Baby steps to being mortgage free

Baby_steps_2

Well I've got that familiar feeling again of spending each month waiting for payday so I can make the next lot of transfers and payments!

I have been pretty good this month & managed to get the amount I needed to transfer to savings. Although i think the CC spend total is going to come in slightly higher than I wanted it to as I have been buying a few bits and pieces for the house and Netball subs were due as it was the start of the season. However the main concern at the moment is getting the savings up. The CC I can manage down as and when I need to.

There are also two other bits of good news which will help. The first is I have made my final payment for laser eye surgery I had last year, so no more monthly payments towards that:T:T (and yes it was worth every penny!) I also looked at the CC statement the other day and realised that the first 0% period doesn't end until Jan (Ii thought it was November) so that’s a bonus as well.

So its pretty much just roll on payday now
:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

InaPickle

Looking good (no pun intended)!

Baby_steps_2

Well payday has been & gone. For some reason I appear to have updated my sig mid month so not much to change there. From now on I’m going to update the signature only after pay day each month (I do get paid early on the 20th) but at least then i know i will be reporting accurate end of month figures.:p
So in summary, last month I had a reasonable month. I saved the targeted £1000 but my CC spend was slightly higher than I wanted. This was mainly due to finishing decorating the hallway and buying some picture frames and a mirror. But overall I was pleased as the food budget and general weekly spend came in under what i wanted them to.
This month had started well, with a quidco payout of £17.93 from a trip to Paris I took in June. I also got a £15 from Santander that related to a complaint I had made over them stopping a payment I had made. I also got a £10 payout from valued rewards, so I have a boots voucher which i can use for either Christmas presents or to get supplies when something runs out!:T:T:T
However, I have been a little bad on the shopping front. I bought a new winter coat, I did need one for the winter and was a TK Maxx bargain and reduced from £200 to £70. However whilst I was there I may also have treated myself to a watch (my birthday has just gone & it was a bit of a birthday present to myself....................I know excuses excuses:mad:) I have been looking to buy a decent watch & again this was a bargain of £180 reduced to £80. I also bought a handbag for my Mum for xmas which was reduced from £225 to £80. My Dad is giving me the money for this as it will be a gift from him. I also bought a couple of other things i needed in the same shopping trip. I have rounded up the quidco money & Santander money & transferred an extra £100 to savings this month to cover some of it. Once dada has given me his money I will round this up to £100 and transfer this as well. I have also been working overtime the last few days so will transfer any extra pay this month straight into savings.
I am hoping to save another £1000 this month (£1200 with the extra above) and only spend around £600 on the CC so saving £600 in total. This may be a little ambitious but I will just have to see how it goes. I am banning myself from any further shopping this month unless it is xmas shopping.
I have started the Christmas shopping already to spread the cost across a few months, so far i have bought two molton brown soap sets as voucher cloud were doing an offer of £10 off if you spent over £25 pounds. So at least that’s 2 down!!:cool::cool:
Hope everyone else is well, I’m looking forward to the end of the month so i can update my signature!!

Baby_steps_2

Hi guys,

Well not much has been happening recently. I have somehow managed to fall off the saving wagon, despite having a clear goal:mad::mad:

I have now managed to save £15,000 the only problem is I have managed to build up £6250 on the cc. So overall the net position is better but the debt is higher than I would have liked.

Despite this, the mortgage company has said yes to my application:T:T I have appointed the conveyancer today & Bovis have be written to. So fingers crossed everything will go ahead. I am hoping to have the mortgage transferred to my own name the beginning of next year!!

I only need £13,000 for the house (the cc is 0% until jan & £2300 of it until nov 2013) will be worrying about paying it off after that.

So all in all everything is full steam ahead! I'm getting excited now, if everything goes through I can really work on paying off the mortgage on my own & finally owning 100% of my own property in 5 year with a half decent deposit to boot! (For those that don't know I have used Bovis's jump start shared equity scheme). I would really like to be a shared equity success story!!:rotfl::p

Baby_steps_2

Hi guys,

Well guess who is back with a vengeance!! So I finally bought the ex out of the house and its now all mine :beer::beer:

It all finally went through in June this year which is great and at least it means that I now own the house out right and its up to me to get the mortgage down.

So the mortgage I had when I took it on was £148k. I've started making overpayments of £175 a month so I can try to get it down. Any extra income will go against the mortgage, this isn't likely to be much as I don't really have the time. But I get the occasional bit of cash back & overtime so when I do from now on it also goes against the budget.

I had worked really hard to save the money needed to buy the house & to cover all the costs & things. I now feel the saving have been totally obliterated so I need to build up a new savings pot & safety net:mad:

I'm aiming to get £5k together, and currently have £1k so I'll be working towards that alongside making the overpayments. I have £1100 on a credit card (that's interest free until 1st November) so I also need to get that money ready to pay off I have £700 so far ready to go in an instant access account.

So it's all go here, so the summary of the current situation is;

Mortgage today - £147,768
Credit card - £1.103
Savings -
Isa - £1000
General (for cc) -£700

So that means the key focus until December is keeping to budgets, with at least two more trips away planned but still to pay for its going to be a challenge but I feel motivated & ready to try & get the mortgage down.:p:p

I need to set a target mortgage balance to aim for. I guess the next big step is £140k I just need to work out a realistic timeframe to achieve this in.

