It's time to attack the mortgage!

macgirl

After being a longtime lurker (and a nudge or two from Museumworker), I've decided to have a stab at a diary to help sharpen my focus on reducing our mortgage.

I/We (mainly me as I am a fashion addict and lover of all things lovely:o) had rather large CC bills up until earlier this year. I was promised a large windfall, which didn't exactly materialise, but in any case wiped out much of that debt. I still have some on 0% and want that gone asap.

I have a wonderful DH, who is self employed and very money savvy and 2 DD's of 7 and 5 who are involved in lots of (expensive) activites. We thought once they were both at school and the extra monthly "mortgage sized" payment of childcare was gone - we'd be quids in. Wrong.

We moved a little over a year ago to our dream house and rented out our old one. So far we have had a good tenant, then a void of 2 months, now another hopefully good tenant.
Having 2 mortgages stopped my "live for today" money mentality pretty sharpish and things became very serious all of a sudden.

Now I want to tackle the huge mortgage we have for this house. I had a hairbrained scheme yesterday for a minute, but realise now that we're stuck with a high interest fix for another 45 MONTHS:eek:
So, that being the case I am getting my act together and have the following plans:

• MENU PLANNING - this is priority. I managed it when I was on mat leave, but it soon slipped away. If I plan ahead I can save money, cut waste and hopefully cut stress into the bargain
• CUT GROCERY SPENDS; yesterday I worked out our food spends from Aug-Nov. It would look like a mountain range on a graph.
  A-£450
  S-£220
  O-£450
  N-£220
  Weird. Anyway that averages £335 a month, so for now I'll aim for £300 and hopefully much less as time goes on
• Which leads neatly into BATCH COOKING. I do this in fits and starts. At the moment the cupboards and freezer are full. We have salmon fishcakes, breadcrumbs for goujons, damsons for crumbles (and possibly sloe gin!), a nut roast, some stewing steak and plenty of fish, so plenty for Jan. Tomorrow I'm going to do some more preps for the coming month so grocery spends are meagre for the next 4/5 weeks.
• EBAY: again I have attacked this with gusto in the past (and Amazon) but since moving, have given away things (to people who I know will have ebayed them!!!) or charity shopped them. No more, this is a cash leak which needs to be plugged. The kids have supermarket clothes, supplemented with bits of Boden and Gap when on sale, so I can make the bundles look nice and attractive. (Annoyingly despite the age gap, the kids are the same size - so no hand-me-downs here)
• UPCYCLING and MAKING; I'm quite arty and creative, and love to upcycle furniture when I have the time (which is never!) I also have some curtains to make then I can ebay the old ones. I made some Christmas presents this year, it was so enjoyable to do, plus the recipients loved the time and thought gone into it, so will defo do more of that. Lots of jobs/cash generators like that which I need to focus on.

I've been an MSE'er since 2004, so shopping for insurance, switching utilities, not having SKY, cashback sites etc is second nature. So cutting spending is the key to having extra to throw at the mortgage.

As I'm currently on holiday and fully energised, all this feels very doable. But I know once I'm back at work next week and am out of the house for up to 12 hours a day (4 days a week), life will go at 100mph again. I will be exhausted and consumed by work, kids, housekeeping, general keeping of body and mind together! - all my good intentions will be out of the window.

Anyhow, that's the plan, it would be good to think we could wipe £50k off before the fix ends, but time will tell....

Wish me luck!

EDIT:
I've decided to not have the figures following me around in my sig, so shall park them here for safekeeping:

Mortgage @Sept 2010 - £238500 - MFD Aug 2035
Mortgage @Dec 2011 - £232705 - MFD Aug 2030
Rate Fixed @ 6.6% until 31.8.2015
Currently making a regular OP of £132pm

macgirl

Apologies for that beast - I sure can talk!

Our dual fuel tariff expired today, so I've just got off the phone to edf. Despite my best efforts trawling comparison sites, I couldn't get better than our current deal.
However, the lady I spoke to was extremely helpful and said our gas consumption is over twice the national average!:eek::eek::eek:

It is a large old house with high ceilings, but we're out all day and have an electric oven. She seems to think we might have a faulty boiler and wants me to take meter readings every day for the next week.
The boiler is probably over 10 years old and we have had it serviced and a couple of new parts, but would obviously prefer not to have to replace it completely.

So now energy efficiency will be added to the above list - I can feel a call of "put another jumper on if you're cold - the heating is NOT going on!" coming on

The good news is that our monthly payment have been reduced by £7pm - the bad is that it's still over £160pm

Onwards...

Jensington

Good luck with your mission Mac girl!

I feel very inspired after reading your post, Im new on here and going to have a year of finance sorting!

macgirl

Hi Jensington :hello: and thanks!
100's people have inspired me on this site, so I'm glad to pass it on.

We usually go to a friend's party for NYE but this year DH has asked for a break from the old routine so we're staying in :(:(

To console myself I've been part-taking in some online window shopping (my fav MSE activity ) and spotted this little beauty. It's such a bargain, I'd get loads of wear blah blah (I have all the excuses) but I have resisted in the name of future financial freedom - hey FFF, that might have to be my new mantra.

