A blissful home - mortgage_girl's MF diary

GreenNinja

museumworker wrote: »

Welcome and good luck . Your SOA looks fine, would probably say combined gas/electric looks quite high as I tend to use about £500 pa and have a 3 (now 5) bed house.

Have you discovered the joys of topcashback, surveys, ebaying, batch cooking etc? And you could try the £100pa clothing challenge, which would save you up to £140 if you could do it!

Hi Mortgage Girl,

Good luck with your quest! Ref the combined gas/electric I thought that was pretty reasonable, I pay £88 combined for a 5 year old well insulated small 2 bed house and am very careful with my heating when its cold. Surprised people think its expensive...

mortgage_girl

Hey Phelpsie :wave: - I agree it's definately reliability i'm looking for, especially as i'm doing a lot of driving on my own. To me it's worth paying more for that security and peace of mind.

Thanks for the support GreenNinja - yeah I don't think i'll be able to reduce my gas/electric bill very much unless we have a very mild winter (not likely when you live on the coast!). Never say never though

Tidd83

Hey MG, just wanted to drop you a quick line to say hello... definitely enjoying the posts so keep them coming. You are doing very well and definitely on the right tracks of paying down the mortgage. There may be days where it feels like you will never get there but just bare in mind that whatever extra you pay towards it will save you months/years in the long run! I have to admit it, as sad as it sounds it was a little hobby of mine finding ways to save and updating my spreadsheets! Maybe not every guys idea of fun, especially in their twenties but it has served me well and I just need to look at fellow work colleagues now struggling to realise I did the right thing! Any ways, I have been a lurker on here for some time but just wanted to take the time to write a quick post so you know people are genuinely interested in what you have to say! Well hope this finds you well and hopefully with more funds in the pot but keep us updated!

Lois_E

Hi mortgage_girl

Just wanted to agree with Tidd and say I'm enjoying your diary too. And if I may be permitted to hijack your thread slightly, I'd like to say hi to Tidd and welcome to MFW. :wave: We're all very friendly and don't bite, so do venture out of lurkdom and tell us a bit more about yourself. There are a few people on here who aren't spreadsheet-addicts, but not many, so you'll be part of the majority here, and nobody here will think you're sad!

Tidd83

Hey Lois_E,

Thanks for the nice greeting, I appreciate the welcome... sorry to MG if you feel I am taking over the thread, completely not the intention but since I am new and was asked the question I thought I would share my story on here.. not quite sure if this is where I should write but I guess it will give me another post under my belt and encourage me a little more to stop just reading and start adding my input here and there!

Well I bought my house back in 2008, I got a good deal on a new build direct from the builders which to cut a long story short cost me £145,000 £15,000 under the asking price. I was 25 at the time and moved in with a new GF (now ex), she agreed to pay board but the property was entirely in my name. For the past 8 years I had saved as much as I could for that reason and managed to put down a deposit of just under £30,000 giving me a mortgage of around £117,000 inc fees at 6.48% - high I know!! After a year of getting settled I used her lodgings money and contributed to it in order to overpay £500 a month (the maximum allowed) for the following 12 months. Due to other savings and money I had invested from working many long hours at work I managed to pay another £15,000 lump sum so that when the 2 year fixed term ended I was in a good position LTV wise should I decide to take a new deal. Fortunately the bad climate worked in my favour and my mortgage rate dropped to 2.5% until I decided to refix. Naturally I didn't want to rush to do that. Still at the time I was owing around £93,000 which after 2 years was an achievement. At that time things weren't going well with the GF and after a year of disagreements we went our separate ways, luckily I was in a much better position which took away a lot of the pressure. Following that and only 2months later I received some bad news and my mum (single parent) was diagnosed with cancer completely out of the blue and given months to live.. she passed away only 3 months later...
She made sure myself and my sister were looked after before she went and left us with an inheritance each. I added another £20,000 to it myself from a bond that had matured which I set up years ago and also from what little savings I had left and left myself near to broke but managed to pay off my mortgage (all but £500) in June this year. I know my mum would have been pleased to see it go to good use and not one penny got wasted.. since then I have managed to build up some savings from more hours and work and selling bits and pieces I had no use for an have gotten myself a safety buffer. I have also taken out a Redundancy Insurance Policy should anything happen at work and after being there 11 years I know the package I would receive would enable me to take a well deserved year out to do a little travelling and just have some time to relax. Unfortunately most of my friends are in relationships or are married or have kids so with me being single I can see me going it alone but I guess I will either love it or hate it but until I try I will never know! My plan at the minute is to get a little more behind me whilst at the same time treating myself to the things I have missed out on for the past few years due to being sensible and tight and then eventually maybe look at doing some sort of buy to let for a retirement point of view.. I guess at 28 that is maybe looking too far ahead but I am so used to saving it has become a habit. I suppose my way seems a little cheated due to the inheritance but I would give it all back if it would change things, one thing I know is that my mum raised me right to see that I put it to use and not waste it like many other people my age would do. Even before that though my goal was always there and I have worked damn hard for a long time to even put my 50% in and pay off nearly £75,000 myself. Any ways, apologies for the long essay.. I do type quick so I guess I get carried away. For those of you who aren't interested then I apologise again but for you Lois, I hope I have given you some insight to the lurker known as Tidd83!

mortgage_girl

Wow Tidd, you are an inspiration - please don't feel like you're hijacking this thread, it's so inspiring and motiviating to read about others journey's Hey Lois :wave:Thanks both of you for keeping this thread going in my absence. It seems to have been ages since I checked in on the MFW board, life has just been so busy, well more specifically, work has been hectic. However, i've been continuing to make progress with my overpayments and i've recently got back into ebaying so hopefully that'll bump up my overpayment account a little.

I've been doing some calculations and it seems that my overpayments so far this year have reduced my mortgage by about 6 months so i'm quite pleased with myself. The years not even through and i'm already thinking that i'm going to try and overpay the mortgage by £5000 next year - quite a bit more than my £3000 target this year but hopefully if I get myself organised and keep motivated I should be able to do it - maybe a few little milestone treats along the way might work in my favour too.

Anyway i'm on here as an avoidance technique as i'm trying to avoid decluttering the back bedroom but I suppose I should get on with it as hopefully I might find a few more goodies to add to my ebay box.

Be back soon,

MG x

naughtymittens

Just had a read over your diary MG. You are doing so well and i really like your approach to the garden and the chucks. Looking forward to reading more. Good motivation for me to get of my bum and stop wasting money!

mondello

Great diary! Realy inspirational. I'm was over paying quite a bit on mortgage until I was made redundant and was out of work for two months. So I had to drop back down to my min payment. Started a new job 6 weeks ago and things are getting back track so hopefully I can start over paying again next month. Unfortunately it won't be as much as before because my new salary is a lot lower but every penny helps though. :-)

CathT

Just had a catch up, think i've 'seen' you on BP from time to time. I think now is a great time of year to start thinking about next years targets.

mortgage_girl

Hey naughtymittens, mondello and CathT :wave: thanks for stopping by. It's lovely to know that people are reading this as it keeps me motivated - any hints or tips then please feel free to chip in Yes you're right Cath, you will have seen me over on BP, when I have time I love to stop by there and play a few games, it's a fab site.

I had a really productive afternoon clearing out the back bedroom yesterday. I recycled a load of old uni paperwork which I haven't looked at in years and was just cluttering the place up, I also took 2 bags of bits and pieces to the charity shop and managed to find a few more things to put in my ebay box, so I was a happy bunny by the end of the day

Today i've spent the morning making my final xmas cake - i've made 4 now, i've never made them before but thought i'd have a go and give some to my family as xmas gifts. Thankfully I have my Nanna, a seasoned xmas cake maker, just around the corner to help if I need any hints or tips. Earlier this week I also had a go at making some lotion bars, I'm not sure if we can add links to our posts but I found the recipe on the Crunchy Betty website if anyone wants to take a peek. I love that site a little bit more every time I visit it. They turned out really well and I gave one to my Nanna and my Mum who actually thought i'd bought it. I'd definately recommend that you give them a try, they're perfect for dry skin and your in control of exactly what goes into them.

Anyway, enough waffling. I really need to get some planning done.

Have a great day everyone!

MGx