would love to be mortgage free!

coldcazzie

Yes I downloaded the overpayment spreadsheet a couple of months back, and have found it very useful: been playing with it quite a lot! I also have one for all my accounts, and they are linked to each other, so as our monthly finances change and I have to adjust my plans, I can change one and the other automatically updates and I can immediately see what the effect will be. The effect of remortgaging will save us a pretty penny as well (assuming the financial world doesn't self-destruct between now and then...!)

coldcazzie

Hmm... here's a question. Just been reading the mortgage T&Cs and after the steps that must be followed to make a capital payment there is a clause that says that the minimum payment must be £500. How flexible is that, do you think? Mortgage is with Santander if that helps...

If that is the case then we will have to put aside any excess money into our IA savings account each month until we have an amount larger than £500 to make a payment with.

coldcazzie

K I had a light bulb moment upon re-reading this thread and reading a couple of others... and have since felt rather sheepish that I didn't think of it before...:o

I rang Santander and asked them to increase our DD to £500 pcm, thus removing 7 years from the term of the mortgage and saving us about £20k in interest. This will give £661.20 towards our £1500 target and I still intend to put as much spare as we can away into our IA savings account and then aim to make a couple of capital payments of £500+ when possible.

However, slight down note, hubby hit a patch of black ice on the way to work this morning and while he is unharmed, and the damage to the bike is minimal, it will still cost about £150 to put it back on the road, rising to about £500 to put it back how it was before (faring is expensive! :eek:) and while it's off road it's £25 a week to commute to the nearest office.

coldcazzie

So, today we are removing everything out of our attic and sorting through it. Things that can still be used are being Freegled, things that we ain't ever going to use will go to the tip, clothes that have been outgrown will be either sold on a local fb sale group or given to charity shops (the first is obviously the preferable option! )

Reason we're going to all this effort is that on Tuesday morning we are having our loft insulation installed! Cavity wall was done about 10 days ago, and the loft only has about 1cm of insulation at the moment. Hoping this saves us a bit on the gas. Won't help with our high leccy usage, but hopefully the gas usage will drop a bit.

coldcazzie

Clearout of stuff has gone well. There was quite a lot of junk leftover in the attic from various previous owners (comprehensive list including: 2 pieces of drainpipe, an empty tampon packet, a pair of boxer shorts, a handful of marbles, varying sized pieces of hardboard, a box of tile offcuts, a small piece of underlay, an even smaller piece of carpet, and a bunch of old envelopes), plus we were a bit ruthless unpacking some boxes which had just got shoved up there when we moved in, so 2 car loads of stuff went to the tip, as well as filling a wheelie bin. I have started to sort out the clothing which Squish-pot has outgrown but does not yet fit J'raff (5 year age gap so about 3 suitcases full!), and clothing which J'raff has outgrown is being sorted and photographed to sell on ebay. Old wardrobe has been dismantled and put in the garage to become shelving with the addition of some L brackets.

Loft insulation has been done, although I'm feeling a bit daunted about now having to sort it out so it can be reboarded so we can somehow fit all the stuff back up there, as currently Lumpy can't play in his bedroom cuz it's full of junk! :rotfl:

Spent some time examining our latest CC bill, which, although not as bad as the past two months (which have had some unexpected one-off bills like vet trips etc), is still higher than I would like. Grocery shop was rediculously high (£627!:eek:) but I know why: 2 large Tesco shops in one month instead of the usual 1, so I need to be vigilant and make sure the large shops are every 4 weeks instead of every 3. My hope is to have it under £500 next month (9 Dec - 9 Jan). I like the fact that, even with £627 on groceries and £130 on petrol and having bought Christmas presents, the total was still under £900... it lends weight to my belief that £800 is a practicable spending budget for us: I had been second guessing myself on that...:o

Last night man-wife and I examined whether we could get a better deal on net/phone/tv, and, long story short, we can't. But it was worth looking. Other than fuels and shopping I can't see where we can trim any fat on the budget at the moment....

Finally, my FIL is coming over tomorrow to give us some money for the kids for Christmas, with the idea that it'll be used to buy the clothing bits that the older two need, not sure what to spend on for J'raff as her hand-me-down wardrobe is fairly extensive!

