Aprilshower wants to be Mortgage free.........

aprilshower

Hi Everybody

I have been looking at all the posts for a good six months now and finally got the courage to post.

I have decided after reading all the success stories to give this a go and really would love any help, tips and ideas anybody has that will help us on our way.

Our mortgage in August was £64,957 and is on a fixed rate till 2012 with Santander/ Abby.

This month I paid off £5000 off the capital bringing th total down to £59957. We are allowed over payments of 10% per year.

At the same time I increased our payment from £502 per month to £700 per month. This reduced the term of the mortgage to 9 years one month from Sept 2010.

I have started but dont really know what to do next. Any help and ideas from all you fantastic people would really be helpfull.

My next idea was to have a total sort out of the house and go and a car boot sale and maybe sell any other items on ebay to raise some extra cash.

But after that I am a little in the dark as to were to go next.

Aprilshower

wynnvegas

Hi AS,

Sounds like an ideal start. I'll play the broken record again and ask if you've done an SOA to identify just how much money you potentially have to chuck at either direct overpayments or into an overpayment pot? When I looked at ours, we were spending up to £800p/m on stuff that could have been classified as discretionary and cutting that out has helped no end.

It's a great feeling getting under that next £10k barrier so well done on breaking the £60k mark!

Cheers,

Billy

aprilshower

Thank you for that. I am going to sit down and go through everything we spend and see what we are spending and ways we can be cut back.

I am going to start this tonight.

Aprilshower

wynnvegas wrote: »

Hi AS,

Sounds like an ideal start. I'll play the broken record again and ask if you've done an SOA to identify just how much money you potentially have to chuck at either direct overpayments or into an overpayment pot? When I looked at ours, we were spending up to £800p/m on stuff that could have been classified as discretionary and cutting that out has helped no end.

It's a great feeling getting under that next £10k barrier so well done on breaking the £60k mark!

Cheers,

Billy

aprilshower

Hi Everybody

I have come up with a small list to start me on my journey.

1. check out telephone bill and see if that can be reduced.

2. sell all the old mobile phones that are just in draws in the house.

3. Sell all the old gold around the house

4. Check electricity / gas and see if there is a better / cheaper
deal about.

5. Start to sort out / declutter and go to Car Boot Sale

All saved money will go in the mortgage overpayment fund.

Aprilshower

aprilshower

Hi guys

Well got my plan of action decided to save up £1400 before end of December to put off the capital this will take me to the 10% that I can pay each year.

I have got myself a mortgage pig that I will empty at the end of each month.

Phoned NTL this morning and got £10 off the bill each monthfor 12 months. So I am going to put the tenner in the mortgage pig each month.

Found 4 old mobiles which are all on charge at the moment. Been on Fonebank and they have offered £42 for the four phones so going to send them off. When the cheque arrives going to put that in the mortgage pig.

Next on my list is electricity / gas.

So up to now I will have raised £52 for in the mortgage pig not bad for an hours work. Only £1348 to go.

Aprilshower

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Hello,

Well done to you - sounds like you have made an excellent start to becoming MF. To be honest, I don't think there is much more that you can do. As you get into saving you will find that you start to scrutinise every purchase and will cut back on non essentials very quickly. Short of getting an extra job, that's probably it!

Very good luck,

Squirrel x

aprilshower

Secret_Saving_Squirrel wrote: »

Hello,

Well done to you - sounds like you have made an excellent start to becoming MF. To be honest, I don't think there is much more that you can do. As you get into saving you will find that you start to scrutinise every purchase and will cut back on non essentials very quickly. Short of getting an extra job, that's probably it!

Very good luck,

Squirrel x

Hi

Thank you for your comments I am becoming a little like that to be honest.

I telephoned Eon our gas and electricity provider and changed our deal which is going to save us about £40 a year. But later I had a look at our account and we are £306 in credit, which I think is to much.

I have sent them an email asking them to reduce our payment each month as this time last year we were £105 in credit and that amount took us through the winter. Since then I have had a new combi boiler fitted which should be cheaper and I received one of those electricity monitors which really makes you look at the amount of electricity you use. As a result our consumption has gone done.

So just waiting to receive a reply. Any amount knowcked off each month can go to make my pig a little fatter.

Aprilshower

aprilshower

Hi Everybody

Still waiting for EOn to get back to me. Sorted out my sons room yesterday and found two big tubs of unwanted stuff.

Put 15 items on ebay yesterday money to go towards overpayment and the other stuff for a car boot sale.

Going to do my daughters room when she gets in later. That will take the smile from her face.

Also I have a very large gold cameo ring that I really do not like and really wouldnt wear. Anybody got any ideas what I should do with that as any more I raised would go into my overpayments pig.

Thanks in advance

Aprilshower

aprilshower

Hi Everybody

I really need some help please.


Telephoned mortgage company yesterday as we increased payments from £506 to £700 which reduced the term to 9 years one month at a fixed rate of 5.75.

They offered me a fixed rate of 3.29 for three years. I wanted to keep the payments about the same so they worked out at £723 a month but the term of the mortgage is 8 years now. The only problem is there is a £999 fee for changing.

In my mind I know it is saving us money longer term but it is also adding a £1000 onto the mortgage.

I know it is ssving us alot of money but something inside me is saying no do not add fees to the mortgage.

Thank you in advance for any comments and help


Aprilshower

wynnvegas

Hi AS,

If you're able to, sounds like an ideal time to look around to see what else there is. The potential is there to get a much less expensive arrangement fee deal with someone like HSBC (we got ours for free a couple of years back but I remember someone mentioning a £99 deal a week or so ago) or to get the information on a good enough deal to convince your current lender to shuffle the papers for nothing (I know a couple of folk who have, on the real threat of moving their mortgage, lendings and accounts away, have had the arrangement fee dropped).

Either way is a decent investment of your time if you have it to spare and is worth a go as, worst case scenario, you're back to where you are now but with the knowledge that there's no better way.

There's obviously also the tracker gamble. The concensus at the moment is that BoE interest rates won't move much, if at all, before the beginning of 2012 so it may be worth factoring that in.

Cheers,

Billy

aprilshower

Hi

Thank you for your advice. I have phoned them this morning and they have reduced it to £499 so am happy with that because it will say alot in the long term. I dont think I would have phoned back if you had not of said to do so. So once again thank you:A

Ther term has been reduced to 8 years now which I am happy with. So have agreeed and it is going through.

I have also telephoned Eon this morning and they agreed I have overpaid and are putting £300 back into my bank account - RESULT which is going to be paid off the mortgage.

Also started to look at some old paperwork and found a bank account so going to go to the post office and see what the balance is in that. Checked and there is £106 in the account so took out £105. This is like a full time job. But when I get to the £500 mark I am going to send a cheque.


So therefore Money raised this month:

Phones £42
Internet saving £10
Refund from Eon £300
Quidco £4.50
Bank Account £105


Total £461.50 I am really happy about that not far to go to the £500 mark and I will make an overpayment.

Take care Everybody and any more help will not go a miss

Aprilshower