Pay off mortgage and start having fun!

newgirly

Back home it’s been manic as we had a 50th party the day we got back and spent yesterday moving ds2 ‘s stuff upstairs from the conservatory. The house was not trashed but was not clean, I’m wading through the ironing today.

Total spends were £671 minus £60 onboard credit and £33 odd loyalty discount so £578 (minus £245 on spa pass and one for mum) so £333 spent on booze, tea, cake and presents - not too bad

Not great news today though, looks like a loss of income on the horizon, the new bosses are looking at acquiring another business and running it from the ground floor. This means no more extra rent money from the third party we have been renting to (with their permission) that’s going to knock down our ops by £360 pm

newgirly

Ds2 has handed in his notice at work yesterday unexpectedly. I knew he would get fed up there though now he is considering uni again , whether this will be possible at this late stage I don’t know! I’m trying nudge him in to possibilities rather than take over, hopefully today he will do more research today.

I looked at the finances last night and it’s not looking as rosy as it was the kitchen quote came in yesterday (not fitting and plastering etc.) at £8633 :eek: as I’m clueless I didn’t really know what to expect!
It really means no ops for the rest of the year, plus if we lose the extra rent money at work and ds 2 goes to uni - (which I hopefully he does) and needs money for travel , we are goIng to be a fair bit worse off.

The dilemma I have at the moment are the two breaks I’ve booked for next year

Ive booked a three night trip to Rome in March which were very cheap flights and a hotel still to pay for of £280 plus spending money. Dh doesn’t know about the this and it is his Xmas present.

While on the cruise we booked one for next year as they gave an extra £50 onboard credit. It was the cheapest cabin on in the cheapest hot fly cruise which we have wanted to do since our first one three years ago. Total cost £799 each minus deposit of £100. (Plus £55 credit each)

I could swap the cruise booking within two weeks and perhaps move book for later in the year to extend the time to pay for it. I’m sure what to do.

I should know by now not to assume things are ticking along well, that’s when things shift and get harder :rotfl: I could almost kick myself for getting complacent!

Moneyfordreams

How about swap the cruise dates? You still have £1400 to pay.

OH will still want a xmas pressie... March is a long way off..... Rome is lovely.

newgirly

Hi mfd’s I will have a look at the cruise’s available, I think they currently only go up to March 2021 which is a shame as we’d fancy a summer one.

I think you are right about Rome though, and i think we can do it cheaply

Finances and decision making / budget setting day tomorrow, the renovation budget is less than half what it needs to be and we are already not able to pay the mortgage off before the term ends in April 2022. I’m still stubbornly not wanting to extend the end date, but perhaps it’s time to rethink.......

LadyGnome

Look at where you started and where you are now (and what you have been through to get there).

An extra 12-18 months on the mortgage to give you a bit of breathing space is neither here nor there. You will still be in a much much better position than if you have done nothing.

greent

We're not going to be able to pay our BTL IO mtge off by its end date (probably by the amount that Florida for 7 is going to cost us....) but I'm ignoring that fact until we get to that point and will remortgage/ refinance another way when we get to there

I think its still possible to go to uni this Sept by applying through Clearing - check out UCAS website
xx

newgirly

Hi ladygnome, thank you for the kind comments

I’ve wasted a whole day trying to work out the best plan of action and to be honest I just don’t know

Balance o/s is £74,655 (2k higher than my figures on mse show as I’m withdrawing £2k from a regular saver to pay towards the building work shortfall.)

End date - April 2022, however Chelsea have said our deal runs out July 2020 so they would let us extend to July 2022 so we can fix for 2 years again.

Being pretty frugal (very frugal if wanting to go away still) means an estimated balance of £28k o/s at the end of term.

Dh says he thinks we should ease off and extend the term (something like ten years!) as in four and a half years so we will have extra income from the factory rent to help. I’m not too sure I can cope with adding so long back on the term now.

I’m unable to come to a decision at the moment, I don’t know why! So I think for now I will work on the basis of emptying money from everywhere and ploughing all money possible to cover the kitchen shortfall, hopefully I can start mortgages ops again by end of August or September.

Will have another chat with him tonight about it all, whatever plans are made they will no doubt be broken anyway :rotfl:

Moneyfordreams

Extend the term to give yourselves a break.... then OP mortgage deals may be easier to come by now you are employed

kaycastle

My OH is a kitchen designer. That does seem a good price for kitchen but also never accept the first quote! They can usually knock it down a bit and take a lower margin as they'll always want the sale

Shop around for sure.

Busy_Mee1

Just adding my tenpennorth to your deliberations. The kitchen renovation is an investment in your property. Your house is normally your biggest asset and keeping it up to date makes it more saleable, therefore in my mind it is perfectly acceptable to divert mortgage overpayments to funding your kitchen.

I think I am with your OH and others and would extend your mortgage term. This makes good financial sense, as you could lock into one of the great interest rates that are about and gives you more flexibility. You are currently at the most expensive time in your family life, dependant children and funding university etc, so this would cut you some slack and allow you to enjoy this period. You could still overpay during this period to reduce the term if you wanted.

And I am not sure what your pension situation is but an alternative might be to think about increasing your pension contributions instead.

Finally, I have never regretted a penny spent on travel, but I have seen that waiting to travel until later in life can be a mistake. Do it .... both trips are great value, the cruise is less than £100 a night full board, you can try an cut back elsewhere to make it happen and it gives you something to look forward to :T