Pay off mortgage and start having fun!

Bluefire

Sorry to hear that you didn't get the answer from the mortgage advisor that you were hoping for. Fingers crossed down the line as you get things paid off that a solution can be found.

A couple of questions...

As the loan, although techincally a personal one, is actually for the business, is there any wiggle room within the business finances to overpay it? I'm not saying pay it off completely, just more than the standard payment that the business is covering at the moment. Obviously this would hugely benefit any extension of mortgage term that you might apply for in the long run.

My main question is this though, which I think is an important one if you're going to formulate a budget going forwards.

By the time you have paid for the following essentials:

• Mortgage (£1839)
• Council Tax
• Energy bills
• Water bill
• Insurances
• Sky & TV License*
• Credit card minimum repayments
• School bus / oyster** costs
• Petrol

*personally I would never consider Sky an essential but I realise it is for you.


**If your daughter tries to pay you back whenever you top up the oyster card can you just not let her manage it herself?


How much is left for... (in rough priority order)

• Grocery & Household
• Pocket money
• Christmas & birthday presents for family
• Christmas & birthday presents for friends
• Eating out
• Clothes
• Holiday
• Weekend away
• Coffee & lunches

I realise you've been through some of these figures already, but please do humour me, I think it's vital for you to draw a line between things you have to pay for and what you have left for things you want to pay for (not that I'm including grocery & household in this unless of course you were 'wanting' to buy everything in Waitrose!)


I like the idea from getmore4less re. slow stoozing as a way of transferring the credit card debt, as long as you're confident you can keep on top of it & not start building up the debt again. We're stoozing at the moment and a spreadsheet has helped no end with this.

If that's not an option though, how much of the credit card could you clear if you sold Eric?

Sorry for the long post, it's been an awful day & I should thank you for giving me something else to think about really!

newgirly

Hi bluefire, sorry you have had a rough day, I shall answer once ive had a scribble.:D

newgirly

OK, after the top list the bottom list has £908 available.

newgirly

With the oyster cost ,we are only paying towards it , she is working one day a week and doing a full time college course and an extra a level , plus one work experience twice a week in London and an internship in a theatre in north London almost daily in the evenings and most of the weekend, she is literally never home, so spends a lot in travel and the rest on food.she does take some but can often be out the house from 7.30am to 11pm or later at night, so its not that easy to take all that around with you. Plus she sometimes gets asked to drinks do's after shows , so she really could do with the help even if she stubbornly doesn't want it !

newgirly

Coffee and lunches from my £30 , and the boys get £20pm each, they also buy some food if they leave school at lunchtime.

Priority wise I would rather shave the budget of all categories than cut out sections completely if it is possible Ie. Fewer coffees, fewer meals,cheaper friends presents etc. I guess we will have to see how the spending goes first.

ahem_47

NG - hi. You remain spirited in the face of adversity.

I can not help feeling this is now about your own attitude.

Your last post disappointed me. Let me explain: you are going to have to learn how to "cut". Forget "prioritising" things that make others happy and do the right thing for the position you find yourself in. Please!

Others have touched on the family. The next bit I write with a bit of trepidation but here goes:

Your OH can not simply say - you sort the finances. Does he know of this thread? Show him it and tell him to read it from start to finish. He will see your undying love for him and your family - but he can not escape the ......

Your kids sound like real gems. Apart from "kitten" they seem to get on with their own individual lives without being a financial burden on you. They appear to have hated Butlins and probably won't get as much from CP as you would hope. I think you are clinging on to "when they were young" (I understand) but they are growing up quickly. When was the last time all five of you were in the Zafira?

Now you are faced with a range of Internet advice. The reality is you need a real life friend who can help you all through this. How often would anyone tackle these kind of issues via a range of "emails"? MSE might be your stick but it might be worth taking a week off to gather your thoughts and speak to your best friend like you have spoke to us - your OH.

AlexLK

Alchemilla wrote: »

Have you tried a mortgage broker? Sorry if thats a dumb question.

This may well be worth a try, I presume NG has no "bad" debt as such so would not be seen as adverse. It may be worth getting some decent financial advice and seeing if something can be done about the affordability or perhaps to advise her the best way to proceed in order to secure a remortgage in a couple of years time.

ahem_47 wrote: »

NG - hi. You remain spirited in the face of adversity.

I can not help feeling this is now about your own attitude.

Your last post disappointed me. Let me explain: you are going to have to learn how to "cut". Forget "prioritising" things that make others happy and do the right thing for the position you find yourself in. Please!

Others have touched on the family. The next bit I write with a bit of trepidation but here goes:

Your OH can not simply say - you sort the finances. Does he know of this thread? Show him it and tell him to read it from start to finish. He will see your undying love for him and your family - but he can not escape the ......

Your kids sound like real gems. Apart from "kitten" they seem to get on with their own individual lives without being a financial burden on you. They appear to have hated Butlins and probably won't get as much from CP as you would hope. I think you are clinging on to "when they were young" (I understand) but they are growing up quickly. When was the last time all five of you were in the Zafira?

Now you are faced with a range of Internet advice. The reality is you need a real life friend who can help you all through this. How often would anyone tackle these kind of issues via a range of "emails"? MSE might be your stick but it might be worth taking a week off to gather your thoughts and speak to your best friend like you have spoke to us - your OH.

Said much better than I could.

CathT

Great advice Mr GG. You are doing brilliantly Newgirly, this must be a very difficult situation and you have been incredibly honest. I hope you manage to formulate a plan/budget that works for you and your family.

getmore4less

newgirly wrote: »

Coffee and lunches from my £30 , and the boys get £20pm each, they also buy some food if they leave school at lunchtime.

Priority wise I would rather shave the budget of all categories than cut out sections completely if it is possible Ie. Fewer coffees, fewer meals,cheaper friends presents etc. I guess we will have to see how the spending goes first.

I think you need a reality check and go back to basics with a SOA for the next 12months

http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php

Use your data/statements from the last 12 months to populate last years reality SOA.

Then do the forward looking plan making your choices,

make it balance with the new Mortgage payment.

You don't have to post them, but you need to be honest with yourself and any suggestions from people are only as good as the data they are given to work with.

Your current problem is you have no idea where you spend your money or how big the cutbacks need to be.

Based on the limited data over the 5 years so far it looked like you need to be finding £400+pm savings from current spend habits.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=68705894&postcount=4214

£400pm won't come from shaving a bit off everything.

You need to work out how much you need to cut from your previous normal spend pattern,

Then you can look at where the cuts need to be.

Goldiegirl

I didn't post last night, but ahem47 and gm4l have said what I wanted to say, but couldn't quite find the words for.

It's attitude adjustment that's needed now. The realisation that the meals out and the presents need to stop for a while ( not for ever, just until the situation is resolved) and Mr NG needs to take ownership as well, not just you.

As I've been saying, it's not easy, but it is temporary.

At the end of the day, only you can decide what's best.

A few years of comparative austerity so you can meet the lenders affordability guidelines, and renegotiate the mortgage or several years of shaving and juggling, and never quite getting where you need to be, and face a real crisis 7 years down the line.