Mortgage freedom..Shala_moo's attempt at a diary..

shala_moo

Hi everyone..

I love to read everyone's diaries but i don't get to post much as I get easily distracted by links to other diaries/websites/adverts and lose myself in the weird world of the interweb..

I've decided I need to keep myself on track as we are about to take on a larger mortgage, moving to our dream house, and that scares me somewhat.. I also don't want to be still paying a mortgage when i'm 65 and relaxing on a cruise ship somewhere sipping Pina Colada's (here's hoping )

So a little bit about me (us? hubby doesn't actually know i'm doing this :lipsrseal)

I love spreadsheets, i love numbers, i'm a geek and now because of Pammyj74 i have an excel version of my house that I am colouring in when i've paid off a certain amount... thanks Pammy!!

I'm 35, have only ever owned one house and extended the mortgage over certain periods of time so i now, after 10 years, STILL owe the bank what I paid for the house back in 2001 have had my LBM a few years back and i'm determined not to be left with mortgages when i'm retiring...

Between myself and OH we have 3 mortgages..:eek:

Mortgage 1 - my house - waiting to be sold or rented

Mortgage £72,818.25 @ 3.49%
Home loan £16,499.02 @ 3.49% (taken out to help my dad buy a house whilst he sold his old house, now sold and i have the money sitting in the bank)

Can only overpay this mortgage by £90 a month

Equity - £40,000

Mortgage 2 - new joint house (moving in 4-5 weeks when building work is completed)

Mortgage £166,050:eek: @3.99% fixed for 3 years
Family loan - £60,000 @ 0% - will pay this off once house 1 is sold

Can overpay by 10% a year.. i'm not sure that will happen :rotfl:but stranger things have happened

Mortgage 3 - OH's parents house

This was taken out as OH's parents couldn't get a mortgage, at the time OH didn't have a mortgage so we helped them out by putting his name down on the deeds and the mortgage paperwork. Obviously at some point this could fall to us to pay but it's only £200 a month.. fingers crossed we'll never need to step in..

Savings

£27,000 - part of this is the money to pay back the home loan and also money to pay back the family loan once house 1 is sold so i'm not to touch it for pretty new things for my new house!!:(

I also have a savings account which has £1000 in it and i'm part of the share save scheme at work so i also have savings stashed there. If i'm desparate for money i can close either one of them to get access to it.

Ohh that was a lot of rambling weren't it.. as i read it back it seems very complicated but the upshot of it is that, at the moment, i owe over £300K :eek: *gulp* and my assets are about £350K...

Jeez guess who might not be sleeping very soundly tonight... i'm very risk adverse!

Anyway if you're still with me then thanks for reading...

shala_moo

1 - sell my house (could look at changing it to a buy-to-let and renting but not sure i'm that much of a risk taker)
2 - make extra money on surveys and clicky things
3 - register with council to start little side business of selling novelty cakes/baking (will do this at new house - currently only bake for friends and family)
4 - start shopping at Home Bargains, Farm Foods, Lidl etc - i do this already a bit but it can be increased
5 - pay off 0% credit card that has new purchases on it (about £3000 for dining table, fridge and cooker and other bits for new house)
6 - pay off Sofa - from DFS so 12 months free, then monthly payments of £31.18/month

Sepa74

Welcome MFW, Shala Moo, I look forward to reading your diary and watching how you sort out your complex finances!

Good luck selling your house, it seems to be a very slow market at the moment, and I am profoundly grateful I'm not looking at selling at the moment

originalmiscellany

I have to agree with you Sepa74 - not a good time at all, but houses which are sensibly priced are selling, so that's a good thing. Shala_moo have you had much interest in your house being sold/rented? Has it been on the market long? It sounds to me that your life will get a lot easier when property 1 is sold, but at the moment knowing you owe so much in theory can't be good for the blood pressure, you're right!

We went down the route of btl on MOM's house when we got married - it was the only thing to do at the time, and it's not really made us much money/any really in 3 years, as things keep on going wrong with it! We didn't intend to make money out of it, but hoped for some profit; however we're now in a position where values are dropping but the tenant is happy (soon to sign in for 3 years!) so we have to think long term on that - maybe in 10 years time we could sell, but we certainly haven't found it to be an easy money making scheme...
All the best, and be sure to keep us updated!

shala_moo

Thanks for dropping by Sepa74 and originalmiscellany...

To answer your questions,

The house has been on the market for around 2 months, had two viewings. The houses around here are selling ok to be honest and in the last few weeks there seems to have been a rush of people putting their houses up for sale... even though i think it's completely the wrong time of year!! We've had a house sell on my street in the last week and my dad's sold in the summer in just 6 weeks... so i just have to have my fingers crossed.

