Drip drip drip feeding the mortgage

tjp70

The conservatory is empty, just waiting for some paint and furnishings. DH suggested we look in Wilk0 for paint. We needed 5 litres of the Old English Sheepdog paint and on diy.com, a large tin is £32.98. Wilk0 were doing 2 x 2.5litres for £20.00 :j We just have to find the enthusiasm to paint the darned thing. I thought it was just me having a lull, but DH says he doesn’t want to do it either. We have resolved that we will paint it next weekend. After all the bedlam of the past few weeks, it has been nice to have a weekend off. We have had heavy rain here and I can’t see any leaks so I will have to make the final payment to the glazing company tomorrow. We are really pleased with the end result.


I collected the cat from the vets after her operation and she is still fluffy. Last year, she was bald after they shaved her but this year, she still has most of her fluff, just without the hard matted bits. And that’s not the only positive thing, the bill was £166 - £34 less than I had calculated. :j

It’s been a good day here – DH & I did what I call tag team ironing. :rotfl:He did some and when he got fed up, I took over and so on. The net result is an empty ironing cupboard. That’s not happened in a long time. DH is watching the Grand Prix, the kids are pottering and I am surfing the threads. BM is working away in the background. I love days like these.

tjp70

I spoke too soon. The conservatory roof is leaking :mad:

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

tjp70 wrote: »

I spoke too soon. The conservatory roof is leaking :mad:

Oh no! Well on the bright side... the rain meant you found out sooner rather than later and at least you hadn't painted already!

tjp70

It has been absolutely ages since I posted. This is because I have been feeling so low. I have been reading people's posts but not replying, but here I am.

Firstly, the conservatory. We paid the final payment and all seemed well for about a week. But it is still leaking. We have had numerous repairs to the roof, but now we are waiting for the conservatory company to bring the manufacturers round to have a look. It looks lovely; we have decorated and put the furniture back in, but on a rainy day, we still get puddles, which is frustrating to say the least.

My work is also getting me down. Although I am a self employed bookkeeper, I mainly work for a few companies that are all owned by my family. Working with family is hard, especially with one of my parents who can be quite a bully at times and it is getting me down. I feel trapped there. Ideally I need to stick it out for three more years until the mortgage is paid off and then decide what to do. Provided I can handle it mentally.

I have also been very upset by a family member who decided to take drugs in front of DS. DS is 16 and said it didn’t bother him, but it bothers me. I don’t want my kids growing up thinking drug taking is ok.

With regards to the mortgage I am in a quandary. We have two under performing endowments which will pay out late 2015. I average £335.00 in OPs each month. I was OPing little amounts here and there (account tidy ups etc – idea copied from Tilly ) but whatever I do now, it won’t bring the MF date any closer. The net effect of the little OPs is that we will have a few hundred pounds surplus from the second endowment pay out. So my quandary is, do I bother to make these small OPs – should I put them into our ISA instead. Or should I carry on and enjoy a larger endowment surplus in 2015. One point to consider is that I have no pension provision and the plan is to save the mortgage payment money as pension funds when we are MF. Also, our neighbours have been struggling recently as his business is perfoming badly. They have no savings and they are now in a lot of debt with credit cards & overdrafts, plus they have borrowed from several members of their family. (They haven’t reigned in their spending of course, that would be too sensible:eek:). But to see them struggling so badly has really hit home with me and I would be scared to be in the same situation. This makes me want to save as much as possible. We do have a very healthy emergency fund but it’s still a worry.

Ok that’s enough moaning and groaning for now. I had better do some work.

icontinuetodream

sorry you are feeling down tjp ...but just think of all you have acheived so far ....and even if the mortgage free date isn't coming any closer, every little bit that you put to op will mean less interest to the mortgage company

kirstypark

hello tjp, i have just read your diary and really enjoyed it, our stories are quite similar. Like you, we had an interest only and a repayment mortgage until our endowments matured this year. We also have the feeling this is not our forever home, so can identify with you there.

We are on the same interest rate as you, I know that I could find an isa earning a bit more, but prefer to see the balance coming down, as money in a saving account would be too tempting for me. my isa currently pays 0.1% more than my mortgage interest rate.

Anyway, just wanted to make the point that with nationwide you can take your overpayments back out again. So if you fall on hard times the money will still be there, you wont have earned any interest on it, but are benefiting from paying less interest daily as the total comes down.

The OP will affect the term of the repayment part by making it shorter. And it is possible to OP on the interest part so that there is not so much to pay when the endowments mature.

tjp70

icontinuetodream wrote: »

sorry you are feeling down tjp ...but just think of all you have acheived so far ....and even if the mortgage free date isn't coming any closer, every little bit that you put to op will mean less interest to the mortgage company

Hi there, thanks for dropping by. You are so right. Since the start of this diary, we have paid off £13211 off the mortgage. In less than two years. That's a great thing to focus on.

Thank you.

tjp70

kirstypark wrote: »

hello tjp, i have just read your diary and really enjoyed it, our stories are quite similar. Like you, we had an interest only and a repayment mortgage until our endowments matured this year. We also have the feeling this is not our forever home, so can identify with you there.

We are on the same interest rate as you, I know that I could find an isa earning a bit more, but prefer to see the balance coming down, as money in a saving account would be too tempting for me. my isa currently pays 0.1% more than my mortgage interest rate.

Anyway, just wanted to make the point that with nationwide you can take your overpayments back out again. So if you fall on hard times the money will still be there, you wont have earned any interest on it, but are benefiting from paying less interest daily as the total comes down.

The OP will affect the term of the repayment part by making it shorter. And it is possible to OP on the interest part so that there is not so much to pay when the endowments mature.

Hi Kirsty :hello:

I can't believe you read all my waffle, you must have been bored :rotfl:

I had forgotten that we could withdraw the overpayments if we wanted to, so thank you for the reminder.

tjp70

Today the conservatory company have called to say that the manufacturers cannot attend until the New Year, so we will have to put up with the leak until then. Then I had a call from home - DS had leant against a window and the glass bowed alarmingly. DH has called the conservatory company back and they are coming to have a look tomorrow. Why they always have to make appointments for the middle of the day is beyond me. I will have to call them in the morning and ask them to reschedule until after the school run, or I shall never get all my work done before the Christmas break.

Missy our 19 year old cat is being a naughty girl. She has decided that instead of the two litter trays we put down, she will use the whole house instead. So yesterday, she left DD a little surprise on her new bedroom rug and then this morning, she ignored both litter trays and piddled on the kitchen tiles. Disgusting. I have been given some puppy pads and will be 'padding' out the kitchen floor tonight. Needless to say, the house is a little pungent.

The drug taking family member popped into work today and was extremely chatty. No matter how much he tries, I cannot be friendly back. He may have forgotten what he did, and all the nasty things he said to me thereafter when confronted, but I cannot. I need time and space to calm down.

I saved £40.00 yesterday as a medical appointment I had booked had to be cancelled, so I will be sending £20.00 as an OP and £20.00 to the ISA. This is my compromise with my predicament.

And today was the start of the MFiT-T3. Only 1095 days to go :eek:

Radish72

How annoying about the conservatory, hopefully they will sort it out tomorrow, can you not leave some Trading Standards literature laying around for them to see