My MFW diary to reduce mortgage as much as I can

linz

Amazing. Been playing with my favourite toy, the Mortgage OP on this site and the OP's since I started my diary in Sept (£3550) have saved a whopping £4550 in interest already, and knocked 2 years and 2 months off the term :T

It just goes to show how much impact just a few months of overpaying has. :beer:

linz

Not updated my diary for a couple of months but have been keeping up to date with the small things thread and some of the other diaries. Since I last wrote on here I have lowered my target of having £4k in an instant access savings account to £3k due to car expenses and a holiday. I will reach this at the end of the month when I get paid again (one month earlier than anticipated ). Strictly speaking it will be £1500 in an 8% First Direct regular saver (I put £300 pcm into this) so I can't touch this as I won't get the interest at the end of the 12 months. The other £1500 will be in a 3% Halifax Websaver.

I have also opened the 3.2% Halifax ISA (3.2% as I have a reward current account) There's only £100 in it so far but the plan at the moment is to bung the £3600 which the FD account will have amounted to after 12 months in it too.

I've been overpaying aswell, but I think I am now going to start to build up some more savings over the next couple of months to help with moving costs as I'm looking at relocating in the autumn. I could afford the EA and legal fees without much of a drama but its the bl00dy stamp duty! :mad:

So I'm probably going to be focussing on saving rather than OPing for the next few months. The thought of selling/being in a chain doesn't fill me with excitement but hopefully I can get some interest in my place. It's in quite a desirable location for FTB's and still pretty affordable.

Will still hang around this board though, I like it round here

didabuf

just passing through having a read and i gather you like to save!!
well done.
anyway i know its not saving but it helps once year when tax comes round.
me and dp get tax stamps from the post office we get 20quid a month, means once a year when tax comes round its paid for, a great way to save it up and not have to worry when the bill drops through the post.

linz

Savings towards remortgage/new house now stand at £3750.

I have pondering about keeping my house and renting it out, and buying another for me to live in. I can't help thinking it may be financially better to do that than to expect a comfortable-ish retirement with just my pension and whatever savings I have in the future. I am a public sector worker and am going to be paying more into my work pension next year and will get less out at the end. I like the idea of having some rental income to supplement this. Am also confident that any rent would cover the mortgage and I think Nationwide will be ok about letting it out as I enquired about this in the past.

I will see how things go over the next few months and how the savings are building up.

In other news, everyone in my team at work is on holiday so i've been working hard but off on holiday myself at the end of the month. Can't wait Before that I have the Edinburgh Tattoo to look forward to as well. Hope it doesn't rain.

linz

I've not posted on here for ages. Primarily because my focus has totally changed now.

The whole public sector pension thing has convinced me that I can't rely on the government not to take from my pension whenever they feel like and I don't believe it will give me enough for the life i'd want in my later years. No matter what the 'Daily Mail' thinks, we aren't on gold-plated pensions - I for one am not on a final salary scheme and won't be minted when I retire, that's why i'm doing what I am. Anyway, that's a rant for another time lol

Soooo, what is different..?

I have relocated with work and my house is now rented out. My mortgage payments are £361pcm with 12 years to go and the rent I get is £429 pcm. I've got consent to let from my lender and am all sorted with HMRC having been made aware. The rent goes into a seperate account and i'm just forgetting about it and letting it build incase any jobs need doing in the future, then any bills can come out of there.

I stopped overpaying for now and have spend the last 6 months or so focussing all my efforts on saving for a deposit on a new place. I am currently renting a room in a houseshare with the landlord and I've never felt so flush actually; I only pay £320 a month for rent including all bills. I walk to work so don't pay for much petrol unless I go away at weekends.

Obviously it's not the same as living in my own home and I don't tend to be here one moment longer than I have to. I have been managing to save £1000 a month towards my next deposit and currently have £7805 saved up. This is only possible when I don't have any big expenses like car insurance to pay out and it isn't easy but i've learnt a lot from being on here and whilst people may think i've got the balance wrong I do feel like it's short term pain for long term gain. I do still manage to have holidays and treat myself now and again. I just shop around and use vouchers/codes and stuff to do it

I'm hoping by spring i'll be in a position to put a deposit down as I intend to have hopefully £12,000 by the end of March - that's my goal anyway.

I'm also toying with the idea of getting one of these 0% credit cards and sort of stoozing but using the 'free' money to boost my deposit then saving back the credit limit before the 0% ends and paying it back. I've not looked into this much yet as i'm not sure if it's a good idea or not, though I do like the sound of having a higher deposit that may guarantee a better mortgage deal.

In other news I have done all my Christmas shopping and it's all wrapped Never been this organised before but it feels great not to have to battle the crowds in December. I bought some things in the sales last January and have also been picking up the odd thing throughout the year so thankfully i've not felt the pinch.

I just have two works Christmas do's to pay for this month which is about £20 each. Apart from that i don't have a lot to pay for this month thank God. Looking forward to having a nice, quiet, festive Christmas at my parents house; out with my best friend from school on 23rd hopefully, midnight mass on Christmas Eve, nice walks, log fire every night, lots of food, drink, catching up with family. The only thing missing is the Royle Family on Christmas Day !

