Viola's MFW Adventure

lincoln-potter

Hello and welcome to the forums.

Doing so well, pity you didn't start your diary earlier!

viola_brandywine

I do wish I had started the diary sooner, but for some reason I was nervous!

Not bad day so far, found out I don't have to pay for a hotel we're staying in until we get there, so extra £150 this month that I wasn't expecting to have. Had to by lunch today though so spend there that I could have avoided.

Hopefully I will get around to posting some targets or a signature tonight.

misscousinitt

Hi and welcome - we have roughly the same amount of mortgage to pay off as you, but the rate is much higher ;-(

Will be interesting to follow the rest of your journey.

Good luck

A

x

liuhut

wow you have done so well,
I love books as well and work in a library which is handy! Do you buy them new, a site that I use is bookdepository which is so cheap and has free delivery. Why dont you have a one in, one out policy...I sold loads on Amazon before we moved out here (Oz)...or better still use your local library!!
good luck with your op's
L x

viola_brandywine

misscousinitt and liuhut - thanks for reading my diary.

Our original mortgage interest rate was 6.99% which was the SVR from the start because we knew we would be paying a lump sum. The intention was to change to a fixed rate once that was done but interest rates started to fall so we waited it out and and it worked out that we ended up with a much smaller payment. This enabled us to reduce the term quite a bit by keeping the payments the same.

I would really love to be MF by 30 but that is only a few months away so there is no chance of that. If only we had though about this a couple of years earlier!

Books - I do need to let some go I think, I just always have a hard time getting rid of anything, I'm such a hoarder. I think this weekend maybe I will try to pick some out I could either sell or give to charity. My DH has a kindle which I think I will try using, but it isn't any use for my biggest weakness which is cookbooks I would be worried about spilling my curry on it :rotfl:

I think I should investigate the local library - I live in a village but I think there is a small one here.

Does anyone know how the stars under our names work? I have none and am a "MoneySaving Newbie". Is it related to the number of posts? I should have started posting much sooner too!

cha97michelle

Hi there Viola. How lovely to have been mentioned in your opening post. I ramble away and don't think about who is reading my words, and even more scarily, being influenced by it.

You sound like you will fit in great here. Already very dedicated to the cause, and interested in very frugal things. The hoarding issue i think a few of us have too, me - courgette, although earning pennies for selling stuff feels good too.

The kindle - would be no good at all for your cookbooks as books don't show the pictures. I don't know about you, but i love drooling over the photos they use.

I had one question. How old were you when you got the mortgage? You have done very well at reducing the mortgage up to now. I was just wondering how many years in you are?

And the medals are about the number of posts. The first 2 are quite quick to get. I can't remember how many posts though to get them. I've nattered on so much to get mine.

viola_brandywine

We were 25 when we started. We paid a lump sum fairly close to the beginning. Since then we have tried to pay in everything we can afford each month. Sometimes we went too far and ended up asking for it back but in general we have been sensible I think.

We have never managed to build up any form of savings until recently and I think this is something we really need to aim for now given that I don't know what our income will be in the future.

We are set to end at the end of next year (our mortgage provider started charging for changes in the term so it is set at the limit of what we can afford) but I don't think in reality that this is possible if our income changes. We are quite stretched each month and a drop in income will make things difficult. It looks like babies are expensive

Iris_Blue

Viola welcome! (and you have acquired your first star!:j:j )

viola_brandywine

Hi everyone. Quite a frugal weekend - had to go into town to take a couple of things back to the shop and managed to only end up spending £3.50 overall!

Been busy sowing lettuces in seed trays today so hopefully some nice home grown salads soon

One thing that might be a big expense in the near future is new settees. Ours was the cheapest Argos one when we bought the house and is now falling to bits. I can't complain really as they have had plenty of use and are really comfy. We went to look yesterday and saw a few we like. I would really like to get something that will last and we can have recovered when it starts to wear out. I just can't decide whether to get a 0% CC and get them fairly soon or to try and wait until we have paid the mortgage off. The problem is that one of them is currently being held up by sheets of cardboard and I'm not sure how much longer we can get away with it.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend!

viola_brandywine

I have just noticed my star. Thanks Iris :T