What would (and wouldn't) you give up to be mortgage free?

michaels

We are fortunate to be mortgage free at the moment due to a very MSE lifestyle and a nice profit my wife made from selling her flat that she had before we lived together, we were able to both upgrade to a bigger house and pay down the mortgage in 9 years.

However we are now looking at adding a big extension to our house, probably about 120k and thus putting us half way back to step one.

If we throw everything at it we could probably clear this in about 4 or 5 years however this feels pretty draconian seeing as we have lived that way for the last few years and would not be able to do the things we had been looking forward to on becoming MF.

So what I was wondering is what priority order people would list their spending and where would they put the cut off point that the sacrifices required become more arduous than the benefit of becoming MF more quickly - may be my example will help?

\/ Most important \/

Basic food
Heating
Basic house maintenance
Second hand and hand me down clothes
House insurance
First car
Normal food
Basic new clothes
Life insurance
Minimum xmas and birthday presents
Basic electronics and PC
Home broadband
tv licence
Basic PAYG mobile
Home phone
Good clothes
Second car
Smart phone
Summer holiday to UK relatives

My personal line below less important than paying off mortgage, above more important

House redecoration
Generous Christmas and birthday presents
Snowboarding holiday
Holiday to Caribbean/US relatives
New TVs, laptops etc
Quality food
Alcohol
New car
New furniture

^ Least important ^

This is just of the top of my head, no doubt the are omissions and the order is wrong in places but I was just wondering where others drew the line between 'living' now and paying off the mortgage to live more later?

michaels

Has this topic been done before? Hundreds of people trying to be mortgage free and no one has an opinion on what it is worth giving up to achieve it?

gallygirl

Ooooohhhh, now, this is thought provoking........

Non-negotiable
[STRIKE]Basic Food[/STRIKE] replace with Normal food
Heating
Basic house maintenance
[STRIKE]Basic new clothes[/STRIKE] would replace this with good quality second hand clothes
House, life & travel insurance
Decent Car - I do 25,000 a year so it needs to be reliable & comfortable
Below average spend on Xmas and birthday presents
Basic electronics and PC
Home broadband
Tv licence
[STRIKE]Basic PAYG mobile[/STRIKE] work provide (although most colleagues buy their own also
[STRIKE]Home phone[/STRIKE]
Good clothes - as cheaply as possible - ebay etc.
[STRIKE]Summer holiday to UK relatives[/STRIKE]
As many trips to holiday home in Spain as I can fit in, plus further week in the winter sun
2 bottles wine a week @ £5 max a bottle

Above non-negotiable, but all done as cheaply as possible (e.g. Sleazyjet or Ryanair to Spain, cheapest deals for power etc.)

Negotiable (resist till have convinced myself it is need rather than want )
House redecoration
New TVs, laptops etc
Quality food
New furniture

No way
[STRIKE]Generous Christmas and birthday presents[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Other alcohol[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Meals out more than once a month
Buying sandwiches etc.[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Full price mags, books etc.
Spending on 'stuff' because you're bored. [/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Luxury cars (well, anything over 12k)[/STRIKE]

LilacPixie

I really have no idea.

On my MF journey I have not pared down our costs as much as others do. My kids have activity clubs that cost a fair wack each month. I dare not put in in the overpayment calculation to see how much the MF date would come down but i suspect a year easily. I think the experiences these activities provide is worth more than a mortgage being clear when the are 12 and 14 instead of 13 and 15 though.

To be honest our current home is too small so we are moving up wards. The mortgage I have at the moment will only be totally zero when it is replaced with a larger one so I think I am not 100% committed to being MF just yet. My head is too full of nonsense about our forever home and what we can afford/want to live in. I want an old doer upper 4 beds/ 2 public rooms and considering we currently have a 2 bed flat then more furniture will have to be acquired.

I like/prefer quality items that will last an eternity even if it means my MF date suffers. I would rather buy a solid oak dining table from an auction house/ antique shop than a £299 table and 6 chairs from Argos.

DH is another stumbling block, he had a poor but happy childhood. He wants our kids to have more material things than he did which I totally understand but we try and do it with as little cost as possible, free days out, checking the glitch board for glitches for gifts to minimise the cost, using cashback sites changing insurances yearly for better deals if possible or phoning current insurer and saying XX can do it for Y price (taking into account cashback can you match that? sometimes they can't sometimes they can't and I move policies.

We have 2 cars, we need 2 cars with locations of work and shift times but we keep the running costs to a minimum. OH does the regular servicing like oil changes etc etc himself, We try and drive as efficiently as possible so using less fuel, car is used for essential journeys only and for as little journeys as possible, I do food shopping on way home from work on a Friday evening as I pass a supermarket rather than taking car out on a Saturday especially to do it. We live literally across the road from a beach so nice days at the weekend are usually spent there or we walk to a local park health permitting rather than drive.