When I look at how I have got the balance down by £15K on my own (pretty much!) in the last five years I think I'm doing ok. Although I know there is more to be done & it would be great to be able to say I've paid off £20k, so hopefully that will be soon:T:T

Time to catch up on some diaries and get myself some motivation to stay on track.

Baby_steps_2

So where am I now then.............
Well for the first time ever I have no money on CC (even if it is 0%), I have money in savings (admittedly not much!) & I am actively over paying my mortgage. So all round it really is progress in the right direction.:beer::beer:
So I currently have
- £1250 in an ISA
- £400 in general savings – this is mostly for Christmas, home improvements & holidays. I pay in £250) per month and spend as needed. I do like a good holiday!
I have been overpaying my mortgage using income from renting my spare room. I overpay by £175 per month currently and have been for the last 6 months. Although this was £150 for the first couple of months.
Since the 25 July I have reduced the mortgage from £148,354 to £146,644 so £1710 pounds. Of this £825 have been overpayments so this shows the impact my overpayments are having on my mortgage. I think this is probably because my current mortgage term is 31 years,:eek: so the capital element of the payment is till minimal at the moment.
As I’m finally the right way round I thought it was about time i started to focus on some of my savings and mortgage goals.
- Increase ISA emergency fund to £2.5K by the end of April 2014. I know this isn’t a lot but as I’m overpaying the mortgage (my biggest expense) if required I am hoping they would let me take a payment holiday.
- Reduce my mortgage to below £145,000 by April 2014. This will be a challenge but I am due a refund due to an energy switch & when we get the council tax free months i’ll over pay that. I will also overpay any extra I make between now and then.

Its important to me to get the mortgage down as I did the Bovis jumpstart scheme & the house has decreased in value. Although I am not in negative equity as I ahve reduced the mortgage down enough to be out of this situation. So I need to build back up a buffer and get the LTV down for when I take on sole ownership which I am hoping to do in the next 5 years.
I also have concerns that if I don’t get the mortgage down enough then I won’t be able to get a mortgage to cover 100% of what I need to:eek::eek:. I bought the house with an ex partner so the situation has changed considerably since that time and I now need to raise the cash myself!

I also want to use this opportunity to stop and look at the positives. Since we purchased the house I have reduced the mortgage by £20K. I know in reality due to the current valuation in reality I will never see the vast majority of that. But still £20K in 5 years I would say is pretty good going.:p
My student loan payments also finish next September:T:T (I can not wait!!), so that will leave me with a considerable chunk extra each month. I know I need to save for a new car, but still I should defiantly be able to over pay this.
If I consider where I was 7 years ago, up to my neck in student debt, using credit to buy everything I have come a long way and have a lot to thank this site for. I know I don’t do nearly as much or work as hard as others but still at least everything is moving in the right direction. Plus if I can do it anyone can!!

Baby_steps_2

Hello,


Well I am back with lots of good news.

- First up I achieved my target of getting below £145K by the end of March. The total owed as at the 31 March was £144, 685. I am still waiting to find out where I finish this month but hopefully the downward trend will continue!:beer::j:j
- I also ended up with £2,210 in a cash ISA as well as a further £2K in my current accounts.
- So overall my net position is about £140K in debt, so overall an improvement.
- A house opposite sold for 2.5K more than I paid for mine, So I am no longer in negative equity which means I have about £20-25K of equity in the house because of all the overpayments I have made!! Given I started with none 6 years ago I don’t think I have done badly to get myself to this position. Also although not many like mine are going on the market, the houses that are being listed are selling quickly which is postivie.

So overall 2013/14 was a good year for me I have managed to achieve my target mortgage reduction as well as building up some additional savings.

This year I have also transferred my bank account to Nationwide to get credit interest on my balance, this was an easy enough switch & one I would consider again in the future to continue getting optimal interest. If only my latest energy switch had been as easy, I transferred to First Utility in November (& over-payed the cash back payment!) & they are still not my gas suppliers. It has been an absolute fiasco & caused me no end of a headache. There customer service is also rubbish!! I am hoping that before the Christmas they may actually have resolved it!! They have also been charging me for the privilege of not supplying my gas and are currently not responding to my request for a refund (it probably messes with there joint energy price discount or something, but as this isn’t my error I am expecting the tariff to be honoured). I also got a new boyfriend who is moving in with me now, so that will help during 2014/15.:p:p



So the goals for 2014/15 are:

- To find a balance between saving & spending. I want to enjoy this year but also make sure I am preparing for the future. The good news is the new OH is on board with saving for things & not overstretching ourselves. (I say this but in the next 3 years we want to get married. Move & think about starting a family. Not exactly cheap ;-0 ) :rotfl::rotfl:
- Reduce the mortgage balance to below £140K, I am hoping that with the over-payments & savings this will be possible. I know its only £5K but every little helps at the moment and to be in the £130ks will be another hurdle jumped.
- Save an additional £10K, this is towards the costs that will be incurred in the next couple of years.
- Additionally my SL repayment & OH car repayment stop this year meaning an extra £375 for the pot!

A big thing for me is balance, there is a lot I want to do both to the house its self to sort out a few bits and pieces that need modifying & updating. As well as putting funds in place so we can do the things we want to do in the future. Its really nice to be with someone who shares the same beliefs and values, that things we want are worth saving for and not getting into debt for. So bring on 2015 & no doubt I’ll be back here with periodic updates.;)

giblet1979

Amazing journey! x