PurpleJay's Journey to be Morgage Free by 50

PurpleJay

Hi All

I am off to the Nationwide today to put plans in motion. Will post more later.

Managed to bring lunch to work today again so no spends here. It all helps!

PurpleJay

I have set up my E-ISA and transferred funds from it to my current account and then into my new 'Mortgage Account' ready to make my first overpayment

Also set up my other piggybank accounts (all e savings) and as hubby transferred in his cash contribution for this term, they are looking good and should be fine to cover the necessary expenses occurring before the start of the next term - car tax and insurance for example. He also transferred a bit extra (student finance backpay - more to follow once we get the paperwork sorted) which has also gone straight into the mortgage account to be overpaid

Grocery challenge going well and still on target. We overspent a bit in Venice but had a great time Beautiful city. Lil man is awake so got to go! More soon....

SeriouslySeekingtoSave

Good to see you are keeping the momentum going. That's the real trick here; it's easy to have an energy burst at the start and then just forget about it as life piles other things in your way. I'm currently making myself think about my mortgage every single day - a bit obsessive perhaps but it means it's always at the forefront of my mind. It doesn't stop me from spending money or living my life, it just means that I'm always keeping the idea of my mortgage there.

Wishing you consistancy and determination!

PurpleJay

Heard nothing from Halifax re new current account - very odd.

Decided to ring again which I did this morning and asked if I could just make a payment from my own account using online banking and the sort code and account no - which I was told is fine!!!

Anyway, using online banking I have just made my first overpayment of £9,500 yay!!! I need to phone up when the payment has cleared 3-5 days to tell them to reduce the term rather than the monthly payments. Go me:j

Now need to ring current account dept to see what is happening and tell em not to bother!

Hope everyone is well.

Spiggle

Wow!!!!!

Well done PurpleJay! Fantastic OP. :T:T:T

You are so organised :A you're definitely going to be MF by the time you're 50. Keep up the excellent work.

All the best,
Spigs

PurpleJay

Thanks Spigs

It was a good feeling :j

Future overpayments are likely to be much less as we don't have a high income, although hubby is due some more student grant money and child care assistance from last year (still jumping through hoops with the paperwork) and so we may be able to pay some of that off the mortgage when it comes through if we can manage without it - we have so far!

I will post an SOA at some point to see if there are any suggestions but we probably have covered most of the major savings by now.

Signing up for the Feb grocery challenge with a little reduction on last month - I am allowing £280 for Feb which will be £70 each weekend.

Hopefully will get a few more bits and bobs listed on Ebay this evening too and planning to keep up with the no buying work lunches thing in Feb too.

PurpleJay

My SOA - comments welcome. Will have a good look later if I am missing or underestimating anything. Just ran through this quickly from my budget brain budget plan and the underspend there comes in at £268 so there must be some things I have missed off here ....


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 3
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 770.35 (my part time wages)
Partners monthly income after tax....... 390 (contributes £90pw)
Benefits................................ 525.46 (tax credits and child benefit)
Other income............................ 400 (mums monthly contribution)
Total monthly income.................... 2085.81

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 399.7
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 151.67
Electricity............................. 50
Gas..................................... 50
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 38.29
Telephone (land line)................... 38 (includes broadband)
Mobile phone............................ 25 (on contract and recently upgraded - cannot reduce for 2 years by which time I might need a new phone again!)
TV Licence.............................. 0 (free as mum is over 70)
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0 (with phone above)
Groceries etc. ......................... 300 (trying to reduce)
Clothing................................ 20 (plus anything made on ebay can be spent...)
Petrol/diesel........................... 100 (approx - currently monitoring this)
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 30
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 16.67
Car parking............................. 2 (occasionally for shops)
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 220 (should get some help with this from Student Finance - sorting paperwork for claim)
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10 (get free prescription and dentist - buy glasses every 2 years at approx £240)
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 20 (cats to old for insurance - this should cover vet bills and flea treatment although I may need to increase it)
Buildings insurance..................... 35.95 (incl contents)
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 28.21 (life & critical illness cover)
Other insurance......................... 5 (life)
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 41.67 (estimating £500 per year)
Haircuts................................ 30 (just recently started getting it coloured at the hairdressers - my treat to myself)
Entertainment........................... 50 (don't go out much family days out, meals out, cinema etc covered here)
Holiday................................. 80 (allowing £1000 per year - we like to go twice and are very keen to get the best deal - try for 1 uk holiday and 1 abroad)
Emergency fund.......................... 20
Total monthly expenses.................. 1772.16


Assets
Cash.................................... 12000
House value (Gross)..................... 240000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 8000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 260000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 77436....(399.7)....3.49 (Not taken off recent overpayment of 9.5K as yet)
Total secured & HP debts...... 77436.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,085.81
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,772.16
Available for debt repayments........... 313.65
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 313.65

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 260,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -77,436
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 182,564

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

PurpleJay

Morning all, time for a little update.

