Basscadette's MF Cottage Journey

basscadette

I've been reading some fantastical inspiration diaries on this board and had I not found it, it wouldn't have crossed my mind to pay off our mortgage.
So

Thank You

To all the wonderful, insprational people on this board, without whom I would be sitting in my jama's, waiting for my baby to arrive and doing nothing to improve our lives very much.

I'll be honest - I started a debt free diary as we have a little 0% credit card debt (down to 8K) but I quickly lost interest because I don't feel the same drive compared to some people over on that board. Our situation is not the same, we are not struggling and I felt like a bit of a fraud.

So, mortgage free it is

Our mortgage after buying a train wreck of a house is a relatively tiny £66000 but we have a fair bit to spend to bring it up to spec. Despite that, I want out mortgage paid off/fully offset by the time the fix ends in January 2016. This is the longest I want it to take - each year less is a bonus (a big one).

I had a (rubbish) job until 31st August and am now technically on maternity leave although I do have a small business that has just boomed over the past few weeks. Sadly I need to scale it back a bit as I have no idea how I'll cope with a business and a baby. OH has a fairly decent job with a fairly decent wage.

Our plan is to try and live fully on OH's wages (about £1900 per month) and save some from this too. Anything and everything I make from the business or anything else I manage to bring in will go towards 'the offset fund'. By the time I am used to being a mum and my business runs smoothly, ideally my target is 3k per month. As it stands - we can't have a target as we don't know what's going to be coming in!

Anyhoo, that's me, us and our mortgage free dream in a huge nutshell

pink_poppy

Good luck with the MFW challenge & impending motherhood ~ exciting times ahead

Your mortgage is a bit higher than mine so it will be interesting to see how you do ~ I'm hoping to start making overpayments in November when our fixed rate finishes. Have you looked at the MFW overpayments calculator (sticky on page 1) ~ I've been playing around with it using different scenarios/numbers ~ it's pretty addictive but extremely motivating as well.

basscadette

Thank you Pink Poppy - good luck with your OP's. Can you not start to 'overpay' now by putting what you would do away until November. You;ll then have an extra 2 months overpayment ready for when your fix ends. How much is your mortgage and when is your 'target'?

Re the overpayment calaculator - I am a total spreadsheet junkie. I have a huge spreadsheet with every extrapolation of strategies for a five year period. Basically, to pay it off in five years byt he time the fix ends, we need to find about £1200 a month. Our fix (five years) prevents us overpaying more than 5k per year so we will be offsetting this in ISA'a and savings accounts and hopefully, a whacking great OP at the end of the fixed term. Unless interst rates are still low - then we might keep hold for a bit longer but be technically mortgage free.

basscadette

Well this has been a crippling weekend so far. As you can see from my sig I'm almost 35 weeks pregnant, very heavy and we are living in a building site. Our kitchen is reaching its finishing stages but yesterday I had to give the bathroom and utility rooms their final spring clean before D-Day because DH wanted to put our fridge and dishwasher in there so he could hammer drill through the wall - it was (shamedly) filthy. The plumbing is going in today then we can move the units from the spare room to the new kitchen (where they have sat since May when we snaffled a bargain) and I can then progress the rest of the house.

So I am crippled today and will spend most of it working on my business from my sofa office as moving is just too much hassle! I also have totally unfrugal muchies - glad we went to Aldi yesterday to do a big shop. We spent £60 (:-O) but that will last the month as we have a freezer full of Costco meat so it was just veg and basics. The £60 included £15 on special beers for OH as he is working so hard, £10 on some extra long drill bits which we were on our way to Screwfix to buy for £20 (£10 saved!) and and a few pounds on leather sofa cleaners (essential during building works), instant filler and some jay cloths and cleaning fluid. We spent only around £30 on food and got tons of it. Aldi is soooooooooooo cheap compared to Sainsbury's and Asda.

So, Moneysaving this week:
Apart from coffee on Wednesday with best friend, I will have a no-spend week!

I am going to try and batch cook some casseroles today or tomorrow as I'm starting to struggle to cook and OH has a lot of other duties at the moment. It is so easy to turn to takeaways so we are going to have a take-away free week.

Business - I am jam packed all week and have started outsourcing work so can't take anymore on however,- payments due at the end of this week - to cover the last three weeks - £2200!!!!! Hoping to put this straight into savings but I think OH might still be in his overdraft so that has to be paid of first then we are starting from scratch and can start to live on his wages and keep all of my money in savings.

poorbutrich

basscadette wrote: »

Well this has been a crippling weekend so far. As you can see from my sig I'm almost 35 weeks pregnant, very heavy and we are living in a building site. Our kitchen is reaching its finishing stages but yesterday I had to give the bathroom and utility rooms their final spring clean before D-Day because DH wanted to put our fridge and dishwasher in there so he could hammer drill through the wall - it was (shamedly) filthy. The plumbing is going in today then we can move the units from the spare room to the new kitchen (where they have sat since May when we snaffled a bargain) and I can then progress the rest of the house.