My goal for 2012 is to have £12k saved by 31 March and to look for, find and move into a house some time after that

Anyway, that's enough waffling for now - Seasons Greetings all :xmastree:

linz

Thought it was about time I updated this.

So since I last updated I have found a partner He was actually a good friend of mine. We have known each other a few years and have gradually got closer. He now lives in the house full time and I live away in the week, rent a room Mon - Thur and have long weekends at home as I only work 4 day weeks. Thankfully my partner is as tight as me :rotfl: joke - we feel we are 'careful/frugal etc, many of our colleagues take the mick so we don't tend to talk about moneysaving with them anymore.

My mortgage is now £30600 or thereabouts as I used some savings to get it down a bit. Its £268pcm on Nationwides BMR of 2.5%.

Including OHs savings aswell as mine and we have recently become 'mortgage neutral' meaning we could pay it off if we wanted but it would clean us out. We are making more with investments at the moment but will revisit things when interest rates start to rise.

In the not too distant future we want to move to a bigger place aswell so some savings are with that in mind. I also want a newer car in the next 12 months or so, a diesel to help with the commuting.

We have both been getting into foraging/reusing things/growing our own. There are loads of blackberry bushes and elderberry trees nearby so we are going to pick loads later in the year and make crumbles and wine. OH also makes his own beer. We are saving lots not buying alcohol

We have spent today making our own raised bed in the (small) garden so hopefully our little veg seeds will grow in it. OH has found a huge pile of well rotted compost near a farm in a little wood so has been getting bits for planting stuff in, aswell as mole hill soil in the fields.

Well think thats enough for now. Not sure how much ill post on this as strictly speaking we arent really OPing at the moment, concentrating on the investing and car savings.

Bye for now..

katsu

'grats Linz. I'm saving for house things (and spending money!) like having the roof done, and just bought a new car with my savings, so I think there are several of us who are MFWs but are not putting all the cash into the mortgage.

I think Martin's site is all about a mentality and an approach for life, which is what we all have in common, and we keep each other going in that savings and frugal lifestyle vein. By being prudent you prevent getting into debt, which helps you save and so have funds available for the mortgage or other purposes, if needed.

That is my excuse anyway!

linz

Thanks Katsu, I guess things always pop up which get in the way of OPing. Were also getting new windows and doors next month which have been budgetted for. Thankfully its only a small place so were looking at about £3k max but will hopefully appeal when we come to sell, they definitely need doing. Also getting rid of laminate as its looking drab now and getting neutral carpet throughout. This will be paid for out of the bills account as theres a surplus in there.

Im tempted to get a 0% credit card when im nearer to having enough for a newer car to chuck the last 2 or 3 thousand on and save to pay it back at the end. I want a Kia Rio Crdi due to the really good economical costs and the 7 year warranty and im looking at about 10k at the moment for a 12 month old one. I recorded a prog on ch4 afew weeks ago about how to haggle when buying a new car so I know I need to go the day before the new registration plates come out for the biggest potential savings as the showrooms have stock to shift. Hopefully will get a good deal when the time comes

linz

So we decided to hang fire on looking at newer cars for now, until the Kia Rio model we want has been out a bit longer and we will go for one about 3 or 4 years old. Net result - I couldn't resist using some of my savings to OP knowing I can save a bit longer for my next car. New balance £24, 615

linz

Another update from the last few months-

Balance now £23,800 with a further £50 (yougov) and £10 (panelbase) still to go once they hit my bank.

We've got 1 bottle of elderberry wine left from last years produce and this weekend have bottled up 9 bottles of cherry wine from foraged cherries. There's a blackberry bush on my way home from work which is nearly ready to pick from so will be starting on the blackberry wine soon, then the elderberrys if we have enough empty bottles

I cant remember the last time we bought wine. Home brewing is saving a fortune!

We are also in the middle of building a new patio, which will hopefully make the house more appealing when it comes to trading up. We also turned the downstairs cloakroom into a pantry with shelves made out of an old creaking bed frame for free and have moved the coats and shoes to the cupboard under the stairs. It makes more sense as the pantry is just off the kitchen and is better for storing kitchen and cooking stuff as the kitchen is v small.

When it gets a bit cooler we are going to finish putting loft floor tiles in. Weve done about a third but figured its not going to cost that much to finish it off and itll be good for storage. We also need to find somewhere to store all the wine which will be a challenge.

Then probably the last biggish job for the year will be carpetting throughout. Next year will hopefully be tarting up the dated kitchen units, tiles, sink and floor. Thinking of removing radiators in hall and downstairs loo and doing underfloor heating possibly.

Phew!

Thankfully its not all work- got a few days camping in the Lakes coming up, then saw a great offer to see a musical in London with free 3 course meal plus Proms in the Park in Sept. Plus I got us both a Swedish massage and afternoon tea offer I saw on Wowcher for £49

Sadly the triple points on my new Amazon Mastercard have just finished but I managed to get £190 in vouchers, thanks to paying for the windows on it, which will go towards Xmas. We are saving P! N3c0ne vouchers and I am doing N3ctar adpoints too, as were aiming for a free Xmas food shop at Sainsburys. Think we are up to about £50 so far.

Well, all for now, til next time..