Instead I have taken the oven apart, scrubbed the oven floor, put all the shelves into the cleaning bag and evil solution and set the oven to self-clean. Happy New Year!

pavlovs_dog

macgirl wrote: »

I am getting my act together and have the following plans:

• MENU PLANNING - this is priority. I managed it when I was on mat leave, but it soon slipped away. If I plan ahead I can save money, cut waste and hopefully cut stress into the bargain
• CUT GROCERY SPENDS; yesterday I worked out our food spends from Aug-Nov. It would look like a mountain range on a graph.
  A-£450
  S-£220
  O-£450
  N-£220
  Weird. Anyway that averages £335 a month, so for now I'll aim for £300 and hopefully much less as time goes on
• Which leads neatly into BATCH COOKING. I do this in fits and starts. At the moment the cupboards and freezer are full. We have salmon fishcakes, breadcrumbs for goujons, damsons for crumbles (and possibly sloe gin!), a nut roast, some stewing steak and plenty of fish, so plenty for Jan. Tomorrow I'm going to do some more preps for the coming month so grocery spends are meagre for the next 4/5 weeks.

I've been an MSE'er since 2004, so shopping for insurance, switching utilities, not having SKY, cashback sites etc is second nature. So cutting spending is the key to having extra to throw at the mortgage.

As I'm currently on holiday and fully energised, all this feels very doable. But I know once I'm back at work next week and am out of the house for up to 12 hours a day (4 days a week), life will go at 100mph again. I will be exhausted and consumed by work, kids, housekeeping, general keeping of body and mind together! - all my good intentions will be out of the window.

I could have written much of that myself Macgirl, the last bit about being full of good intentions now it is the holiday season particularly resonates!

I'm on a big drive myself to curb stupid spending sprees at the supermarkets (I certainly don't feel we're eating any better for the rise in food bills :cool:), so I'll be watching to see if you have any good ideas I can pinch.

All the best for the new year :beer:

financialbliss

macgirl wrote: »

The boiler is probably over 10 years old and we have had it serviced and a couple of new parts, but would obviously prefer not to have to replace it completely.

So now energy efficiency will be added to the above list - I can feel a call of "put another jumper on if you're cold - the heating is NOT going on!" coming on

The good news is that our monthly payment have been reduced by £7pm - the bad is that it's still over £160pm

Onwards...

We replaced our faulty 15+ year old combi with a new condensing combi in 2006. Despite that, our combined monthly direct debit is £83, which compared to yours, is roughly double. Can't really offer much advice here - are your windows / doors double glazed and well insulated?

We've a fairly new house and tend not to put the heating on a timer, as the house warms up pretty quickly, but we will be replacing the windows once we're mortgage free and have a bit of savings behind us...

FB.

newgirly

Welcome Macgirl, I did'nt even think mse had been around that long! Good luck with getting the grocery budget down a bit, thats the one bit for me that sometimes goes out of the window if i am not in the mood.

Looking forward to reading your diary, have a nice evening in and a happy new year.

macgirl

Hello FB, PD and Newgirly!

Thanks for all your input and welcomes.

financialbliss wrote: »

We replaced our faulty 15+ year old combi with a new condensing combi in 2006. Despite that, our combined monthly direct debit is £83, which compared to yours, is roughly double. Can't really offer much advice here - are your windows / doors double glazed and well insulated?

We've a fairly new house and tend not to put the heating on a timer, as the house warms up pretty quickly, but we will be replacing the windows once we're mortgage free and have a bit of savings behind us...

FB.

Fraid not as the house is listed so the windows can't be replaced. The previous owners did a fantastic job and had them renovated so they are draught proof - but still single glazed sashes.

When I looked closely, the boiler was treated with some "inhibitor" 10 years ago, so I reckon it must be a fair bit older. DH & I have been preparing ourselves for a new one next year.

Have sorted some ebayables, so will list those in prep for the boiler fund.

Happy New Year to you all, hope it brings health, happiness and debt freedom in all it's forms xx

museumworker

:dance::dance: Yay, you've started a new diary!! Well done and good luck for FFF!

*subscribes*

I like the jacket - but if you end up with a face like that model's on you when you wear it you're better off without it :rotfl:

Your gas bills are enormous :eek::eek:! Don't hate me but we spend £55 a month on duel fuel. I do however have a titchy witchy house . Definitely look into energy efficiency. Re: the windows, there are things you can do to improve - internal secondary glazing, thick curtains lined with fleece, even that cling film type stuff you put on with a hair dryer. There is a thread called Preparing for Winter on the OS board which is very inspirational.

ps you might want to put your starting balance/no of months/interest rate on the start of the diary, so you can look back and feel smug in years to come with all your hard MFW work

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi Macgirl, I love the jacket but well done for avoiding a purchase. I am subscribing to your diary so will pop in often. Good luck with cost reduction plans and I laughed when you mentioned 'put a jumper on' I am always saying that.........

Happy New Year to you.

Tilly x

CathT

Hi Macgirl, good luck with all your plans. I think I may set myself a grocery challenge too.