Starting the mortgage free path

bownyboy

Annoyingly the desktop pc at home has finally died. I built it a few years ago and have already replaced the motherboard.

As PCs have moved on so much in last 4-5 years it looks like a new set-up is only option.

Have been scouring the review sites and recommendations and will probably go for something that should last another 5 years or so. Budget wise looking at around £500 for new case, motherboard, CPU, memory, PSU and SSD drive.

Why is it January when the unexpected expenses come along?

bownyboy

So after some online research I've ordered the parts for a new PC today. Cost came in at £550, slightly higher than I'd hoped but with the parts I've ordered it should last for a good 5 years, so £100 year ish!

* Bitfenix Prodigy Case
* Samsung 250GB SSD drive for OS and key apps
* Gigabyte Mini itx motherboard
* Intel i5 3450 CPU (expensive bit!)
* CoolerMaster silent 550W PSU
* 16GB Corsair Vengence Memory

bownyboy

PC bits arrived today and I must admit the case looks good. Spent an hour putting it all together and then realised that in my quest to be Money Saving my plan to use my existing DVD writer backfired. It's so old it uses an IDE rather than SATA connection. 2 mins later I'm £15 lighter and I pick up a new SATA drive tomorrow.

No playing with new PC for me tonight!

bownyboy

I've been thinking about how much (or little) I currently have in savings. I know most people say to have 3-6 months of expenses available, but what does that mean?

If I was made redundant or off long term sick then my income protection would kick in immediately and pay the mortgage for up to 12 months.

For redundancy I'd get 3 months notice from work along with the current month and then statutory redundancy of 2 months.

We currently pay £500 a month each into joint account to cover food and bills, so as long as I have £1,500 to £3,000 then that should be ok?

Reason is that I'm chucking everything at the mortgage and not really focusing on saving (although saving lots of interest!)

bownyboy

Seems like I'm posting more frequently recently, I guess it's to keep up the morale in these cold dark days.

I'm going to shamelessly borrow some ideas from finanancialbliss thread (which was the inspiration for me starting my mortgage free path 2 years ago).

My current status is:

January 2013 - £118k / £418 / £13.94

Where the first is balance and the following are monthly and daily interest. I'll post updates at the end of each month going forward.

Compared to 1 year ago when the daily interest was £15.53 it's good to see progress.

What will keep me going is smile single digit reductions each month going forward now, eg £117 for Feb, £116 for march etc.

Roll on August 2018!

gallygirl

bownyboy wrote: »

What will keep me going is smile single digit reductions each month going forward now, eg £117 for Feb, £116 for march etc.

Roll on August 2018!

Will there be a month where you will skip a thousand, say go from 113,100 to 111,900? I feel I've missed out on something when that happens :rotfl:.

bownyboy

gallygirl wrote: »

Will there be a month where you will skip a thousand, say go from 113,100 to 111,900? I feel I've missed out on something when that happens :rotfl:.

I wish! not for a while I'm afraid - most likely from January 2014 after January overpayment.

bownyboy

So had an interesting weekend - looks like the bills just keep on coming and are putting in jeopardy the monthly overpayments.

Our washing machine leaked yesterday and I had to rip up the entire Lino flooring and throw it out. Its a concrete floor so hopefully no damage and it will dry out. Have purchased 2 replacement hoses to see if that sorts it, otherwise will need a plumber call out.

Now need to replace the flooring (we hated the Lino anyway) and we were going to have engineered wood in kitchen and hallway, looks like we have just accelerated the process! Flooring specialist coming round on Wednesday to price up. I'm thinking we won't get much change out of £750.

Also the undercounter fridge we got off ebay 1 year ago continuously leaks into the salad drawer and the onto the floor. Time to get rid and get a new one - another £150!

What was I saying about expensive start to the year?!

moomi

:wave: hi!

Can I ask, how do you work out the monthy & daily interest rates?

Thank you.

Haha! Auto correct put interest as intestines!!

gallygirl

bownyboy wrote: »

Also the undercounter fridge we got off ebay 1 year ago continuously leaks into the salad drawer and the onto the floor. Time to get rid and get a new one - another £150!

Is the drainage blocked? Pull the fridge out and see where it drains to, put cloths down. Get some bendy wire and make a long twisty thing*. Shove it in a bit, twist it about and pull out. Wipe yucky orangey red stuff off (well that's what mine was, I assume it was some antibiotic life form ), repeat, pouring down hot water as well. Eventually long twisty thing* will go all the way down. Clean through with anti-bacterial liquid and it will be fine. Well, mine has been for a year. To use a technical term, the drain was boggin' :cool:.




*trademark