I'm not under any illusion that selling it is a sure thing which is why my back up plan includes maybe renting it out.. for the long term.. it's something we've talked about doing for a while but we're just too chicken to take the first step..

I am also prepared to drop my price - i knew going into this that being £10k over stamp duty threshold may put people off so this may have to be reviewed soon..

It's a scarey prospect but i've never taken a risk in all of my life and this time just felt like it was time to try it... lets see if i regret it in 6 months:rotfl::eek: Can't wait for my easy life when i have one mortgage to worry about..

teapot2

Good luck with the house selling - sounds like it might be a good idea to drop the price especially if that takes it out of stamp duty.

pink_poppy

Or another way of looking at it is that you could keep it at the current price, but use the 'willing to consider dropping under stamp duty level' if you have a positive viewing & subsequent offer or talk of an offer. If a house was £10k over the stamp duty threshold in the current housing market climate, it wouldn't stop me viewing it as I would be secretly thinking/hoping I could put in a low offer. I'm all talk btw, I probably wouldn't dare do that myself, but I know lots of people who would!! :rotfl:

Anyway, good luck with your MFW journey & hope you manage to sell soon, keep us posted

shala_moo

hi all..

Poppy :wave:that's the way i was seeing it.. i would only offer £125K on a £135k property too (we did last yr on a house for my father) so i was hoping someone else would do the same. I think Estate agents always price too high these days because they know most people will come in with low offers..

Extra income this week (so far)

- worked 8 hours overtime last week that will come through in my November pay.
- Ipsos - ordered a £10 amazon voucher to go towards presents:T
- joined Panel base and Mccains Spud shillings

- 3 cakes ordered this week (not much profit at all really probably about £20)

Things to do

- finish the other two cakes
- catch up with Toluna and other surveys
- go to the new Lidl by us to see what cheaper xmas goodies i can stash away.. stollen mmmmm


So still plodding on - still waiting on the mortgage people to pull their fingers out and let us arrange an exchange date for the new house.. it's very frustrating sometimes..

Although *very excited* we've signed off the final design for our new kitchen and i love it.. can't wait to see it actually in place!! :T:T:T I have stuck the drawings on our fridge so I can gaze at it longingly whilst i'm making our tea! :rotfl:

shala_moo

Well bit of an odd day today... didn't go into work as I had to pop to the hospital to have a few tests (for a minor op)

spent some of it chasing solicitors/building people to try and sort out an exchange date for the new house..:mad: why is it that everyone sits on paperwork that needs signing until we ring up and ask for updates..

also popped to Lidl to see what was there.. picked up a Stollen, choc gingerbread and choc marzipan bars for xmas.. unfortunately one marzipan bar hasn't made it to the end of the day

Yesterday I started my christmas hamper preparations - soaking fruit for cakes, bought onions to pickle and onions to make into chutney :T I'll also be making whiskey marmalade, chilli jam and possibly some sweeties. I usually do these hampers for my aunty, sister, MIL and B/SIL. I then buy a cheapy present to go with the hamper.

I'm pretty lucky at Xmas, the only people i have to buy for are the above and OH, Dad, 2 cousins and a close friend, so my list isn't extensive. I'm in awe of people who buy for loads of children and adults at xmas.. i wouldnt have the money or the patience to think of what to buy everyone

Shall I stop talking about xmas?? it's only October :rotfl: Sorry....

Money making today -

sold a cake - £20 (cherry madeira mmmmmmm)
Caught up with surveys
Booked to have a water meter fitted next week
45 mins of overtime y'day
cashed a cheque for a wedding cake deposit - £50

When our mortgage starts I will be posting some figures and analysis to spur me onto further savings.. at the moment any extra money i am making i am putting into my savings account ready to either pay off the credit card or against the mortgage once it's started..

newgirly

Hello, I have just spotted your diary

Quite a lot to pay off, fingers crossed you can sell quickly. It seems like you have a plan, and you will find find lots of support on the mfw board. My DH knows I come on here but has never really looked at my diary or shown a big interest in the ins and outs of it.

If you get the chance have a look at the oldstyle boards as there is so much good advice on there and its nice to know there are others around who appreciate the effort that goes into moneysaving and paying off what you owe.

Best of luck with your new mf adventure!

shala_moo

Hi Newgirly..

Funnily enough i'm just at page 9 of your diary (i have to read threads from the beginning!) so i've a way to catch up yet!

Thanks for popping by with suggestions.. i've already lurked on the OS boards a while ago but i must admit i've slipped a lot with OS the last few months:o Definitely need to look at reducing my grocery budget again as this has been creeping up.. and stop the takeaways !! D*mn Domin0es for opening a new store up the road.. :rotfl:

I have actually stumbled across Weezl's Cheap Family Recipes thread again this afternoon so i'll have to steal some ideas from there..

off to carry on reading your diary