (if I haven't left it too late!). From then on the world is our oyster, thats the plan so it will be just after my husbands 30th birthday and my aim is to be a stay at home mum next time or work part time so I am not missing out on so much as I am now.

My current mortgage balance is £101620, my tesco loan is £21212 and my loan from my parents is £26000. After long thought I have decided to clear the mortgage first and the tesco loan second as I feel the current interest rate is giving us a great opportunity and of course when the rate goes up our plans are likely to shoved back a little.

I've really gone on so I will post other thoughts as I go on, I am excited though as come march we will break the 100k mortgage barrier Yay :j

dimbo61

Cant help thinking that you must be paying a higher rate of interest on the loan than the mortgage !
If you could clear the loan first you would have more spare money to overpay the mortgage and less coming out each month if the baby No 2 happens
Good Luck

gerbiljo

yeah the loan rate is higher but I dont seem to save much by paying it up sooner and you have to pay it up in one rather than in dribs and drabs. Plus i feel if the interest rate goes up the mortgage is a larger sum to pay on. If I should pay off the mortgage as planned I can then pay up the loan within a couple of months with the extra I have. Your right, but as the mortgage is variable I never know the the cost of paying off my mortgage to compare with the fixed sum of the loan. I do curse getting that loan now especially as I'm already bored of the cupboard doors!! The mortgage overpaying is just too addictive to stop now thats the truth!

clearmydebts

Hiya!

I will definitely be following your diary as we have quite similar aims. I have just one loan to pay off this year & then I will be tacking my mortgage. I am just about to have baby number 1 (38 weeks pregnant) but will just be going back on a 3 day basis rather than full-time. MY work contract also ends in Jan 2011 so don't know what will happen then.

Our main aim is to overpay the mortgage as much as we can as we would like to move to northern Spain in a few years. We want to build over there so would like to have as big a deposit as possible. I will be starting a MFW diary on here as soon as my loan is paid off.

I'd say you can't wait to get under 100k. My mortgage is £114K and I can't wait to start at it and get it under 100k as well.

SmlSave

Just popping on to say hello

Look forward to reading your diary

hilly123

Hi
Our amount of debt is pretty much the same so looking forward to hearing inspiring words from you:) and hopefully will be able to pay of more of our mortage than I plan to

THRIFTY_GIRL

Hi and welcome to the thread!! looking forward to reading about your progress.

Do you have any rainy day/ISA savings? If not, I would recommend puttingoverpayments in there. That way, you have a reserve building up...pay off the loan when there is enough in there, or use it to pay off some mortgage if interest rates rise. Net it off against the mortgage balance if that helps psychologically.

wantabetterlife

Congratulations gerbiljo on starting your diary:j, you have made great progress already and seem so determind. Goodluck with your plans and i look forward to your updates
WABL

gerbiljo

Thank you ALL for your comments and luck
I will be making more effort to follow more diaries and good luck to all the others attempting the same
clearmydebts, congratulations, I am very broody at the moment which is not really like me as I am an animal person but I guess I will blame it on the hormones and hope that I can sort myself out for the future!

Thrifty girl, I did have an ISA but we paid the money off the mortgage as it was frustrating me...burning a hole I guess! We will need to save up for some foundations at some point so I can consider that money savings. I am just finding it hard that by paying off the amount I am I am knocking about 10p a day off the interest and it is all very addictive, plus I guess (hangs my head in shame) if I ever truly need money I can call upon my very nice parents who have the money I am repaying just sitting there. I will give it some thought though

Well I seem to be a bit better off this month than expected. I am due some quidco money and so I may have to contact them if I do not get it soon as its been over 3 months. All my direct debits except for one are out this month which is great, we have to build a chicken run this weekend though and need a few bits for that, though we have most of it, anything extra I might stick in the mortgage account but pay less later on as we do want to get a greenhouse this summer. I will let the chickens off tho as they have provided 3 eggs today. We now have a scheduled once a week dinner of eggs so we feel like its a free dinner! though of course its not especially seeing as we need to build a run!

I will do an outgoings list when I get a chance, I am very tight with certain things and a bit the other way with some other things. My husband treated me to a dvd £2.99 including delivery 'the burbs' which is one of my fave films and very silly humour so I am hoping I can relax and watch it tonight as it is turning into a long day!!

mintedmatty

good luck! hope it goes well!!!!!!

gerbiljo

I find myself returning here for inspiration today after an awful week and so glad today is friday.
I contacted quidco about some cashback which they said could take another 3 months so I dont feel any more overpayments now til a bit nearer the end of the month when I am sure that the money over is not required.

monthly outgoings
mortgage £458
loan £259
parents £500
council £123
daughters account £10
gas £35
tv licence £12
Water £24
elect £64
B gas £2
Water £13
BT £14
internet £18
total= £1532

We have a £200 a month food budget and that pretty much covers everything, this has been our major budgeting change dinner planning and control in the supermarket has allowed us to spend much less.

My main areas of consideration are whether to do a gas/elect swap to get some cashback but i always get really confused about where to start. My other ongoing consideration is whether to sort out a combined internet/ phone account but I have been reluctant up til now as I hate an internet disturbances and I dont want to risk having problems.

I am the main motivator for the challenge and my husband is keen but i have to keep showing him figures so he keeps dedicated. From his salary a month he gives me £1650 to cover most of the outgoings allowing my salary and the child benefit to go on the mortgage overpayments. What he is left with he manages for the month, though there not much over!

Will update again when i win the lottery tonight:rotfl: