Sweetdaisy's aim to be mortgage-free

southerndave

Catching up and very, very impressed SD not only with the superb reduction in your mortgage (wish I had kept pace!) but also your dedication to improving the rest of your life as well. I take my cyber hat off to you and wish you a fantastic 2015!

sweetdaisy

southerndave wrote: »

Catching up and very, very impressed SD not only with the superb reduction in your mortgage (wish I had kept pace!) but also your dedication to improving the rest of your life as well. I take my cyber hat off to you and wish you a fantastic 2015!

Thanks southerndave and it's nice to 'see' you back .

sweetdaisy

_party_ Happy New Year _party_

Financial spreadsheets have all been set up for the New Year. Monthly interest of £117 was applied to the mortgage on Christmas Eve, so I start the New Year with a mortgage balance of £55,198.

The next few months are an expensive time for us as we have car insurances, car tax, building & contents insurance to pay in annual lump sums. Just received a letter from our Water Company and monthly payments are being increased by £17.50 a month from February. I am looking forward to our ‘free’ Council Tax months in February and March.

I have not made any New Year’s resolutions this year and have not set any financial goals. I am hoping that 2015 will be a year for change and hope that I’ll be able to change job/career. I also have my fingers crossed that DH will be made a permanent member of staff around April (it is common place for his work place to keep staff on agency for a couple of years before they are taken on by the company). His rota has also changed - just as I got used to his shift pattern! The good news is that DH thinks the new rota won’t work so there will be opportunities for overtime.

In terms of mortgage overpayments, once I reach a level of Savings that I am happy with, I will then make some overpayments. By not making additional overpayments my minimum monthly mortgage payment stays the same and I miss the satisfaction of knowing that it was reducing, however as we have an Offset Mortgage my mortgage is still reducing as I increase my Savings.

I had an exam the week before Christmas which I passed and have another one next week. It’s not been easy trying to keep on top of my college studying over the Christmas period, but after next weeks’ exam, I have a couple of months until my next one.

I have started spring cleaning the house and the Christmas decorations are down. The Playroom has been sorted and tidied, cupboard under the stairs cleaned out, children’s wardrobes sorted and old clothes which no longer fit have been placed in recycling bags.

Wishing everyone a Happy and Prosperous New Year .

sweetdaisy

What a start to the year! It’s been an expensive month; however most of it was expected. Had to transfer money from Savings into the Current Account to pay for various insurances and expenses, costing £2,259 :eek:.

• Monthly interest of £112 was added to the mortgage on 24th January, a reduction of £5 compared to last month. I made my first OP of the year and paid £112 (the amount of interest added). Mortgage balance is now £54,448.
  
• Paid £130 for my Car Tax and £180 for DH’s online in one annual lump sum.
  
• I renewed my Car Insurance costing £338. DH has renewed his costing £386.
  
• DH had his car MOT’d. It was only serviced a couple of months ago, however it needed two new back tyres and it ended up costing £166 .
  
• I renewed our Building & Contents Insurance, costing £400. I thought that it was due in March, but I got the dates wrong as it is due by 8th February. I had to amend some details on the policy which resulted in the premium increasing to ensure we were covered for additional items; however I did some haggling and got a £67 reduction.
  
• The fan on our boiler decided to pack in last weekend. Luckily DH’s friend is a plumber so we had it replaced in the Monday costing £170. When at home we wore lots of layers, lit candles and kept warm in the lounge by bouncing on my mini trampoline. Think I even managed to lose some weight and the Boys were absolutely shattered when they went to bed .
  
• In terms of work, our department are not at risk of redundancy (for the time being); however we have had a 10% pay cut, which will take effect from 1st April. I am not losing as much money as I thought due to paying pension and my salary sacrifice for childcare vouchers, which reduces my tax. Therefore, I have re-organised my finances to take this into consideration.
  
• I received my January Cashback Credit Card statement and I earned £216.74 in cashback last year. This amount has been deducted from my January Credit Card statement. I had originally planned to use this money as a mortgage overpayment, but with all the payments made this month I have put it in Savings instead.
  
• Booked a 5 day break/holiday at a Haven Caravan Park in Dorset (not been there before but it looks nice) . We are unable to have a holiday in the Summer during half-term as DH is working and unable to take time off, therefore we are having a holiday during the first week of Easter half-term instead. Booked the holiday through TopCashback and earned £20.23 in cashback.
  
• I passed my third College exam and have a couple of months break until the next one. As a reward to myself (which I rarely do), I bought some perfume via TopCashback, earning a whooping £0.91 in cashback - however the perfume was in a sale so saved much more.
  
• Had another sort out of some of the children’s old clothes. These past couple of months they seem to have shot-up. I am hoping that their growth spurts will calm down soon, otherwise they will be running out of clothes.

Hopefully February is going to be a lot less expensive.

QB_Wolf

Hi SD you've had a similar month to us, we've had a lot of car related stuff too. Here's to a frugal February :beer:

southerndave

Just popped in again. Love reading you and your spreadsheets! ;-)

We are still plugging away (see my thread). Keep going Daisy, I am following your tail-lights!

TimmySaver

It sounds like January was quite a nightmare of a month. I hope that February has been kinder to you!
Well done on passing your third exam. :j

sweetdaisy

Mortgage balance is £53,607. Monthly interest of £109 was applied on 25th February and I made an OP of £150. This has reduced the term by one month and we are now set to repay the mortgage by November 2021 - 4 years and 2 months earlier than original end date :j. Mortgage is currently 36% Offset.

In order to repay the mortgage by my 40th Birthday in 2019 I need to repay £350 a month towards the mortgage. Not sure if this is at all achievable, but going to try and get as close to it as I can, whilst also continuing to enjoy family life and activities.

Received a statement from Npower regarding our electricity and gas. Received a rebate of £12.35 and my monthly payments are increasing by £12 a month from March. I will now be paying £83 a month for dual fuel.

Following DH’s car service last month (at our local garage) he had a warning light display on his dashboard. He had to take the car for a diagnostics test costing £94 and it turns out that the garage had put the wrong oil in and it can cause corrosion :mad:. He has to now book it in for another service to get it repaired costing £110.

It was a ‘free’ Council Tax month; therefore as there was no payment I put the £150 into Savings.

I’ve been busy re-vamping my CV and have applied for a few jobs. It’s quite daunting applying for jobs in a completely different sector, but equally exiting. I’ve not heard anything yet, but have not applied for jobs within Accountancy/Finance before so not putting my hopes up too much. I still have a job, so ploughing as much money into Savings as I can as I know that I have to take a 40% pay cut to change careers.

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Good luck with the job applications. Brilliant news about another month off

Tilly x x x

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Good luck with the career change. I was a mature entrant to teaching and appreciated the job all the more in comparison with other jobs. You will do brilliantly!