A blissful home - mortgage_girl's MF diary

Stressfree_WB

Good luck with your journey

I read you like to save. Have you every considered an offset mortgage. I've recently remortgaged to one on a low rate. I like the security of having savings available , so I decided to stop making extra overpayments and make my savings work for me .For eg my mortgage balance is 78k , I have 16k offset savings so essentially I'm only paying interest on 62k. My term is 10 years but with the rate I'm saving, it's knocked 2 years 8 months off.

mortgage_girl

Stressfree_WB wrote: »

Good luck with your journey

I read you like to save. Have you every considered an offset mortgage.

Thanks Stressfree it's nice of you to stop by :wave: I did consider it but i'm currently able to withdraw any of the overpayments i've made and as i'm on a pretty low rate it probably wouldn't be cost effective to change mortgage provider. Like you, I do like the security of having savings so I have an emergency fund set aside just in case.

Today has been a productive day. I've sat and done all my planning ready for going back to work next week and spent the rest of the day in the kitchen blanching leftover veggies and batch cooking a bean bolognese. So i'm feeling very virtuous. :A

I'm going to reward myself with an evening spent chilling and watching The Walking Dead - I may not sleep well tonight! :eek:

Have a good evening everyone.

MGx

icontinuetodream

Wow!!!.....you have achieved loads this year mortgage girl!! :Tgood luck for 2014!! :beer:

Stressfree_WB

I've just had a good read through your posts. Really motivating for me. With my offset mrtgage Im paying interest on 62k which I think your mrtgage balance is similar? What year are you planning on saying bye bye mortgage?!

mortgage_girl

icontinuetodream wrote: »

Wow!!!.....you have achieved loads this year mortgage girl!! :Tgood luck for 2014!! :beer:

Thank you I can't quite believe how much I have done - hopefully 2014 will be less expensive.

Stressfree_WB wrote: »

I've just had a good read through your posts. Really motivating for me. With my offset mrtgage Im paying interest on 62k which I think your mrtgage balance is similar? What year are you planning on saying bye bye mortgage?!

Thanks Stressfree - hope you weren't too bored. Yes my remaining balance is virtually the same as yours. I'm hoping to be mortgage free by August 2016, it's going to be a stretch but if I don't aim for it i'll never know.

Happy New Year everyone _party_ - hope there aren't too many hangovers lurking. So today is the first day of working towards my new yearly overpayment target of £11,000. It's much larger than my previous targets but I have fewer expenses going out this year, so I wanted to stretch my pennies as far as they could go.

Today has been a family day but I did manage to squeeze a few MFW activities in. I've spent some time Sw@gbucking and Neobuxing, i've completed a survey and have batch cooked a stew to use up some veggies. I do find it hard to keep up the momentum with surveys so i'm going to aim to complete 365 surveys in 2014 - mini challenges always keep me motivated.

I'm also going to focus on devoting more time to my hobbies this year. Last year I didn't read as much as i'd have liked to, so i'm going to make sure I spend more time with my head in a book this year.:rotfl:I'm also a crafty kinda gal but wasn't as creative as i'd liked to have been last year so i'm going to get crafting again this year. My new year's resolution is to learn how to crochet so i'll be spending quite a bit of time doing that. Apart from that i'm going to focus on enjoying and appreciating what I have - especially the cup of tea that i'm just about to sit down with!

MGx

mortgage_girl

Another survey done today, every little helps. It's been a busy day today, i've decluttered the back bedroom and listed a few bits and pieces on the local fb selling page. I've put away all of my pressies (the tree looks very bare ) and now have a huge stash of choccies in the cupboard that should last me for at least 3 months. I'm having veggie stew for tea (it always tastes better on the second day) and then i'm going to settle down and watch more of The Walking Dead (yep i'm addicted!).

I'm setting myself a grocery budget challenge to help me keep my spending on track for the start of the year (thanks for the inspiration icontinuetodream!). I'm going to see how long I can make £100 last me - generally I spend about £70 a month but I've got a cupboard and freezer full of food and have just stocked up on staples so i'm hoping to make £100 last me 100 days - can it be done? Who knows? But i'm going to give it my best shot! It'll give me a kick up the 'rear' to start meal planning and batch cooking again.

I'm going shopping tomorrow to spend some xmas vouchers I got - can't wait! It'll be good to get away from the house for a while or i'd just end up doing more jobs.

Have a lovely evening.

MGx

linz

Happy New Year MG!

I like the sound of your devoting more time for hobbies this year. Sadly I didn't inherit my mums crafty genes but I would like to (re)learn the guitar. Played a bit at junior school but can't remember much! Other resolutions are to cook more and be a bit more adventurous rather than cooking the same things and to lose the 4lbs I put on over Xmas!

I see you're also saving for a car in your sig block. So am I Should be ready to get one at last later this month. I'm going for a Kia Rio 1.1 diesel. It should cut my fuel bill by a third and no road tax either What model are you thinking of? It's hard to juggle jobs the the house, saving for a newer car and OP's. After the car I think I'm going to put some more into my works pension for a bit. Our mortgage is £22,400 at the mo, so am starting to think of other things I should be doing to become more financially secure whilst still doing smaller overpayments.

Anyway, enough waffling, bye for now :wave:

mortgage_girl

Happy New Year linz :beer: Glad to see you back on the MSE forum, thought you'd disappeared and was going to send out a search party!;) Your new year's resolutions sound good - I definitely like the sound of being more adventurous with what you cook, i'm the same and tend to cook the same stuff. How about trying out a new recipe each month, that way there's not too much pressure?

Well the car fund actually got turned on it's head, I was saving for a new car but my old car blew up (on the motorway :eek:) so I had to bite the bullet and get a new one. I took out a loan rather than use my savings on it, as that seemed the most sensible option -and with hindsight aka broken roof, it was! So my car fund has become my loan repayment total (interest included) iyswim? I bought a mini - not a brand new one, but it had low mileage and so far has been a fantastic little car. I'm aiming to pay it off in August so I really am having to juggle my finances at the moment - it'll be nice to be able tick something off the list though.

Wow, I envy your mortgage total - add an extra £40,000 to that and that's where I am! I'm determined to hammer it down this year though. It sounds like a good plan to pay more into your pension and start thinking about becoming more financially secure - there's no point in doing all this hard work and ignoring the bigger picture.

Bye for now! :wave:

MGx

linz

I tend to be more of a lurker than a poster at the moment. I didn't want to be posting every time I made a small OP, I tend now to do an update every few months where I can read back and see the difference in progress more. I should update my diary now its a new year, will do it later with a cuppa !

Ooo jealous about the mini, I'd love one, but with doing approx 300 miles a week Im looking at a small diesel. My partner has a claptrap of a car :rotfl: which hes looking to replace this year. Mmm might see what he thinks of a mini, though he'd probably say it's a girls car

icontinuetodream

mortgage_girl wrote: »

I'm setting myself a grocery budget challenge to help me keep my spending on track for the start of the year (thanks for the inspiration icontinuetodream!). I'm going to see how long I can make £100 last me - generally I spend about £70 a month but I've got a cupboard and freezer full of food and have just stocked up on staples so i'm hoping to make £100 last me 100 days - can it be done? Who knows? But i'm going to give it my best shot! It'll give me a kick up the 'rear' to start meal planning and batch cooking again.

Good luck!!! I'll be watching you!!! :rotfl: