Five years for Spigs to be Mortgage Free!

Sunnyday

Hi Spigs :wave:

so glad that you`ve worked out what to do, the fiver is a drop in the ocean compared to CC interest :eek:

I did the same thing myself when we revamped the kitchen last year and i bought a new cooker :rotfl:

I`m very mindful of paying off the CC each month too, if i couldn`t do it then i wouldn`t use it tbh as all the penny saving would then be swallowed up and then some.

Well done with the OP`s :j

SD

Spiggle

Thanks Sunnyday,

I tend to only use the Amex for petrol really as that's already in the budget and doesn't normally stretch us. But it has a huge interest rate so it has to be paid off at month end no matter what.

The 0% CC payments are all planned out and the only difference this change will make is that the last payment in October will be a full payment i.e. £230 instead of the reduced £90 one. But the difference it will make this month is huge as I have breathing space again.

Thanks for catching up with my diary. I'll be back to log the mortgage OP on Tuesday. :T

All the best,
Spigs

ETA: I should have thanked black taxi for pointing out on the MFW2011 thread how little my arranged overdraft would cost.

Long_tall_sally

Glad to see you back posting an update Spiggle!

Spiggle

Long_tall_sally wrote: »

Glad to see you back posting an update Spiggle!

Thanks LTS,

I hope you're ok, I've missed you on the GC.

January has been huge on there with all the newbies joining. Are you having a break from it until it quietens/settles down a bit? Rosieben suggested that it can be very busy in Jan/Feb as people make new years resolutions and things but quite a few can then sometimes be lost after that. It'll be interesting to see as I make my first full year in March.

Anyway, most important thing is that I hope you are ok.

All the best and take care,
Spigs

mummalove

Hi Spigs,

I've just come across your diary and have read it with some interest. We have approx 7 1/2 yrs left on our mortgage and I am hoping to pay it off in at least 5 years when I will be 46 and DH 50. My main reason for this is simply to take the pressure off of DH as his job is very stressful and being MF would open many different options for him . We just have a small number of CC bills to pay off (literally in the next couple of months), then I want to give our savings a boost and start with the OPs...so I am a MFW in waiting I guess

It is so important to look to the future and try to make it as 'comfortable' as possible BUT also ensure we enjoy day-to-day life in the meantime!

Am looking forward to reading your updates.

Long_tall_sally

Agh thanks Spiggle - yes I suppose I am having a bit of a break from the GC. It is so busy on there at the moment & it is hard to keep up with it as there are only so many hours in the day! I have been frequenting the "up your income" thread lately which I am really enjoying plus a couple of MFW diaries, including your good self! But I did read the last few pages on the GC last night & must get round to adding up my receipts & posting Jan's total & Feb's so far. No doubt however, the figures are as bad as normal!

Spiggle

mummalove wrote: »

Hi Spigs,

I've just come across your diary and have read it with some interest. We have approx 7 1/2 yrs left on our mortgage and I am hoping to pay it off in at least 5 years when I will be 46 and DH 50. My main reason for this is simply to take the pressure off of DH as his job is very stressful and being MF would open many different options for him . We just have a small number of CC bills to pay off (literally in the next couple of months), then I want to give our savings a boost and start with the OPs...so I am a MFW in waiting I guess

It is so important to look to the future and try to make it as 'comfortable' as possible BUT also ensure we enjoy day-to-day life in the meantime!

Am looking forward to reading your updates.

Thanks mummalove,

You're so right about taking the pressure off. I've been lucky in that in the last couple of years I've managed to go part time with very little difference to my take home salary and without having to drive the thousands of miles a year that I was before!

