Mortgage Free In 12 Months

RosieTiger

Carafan wrote: »

Which leaves us with £7,745.07 to find. Now looking at our SOA it looks do-able however at the moment the money that we are supposed to have left each month just isn't there!!!!
I know that it gets frittered away on stuff

In our experience it never will be!
get the monet out of your account as soon as your paid, either straight off the mortgage as an OP, or into your savings account. That way you will always have the money your supposed to - wait till the end of the month and it will ALWAYS be frittered to some extent - that's my big learning from this !!!

gallygirl

Hello :wave:

I love the fact that you have identified WHY you want to pay off the mortgage rather than just for its' own sake - that must make it so much easier to motivate yourself (in theory at least :rotfl:)

Carafan

Hi and thank you for the replies,

Getmore4less - Well spotted, we do use are car to tow a caravan! Its a Freelander and they need 225/55/17 extra load and the Pirelli Scorpian are the most suitable or so hubbie says! Must update SOA as I haven't budgeted anywhere near enough (especially as my car is 20 years old!)

RosieTiger - You are so right! In January this is what I am looking to do, December is such a difficult month to budget as all sorts of unexpected expenses seem to come out of the blue. I am going to have a look at the current account and move some money out though - if its not there I can't spend it LOL.

gallygirl - It really does make a difference to me to have a reason for doing all of this. Our normal mortgage payments are £147 and so not having a mortgage wouldn't make a huge difference to our disposable income. I don't think that this alone would motivate me and so having a goal gives me challenge!

Going to go and have another look at that SOA now!

Take care

Carafan

Just had a look at the current account and it seemed quite healthy so have transferred £300 into the savings, so only £264 to save by the end of the year.

I think that there was more in the current account than expected as we haven't been anywhere because all of the snow! It was my Sisters birthday last week and we were supposed to be going out for a meal. As they were snowed in we picked up a take away and trudged over to see them - we all had a great night but at a fraction of the cost!!!

getmore4less

Been having a think,

You don't say what the mortgage deal is but the reality of mortgage free is net debt zero so saving=mortgage

With the job uncertainty you probably don't want to use all the savings so have you looked at an offset mortgage?

Depending on your current deal it may not cost any more to switch and you then can keep a line of credit open for as long as you need(upto retirement) to get you through any financial crisis and manage cash flows

Another point

Good budgeting is all about planning where you need to spend and where you want to spend/save the surplus. having long term plans/goals like retire at 45:D can help focus the savings side.
When you have a good surpluss is it easy to loose sight of value for money and fritter money away.

You say
December is such a difficult month to budget as all sorts of unexpected expenses seem to come out of the blue
Thats this year in a budget none of these unexpected items will happen next year because you put them in the budget.

Don't forget the saving for new cars and caravan line in the budget.
I would also review the towing needs for the next purchase, this beast costs a lot to run.

you also say.
I think that there was more in the current account than expected as we haven't been anywhere because all of the snow! It was my Sisters birthday last week and we were supposed to be going out for a meal. As they were snowed in we picked up a take away and trudged over to see them - we all had a great night but at a fraction of the cost!!!

This is a classic example of how you can adjust spending with little impact on lifestyle, the cost of a meal out goes a long way when DIY with a takeaway, and even further if you cook, the compensation is to use some of the saving to up the quality of the in house eats/drinks.

If you do your spends on an annual basis you get a better idea of the tradeoffs, that once a week takeaway could be another holiday(or 2 tyres for the freelander)


On the food front and ready meals, why not make your own by bulk cooking some of your dishes and saving some, slow cooker works great for this, your sample menu had 4 meals that could be bulked and frozen
You can get the plastic containers cheap from a chinese hypermarket if you have one nearby(we got a set of 50 for £5.50 in wing yip london).

JAQUAN.JO

You can get the plastic containers cheap from a chinese hypermarket if you have one nearby(we got a set of 50 for £5.50 in wing yip london).
...........

Carafan

Hello,

Wow GM4L thank you for your comments - thats given me more food for thought!:beer:
Hmmmm I like the idea of an offset mortgage, we did enquire through Barclays a while back however our mortgage wasn't big enough and so they declined us!!!!

We do have some other savings in a cash ISA which is our emergency fund and once the mortgage is paid off we will build on this, at present there is just over £3000 in there so not enough really but we do still have our other savings untill we pay our mortgage off in full. This would leave us vunerable for a few months between paying off the mortgage and building up some more savings. It may be wise to hold off paying off the mortgage untill we have a larger emergency fund - decisions, decisions:D

Its all about budgeting isn't it - not something that I am good at I admit:o But I am getting better:D

No Chinese supermarket near here as we are quite rural however I do have a good stockpile of assorted plastic containers! We grow alot of our own fruit and veg and with the added bonus of having a polytunnel had a glut of toms this year- my freezer is bursting with various soups and sauces made over the summer. Homemade bread and soup make a very cheap (and healthy) lunch:)

Its really good to see other peoples comments as a fresh pair of eyes can shed light on something that could be easily missed.

Right,going to take another look at that budget now.............

getmore4less

Hmmmm I like the idea of an offset mortgage, we did enquire through Barclays a while back however our mortgage wasn't big enough and so they declined us!!!!


Ah that old issue,

You just borrow more and offset the extra

The Barclays offset is good we have one, and you can offset cash ISAs but not too cheap to set up unless they still do the free switch and save option.

First Direct have a good cheap one at a great rate.

gerbiljo

hey this is a great goal, i hope u manage to shift it before the fireworks go off for 2012!

Carafan

Well its been a week since I last posted, the reason being that I've not been well:(

On the good side I also haven't been very far so haven't spent very much:j

So not much to report really I do have plans to spend some time working on a serious budget for 2011. That way I will be able to put the amount needed into my savings at the begining of the month rather than seeing what is left at the end of the month.
Today I need see what I need to spend before christmas (still a few bits to get!) - I still have to find £264 before the end of the year to be on target!!!

Hope that everyone elses plans are going well:)