Mouche’s adventures with her first mortgage (while coping with her first baby)

Hurdler

Hi Mouche - it does seem a hideous amount but mine was £195K and somehow I have paid off £60k without even being a proper MFW - and I will start my proper journey at around £135K.

All the best with the plans

Lois_E

Hi mouche and welcome to MFW - sorry I didn't see your diary before because I was having a crazily busy few days and not managing to make it on here for a bit. It sounds like the sort of diary I like following, so I'm subscribing.
(My diary is here by the way.)

You shouldn't have to pay council tax on your rented house while it's empty. Just inform the council that although you are are still responsible for it until 9th Octber, it has been empty since whatever date you moved out, and they will charge you at zero rate for that amount of time. The same thing applies to your own house if you owned it for a few days before moving in.

mouche wrote: »

Oh wow, so many MFW royalty visiting my diary! Thank you so much for the encouraging comments and the welcomes. *gallygirl* your comment made me laugh - it's so true!

gallygirl is fabulous at making everyone laugh. When I read her posts I really wish I could be as witty as she is, but I'm no good at it.

Yorkielass

The way we work our money each month is:

Get paid
£x into each of our ISAs - summer 2010 I got a job that paid a fair bit more than previously, we managed on my previous salary so increase goes straight into our ISAs for longer term savings
1st of the month:
Mortgage and a couple of other DDs go out
£95.28 goes into our new house fund - it's the difference between the fixed rate we were on & the SVR. Was going to be for overpayments but now we're trying to sell our house so keeping it for moving expenses so we don't have to dip into ISAs too much.
£100 goes into our annual spends - this is for insurance and car related stuff mainly, also things like new glasses.
£50 goes into our holiday fund
£x (can't remember off hand as I've changed it recently) goes into our gift buying fund as our birthdays are both within 2 months of Christmas!

So straight away we've (well I've!) put away some long term savings, the mortgage has been paid and we've saved for annual things (just 3 online savings accounts with same bank as current account) and also at the moment moving expenses.

Then most of the rest of our dd's come out on the 8th of the month and otherwise it's just general food, petrol, etc etc shopping.

Then at the end of the month - what we've got left I transfer, usually a couple of weeks after the end of the month once I've finished the accounts for the month, we put into our emergencies and projects fund - which is mainly used at present for things like a second freezer & other household one offs, and then otherwise building slowly so if we have a really expensive month (in July OH got a new job and needed a whole new set of clothes for example) we won't go overdrawn.

So as you can see I'm a great believer in stashing money away in little pots for different things and if we ever manage to sell our house I'm looking forward to becoming a MFW too! Good luck.

mouche

SeriouslySeekingtoSave, thank you for saying that. I was a little disappointed at the amount I was able to overpay as this was the last month before we go onto maternity budget, but you’re right, there were a lot of unexpected costs and we’ve managed them ok. We had to buy a bed and mattress as we’ve always had them in rented properties. Plus, we have to give the vendor £150 for the fridge freezer (for a 6 year old American style, plumbed in one), ended up spending £200 on moving, and at least £100 on petrol, and bits like a garbage bin. So overall, I am now officially proud of myself for managing any overpayment at all this month!

Hurdler, wow that is really impressive – and in only 2.5 years as well. I don’t think we’ll be nearly as quick as you thanks to drop in income during maternity leave, but it’s an inspiration that big numbers don’t have to stay that way! Do let me know if you start a diary – I’d love to read it.

Lois, thank you for subscribing. I’ve subscribed to yours and look forward to catching up on it when I have internet again. That’s a good idea about the council tax – I’ve written to them with our moving in a moving out dates (it’s the same council for both houses) so hopefully they will take it into account. I’ve also found a CT Exemption form on their website that only the owner can fill in so I’ll forward it on to him – no harm trying!

Yorkielass, that’s really similar to the way we do it, except being a spreadsheet nerd, I have about 50 ‘pots’ into which I save money every month. We won’t be able to do that during maternity budget (or at least only into the critical ones like car insurance) but hopefully will be able to again once I’m back at work.

I’ve signed up with EDF for our gas and electric – prices are fixed till September next year. The new house is significantly bigger than the rented one so I’m bracing myself for an increase in bills – will have to train self and OH to switch off lights and not use the oven to heat things up!

Isca

Just wanted to say welcome to the MFW world! I'm a newbie too and am just coming to the end of my maternity leave (my daughter is 11 months old). Well done for calculating your maternity 'salary'. I did this too and was able to consistently 'pay' myself £740 per month. Amazing how many of my friends from antenatal classes didn't do this and spent what was paid each month. The real shock happened when they went down to SMP. In fact some even had to go back to work early as they hadn't factored in the severe reduction in income!