OH is slightly different as he's in a manual job that is fairly stable/secure but we had a bit of a health scare when he got a DVT in August and he got knocked off his push bike by a car last Wednesday :eek: so it will be good to have options for him sooner rather than later. He also has a kidney problem that is hereditary but dormant at the present time thankfully. Because he was diagnosed at a relatively early age and has been monitored and medicated accordingly, he's well past his family life expectancy. His Dad died of it when he was 38 and his Brother just before his 40th. So we are very grateful for the life we have and anything we can do to make it better and less stressful is all to the good.

I wish you luck in clearing your CC and look forward to reading your MFW diary soon.

Take care,
Spigs

Spiggle

Long_tall_sally wrote: »

Agh thanks Spiggle - yes I suppose I am having a bit of a break from the GC. It is so busy on there at the moment & it is hard to keep up with it as there are only so many hours in the day! I have been frequenting the "up your income" thread lately which I am really enjoying plus a couple of MFW diaries, including your good self! But I did read the last few pages on the GC last night & must get round to adding up my receipts & posting Jan's total & Feb's so far. No doubt however, the figures are as bad as normal!

I'm glad you're ok LTS even if you are still knocking yourself out over your GC budget!

I do know what you mean the thread has grown at an amazing rate in January and I have had evenings where all I do is read that as I'm trying to catch up! _pale_ It does though keep me really really focussed so I'm loathe to not read it iyswim. I do have to say though there have been some superb recipes posted this month that rosieben has added to the recipe list so pros and cons I suppose. :think:

Anyway, really glad to see you're well and still on the forum generally. :T Don't go knocking yourself too much if you don't make it. You've been getting closer recently and you do have a lot of extenuating circumstances if I remember rightly. Go gentle on yourself.

All the best,
Spigs

Spiggle

Hello, :hello:

Update for Feb firstly. Yesterday the standard payment and OP went out of the account by SO. According to my spreadsheet this is roughly where we stand:

Total payment made = £839 of which:
Total mortgage OP made = £424
Total mortgage capital pay down made = £800
Approximate mortgage outstanding = £49,406

CC payment made = £90
Total CC outstanding = £1,840

Therefore, total outstanding debt = £51,246

Great to see the total mortgage below the £50k mark. :T

On another note, my head is scrambled! Quite apart from the fact I have a slamming headache which is threatening to turn into a migraine, I've just been looking again at the firstdirect account. I even rang them to check a couple of things too. The joining payment of £100 is obviously a draw (who doesn't like free money) but it's the regular saver that is really doing my head in.

It seems such a good deal and is tempting me to stash all the money I'm currently OPing into it for a year. But I've just reread my second post about why I don't save rather than OP and I'm going around in circles again. It's my fourth reason for not doing it (my crude interest calculations) that's really hitting home plus the fact that we are who we are. :mad:

Perhaps I need to go with the FD current account and stick what we're putting into our ISAs every month in there instead. :undecided but then I'd be losing the tax wrapper. But then when it matures next year I could shove it in an ISA then. Oh, decisions, decisions, ...
And to cap it all I can't find the neat little calculator that tells you you have to be earning *% interest in a taxable account to beat the *% interest in an ISA.

I think perhaps I need to think about this when I'm not so tired and my head's not thumping.

If you have read this and have any ideas, suggestions, comments, I'd really appreciate them.

See you tomorrow,
Spigs

Sunnyday

Hi Spigs :wave:

well done on getting the balance below £50,000 :j:beer:

When a milestone is passed its such a great feeling!

Re the different accounts/interest - i`ve also spent many hours pondering the same things, in the end i just couldn`t decide so i decided to ignore it and just pay down the mortgage.

I know that i would have made a few pounds more in interest but tbh i didn`t want the hassle and my main goal was to see the balance drop. To see it gradually coming down is the big motivator for me and if i had put the money elsewhere then i think that i would have run out of steam a while ago.

It will all depend on how much time that you have to move money around and i don`t have that much so the simple way for me was to stop stressing over it. Pop it all down on a piece of paper and keep having a peek is all that i can suggest. Look at how you feel the most motivated and go for it.

Good luck with making a decision.

SD