Pay off mortgage and start having fun!

newgirly

I had a nice evening and said goodbye to my friend who is flying back to thailand monday with son and dh. Shes lived there since she was about 20 and I have never been to visit, when the mortgage is paid off I will definatly have to go.

The kids are going back to school in a week and a half, so i am trying to think of what I need to to to improve things by the end of the year for this last 4 months. Xmas is two thirds sorted present wise, but we still have the bathroom to finish (starting monday!)

I will have more time once the boys start senior school, I am not sure the situation with working for dh, he has a member of staff leaving in a year or so, I could potentially do the job ,but it means driving into london everyday and doing a lot more hours, which I am not sure about. selfishly the best situation for me is to continue to do work at home for him and keep the hours lower, I suppose it depends on the finances at the time. But I would prefer to be close to the school and at home more, its just that guilty feeling of not earning a lot whilst dh is working long hours.
However if I did more hours he would definatly not cut his at all, I don't know.

If I do continue as I am, I would like to make better use of my time, by learning to sew properly and trying to do a bit more decorating.

I am going to take a look at the accounts and then pop back later with a list of targets.

cha97michelle

Is it wrong that I am sat here chuckling about your app food order? I had to cram mine into every nook and cranny I could find, and I had bought a box of the straw wafers for ice creams, and that is the only thing that I couldn't cram anywhere and the only thing he noticed. :rotfl:

Other than that, and the 2 big cardboard boxes, I might have got away with him not noticing.

I hope you find the stuff ok now. Just blame me. This MSE lady made me do it. :rotfl:

newgirly

I managed to squeeze it all in Michelle, dh too tired to notice to be honest!
DS1 is actually made up of 99% baked beans, and we had a baked bean test this morning, and they passed, thank goodness. Now we only have 29 tins to go

I have done lots of number crunching this morning, working on the premise that we will not move, and possibly not get the loft done. Its kind of a third option. To stay here and save up a lump sum at the same time , so when we are paid off we have a deposit for somewhere else, like a holiday flat somewhere.

The thing that has tempted me is the chelsea 3.99% for 10 year deal, I can't change until feb (3months early as I'm a customer already), and that is the timescale I have left on the mortgage.
That would mean a commitment to not moving or extending the mortgage for the loft though, as they will not lend us what we owe now £149K ish, they will only go up to £70K ish if we wanted to move.

The loft is more flexible as we are IO , and could temporarily stop oping and save to pay for it.

I was having a long chat with a friend who is an estate agent, and, when I said I would love to move further out for a bigger house, she said you are mad, the area is so much worse than where you are,and further away from school, the quality of life would be so different, for the sake of a bigger garden really as house size would be similar. We would probably be in a semi instead of a terrace.

Its only one opinion, but she is right. I think I just get greedy somtimes

Anyway, enough waffling the figures for the third option are:

Remortage may 2012: £149,274

mortage over 11 years and then op all yearly extras £1067
(made up of extra weeks of wages and 2x council tax months)
make £15 PM op as well.

Total monthly payments £1398.98 +£15 = end date april 2022

Also save £810 by end of 2011

save £231 PM for 10 years

save £4842 from jan - june 2012 before the re mortgage

So.. we could clear the mortagage in 10 years from may 2012, which matches our origion reduced end date we set in may 2010, previous end date was 2033.

Plus based on martins savings calculator, (3% interest on savings with no tax to pay) we could have saved £39,887 in 10 yrs.

This allows me £250 for groceries /clothes /petrol /sundries etc.PM plus £200 wages from dh, which possibly some of could also be saved. Another £100 PM saved would make a total of £53,886 in 10years.

I would also have another 3X extra wage weeks a year, which covers car ins/house ins/xmas and £500 for holidays.

Its a much more rigid plan though, but I suppose i could still follow it but not tie into the 10 year rate.

Sorry for the long post btw!

newgirly

Right, after even more fiddling around.

Take out 10 year mortgage in may2012.

op a bit and finish 9 months early July 2021 The exact month my twins ( our youngest ) hit 21.

In the mean time save £120 per month and a lump sum before the remortgage.

possible savings in 9 yrs 3 mths £22,767.

Have a fab family hol in vegas to celebrate the boys' birthday.:rotfl:

Ok, enough, I'm off to do some ironing.

newgirly

Bathroom work has started today, dh is doing it alone, and he is going back to work next monday :eek: So far he has ripped off most of the tiles, but we have to go to the big diy store soon to get special plaster board , lights and tons of other no doubt expensive stuff.

Its going to be a tough week I think as he is quite tired already.

My budget for all the bathroom bits is around £270 which is probably nowhere near enough, time will tell.

I went a did a top up shop at mr ald* yesterday which is a 5 min drive away, and got lots of stuff for £35, large icebergs for 39p large cucumbers 39p, they really have some fab stuff, I need to try and get there weekly as it really is worth the effort.

I think i am going to open up a new savings account, and start saving a bit, I know there used to be an account that had lots of different "pots" to save for different things , does anyone know if they still exist as i would like to save for the future , but also save for shorter term things like birthdays and xmas.

cha97michelle

I just use Ing accounts for that. You can open up to 10 and name each one whatever you want. Works for me, but you have to be organised enough to move money about as it takes a few days to get cash in your current account again.

Bathroom will be good when it is done, but your poor DH will be shattered no doubt.

newgirly

Oh, thanks Michelle I shall take a look later on this evening. I think I am a bit obsessed with having lots of accounts and checking them all the time (although they are mostly empty!)

DH is as expected extremely stressed out, and is in a foul mood, I am trying to do my best to suggest things he needs to do but has not thought of with out making things worse. I get it from both sides woth my dad asking" he is doing this isn't he its essential", and dh not wanting to be told what to do.

I took myself and dd to mums for a bath tonight, our bath is still there but is gross with spiders webs where the side has come off and bare mouldy walls, yuk.

My fab good news for today is my parents cat has returned, after a week and a half of phone calls to vets etc, flyers through doors, posters etc. he came in through the window in the early hours of this morning. Very de-hydrated and hungry, he is still very scared and seems to have a problem wiht his tale, but is eating, 5 sachets since last night! I think he will go and get checked out once he has calmed down a bit. I am a bit attatched to him too as he was one of our cats kittens.

Anyway I am off to sort out the kids , hope everyone has had a good bank holiday.

newgirly

The bathroom is stripped now, and the bath removed, dh wants to get the toilet out today which will be challenging with 5 of us here, hopefully the new one will go in fairly quickly as we will be driving backwards and forwards to my mums all day.:o

Today I was hoping to do some ironing, and clear some of the paperwork which is all over the conservatory along with lots of junk.The whole house is a state at the moment. I also need to sew on school badges and name everything for the boys. At this rate it might have to be iron ons or permanant marker though, what a bad mum.:(

I also want to work out my mini challenges on michelles run up to xmas challenge, I'm thinking the three big things are probably , weight, finances, and being super organised for xmas. But I will put together a plan later.

cha97michelle

I was lucky the kids at least were young enough for the potty when we had no loo. I otherwise made carefully times trips to visit friends and family, and even popped in Mr T and the Drs just to use the loo. :rotfl:

CathT

Hope the loo isn't out for too long. We will lose our downstairs loo with my renovation plans and I think I won't miss it but I bet I will!