So I am crippled today and will spend most of it working on my business from my sofa office as moving is just too much hassle! I also have totally unfrugal muchies - glad we went to Aldi yesterday to do a big shop. We spent £60 (:-O) but that will last the month as we have a freezer full of Costco meat so it was just veg and basics. The £60 included £15 on special beers for OH as he is working so hard, £10 on some extra long drill bits which we were on our way to Screwfix to buy for £20 (£10 saved!) and and a few pounds on leather sofa cleaners (essential during building works), instant filler and some jay cloths and cleaning fluid. We spent only around £30 on food and got tons of it. Aldi is soooooooooooo cheap compared to Sainsbury's and Asda.

So, Moneysaving this week:
Apart from coffee on Wednesday with best friend, I will have a no-spend week!

I am going to try and batch cook some casseroles today or tomorrow as I'm starting to struggle to cook and OH has a lot of other duties at the moment. It is so easy to turn to takeaways so we are going to have a take-away free week.

Business - I am jam packed all week and have started outsourcing work so can't take anymore on however,- payments due at the end of this week - to cover the last three weeks - £2200!!!!! Hoping to put this straight into savings but I think OH might still be in his overdraft so that has to be paid of first then we are starting from scratch and can start to live on his wages and keep all of my money in savings.

Oh my goodness; I am in awe of your energy! Think you and your OH thoroughly deserve your "treats" - a coffee and specialist beer! What a jampacked weekend!

Hope you get some rest for you and the little one- last time I worked from my sofa, I fell asleep on my laptop!

basscadette

Well today I have been really lazy indeed but on target for an NSD since I CBA to even leave the house. I should probably venture into the shower soon but not going to beat myself up as I did loads yesterday, including my tax return :-O. I should probably drag myself into the shower and do some dishes - obviously I should be working on business stuff but I don't seem to be doing that either.

Plans for today:

Business
Re-do a piece of work with amendments
Do some client 1 work
Do some client 2 work
Invoice client 1

Home
Dishes and benches
Make HM burgers for tea
Meal plan for this week
Ironing
Vacuuming

Moneysaving
NSD
Do some viv articles

basscadette

The past few days have been a bit better but overspent time on a low value piece of work so trying to pull it back now. Have earned £300 for the offset fund and more to come this week. So we currently have £1200 in offset from the business but OH's overdraft is at minus 1900 so we need to tackle that before anything else. Will be payng that off from mymaternity lump sum so we basically start from scratch then we MUST live only on OH's wages if we are to get anywhere at all here!

Moneysaving - well, apart from some crisps and a mars drink yesterday I have been very frugal and have spent nothing else. I don't plan on going naywhere this week as chaining myself to the sofa office. I'm planning on working full time plus some to get all my work out for September invoicing. This will give us about another £2k in the offset fund.

Household - well, still a building site but getting cleaner as the major works cease and all the 'hollywood' stuff starts, as my OH calls it :-) We still have a few bits to buy to finish off the kitchen and nursery but it shouldn't be more than a couple of hundred pounds. I do need ot find time to try and get on top of some of the household chores though. My biggest problem is I can;t reach the dishes in the sink to do them lol and OH thinks doing half each week is helping me. No, it's not! I tried to do them with the washing bowl on the bench but got absolutely soaked and very angry. Wish he would just clear the backlog - I don't ask much.

So this week (ends Sunday) plans are:

Business
Complete half project one
Complete half project two (massive)
Complete ALL project 3 (Massive but partially outsourced)
Complete retainer work
Complete some articles for Viviatic

Household
Try and get on top of dishes or bully OH into doing it
Clean kitchen
Clean temporary living room
Sort bedroom ready for transition to Living room

Moneysaving
Update spreadsheet for last month when statements come in
Invoicing on time
Try not to spend any money!

Meals
Weds - Casserole
Thur - Casserole
Fri - Chicken, veg etc
Sat - HM burgers
Sun - Spaghetti Bol

I don;t ask too much of myself then lol.

pink_poppy

basscadette wrote: »

Thank you Pink Poppy - good luck with your OP's. Can you not start to 'overpay' now by putting what you would do away until November. You;ll then have an extra 2 months overpayment ready for when your fix ends. How much is your mortgage and when is your 'target'?

We will owe approx £60k with 10 years remaining ~ hoping to knock at least 5 years off with overpayments though.

I've been putting some money into savings every month for 'just in case' ~ bit daft really because the savings interest rate is only 2 . something % whereas the mortgage is 5 . something %. I've just got it into my head to start making overpayments when we come off the fixed rate ~ not very savvy I know

Anyway, sounds like you have been busy busy!! Hope you get chance to put your feet up, not long to go now

newgirly

Hello and welcome to the mfw boards sounds like you are off to a good start already, best of luck with the new arrival!