I have no problem with gorgeous gifts as long as the price is more basic gift than gorgeous. We don't give to adult siblings or eachother unless there is additional cash in the pot maybe OH did overtime or I had a particularly good month website wise. Utilities we use minimally as much as possible and after 9 months of this it is actually really noticable in our bills, in a fair bit of credit and to company has dropped our direct debit etc etc.

Overall I aim for a nice balance but in reality I could probably do more than I do. I really should have a declutter and a day of ebay/car boot.

seafarers_wife

I dont yet have a mortgage but have been reading lots of diaries over the past couple of weeks and its inspiring. I want to start my own thread but feel like an imposter as I dont have a mortgage, but i will be joining everyone at some point in the next couple of years in the mfw challenge :j

Im addicted to spreadsheets and have already set up a few, when we have our own house budget, when im pregnant budget, when im on maternity leave budget, and when i give up work budget! so the below is what i would consider important to us over the next 5 years or so.

Non negotiable

decent food budget - 200 a month for 2 adults
play money each for the luxuries that keep us sane - 300 between us
New clothes and shoes when needed - not just because
running our current beast until it starts to cost serious money to fix mechanically - its an 06 avensis so figure its good for while yet before it costs more to fix than to run.
getting married 12/3/11 - have had 5K off the parentals but we pay the extra
overpaying the mortgage by max allowed each year.

Negotiable

Having a honeymoon/holiday at some point after we are married
when we decide to try for a family - only non negotiable points are we must have our own house for 2 years and we are only planning on 1 child so we can ensure we have a decent family life and decent future retirement provisions.

i just enjoy dreaming about having our own house and saving so much money by paying the mortgage back early!

gallygirl

It sounds to me like you've got it well balanced LilacPixie. There are those who go without & keeps spends to an absolute minimum but you only have one chance to make a lifetime of memories. There is a world of difference between spending money & wasting money - you're doing the former but not the latter and that's what matters :T

How's the little pixel doing

LilacPixie

Thanks for asking Gally, Pixel is causing me no end of hassle and I have 4-5 months to go :eek::eek: I do wish men could carry babies. :rotfl:

I think we could get some things lower or earn more but I am not sure I am in the right frame of mind.

wynnvegas

Great question Michaels. My first reaction was to say that everything comes second to the mortgage payment but looking down you lists I see we've not sacrificed quite as much as we could have. I would agree with everyone that a balance is a good thing but we did vow to take 15 months of sacrifice to meet the MF date of 01/12/10. That we'll get there a month early is purely down to a small inheritance and my girlfriend doing some exam marking in June as our initial SOA had all the flexibility of £3.86 per month!

Holiday

Our one extravagance in the timeframe was our Vegas trip in July. This was the only piece that was 100% ringfenced and the flights were paid before the "dictatorship" began. We saved £300 per month over 10 months for the hotels / gambling / shows / shopping budget of which £1,000 was for the hotels. In the end up, we played what I called an insured game of chicekn. Our $150 gambling activity would dictate how well we ate and drank that day with any remainder going to the shopping fund. If we had lost it all, we had the credit cards to fall back on but, as it turned out, it added a new element to the trip and we turned out fine by not needing the credit cards at all.

Food and Groceries

Whilst I realise now that we could have gone uber-economical with the food, we've struck what I think is a slight sacrificial balance. In the last 12-13 months, we haven't eaten out (holiday aside) or ordered in once. This has been straightforward as we're both good cooks and we have a staple bundle of recipes that we stick to which makes buying groceries relatively easy. With some foodstuffs, you can definitely tell the difference so we never skimp on rice (has to be Tilda long grain) or bread (Kingsmill lightly toasted oats and nuts) and I'm still a bit too snobby to go for tesco value stuff or equivalents. We do bulk buy masses of stuff (coke is always a favourite and we normally have it piled from floor to ceiling in a kitchen corner) as we have done since we were poor students but I prefer fresh food so we very rarely cok bathes of food or freeze food. It's a slightly more expensive way to eat than it need be but there are clearly some sacrifices not worth making! We're not big drinkers so we have a couple of bottles of wine for people coming over or to take when we go to friends for dinner but our alcohol spend per year is as low as it's ever going to get.

Bills and Insurances

We've always shopped about and used quidco as much as possible but we've done particularly well out of the AA £7 membership (last year) and the RAC £5 membership for this coming year. Our home insurance is something daft like £39 for the year and car insurance cost my girlfriend about £142 for the year. We've switched nearly everything that could be a couple of times and I've managed to talk Sky into a couple of reductions and deals to make it worth staying with them. We ditched the movies which saves us all of £8 a month but this was more a protest at them putting on the same rubbish night after night. Now we take advatnage of all the free DVD rental offers, free gym passes and whatever other vouchers are out there. The main discretionary bill for us is our fuel every month as we do get about a bit to visit family and friends. We've never really stopped that and never would so it wasn't something that has ever been up for discussion. A couple of relatives have died in the last year and it would have been really hard justifying any time we hadn't gone to see them for an extra month of the mortgage term. Similarly, we recognise we're in a somewhat fortunate position so whenever family members have needed loans, we've been happy to help. With what has been given out and not yet given back, we could probably just about manage to shave one of the two remaining months but denying the people we love for the sake of 30 days or so was never an option.

Home

We've got a load of things that we'd like to do to the house but nothing particualrly that needs doing. Our house is now 20 years old (we've been in it for 6.5 years) and most of the bits and pieces are original so could do with being tarted up or replaced. We took the decision to leave all home improvements, including the upgrade to an HD telly, Sky HD, PS3 for the bluray, wireless laptop and peripherals and most recently i-phones and i-pads until after the mortgage. We've stuck with the old kit for the moment and we'll probably get the best part of another year out of what's in the house presently.

Wow - this has turned into a bit of a tome. I'll leave it here before I start ranting about work, making extra money, selling stuff off and the other ventures of the last year or so!!

Cheers,

Billy

JonnyBravo

michaels wrote: »

\/ Most important \/

Basic food
Heating
Basic house maintenance
Second hand and hand me down clothes
House insurance
First car
Normal food
Basic new clothes
[STRIKE]Life insurance[/STRIKE]Don't have any. Got death in service via work but that's all.
Minimum xmas and birthday presents
Basic electronics and PC
Home broadband
tv licence
Basic PAYG mobile
Home phone
Good clothes
Second car
Smart phone
Summer holiday to UK relatives

My personal line below less important than paying off mortgage, above more important

House redecoration Above the line but done by myself when needed.
Generous Christmas and birthday presents
Snowboarding holiday
Holiday to Caribbean/US relatives
New TVs, laptops etc Occasionally above the line depending on what it was and what was needed.
Quality food Above the line, but seeing as all cooked from ingredients there really isn't much difference to "normal food"
Alcohol Definitely above the line! A lot!
New car
New furniture Occasionally above the line depending on need

^ Least important ^

Not too different it seems. Perhaps just a little more lax than yourself. I'd guess "entertainment" is my biggest cost which could be curtailed fairly easily but I'm happy with it!

AbFab

Good question, and interesting to see everyone's answers.

We should be MF in a couple of years, if all goes to plan, and very committed to scrimping now, to be free then.

Holidays
DH and I had a splurge of a honeymoon/trip of a lifetime at the end of last year, knowing it would be our last big holiday for several years, especially as we were going to start trying for a family. Got pregnant on said honeymoon :j, and not a fan of flying with infants anyway, so holidays abroad are now pretty much off the agenda - huge saving. I'm well-travelled already, so happy now to chill in the UK, and plan on lots of cheap camping trips over the next few years.

Groceries
We eat well - I do like to buy decent bread as wynnvegas mentioned (prefer Burgen or Hovis though!), often one or other are on special offer, so we stock up on a few loaves and freeze. Toilet Rolls, I do like the Andrex Aloe Vera, but always manage to get it when it's on special offer. Other toiletries, I never buy anything with SLS/parabens in, so those tend to be slightly more expensive than the evil cheap stuff, but for me, no price good health, so that's a spend I am willing to make, even if it adds another few months to the mortgage - no point being MF if you are dead.

We barely eat out, and I tend to cook from scratch - bargainous, healthier, and we know what we are getting. I also just prefer it. I always make DH's packed lunches too, so he doesn't spend anything on food out during the day. I make treat snacks too, like cakes, so he doesn't need to buy sweet snacks either. It's also best this way as we are vegan (very money-saving!) so it's not always easy to find vegan cake etc out and about.

I don't drink (not just a pregnancy thing) and DH barely drinks, so massive savings there - this isn't so much a money-saving thing as simply something neither of us are into, so can't class it as a sacrifice, but I do like reminding myself of the massive saving we are making by not drinking. I don't like coffee either, so there's no wasting cash there for me; DH will occasionally have a coffee out, but very very rare (I can't stand the smell, nearly as much as I can't bear the price!).

