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

shala_moo

Hi Lumanous :wave:

Everything is fine thank you for checking up, the last few months have been a bit manic at home and work so haven't had much time to focus on being MSE or paying down the mortgage. Luckily most things just tick along nicely so we've still been making great headway into the debt.

Oct Monthly figures should look like this
Outstanding Mortgage = £118,172.76
Mortgage Offset % = 32.56%
Approx. Monthly interest saved and OP'd £47.33
Mortgage Neutral Date = Mar 2026

Total Debt as present moment £79,690.40 :T:j under £80k:j:T

However, i'm about to apply for a re-mortgage to another 5 year fixed rate of 1.85% which will incur an early repayment fee so figures may change slightly. It'll save us £6k in the long run, reduce our monthly pymts to £550 from £740, reduce daily interest from 11.56 to 6.04 and knock 12 months off the mortgage :T

It's kind of renewed my interest in sorting finances out again, so I've just updated the MFIT-4 challenge (in front by £2k) and I've started to catch up on diaries again to get myself back in the spirit.

Known spends coming up

• dentist visit £70 :eek:
• book cruise for our 10 yr anniversary (June 18)
• desperately need new glasses
• annual hedge/garden maintenance - 12 ft hedges need trimming - £200
• new hair - much money :eek: but this is a need for me rather than a want as the effects on confidence is immeasurable

Work stuff has been a big issue the last few months, however, we have a new boss and another couple of employees starting so we're hopeful now this will settle down. I feel more optimistic than I have done in a while, but there is still a lot of drama being played out which doesn't make for a good atmosphere.

My promotion meant that I have some staff to manage which is a massive learning curve, fingers crossed that all is going well. Not heard any complaints so.. :T

I'm not sure much active money saving has been done in the last few months but there were a few things

• OH's friend came and took down a large tree for us - he wouldn't take any money for the work
• 0% credit card for 24 months got for all the massive purchases listed above
• given up on slimming world, it doesn't work for me as I can't be *rsed to follow it :rotfl: so £20-25 per month saved. Been watching my eats and trying to be more active instead which is working, for free:D
• OH has given up smoking and changed gyms saving himself £130 a month and some long term health issues

Well that turned into a bit of a long post.. i'll leave you all now in peace and go and sort this blooming re-mortgage out xx

beanielou

Hope the remortgage goes well.
Good to hear from you.
Miss your posts xxx

shala_moo

Hello all.. so I haven't updated for 9 months current figures are below.

Jun Monthly Figures
Outstanding Mortgage = £111,078.57
Mortgage Offset % = 36.70%
Approx. Monthly interest saved and OP'd £73.80
Mortgage Neutral Date = Aug 2025

Total Debt as present moment £70,312.05:j

All money savings things are ticking along nicely and we've reduced debt by approx. £1k a month since last Oct, that also includes adding on a lot of debt for our cruise we took in May, to Alaska, to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. It was amazing though and I've currently got the cost sitting on a 0% credit card until Oct 19 and stoozing the cash in our offset account.

I had a little read back through my diary yesterday and the overwhelming theme was how bad work was, I moaned a lot :eek: sorry! Well finally they pushed a bit too far and i'm currently signed off sick and on meds for mental health issues:( with counselling to follow shortly.

So focus needs to be on money saving again, as with a lot of people when things are busy-busy we tend to go for convenience rather than value for money so lots of costs are starting to spiral!

So things that have happened since last year financially :

:jOH had another pay rise - quite substantial
:)didn't bother changing the mortgage, the early repayment charge was extortionate so this is to be reviewed Oct 18
:(I was involved in a big car crash - other persons fault - no cost to me but car less for a while
:(had a leaking pipe in the kitchen - currently on our 8th month of waiting for the insurance to sort it - just the excess to pay
:DS&S ISA is finally showing some profit, I was worried for a while, obviously this can fall just as quickly but currently at £2k profit - still hopeful to make the millions

Anyway that's all that's been happening, going to start posting again regularly so there's a record of our debt busting when we finally get that last 1p paid off!!

xx

shala_moo

Well, now i'm getting my focus back, I can't wait for the end of the month to check the figures!

My update to the MFIT thread shows that 91.5% of my target to becoming mortgage neutral has been reached :j so well on track for meeting that when it ends in Dec 18. Can't believe it's been nearly 3 years already.

My next three year goal will be to be completely mortgage neutral :eek: currently that's £64k to find, but hopefully nearer £60k by the end of the year.

There's been a fair few OP's done this month - I desperately wanted to get the mortgage under £111k so there have been lots of tilly-tidies and I accidently paid my credit card bill of £145 to the mortgage account instead luckily realised just as I pressed the button so paid the CC off too so there were no late fees etc.