I will watch with interest (and have subscribed).

Hurdler

mouche wrote: »

Hurdler, wow that is really impressive – and in only 2.5 years as well. I don’t think we’ll be nearly as quick as you thanks to drop in income during maternity leave, but it’s an inspiration that big numbers don’t have to stay that way! Do let me know if you start a diary – I’d love to read it.

Hiya Mouche - My diary is here
:j

originalmiscellany

Just reading your diary for the first time too - it's passed me by too. Looking forward for you to keep posting here and making overpayments. As you say, I used to overpay often, say every few days but now I do a little lump every week. The thing I find most encouraging is when we get the paperwork from the bank saying how our mortgage has dropped by a few pounds/pence a week.

Happy days!

summerday

Hi Mouche,

You sound in a similar boat to me, due 1st baby in December. You sound very organised, well done for staying positive even when you can't op as much as you'd like. I will be keeping uo with your posts.

Summerday x

mouche

Isca, thanks for subscribing. You must be gutted having to go back to work leaving your little girl behind. Have you decided on childcare options? Also, if you don’t mind my being nosy – what kind of maternity benefits did you get? I thought my company was reasonably generous with 6 weeks full pay followed by SMP – but the other day I met someone who works for a competitor and she got *6 months* full pay followed by 3 months half pay!!! Wish I’d changed jobs now! Still, as you say, I’ve planned for it as much as I can and hopefully we’ll get through it without too much financial trouble.

Originalmiscellany, I’m glad you found me. Sometimes I think I’m a bit odd focusing so much on finances so it’s always nice to hear from people who have the same focus. I wish I could overpay every week but haven’t had anything extra come in (and in fact am likely not to get some expected cash – read on for the gory story!) so can only gaze forlornly at my mortgage account and stop myself from transferring my lunch money to the mortgage!

Summerday, congratulations! December is nearly here – you must be very excited. Is it your first? It is for me and I’m alternating between sheer terror and grim ‘if half the world can do it so can I’ phases. I’m really hoping I become more maternal when LO is actually born as I haven’t seen much sign of it yet. When do you start maternity leave?



Right, despite not having any mortgage news, I do have some worrying news about the rented property we’ve just vacated. Firstly, our landlord lives overseas and he’s asked us to deal with his brother regarding prospective tenants and handing over the keys etc. This brother seems to be a right @!”£$ as he’s put new tenants in already (our notice doesn’t run out till the 9th) and when we asked for our rent money back from the date the new tenants moved in till the 9th, he said as long as you hold the keys, you’re responsible so I won’t be returning rent for days where you still have the keys. By that logic, we have every right to enter the house we’re ‘responsible’ for, chuck out everything that doesn’t belong to us and change the locks so that neither he nor his new tenants can get in till the 9th!

On top of that, I’ve just rung round the tenancy deposit schemes (including the one specified on our contract as holding our deposit) and none of them have heard of us. So where is our deposit? Husband has emailed landlord with our concerns (landlord himself has always been quite professional so we’re giving him the benefit of doubt for the moment) but have yet to hear back. If he doesn’t return our excess rent (which we have paid in advance and would have been quite happy to let him keep if he hadn’t tried to charge us AND the new tenants for the same period) and our deposit, we have a good mind to take him to court. But obviously with everything else that’s going on, it’s such a hassle to do to get back money that is rightfully ours. We’ve rented several times before and never had this problem. Anyway, will have to wait and see what he says. I hadn’t actually earmarked that money for anything but it will be very disappointing if we don’t get it back.

Isca

mouche wrote: »

Isca, thanks for subscribing. You must be gutted having to go back to work leaving your little girl behind. Have you decided on childcare options? Also, if you don’t mind my being nosy – what kind of maternity benefits did you get? I thought my company was reasonably generous with 6 weeks full pay followed by SMP – but the other day I met someone who works for a competitor and she got *6 months* full pay followed by 3 months half pay!!! Wish I’d changed jobs now! Still, as you say, I’ve planned for it as much as I can and hopefully we’ll get through it without too much financial trouble.

Really not looking forward to going back but it has to be done. DD will be going to a brilliant nursery just round the corner from my office. Its a bit pricey but will be using childcare vouchers and the convenience of the location, plus the feeling we got when we visited make it worth the extra pounds.

My company offered 3 months full pay, 3 months 1/2 pay plus SMP, 3 months SMP and 3 months unpaid. Also tagged on the annual leave and bank holidays that I had earned which is another 7 weeks or so full pay before I return. I know thats quite generous compared to friends.

Whatever you get paid, its manageable when you plan. Sounds like you are being sensible so am sure you will manage fine.