Lil's not so lil mortgage story

LilAmbar

Hi all,

Today marks the first anniversary of me making overpayments on my mortgage :jand my mortgage free plans have changed somewhat since last year.

The story starts with a mortgage balance of £107418 and having made no overpayments since I took it out almost three years earlier. I had reached the savings balance that had nominally set as the minimum I would want before starting to make OPs so I began to make OPs to bring down the capital. The plan had been to reduce the mortgage as much as possible. At this point I was just entering into a new relationship and made no thought to how this might change my MFW plan.

12 months on, with £2700 of OPs, and a balance of £103360, I've changed job which means I have less additional earning power but gives me a annual payrise for 5 years assuming I stay in the job that long. Over and above that, I have a fantastic better half, and we have plans to sell both our properties to buy a joint home. The MFW dream isn't going to go away but it's going to be a longer ride than I first anticipated.

I'm very much looking forward to the next twelve months; I can't wait to see what it has in store, but I can only see the mortgage going up, not down! Baring that in mind, and as I've got a lot of work on my hands tarting my little palace up, before I can put it on the market, I need some motivation to keep the decorating going, to continue making OPs and to stop spending quite so much money, so here with this months maximum £500 OP, begins the public declarations as the story continues to unfold.

You're welcome to come along for the ride, I have a feeling it could be a bumpy one.

katsu

Congratulations and good luck Lil

DansMum_2

Oooo exciting times for you.... I'll help with your decorating if you help with mine??? I've got SO much work to do!!!:eek:

*Jellie*

Good luck Lil

liuhut

Good look with you journey, even if it is longer than you first thought, it sounds like its going to be a lot of fun!

How about getting a few friends round who like painting to give you a hand?? I find decorating really relaxing (I am a bit odd!)

L x

chelseablue

liuhut wrote: »

Good look with you journey, even if it is longer than you first thought, it sounds like its going to be a lot of fun!

How about getting a few friends round who like painting to give you a hand?? I find decorating really relaxing (I am a bit odd!)

L x

You can come and do mine if you like

LilAmbar

Thank you all for your kind messages. I've taken a couple of weeks out as a family member has been in the hospital (home today hopefully - keeping fingers and toes crossed).

So the first thing I really need to do is ...packed lunches. To buy anything that has any taste or is remotely healthy at work, I'm looking at £3.50. I'm sure I can do lunches for cheaper than that. I have a couple of problems with packed lunches..
1) I'm most definitely not a sandwiches person
2) The second is that the unpredictable nature of the job sometimes means I can't get back to the office to pick up my pack-up.

Does anyone have any tips for non-sandwich based packed lunches?

mummyofonechild

Good Luck on your journey. I take Sandwiches to work whilst others go to Subway etc. I think I must save about £50 a month by doing this. Thats £600 a year

LilAmbar

An extra £600 would be fantatic, I think optimistically I can probably save £400 but even that's good. I hadn't thought about adding up to a yearly figure before. I joined the tea club a month ago so I'm not buying tea or coffee when I'm at my work base, adding that up over the year I'm saving £100.75! Tea club is £1 a week which is far more than we drink in a week, but the left over goes to buy birthday/leaving/maternity cards and presents and also towards the Christmas party. No more putting my hand in my pocket every few weeks :j.

On the menu tomorrow...left over quiche and salad. Alarm clock set 10 minutes earlier :eek: so I have time to sort it out.

On the decorating front, I've finished the glossing (hopefully only one coat will do it) and have booked a 'consultation and training session' with my Dad to teach me how to put the paper up. I'm I learning so much at the moment . Beginning to think that this thread will help with keeping motivated to get the house sorted for selling (promise I'm not spending a fortune on it, only tidying up). Double benefits.

gallygirl

LilAmbar wrote: »

have booked a 'consultation and training session' with my Dad to teach me how to put the paper up.

Does he take external bookings? Although actually I just want someone to do it for me, not show me. There are some things I know I could do (decided last night it would be 'easy' to fit sliding wardrobe doors ) and some things I know I would never be able to master :rotfl:.

Good luck, you are sounding v motivated :T

LilAmbar

External bookings, now there's a thought .... I could charge for his time and pocket the cash. Now I only have to figure out how to convince him.

Yes, I'd like someone to do it for me but it's minimal help with the 'difficult' bits. Saves some cash that way, although I draw the line at fixing the gutters. Learned to use a drill on Wednesday - now I'm getting really dangerous.

On the MFW - two days of pack lunch and two days of work dinners (packed lunch tomorrow too):o Could try harder. Thinking of trying to ebay a few things that I no longer need. It might help to reduce some clutter in preparation for the move.