My Mortgage Free Diary

mpgsheep

Hi Peonie,

At the moment yes, we overpay by £800 per month, although it is going into 3 regular savers rather the mortgage (as our SVR is only 2%). We are quite fortunate in that our mortage payment dropped by £450 when we came off our fixed rate last September, and then in November I moved jobs and increased my pay, and my OH went back to work after Maternity leave also, so quite a bit extra cash all round. We initially began overpaying £400 pcm directly in January, but then revised it a couple of months ago to take advantage of our low interest rate (whilst we can!).

Def agree with your paying off the £700 you had earmarked for the mortgage anyway. It is all to easy to spend "bonus" money, when really you never miss it if it goes into the mortgage, and you get the "bonus" back in interest and months off your mortgage at the end!

mpgsheep

2 items sold on ebay today, for £45 towards paying holiday off at end of September. Def close to running out of things to sell now, nice to not be so cluttered everywhere though. Am eagerly awaiting August 1st, as hopefully should see some interest on our ISAs.

Peonie

I've not tried ebaying or amazoning yet, but I'm going to try soon.

mpgsheep

I haven't tried Amazon, but I am a big fan of ebay for small items that are easily packaged. I have stayed away from doing larger items as been stung on postage and sheer effort involved before. My Mum is supposed to be doing a bootsale this year, so the few larger items we want to shift am hoping to include there in exchange for some (not very much!) muscle on the day.

mpgsheep

July Update
Phoned Direct line and the mortgage is:-£152,099.46

Reg Savers
First Direct = £1500
N+P = £1000
N+P = £750

Total Overpayment Savings = £3250

Mortgage remaining = Mortgage - OP Savings = £149,329.27

Am pleased to break the 150k mark, is also significant in that it gives us 25% equity now, assuming valuation of April this year was and remains correct. So should we need to move to a new mortgage product, then hopefully be in a better position. Still 150k does seem a long way to go still!

Peonie

Well done. If we continue to pay as normal we'll only reach the £150k mark next April.

mpgsheep

Thanks. Recently had a bit of a rethink to our strategy. Despite the general economic situation, house prices where we would like to move to in the long term just aren't changing, and we don't want to move to an interim place and make do for 5-10 years and then move again. So we are setting ourselves up for a longer than planned stay at our current place, with the intention of paying off this mortgage/saving big deposit for when it makes sense to move. However on the flipside we have both agreed we would like to make our current home nicer all round in terms of decor. We decorated almost all of it in the first year we moved, however we did this all ourselves, and took shortcuts (due to cost), so although it is habitable, everywhere looks a bit underdone. So we are cutting back on the overpayments to have some decorating done. Intital plan is to do 1-2 rooms every 6 months, starting with DS room and spare room (intention is for DS to move into spare room, and his old room be room for the next one whenever that will be).

Also, I quit my current (new last november!) job last week, and am going back to my old company in a different role in 2 months time. However my salary will be lower initially, however in the long term the salary/bonus prospects should be (all going well) a lot better.

So a bit of upheaval, and seems a shame to be reducing our overpayments, but am sure this is right for both of us. We both feel really happy and excited to get the place done properly, and then in 5-10 years be in a better place to look at moving. At the moment, provisionally reducing overpayments down to £300 per month, and see how it goes. All the "decorating/building" money will be going into an easy access saver, so will still be earning interest above the interest rate on our mortgage, and if it does build up and rates rise, then maybe will be the odd lumpsum overpayment hitting the mortgage. Once money etc has gone out this month will update my signature and totals.

mpgsheep

Oh dear I do think I (we) come across as the most inconsistent people on the board....

After visiting a friend's new place in a different area (still same general area but further from train station for me, not near family etc), and seeing how much space etc they have for same price we paid for our flat, we are now thinking about moving!!!:eek:

Cue a constant assault of rightmove recommendations in my inbox...

Will keep you posted, regardless we will be doing all we can to save money and reduce mortgage!

Peonie

Oh dear I do think I (we) come across as the most inconsistent people on the board....

:rotfl: fantastic.

Sometimes I think the same, I joined the MFW board and then decided to save for a rainy day.

I hope you find the house of your dreams.

Are you still thinking of moving to your long term house, or are you looking for an interim house?

mpgsheep

Well it was to be an interim house. However I think we have finally ruled it out. When we move we want that to be that, and then can go full throttle in decorating etc as to what we want exactly, to be living in area we want and have size of house we want. Seeing as we in the right area now, and it is very cheap to live here for now and forseeable future (due to mortgage being 1.5% above base), it seems that moving to an interim place would just cost us a bunch of money + hassle, and that would delay our move to the forever place (as seems like circa 10k swallowed up in stamp duty/solicitors/agents fees etc in moving). What seems to be a sensible plan is to keep overpaying/saving, and see how my new job goes (as potential in a couple of years to be doing a lot better), and then be in a much better position to get the forever house.

So yes even more indecision. We are both far too impulsive and swept up in new ideas, is very dangerous!