Sweetdaisy's aim to be mortgage-free

sweetdaisy

Payday today and even though I had extra pay for working Christmas and Boxing Day, as well as being 'on-call' I have not been able to make any overpayments as I have my car and house contents and building insurance due in a few weeks, which will set me back almost £650 .

I have had to move some money from my savings into my main current account so that it is all square for the month of February. I have £801 in my Childcare Vouchers account, so will continue to use this money to pay for weekly childcare costs and the money already accounted for in the current account will be paid into savings/used for overpayments.

DH was paid a day less this week as the Agency assumed that he (and other workers) were not in work last Friday due to the snow, so this will be added to his pay next week. He has applied for 3 jobs in the past couple of days, but as with temp work not sure how long he will be in his current temp job.

sweetdaisy

Total overpayments made for January was £568 (largely down to me having some money aside to pay into the mortgage). February's overpayments are going to be a lot less and will mainly come from 'free' council tax month (as we only pay 10 monthly payments a year) and £105 annual Cashback which has been credited to my credit card statement.

Received my car insurance renewal quote, which cost £265. This has been paid and House/Building insurance due in a few weeks.

Had an underspend of £32 this week, which has been divided between Savings and our 'Treats' account - mainly due to being 'On-call' as part of my job so unable to go anywhere this weekend.

Had a very stressful week in work which has made me even more determined to look for another job. Having been looking for a new job for many months - with hardly any jobs around, it looks like I will have to take a pay cut of around £4,000 a year. I am therefore building up my Childcare Vouchers again (not sure for how long as depends how long DH is in his temp job). Currently have £735 in the Childcare Vouchers account, so currently paying fees by cheque until I build up this money. Obviously I have no idea of when I'll be able to change job (if at all!) but with the vouchers being built up it will help.

DH was paid the extra money he was owed from the week before and was offered overtime this weekend and worked an extra 14 hours.

southerndave

Bad jobs make life a drag, I hope you find something better.

sweetdaisy

I have some good news to report - DH has got a new job and is starting tomorrow :j. He went for an interview with a large industrial company 3 weeks ago and found out on Monday that he got the job. He had another interview yesterday (a formality to check ID and provide bank details etc) and a medical examination today and passed it, so is starting tomorrow morning.

He has been employed through an Agency as a temporary worker (a standard procedure for this company - as you can only get taken on as an employee by the Company if you get employed through the Agency first). He will be on a rolling contract so obviously as it is on a temporary contract we are not sure how long he will be working, but they wanted people with no experience in the field and are investing a lot on money in terms of training DH in Health and Safety, Crane driving etc.

As DH will be commuting a lot further to work I have increased our weekly spend by £15 to cover the extra fuel that will be spent. DH will be earning significantly more money than he currently does - so we have decided that we will carry on living off his old weekly wage and divide the extra money between savings and mortgage overpayments. The reasoning behind this is that if/should he be laid-off from his new job and goes back to a job paying NMW - it's not going to affect our lifestyle in the sense of what we spend our weekly money on. Obviously, we will have a reduction in the amount of money going into savings/mortgage overpayments, however if we 'forget' about the extra income and out into savings/mortgage overpayments we will not need to spend it.

£66 mortgage overpayment paid yesterday and I have knocked another month off the target date, so mortgage balance is now: £75,509.

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

:j:j:j:j well done Mr SD :j:j:j:j

Really pleased to hear the good news

Best wishes Tilly x

sweetdaisy

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS wrote: »

:j:j:j:j well done Mr SD :j:j:j:j

Really pleased to hear the good news

Best wishes Tilly x

Thanks Tilly - it's a massive weight off our shoulders. Whilst it could be quite easy to get carried away with it all and spend more money, I am trying to be sensible in that we will use the extra income to increase savings and reduce mortgage at the same time . Hopefully we will go out for a nice meal together once he is settled, as I know he is more nervous than he is letting on.

gallygirl

Well done Mr SD :j. He's obviously impressed them so will do great :T

southerndave

:j:j

Brilliant news SD, pleased for you. And a superb idea regards treating the income at the same rate as your on now. I often look back and think that if we had done this when I was self employed, we would have probably paid our house off by now, but of course like most people you live to your means rather than under them. If you can ignore the increased income and stay within the restricted budget you'll benefit in the long run and of course, as you say, you future-proof yourself against any unexpected reduction. Great plan, great news - I expect that tally will start falling soon now!!:T

megela

That is good news, and hopefully as they've already 'tried him out' via the agency they know they are chossing the right person for the job. Also if they are investing in him with lots of training they won't let him go easily either.
Also the training will come in useful if/when he does need to find something else.

sweetdaisy

Had an expensive day today - DH's car had a service which cost £252 and House contents/building insurance was renewed costing £367.

Received a renewal letter from AA breakdown, upgrading us to 'Gold Membership' at almost double the cost. I currently pay just over £11 a month for joint cover and told them that I refuse to pay double. I decided to call their bluff and asked them what notice period I would need to give to cancel our membership and I was put on hold. After a short while the representative then said that the best deal they could do was £14 a month for being a loyal customer, so I accepted .

DH did 2 days induction this week in his new job and starts his shift pattern of days/nights next week. He was really down yesterday and was really stressed about the new job/new people/new shifts (hasn't worked nights shifts for many years) . He is extremely nervous and had got confused with the new working pattern, so after having gone through it he is now a little happier. He has no idea how long he will be in the job, as others have said it will only be short-term - so we will just have to wait and see.

Whilst his new wage will allow us to put more money into savings/against the mortgage, I have told him there is no pressure on him if things don't work out as we can manage on him earning NMW (the less pressure the better as he is quite anxious about it).