Pay off mortgage and start having fun!

newgirly

Hi pearla, its probably a good idea to maybe tell a white lie, but with my family there is no chance of that, everyone knows everything :rotfl:

I went to mr t last night and spent the rest of the months budget (£170) now I have about £4 change and that's it I suppose it was an optimistic target really. I did get a few bargins though, its a massive extra store on my way home from work but is much less busy than my normal branch so that combined with the time I go means I do get a few yellow stickers usually, last nights was a couple of fancy breads and iced fingers for the kids. They also had loads of mixes on special, spag Bol, casserole, chilli etc. down to 15p @ instead of 30p , so I bought about

Think I'll have to raid the £100 put aside for alton towers , it's my best friends birthday Friday and I want to buy her lunch in a really quaint pub I found near the gym.

Now some money related stuff

I 've worked out that I'm paying about £69 pm interest on the loft loan , it was £25k starting last march, then I transferred £9134 to a 0% cc. Now it's about £13k ish.

I have around £14k on 0% cards (2) and was planning to clear the first 5k one by May then the other one by July 2015. Then I was going to op the loan to clear or transfer the bal to a 0% cc then op.

However transferring a loan costs more as it has to be a cash advance not a bal transfer, last time a got a deal which was 4% so dear but still worth while as the loan is at 6.4%

I am now thinking why am I oping the cc's first (I know why it's because it's easier ) should I leave the bal high and put all the cash to the loan instead , I will only have to pay 2 or 3 % to change cc when the deals run out! and the 9k card still has until July 2015.

Its a a big hassle oping the loan as its in dh's name and has to be done over the phone first in working hrs only then a cheque In the post, but now I know its costing so much more for the effort (doh - obvious !) I should just do it.

Oh amd I still haven't sent the paper work off to get half the mortgage switched to repayment, found it in a pile of paperwork last night :wall:

newgirly

I'm quite excited now, I had a look at the op spreadsheet to work out clearing the loan first and if I don't change the mortgage back to part repayment I can clear the loan by oct this year :j then snowballing the payments do the large cc by April 2015 , then do the same again and clear the small cc by July 2015.

It will mean renewing one 0%cc deal in May this year which has a balance of under 5k , so under£150 in fees. I would like to try and work out how much will be saved on the loan as it started in mar2013 for 7 years , so a lot of interest must be saved if its paid off in 20months instead.

Back after work to plot actual figures so I don't lose track of my plans

gallygirl

You see, there was a reason you hadn't returned the paperwork :T.

Pearla*Merle

I love hearing all your plots & plans, such a great lesson in how to make money work & stretch for the best

newgirly

Pearla*Merle wrote: »

I love hearing all your plots & plans, such a great lesson in how to make money work & stretch for the best

Or more accurately , I can't make my mind up and stick to anything :rotfl:

Hi GG, it does pay to be a lazy ars* sometimes

I am finished working until tues woohoo :j gym tomorrow -boo , but afterwards taking my lovely best friend to a pub for her birthday -yay
The house is a tip and we only have odd socks , but I will deal with all that at the weekend. The shopping is slightly done, lots of reduced bread and a bottle of wine, not sure if that counts really.

Hopefully back tomorrow to catch up on everyone's diaries.

newgirly

I've been busy cooking today, leek and potato soup, green bean and red pepper curry, sweet potato and spinach curry and lots of onion bhajis which I can't stop eating :eek: plus even more granola

Dh is work this afternoon, so I has planned to watch some catch up tv from the week and do the ironing, however ds 2 needed a lift, then mum wanted me to take her into town to buy shoes and then the inlaws have invited themselves round they are due any minute, and I know its selfish but I have just finished the cooking and cleaning and wanted a bit of time , oh well maybe tomorrow.

I'm dying to go through the accounts and make a proper plan for clearing the loan and work the figures out properly for the year, I do know that the monthly January budget of £170 is currently running at £230 , it's still probably a lot less than usual but is a massive fail in the forts challenge of the year :cool:

newgirly

Boring financial stuff

Op the loan by £1111 per month from feb until oct this year and it's paid

Op the bigger cc from nov until april 2015 and it's paid

Op the smaller cc may - July 2015 and it's paid

Start oping the mortgage August 2105 and it's cleared in feb 2013.

That's 10years and 2 months from now :eek: and that's with minimal living expenses, no expensive hols , new cars etc

I think the best thing to do is focus on the loan and credit cards as its a much shorter term target. Depending on what life throws at us after that will determine whether we slacken off a bit to spend on the kids a bit more or hold tight to clear it all being tight wads still

Either way I will try to be careful with the everyday stuff we have to buy, any surplus can be used for fun then.

I've put the ironing off all day but can't any longer , so I'd better start or I will still be ironing at midnight, hope everyone is having a good weekend.

ajmoney

newgirly wrote: »

Start oping the mortgage August 2105 and it's cleared in feb 2013.

Have you learned the art of time travel? If so then you finished paying the mortgage off nearly a year ago...before the loan :rotfl:

Peonie

Or that OPing will start in 90+ years.

newgirly

Oops :rotfl: I think Peonie is probably right and oping will start in 90 years at this rate!

Well, I think I should delete the last post - I meant to say feb 2023, however I'm not sure how I work out that is 10yr 2 months from now :eek: I've not even had any vino today

Ok, after a little thought and worry today about having to strict a plan with no leeway if we do decide to waste money on something fun and frivolous , I have made a few tweaks.

Basically oping it all over a few more months and trying to save a little each month as well. It is well know fact however that dh and I have never manged to save more than loose change in a tin our whole married life.:o

So I want to make it accessible in a dire emergency, but a pain in the behind to get to if that makes sense. So I was thinking premium bonds might be a solution, at least until we clear all the debts and start behaving like adults who can have savings in a Proper account without feeling like it needs spending.

I'm thinking £100 pm of we can do it, with another £100 going into the (now sadly empty) isa. After everything has been allocated :

Mortgage interest
Loan
Cc's
Utilities
Pension (small pension that is- to be tackled further down the line)
Ahem, sky
Insurances
Pocket money for kids
Dh's petrol/ chocolate money
Council tax
Mobiles
Gym

All thats left is £715 for everything else, so aim for maybe £650 for all expenses and stick £65 pm in a tin to hopefully build up a bit towards treats.

Holidays I'm not sure about really, a couple of weekends away this year but not sure about next year yet, I will see how we go.

Xmas and birthdays will have to come out of the £700 too which is tricky as we have a LOT of people to buy for, but I am overpaying on the new gas /elec (which pays 3%) so hopefully there might be a couple of hundred or so by the end of the year.

Oops it's turned into an essay again