Going out.
Will go on treat dates occasionally (e.g. theatre), but both of us are really happy just being with each other, chilling out, doing nothing much.
Meeting up with friends - tends to be done cheaply - if we do eat out, it's when there's a two-for-one offer on at Pizza Express or similar.
DH and I both enjoy the gym, so have gym memberships - pre-pregnancy, I'd be there most lunchtimes AND evenings too; DH still enjoys his sessions pretty much daily, and they are money well-spent, we get value from our memberships. I could run around the block for free, but I like the gym.

Home improvements
Pretty much on hold until the mortgage is paid off - unless desperate. Could do with loads doing to the place, but we can manage fine for now, and I'd rather pay off the mortgage first, and look at the ugly old carpet, than add a few grand to the bill and have the lovely wooden floorboards earlier.
Like LilacPixie, I would much rather buy a decent and well-made item of furniture in time, than a cheap make-do piece from somewhere like IKEA (have never been in my life!), as you only end up paying again when it falls apart. Unlike LP, although we too only currently have a two-bed property and will need to upsize soon, I already seem to have ample furniture, from when I've seen a bargain in an antique store, and invested there and then; I've also acquired several sizeable furniture items, so hm, really could do with a bigger home.

Clothes
Other than a few necessary maternity items (ALL bought in the sales), neither of us are big spenders on clothes - we have both bought decent quality items over the years that last, and they are still lasting - so pretty much no need to buy any new clothes for several years now, whatsoever. I will need nursing bras soon, but in the grand scheme of things, clothes don't feature on our budget. This doesn't even seem like a sacrifice - I'm not into what's 'on trend', and would rather just be in something simple or classic or sporty.

Misc
We have occasionally indulged on certain items that perhaps we could have done without, but we view them as treats and investments. e.g. this summer, we bought an a/c unit - it was swelteringly hot, being pregnant didn't help, and it will last us years. I think most people just did without. Likewise, I am now looking to splurge a few hundred £ on a foot massage machine, but it's something that should last for many many years, and we'll get really good use out of. I never go to beauty salons, I rarely even get my hair done (infrequent trips to the local barber and that's only ever for a trim!), so something like this seems justifiable!

Baby items.
I would much rather buy something of a decent quality and have it last (hopefully for subsequent children) than buy cheap. So we have splurged on a high-spec pram, for example, as opposed to getting something cheap. I do believe in many instances, you get what you pay for. This pram should last us for as many children as we have, AND still retain a decent sell-on value in a few years' time. Money well-spent, imo. It was also a bargain anyway as we got it at one of the Baby Shows, where everything was heavily discounted.
I have spent hours price-comparing, before I buy anything too, so even if I buy something well-made, I know I've got it for a good price.
Baby 'outifts' are a complete non-essential, imo - ours will be happy and snug in simple babygros - have managed to buy several in the sales over the last few months, yes, some from the pricier stores (but ALWAYS at sale prices!), but again, I do feel the quality matters, and they'll last well for further children as opposed to cheap tat from the cheaper stores. Again, not a huge sacrifice, as I prefer babies in simple babywear as opposed to OTT 'outfits'.

Gifts
Neither DH nor I now need or want anything for ourselves, and we have enough 'stuff' around the house. If anything, I want LESS stuff! As such, presents don't really feature for us. If we do need something, we'll buy it as and when, and call it a treat, and not just wait for a birthday/anniversary/Christmas.
Gifts for others, have told close family no more gifts please, and they are in agreement. The next generation will receive gifts, but I think the adults on both sides have the ability to buy what they want themselves, when they need it. We show our love in the time spent with them, and other ways. If I see something utterly amazing that I think someone will like, and it's affordable, then yes, we'll get it - nice surprises are better than 'expected' gifts on birthdays etc, I think.

Tech
We only bothered upgrading the television when the old one actually broke. Did get a decent flatscreen, nice and large, but we never go to the cinema, and it was a decent price (discounted through DH's work).

Our general rule is, would I rather have this item/do this activity, or would I rather this money went to the mortgage - I get such pleasure seeing the mortgage reduce, it's usually better than the pleasure from eating out/new item etc!

RosieTiger

I don't actually believe I could ever be that prescriptive. Life is about living, so we prefer the idea of the OP's running nicely in the background, but making sure you are able to still do the things you want to do. Certainly any ofers, Quidco etc should be used to your advantage, but, being obsessive will probably mean that you may end up MF - but having had no holidays, not being able to treat your kids, help out family and enjoy life - or even end up with a MF home that then needs a mortgage spending on it to fix the things you ignored.
Keep the balance right and enjoy your life - unless you believe in reincarnation you only get 1 shot !