So, aims for the next month:
- Food bill under £500.
- Credit card total under £850.
- Spend £100 kids clothing budget wisely.
- Brainstorm birthday party/present ideas for Lumpy's 5th in January.

AdmiralX

coldcazzie wrote: »

Gas:....................... 85.00
Elec:...................... 55.00

Save on energy, if you can, depending on where you live. Your monthly £140 is a lot. You might save on these. Bills for 800 sq feet uninsulated and single glazed London apartment with a new boiler working 12/24 and all day in winter are less.

Try hanging clothes instead of tumble dry. They do dry no matter how heavy. My gas supplier said: turn heating off just when temp is 21-24 turn on back again when feels cold, do not run it on for 3 -6 continuous hours. Our councils here tell us how to save energy: Line curtains with cheap material, London Councils sell it to us v cheap. Put both curtains and behind them blinds , make them yourself - makes big difference in £ I did so. People here do not have funds to double glaze. Saw yourself. Buy from charity shops, borrow from libraries.

I am sure you buy from shops that give points "advantage" etc: you can save 4%.

Save on energy: if you have a sunny spot grow sthg.

coldcazzie

Currently our heating is on from 6.15-7am, 8.45-9.15am, 12-12.45, 4-5pm, 6-7.30pm. It would be on less but I'm at home all day with a 2 year old who likes to spend as much time as she can naked O.o I sincerely hope the insulation helps in keeping the house warmer.

I'm trying so hard to get the kids and man-wife to turn lights off when they leave rooms, seems to be like getting blood out of a stone. He seems to think that because they're energy saving bulbs, therefore it matters less if he leaves them on. I pointed out to him that even an energy saving bulb uses more energy when on than off. He said he saw my point, but hasn't changed his behaviour much, although I guess it is improving slowly.

I've some blackout material I've been thinking about making into blinds... maybe I should pull my finger out and get on with making them.

AdmiralX

Well done:cool:

The LTV in your case is 75%, the mortgage product is based on this. When you have repaid more and the LTV is lower figure do you think you can renegotiate a lower rate?

The £500 food should give you good quality. We make our own bread always, in very little time. it is great, saves a lot. One can buy multi packs of organic flour.

Something silly/funny: my friends keep bees!!! they buy fruit from farms and make at home and sell jams; people get licence and fish.

Curtains may be better when sawn by hand. thermal lining, can be transparent, lets some sun in daytime and or blackouts. You may also use an interlining as well. Ask a store.

I do not use energy saving bulbs, they don't radiate heat, they increase my heating bill and we cannot read/write with these, they cost as well and they dont last. I got a supply of 60 watt incandescent from Amazon.

Tiniker

Hi Caz, just read through your diary - we have similar mortgages and targets! My minimum OP is £500 as well, it seems to take so long to save it up... can you drop back down to your original DD if you need to? I'm going to call my mort co this afternoon to try and do the same. Lightbulb moment number 2 in the space of week
Good luck on your journey and i'll continue to read...

Tini x

coldcazzie

AdmiralX wrote: »

The LTV in your case is 75%, the mortgage product is based on this. When you have repaid more and the LTV is lower figure do you think you can renegotiate a lower rate?

We hope to remortgage in Dec '12 yes, but I doubt we will be below the 70% LTV threshold by then to be honest. I worked out that to get below 70% we'd have to overpay £6,500 this year, and there is not a cat in hell's chance of that happening! :rotfl:

We are hoping next year to keep chickens and grow some more of our own food (grew tomatoes, peppers, onions and herbs this year), we also have raspberry canes which may or may not produce fruit next year.

Tiniker wrote: »

Hi Caz, just read through your diary - we have similar mortgages and targets! My minimum OP is £500 as well, it seems to take so long to save it up... can you drop back down to your original DD if you need to? I'm going to call my mort co this afternoon to try and do the same. Lightbulb moment number 2 in the space of week
Good luck on your journey and i'll continue to read...

Tini x

Hi Tini, nice to find someone else at the same point :T I don't see why there would be a problem to drop back down to the original DD if anything awful were to crop up. As long as you make the minimum repayment they are happy, it just makes us happy if we pay extra and save a few grand in interest! :rotfl: I didn't half feel stupid when I realised that I could just up the monthly DD. Saves a lot of phaffing about sending cheques and ringing them in advance and blah blah. I can see why people don't do it... it's a pain in the proverbial butt!