There hasn't been any money spending going on really which is brilliant, we got a free N0w TV subscription to try but it's not for us, so that's needs cancelling. We have 'free to us' Netfl1x which is much better so we'll stick to that.

xx

beanielou

All sounding good

shala_moo

Jul Monthly Figures
Outstanding Mortgage = £109,993.05
Mortgage Offset % = 37.51%
Approx. Monthly interest saved and OP'd £79.60
Mortgage Neutral Date = Aug 2025

Total Debt as present moment £68,730.41 (-1,581.64 :T)

Mortgage is under £110k :j:j and total net debt is under £70k :j:j so excited about these milestones! If we continue at this rate then the mortgage will be sub £100k by this time next year..:eek:

A couple of spends today : we are doing up the house slowly and trying to get stuff a bit more organised so a shoe rack was purchased (£30) from Eb*y and a new pair of shoes (£50) - I think it's bad luck to buy a shoe rack and not put a new pair of shoes in it, isn't it? :whistle::o

OH has put his back out this weekend so that was another spend at the chiropractor - currently trying to talk him into going once a month to keep his health in check as his back gets painful quite a lot.

Also popped into the co-op and bought some bits for tea - this is where we are falling down quite a bit in the money saving stakes, the top up shops are becoming quite frequent and really are unnecessary.


xx

beanielou

YOur figures are looking just fab :j

shala_moo

Thanks for popping Beanie :wave:

Couple of OP's made this week :
- £23.89 made from a survey site
- £2.86 interest from my T$B account

Need to find another £120 this month to hit the the £108k's - some of it will come from saving money on petrol as i'm still not back at work, and some of it will hopefully come from grocery savings!

Today is a use it up day
- aged carrots, frozen onions and frozen pastry used to make a pie for tea - no idea when the frozen onions and pastry were bought - all other ingredients have also come from the stock cupboard.
- aged apples stewed down a little to use in breakfasts
- aged radishes have been pickled using some old vinegar (using this recipe)

Menu plan is done for the week and hopefully shouldn't need to go to the shops for any top ups.

I started a bullet journal this weekend to try and organise myself - it consists of a 'menu plan' page and 'grocery list' page to try and get on top of the grocery spends and a habit tracker page to make sure i'm not forgetting to do things everyday. Love a bit of stationery and this way it's useful as well as pretty and keeps me entertained colouring! :rotfl: Fingers crossed it works successfully.

xx

shala_moo

Wow it’s been 18 months since I’ve been on the MFW diaries properly, I’ve really missed catching up with everyone.

A lot has happened and I just wanted to update my diary really even if no one reads it. I read a lot of diaries from beginning to end and it’s sad when people just disappear and there is no ending – suppose it’s just nosiness really 

So the last 18 months –

•  Went back to work in Oct 18 after my mental health scare – it was no better, so applied for a 6 month unpaid career break at the end of 2019 (dad was ill and I needed a break), it got granted to start in Apr 2020

• Covid hit the business hard and voluntary redundancy was offered out in August so I took it

• Unfortunately my dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer in Dec 19 and passed away in Oct 20, me and my sister looked after him up until the last few days, we were lucky to get into a hospice at that point and allowed to be with him at the end

• My cat was also diagnosed with cancer at the start of 2020 and passed away a few short months later, luckily it was just as lockdown began so we were also allowed to be with him at the end

• We missed the house having a pet (a lot) so took the decision to take on 2 rescue cats in May. They have a lot more energy compared to my old boy so it’s a steep learning curve getting used to them! One of them is currently chasing a xmas bauble around the house, it’s SO noisy on laminate flooring and she's miaowing on top of the noise! 

• Finance wise – my redundancy pay-out gave me the last push to become nearly mortgage neutral. I am currently using that money to live on so we’ve gone a little backwards but with the inheritance we’re set to receive we should be on track - just £2400 to find

Sorry, it all seems a bit doom and gloom. 2020 was a really tough and emotional year as it was for a lot of people, but for now I’m in a good place.

Last year has given me a different perspective on life and I didn’t realise how toxic work was to my mental health until I stepped outside of the situation, so, for the foreseeable future I won’t be going back to work (unlikely anyway in this current climate) and won’t be considering it until we run out of funds, so penny pinching commences.

Maybe me continuing the diary will be the best way to keep us accountable of any spends we have. Until then, current figures are below and I'm off to go and catch up with everyone's news.

Current Figures
Outstanding Mortgage = £82,445.11
Mortgage Offset % = 97.03%
Mortgage Neutral Date = Jul 21
Total Debt as present moment £2,432.85

xx

beanielou

Sorry about your dad & your cat.
I lost both my boy cats in JUly last year.
I got a girl recue in August & she is a totak joy.
Very different to both boys & much more active!