I have just phoned the Halifax regarding my overpayment and it has been received safely - phew!

I explained I would like to reduce the term and he did me a rough calculation and it brings it down to about 19yrs 6m from 23yrs 5m :j They will send a letter with exact amounts on in the next week or so.

For Feb I have joined the Grocery Challenge, No buying work lunches challenge, No buying toiletries challenge and have taken a food and toiletries inventory:eek:

PurpleJay

Feburary 2013. 2 years on!

Well, I lost my momentum after my initial burst of enthusiasm and have ended up overspending. We had a rough year in 2011 with my mum being poorly and a great deal (3 months worth) of hospital visiting/parking and costa coffees! We also bought some new stuff for the house, a new bed, some flooring and although hubby paid for a new kitchen I had to accessorise! I am now trying to get back in control and have been giving some serious thought to trying to get my savings back up and start to pay extra off the mortgage even if only small amounts to start with.

I am currently working part time 18.5hours contracted and 6.5 hours additional. I am also an Avon Rep. Hubby is a full time student and is in his final year of Uni.He has been buying and selling furniture to make a bit of extra cash and this is going well so he is going to give that a good go to start with when uni finishes. Hopefully he will be earning properly before the end of the year and he is happy to throw some extra cash at the mortgage once he is.

We are a household of me (40), hubby (47) and son (6). Mum went into hospital in the summer of 2011 and moved to a care home in the November so is no longer living with us. We have 3 cats.

As mum is no longer in the grannie annexe, we are using one room as storage (for the ebay stuff) and the other as an office (for ebay, avon and studies). We wondered about renting out the space but as it is the converted garages we have no other storage so would end up renting some. It is a possible option for the future though - maybe Mon-Fri lets. We will see how the business goes.

I have signed up to the Ultimate February Challenge on the Debt Free Wanabe Board. I am finding these challenges a great motivator

My mortgage is currently with the Halifax and I owe just under £63K. I have this week been looking into remortgaging with them. I have 17 years and 8 months to go!

I have been on the SVR of 3.99 since last August.Halifax are offering a 5 year fixed rate of 3.64 which I am going to go for. This will reduce my current montly payments from £415 to £405 but there are no fees and I only need to send an email to get it changed.

I am going to ask them to set up the direct debit to make a small over payment, probably £25 per month. This means my montly payments would be £430. Not much but it is a start. Just by doing this, according to the calculator I will knock 18 months off the term!

My ISA savings are down to 8K from 10K so I need to catch that back up as well. I am hoping to do this by the end of the year.

Just going to work out my budget again using the budget planner and finish my meal planning which I started on Thursday. Oh and I need to put some more washing on.

More soon

PurpleJay

New Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1046 (including current overtime)
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0 (covered in other income as we keep our finances separate)
Benefits................................ 520 (tax credits and child benefit)
Other income............................ 390 (board from hubby)
Total monthly income.................... 1956

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 430
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 114 (taking into account student discount)
Electricity............................. 100 (estimates for gas and elec as we have been underpaying due to meter readings being transposed. Npower sorting but could take up to 90 days. Bill currently shows is in credit and paying £67 per month which is wrong)
Gas..................................... 60
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 30
Telephone (land line and internet)..... 20
Mobile phone............................ 35 (hopefully less. On contract for new iphone for 2 years
TV Licence.............................. 13
Groceries etc. ......................... 300 (trying to get this down)
Clothing................................ 50 (complete guess)
Petrol/diesel........................... 180 (trying to get this down)
Road tax................................ 15
Car Insurance........................... 40
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 25
Other child related expenses............ 60
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 20
Buildings and contents insurance..................... 42
Life assurance and critical illness cover......................... 34
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 50 (a guess)
Holiday................................. 100 (1 uk and 1 abroad - I pay 1/2 and hubby pays the other half)
Emergency fund.......................... 20
Bank account fees....................... 9.50 (includes mobile phone cover, gadget cover, worldwide travel insurance)
ILEX subscription....................... 14 (est)
child trust fund........................ 5
charity................................. 3
Total monthly expenses.................. 1849


Figures rounded up/down.


Assets
Cash.................................... 10600 (this included 8K in savings and the rest in pots for car, vet, holiday, birthdays/xmas, clothes/hair and house)
House value (Gross)..................... 230000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 4000
Other assets............................ 1000
Total Assets............................ 245600


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 63000....(430)......3.64
Total secured & HP debts...... 63000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,956
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,849
Available for debt repayments........... 107
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 107

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 245,600
Total HP & Secured debt................. -63,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 182,600

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

I have not included my Avon in my income and according to the SOA I should be able to save £100 per month. Add to this the Avon and anything ebayed or saved on fuel and groceries and I should be able to save more - thats the theory!