Dahlia's Mortgage Free Journey

Dahlia_Girl

Hi all,
After being a lurker here for some time, decided to take the plunge and register.
I have decided that 2011 is going to be the year I re-group, re-focus and take control! :T

We have an offset mortgage, and bumbled along in 2010 without really paying anything off it:eek:. Not good! We also have an old policy due to mature in 2017, and my longterm plan is to have paid enough of the mortgage off to be able to use this to clear the remaining mortgage when it matures.

So after reading other's diaries on here, which I have found very motivating, I decided if I posted my progress, it might spur me on a bit and help to keep me on track when the novelty wears off!:cool:

Okay....here we go....just 76 payments left.....:eek:

yukkibear

welcome to the boards and good luck with your journey

PurpleJay

Welcome and good luck!

Dahlia_Girl

Right - I think I've sorted my budget. I've split it down further on paper but will simplify it here.

The family allowance (or whatever its called now;)) is paid into a sep account, and I think should cover all the children's activities, clothing and school uniforms, birthdays and christmas presents.

Annual basic income is £21,300. There is the chance for both of us to do overtime.

Direct Debits £5880 (council tax, water, gas, elec, insurances, TV license and sky, mobiles and bt, etc )

Cars £924 (for work and a classic VW camper) insure, tax and MOt.

Petrol £2400

Mortgage £1680 This is just the interest that is added each month, not paying any off the capital!

Food £4800 - 2 adults, 2 kids, a dog and some chickens! I'm hoping this is an overestimate, but they will all go mad if I cut right back straight away. My plan is softly softly and hopefully they wont notice the changes.

Clothes, etc - £1200, we both have to buy clothes for work, contribute to coffee fund etc, plus this will cover presents for each other, and anything else we want to buy over the year.

Others £3360 - I can create 'pots' online to save for things. The money is still working to reduce mortgage interest, but I can see it building up for if I need it. I plan to put £100 a month into a holiday fund, £55 a month into a House maintenance fund, £75 to Car Maintenance fund, and £50 to a contingencies fund. I can't tell the family we're not going on hols because I want the money for the mortgage, so if I budget for it then hopefully we will be within budget. Cars - maintenance varies each year but I want to know there is money there for any disasters - similarly the House maintenance. If we dont spend any money maintaining it, there's little point paying the mortgage off as it crumbles around our ears!

And contingencies was an idea off this board - just in case the washer breaks, the boiler stops working etc.

So, fingers crossed - at the end of the year most of this £3360 will still be in the bank. I plan to leave half of it in the pots to start me off in 2012, and use the other half as an overpayment.

So, with my lovely budget, I have £1056 a year to pay off the mortgage balance!!!!:eek:

So Martin will have to keep this site going for over 25 years before I will have paid off my mortgage:eek::eek::eek:

Might need a rethink!:o:(

EDIT - to say sorry for rambling on so!

alex_p

Welcome and good luck!

dimbo61

yOU DONT GIVE THE MORTGAGE balance or interest rate but that must be one big mortgage if you are paying £1680 a month IO !!!!
In fact on £21K each I dint know how you got it ?

originalmiscellany

Quick number crunching:

You say that your mortgage is:
Mortgage £1680 This is just the interest that is added each month, not paying any off the capital!

200,000 mortgage at 6% for 7 years is "just" 1k a month.
In fact a 200k mortgage at 10% for 7 years would give you £1,666 a month on interest - how on earth did you get your mortgage in the first stage?!

All the best with your hunt, I think that you should be able to make MASSIVE savings on interest me thinks.


EDIT:
I assume that's 1680 over the year as opposed to per month?

Dahlia_Girl

Lol - I didn't word it very clearly!
Yes, its the annual amount of interest added - approx £140 per month!

Dahlia_Girl

Okay, still working on it - thoughts so far.

Approx £26600 to pay off, then balance in 2017 will equal insurance policy value. £26600 / 76 months = £350 a month.

Currently budget allows for £88. There are 2 months with no council tax payment, and 4 months with 5 child tax credit payments not four. (approx £500 over yr - or £40 mth) We get an average of £110 overtime between us.

So thats £238. Need around another £100 of savings then.

Mortgage interest, Council tax, water, TV license, ins policy, MOT, car tax - all fixed
BT - have already changed deal and halved previous payments
Sky - currently on a half price deal, will prob cancel when it ends
Mobiles - have 10 more months on current contracts

Need to :

• investigate if we are still on best elec/gas deal (checked about 8 months ago and we were then)
• see if I can get better car insurance prices for my car and the classic car
• see if I can get better deal on house insurance (due in sept though)
• Getting new life insurance quote tomorrow

Other than that - 2 options - increase income or decrease food spending!!!

Will mull that over on way to dentist:rotfl: