New House, new MFW goal

Queen_of_the_Hive

This is my first MFW post and a new diary for me. Prevously had some shorter ones on a couple of other forums but this is going to be my main one.

Well what about me??.......

With hubby we bought our dream house two months ago (Aug 2011) after living in what could be best described as a shoebox (the car boot ended up providing storage space!!) and decided right from the start that we want to be mortgage free!! For me i'd love to pay our final payment on the pad on my 40th birthday (9 years in December), however on current forcast it is more likely in 15 years but its great to have a tough goal to work towards!!

Ok so vital statistics. The house was 305k and does require "modernising" this is everything from re-wiring and plaster work to new kitchen and re-building the lean too! So quite a project house!....

Being money savvy we managed a 25% deposit, which meant we took a 20 year mortgage, but ended up with a jaw dropping monthly mortgage payment of £1324 p/month. We then topped that up by a £250 p/month hence total monthly payment £1574 p/month so this will work out at approx 3k overpayment per year which is really the maximum we can afford as we need to save for renovation fund.

We've paid the first standard payment and just paid the second payment with £250 overpayment so £1574 going forward. On the positive we managed to bag one of the cracking 5 year fixed rates so very pleased with that and a good start to mortgage freedom!

The purpose of diary is for two reasons really - the first is keeping up the motivation for paying of the mortgage early and the second is being money savvy for saving for renovation fund. We put most of our money into buying the place that we are virtually starting from scratch with the renovation fund and know it will cost thousands!!

Now its time for the hard work to begin....!

Sepa74

Welcome Clarissa! Why don't you do an SOA and we can take a look at your costs and see if there is anything you can shave. That's always a good start

Queen_of_the_Hive

Time for a quick update and Sepa thanks for your reply.

Since we moved in we have taken a few MS steps. The big one was sorting out utilities, OMG they don't make it easy to decide who is the cheapest supplier for dual fuel. Chosing the best tariff and comparing against the different suppliers is a minefield! Even harder was knowing which suppliers had put their prices up and which were in the process of doing so, anyway settled on going with the same supplier, however paying by DD and online bills - we learnt this is the cheapest way to do it. Still not convinced the way we have it is the cheapest method -s so this is being closely monitored.

I've also recently changed my mobile, again suprising how "cheap" mobile phone companies can reduce their plans when you say you want to leave. I was on a sim only deal with current supplier, said wanted to leave as costs way too expensive when outside of allotted balance. Hubby was on this giffgaff thing, however was offered a deal too good to be true. They upped my allowance effectivly meaning i'd never go over it and reduce the price was paying by half. Must say very happy with this deal and at under £6 per month such a bargain!

Also made great use of ebay bought a 2nd hand lovely dining table and chairs set, saying that we still need to sell our lil dining table.

We were lucky to get sofas for free (family updating theirs but in excellent condition) and also paid for BT line rental annually instead of monthly - much cheaper. Although BT customer services is much less desired.

Sepa - i'm not keen on doing a costs breakdown on here. Although I can say both me and hubby are both very money savvy and use spreadsheets and savings accounts for everything. We dont have gym dd, sky or anything like that and we dont have any debts, except a little family loan to help with buying house (2.5k) and government student loan and i must say im keen to keep it this way!! its not easy though!!

Queen_of_the_Hive

...ok so goals are:

* Establish how much we have in starter savings pot.
* Front bedroom needs curtains, look around for best prices.
* Monitor gas/elec current tariff - is it the cheapest?
* Contact mortgage company and find out latest balance.
* Is there a cheaper way of my guilty pleasure? Weekly sunday times.

Sepa74

Fair enough! I'm sure the Sunday Times would love you if you subscribed

I think you get tokens that you give to your local news agent, don't you?

Queen_of_the_Hive

Added £400 to renovation savings pot as a starting point...

Instead of making no money on our bills account we are now stashing it in an instant access savings account and just move the minimum when needed to pay a bill. Got just over £400 in there which is our starting point!

Queen_of_the_Hive

Well tonight we recieved the energy monitor supplied by energy supplier so nice new toy to play with, not sure if we will gain anything from it but interesting to know how it works.

Gosh its getting cold... trying hard not to put the heating on and instead working on the lots of layers principles.... hoping to get to Nov before we put on... lets see how it goes!

Cycled to work everyday this week so far so no travel costs however friday is works drinkies so could be messy!!

Queen_of_the_Hive

Had a bit of a shopping spree but all items were needed. Finally managed to get curtains for spare bedroom at the right price. We ended getting them from B&Q for £30, so pleased about that. Also bought some winter cycling bits so no more getting caught out in the rain! We cycle to work most days so very much needed!

Update action list:

* [STRIKE]Establish how much we have in starter savings pot.[/STRIKE] £400 starter / £20,000 inital target :j
* [STRIKE]Front bedroom needs curtains, look around for best prices. [/STRIKE] £30 B&Q j (can now use the room for visitors!!)
* Monitor gas/elec current tariff - is it the cheapest?
* Contact mortgage company and find out latest balance.
* Is there a cheaper way of my guilty pleasure? Weekly sunday times.
* Purchase mini laptop - time to replace mine

CathT

Hi Clarissa,

Just found your diary. Good luck with all your plans. I am also trying to save for home improvements but the temptation to overpay all my money is too much!

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hi Cath, must admit that is also our problem as well but guess its about striking the right balance. Hopefully your home improvements are not too expensive. Ours is quite a big project however the house is fine to live in as it is at the mo which is definately helpful.

dimbo61

Cheap cycle gear at ALDI at the moment
keep up the good work