Lulabelle's MFW Diary

CathT

lulabelle1 wrote: »

I think our mortgage o/s is actually back to where we were when we started this mortgage free journey. How did that happen???!!!!!
Off to work it out.....

Is it because you acquired an extra house?

lulabelle1

CathT wrote: »

Is it because you acquired an extra house?

LOL - Yeah, I guess so

Still feels a bit rubbish to see the mortgage back where we started though, sigh.....

lulabelle1

Well, that was a few very windy days....

Took our house off the market the other day. So, that's us "settled" for another couple of years. The mini make over has already begun. It's like painting the forth bridge.

Switched our mortgage to a 10 year fix the other day and delayed the start until August - gives us some time to see if we want to move any saves/isa money across to reduce the balance before the fix starts.

In the short term we'd be better on the BMR (2.5%) but I guess they'll be going up at some point soon and I'd only kick myself a few years down the line for not fixing whilst the rates are so slow. Think we got it for 3.14% and that was without any fees at all.

I'm doing the budget to try and make sure that we pay it off over the 10 years so that we don't need to worry about what the rate will be once the fixed rate ends.

Any spare money will be saved (towards either moving in the future or another B2L deposit) rather than OP'ing anything extra on our mortgage.

Oooh the sun has come out and I have a coffee date later with a very money saving expert kind of lady

lulabelle1

Mind you the last time I met her, I ended up spending just short of £115k on the B2L so lets see what she enables me to do this time!!

gallygirl

lulabelle1 wrote: »

Mind you the last time I met her, I ended up spending just short of £115k on the B2L so lets see what she enables me to do this time!!

:rotfl:Ha ha, was just thinking you'd be better leaving your credit card at home :rotfl:

lulabelle1

Can't believe another 2 months has flown by.....

o/s Mortgage stands at 133k ish and the 10 year fixed rate kicks in 1st August. So, the plan is to be MF at the end of 10 year fix.

The lounge is now finished and looks lovely.

We currently have builders in the garden working on our extension. We'll be gaining a utility room and a play room for the boys. The kitchen will be in the new extension, so we'll have a new kitchen too.

We did much soul searching working out whether to spend the money or not but decided to go for it. Much less expensive than moving and gives us many of the things that we would have gained by moving.

We're doing pretty well with money saving, no meals out, take aways, having picnics on day trips with kids and have only bought new clothes for the children this Summer, we're making do with what we've got.

We're funding the extension/kitchen from savings and are going to save hard over the next 12 months to recoup as much as we can back in to our ISA's. We did contemplate further borrowing on the mortgage but thankfully came to our senses.

We'd hoped to take the boys to the States next year for a holiday, but we've knocked that idea on the head and will just go for a much cheaper Euro week away instead and use the savings to go back in to ISA's/Saves.

We're paying a set amount each month from next month to make sure that the mortgage is paid back in the 10 year term. Once the mortgage switches to the fix we won't be able to borrow back OP's so will only be OP'ing what is required to finish at the end of the 10 years as we still want to be saving for B2L/s in the future.

All seems like a plan, but as we know it's so easy to deviate from the plan and change direction!!

Goldiegirl

The best plans have flexibility built in, so it's fine to change direction, if it's for the best.


But it all sounds like things are going well at present

Muser1

Extension sounds fab!

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi Lulabelle, an extension sounds like an excellent plan.

It will be fun sorting the new kitchen out.

Hope all is well with you.

Tilly x x

CathT

The extension sounds great. Has the BTL gone through now and tenanted?

How is DS getting on?