Baby steps to being mortgage free

greent

SmlSave wrote: »

I'm planing a lot of homemade gits this year.

Ooh - homemade gits - how do you make those then? Personally, I'm going with jams, chutnies and soaps.....:rotfl::rotfl:

Baby_steps wrote: »

This is easily affordable, even with saving £350 a month to make up the capital element. The question is now, do I get someone in to rent a room off me?

I have had no experience of letting a room and not sure how I feel about having a stranger in my house. Has anyone had experience of letting a room? How did you find it? Any opinions would be appreciated so I can make a decision on this.

I'm sure Queen Bee has a lodger - perhaps a Mon-Fri one...? This is what my OH is doing up in Newcastle - renting a room in a house for the weekdays. Cost = £340/ mth, all bills inc. He makes his own food, does his own washing etc (well, will do when he's trained on the w/machine!:p)

My friend has always let a room - sometimes students, sometimes a full blown 6 month+ lodger - she rates it highly (lodger = much less work than student, but also less money) PLus, under the rent a room scheme it's non-taxable income up to a certain level, I believe (£4k+, not sure of exact figure off the top of my head)

Baby_steps_2

Yeah the fact that its tax free income is very appealing. If I go for it I will aim to save all the cash I get so that when I am willing to take on the property I can just pay it off in a lump sum and reduce my massive mortgage!! Especially as I keep getting freaked out that in the near future I will have a £160K of debt just in my name:eek::eek:

Like I said until I get into the house on my own working out my personal finances is a bit of a challenge. But if I do manage to get someone in I like the idea of clearing all debt and saving (and i have no idea if this is possible) £12K in the next 18 months. If I could pay this off when I remortgage then that would be a massive achievement for me. Once I have a better idea of my financial position I will work out if this is possible, but at least its a goal to aim for.

Baby_steps_2

Just a quick note for the balances on my survey sites:

VO - £8.50 - nearly there:j:j
One poll - £10.05 not even close:mad:
Toluna - 41,729 getting there slowly:rotfl:

Baby_steps_2

Hi all,

Hope veryone is having a lovely weekend. I had a good MSE night last night spending a grand total of £2.30 on a bottle of diet coke and then having lots of drinks at a friends house instead of going out and spending a fortune.:j:j

All in all I feel my finances are a mess but given my situation thats hardly suprising. I can't wait till the end of the year when everything is finally sorted financially and I can really get going with everything. I just have to keep focused. Paying off my debts and then building up the savings to pay off the mortgage is so important to make myself financially secure and independent and I just need to keep focused.

Hope everyone is the enjoying the weekend. I'm just hoping the weather gets better so I can get some washing dry tomorrow.

pammyj74

keep up your surveys. I seem to be on around £22 on onepoll for ages!!
VO I dont seem to get past are you male or female with those, you have to do them as soon as they come through!

Once you have your cards paid and try and keep using them to a minimum you will get there hun

Baby_steps_2

I've had a lovely day today, been for a browse around some home shops (ikea and the range) to get a few ideas of cheap bits I can do to make the house my own.

Anyone got any ideas for a firebreast wall with no fireplace. Don't want to put a fireplace on it so am looking for some cheap and cheerful ideas. I was thinking possibly a shelf with a mirror hung above it.

Right time for my financial plan, I am going to pay off all remaining credit card debt with the OD again!! I will then pay off the OD over the next couple of months.

To help assist this I am going to do some stoozing as well. I have applied for the barc card 0% on purch for 12 months. They have given me a £5000 limit. So I intend to spend on this and get the few house bits I need and then put what I would have spent into savings up ready to pay it off in August next year and that way I have time to save the additional for the house bits I will have bought (which will be cheap and cheerful bits, I have learnt my lesson with debt!!)

InaPickle

Good stuff, Baby Steps...plotting, planning and stoozing!

Hope your home bits make you happy.

Baby_steps_2

:jI've paid off the joint credit card today!!!!:j:j:j

Just had to say it as so excited. Will be back later to fully update the financial position and change sig, plus have to work out budgets for this month now and ways to cut spending as this month will be tight I think.

One of the plus things about being single, all the financial decisions and sorting can be done by me and me alone. These things are now my responsibility and it feels good to have full control (not that i have any control freak tendancies:D)

SmlSave

Well done on paying off the joint cc baby steps! :T

All control freaks together!!!! (we could set up a little group but then it would never work as we'd all want to be in charge! lol)

Baby_steps_2

Hi all,

was supposed to look at my finances tonight but to be honest I couldn't face it. I think this is because I feel very down in the dumps to be honest:(

Although I'm very glad that the joint CC is paid off saw the ex today and I think it really made me realise we are really over. I guess this has just made me feel a bit rubbish about things. I had so much planned for our future and to jointly sort out our situation and make this a joint journey and now everything haas changed.

Part of me is sure this is the right decision, the other part of me wonders if I'm making the biggest mistake of my life. How do you ever know whats right? Although this was a joint decision and to be honest has been coming for a while due to all sorts of things after 6 years how do you ever know whats right??