Mortgage Free? In my dream, or maybe a reality!!

chella71

Thank you LilacPixie and Jock-Tight for the great advice, I will definitely look into both.
Although for the £1000 one my organsiational skills can be quite shocking so will have to put reminders everywhere to make sure I don't end up going overdrawn anywhere

Chella x

newgirly

Hi Chella, just wanted to pop in and say hi! have just read your diary and wanted to wish you good luck.
Be careful though you might end MFW obsessed

chella71

Right now that it is a new year it is time to get organised financially, have carried on being a bit wasteful with money through out December as I have a birthday in December too. I find that my DH needs no encouragement to go out and spend a fortune on eating out and much as I encourage him to make sarnies for work by buying the food in, he still pops into town and spends a fortune on pre packed sarnies

Going to be more determined at ;
Saying NO to a pub lunch
Sticking to meal plans (constantly manage to freeze my bulk cooking and then forget about it)
Going to list what food I have in store cupboard and try to plan meals from that
Try to buy a few things in the sales that are not 'just because they are on sale' but that will actually have a purpose throughout the year, e.g. birthdays, school fetes, raffles etc
Try to use the car less and my feet more :rotfl:
And a biggy for me, sometimes mend things rather than chuck them!!
Have made 3 overpayments now of a massive £75 per month, but I see it as better than nothing.
We are waiting for planning permission at the moment and our architect has pulled the plans as the planning officer at the council doesn't like one of the dormers, so not sure but will probably have to wait another few weeks to get permission now , so budgeting for mortgage overpayments is difficult at the moment, will carry on with the £75 and see what happens.
Anyway happy new year to all and lets hope that this year will bring delight to all of our mortgage accounts!!!!!!!!!! (for us that is :T)
Chella

twinklie

Sounds good...good luck with everything I shall be following you with interest.

cha97michelle

Happy new year. Will be good to see you posting more regularly.

chella71

How do you get a hubby who is not at all good at belt tightening to become better :cool:

Some training is required!! He was made redundant in November 2009 getting a decent amount of redundancy, managed to get a new job near on straight away but it pays over 4k less a year, which I think is quite a lot. He hasn't overly changed his ways, but is progressing slowly forwards, doesn't cop out at any chance not to take sarnies to work, but still will use his car for journeys of less than a mile without even thinking about it, loves his sky tv but that would definitely be too big a sacrifice for him it's just he now wants HD etc and it just all adds up when you have taken a pay cut, I'm also very wary of the mortgage rate rising sometime soon:o I think I mentally started the money saving journey long before him so maybe it is just taking a little longer for him to convert, we , before children, were VERY wasteful but it's amazing how quickly they can help convert you when you find out how much you are spending on them, clothes, school trips etc etc etc etc etc .

Anyway just a little mental ramble of my own there, so I can look back in a year or twos time and see if anything has changed!

I'm definitely getting better and better at saying no to things, getting wiser with the food shopping and cooking, hence saving more and enjoying it too, maybe will even be able to up the overpayments soon, mortgage rate dependant, but if I could get hubby to tighten his belt a bit more too we could maybe absorb a few interest rate rises before they affect us?!?
Ramble over
:p
Chella x

chella71

Wow haven't posted in ages!! Think it's because things are muddling along well at the moment, we are still squirreling away for the extension (still waiting for planning to sort themselves out!!) we have just under £20k saved for that at the moment as we are determined not to add to the mortgage. we only had £11k of this in an ISA until today but have now managed to open another ISA for just over the £5k, that leaves us with just under £3k that we are not sure what to do with, I have an ISA amount I could use but we may need the money before the end of the year and I'm not sure how that will affect it?
We are still overpaying by our miniscule £75 a month but it now is starting to feel like something as since November that has turned into £525 so on our way to our first one thousand pound early repayment!!

Not sure if any of you will know the answer to this offhand but got my sons annual saving statement today and on his £446.61 he only earned £2.41 interest and paid 48p back in tax, I always thought that childrens accounts were tax free?? And also a savings rate of 0.75% is terrible for a child isn't it?! Really need to become more savvy with all of this!!

Right off to water all my veggie seedlings and strawbs etc that I have done for this year, feeling really pleased with myself at the mo, but what's the betting that at some point I'll forget to water or re pot etc etc!! Definitely trying to be more determined this year!!

Chella xx

Lois_E

Children's accounts are the same as adults' accounts - you pay tax on them unless you complete a form (forget it's name but think it begins with R) to say you're under the tax threshold. Most children don't have much income, so you can complete the form for them and they should then get their interest gross.

chella71

Thank you Lois, I didn't know that, sorry for being thick but do you mean the total of the child's income?? Not the parents?


Well you know what I was saying about doing well with my seedlings, young plants, well ....... the darn dog went out in the garden and buried his blooming bone in my tomato and courgette grow bags :mad::mad::mad::mad: I have had a stern word with him and threatened the no more bones, locked kennels etc etc, not sure he bothered listening though

Off to try and rescue some very sad looking tomato plants!!

A slightly peeved Chella

LittleMissAspie

chella71 wrote: »

we have just under £20k saved for that at the moment as we are determined not to add to the mortgage.

I'm sure it would be cheaper long term to pay the £20k to the higher rate mortgage and then borrow it again later.