Pinky's Mortgage Free Mission!

Pinky15

Hi there - Curly - thanks for popping by! I am soooo pleased to be debt free - ahhh relief - however we did have a little help and some fab support off people on here. The urge to splurge was there earlier in the month so we had lunch out treated the kids to some bits and then have gone back to out usual budgeting. I thought the treats (which were in budget lol) would be a nice way to celebrate. It's taken a good couple of years and I can;t still quite believe we got there lol.
Sepa - re- savings - I was thinking the same the other day and wondered whether that would be enough so DH and I thought we would aim to get to £5000 and see how we go from there. Does this sound more feasible. The mortgage without over payments in £450 a month - does this sound doable?
I looked into reducing the term but think we need some savings behind us first before moving ahead with that step.
Well I have a chicken in the oven and veg all ready to go on. Enough for DH tea again tomorrow night so no wastage. So while kids are quiet gonna have a little mooch on here. Hope everyone is good!!

Sepa74

Hi Pinky, I'm afraid you have to tell us what is do-able!! Everyone is different. Like I said, most people would recommend 3 - 6 months expenditure (ie excluding savings / OPs etc) and the 3 - 6 months figure depends on how secure your jobs are - if not terribly secure, then best to have 6 months set aside.

Maybe it might be a good idea to do a SOA and post it on here? That will help figure out what your expenditure is and what you can save and then throw at the mortgage?

curlygirl1971

I organise my savings into two broad types

*Annual expenditure savings
*Long term / emergency savings

My annual expenditure savings covers things like holidays, Xmas, car repairs, insurances......you get then picture. I pay an amount into this account every month and use the account when I need to. It's instant access and this pot is at present split across two accounts, one earning 5% gross and the other 2.8% gross

Long term savings I built up before I started OPing the mortgage and I haven't really added that much since I started OPing. I'm not going to tell you how many months 'unemployed expenses' I have covered because its more than 9, some people would argue it's excessive and would be better used as an OP but I'm a security freak and it's where I want my money

The other way of looking after an emergency is to use credit - after all how often do real emergencies where you have to spend a substantial amount happen? However for me, my preference is very much Saving rather than Credit. At the present I'm probably earning around 1% less on my savings than I am paying on my mortgage - and to me the 'hit' is worth it for peace of mind.

I also have a mortgage protection policy.

As well as looking at your SOA as Sepa suggested, have you looked at a mortgage calculator? There are loads on the form - I use Locoblade's. It illustrates brilliantly the impact of your OP's.

someday_soon

Hi Pinky

Another graduate from the DFW boards here. Next stop the savers boards I hope!

Best of luck with your new challenge.

Someday Soon

Pinky15

Hi someday soon - it's a good feeling isn't it? - I will pop and have a look at the savings board also:)
Have had a look at our budget and DH and I will have a chat about the emergency fund also - good idea!
Thanks for the savings pot idea I have opened a little online saver which I will transfer money in for oil, swimming etc and keep my emergency money in my ISA which is 3%.:D
Off to have a play about with the mortgage calculators x

Pinky15

Whoop whoop first official overpayment has gone out with the regular payment today
Have a figure in mind for the emergency fund - and have got the ISA's sorted and opened.
I have also set up an online savings account to budget for oil, garage service and households things through the year!:)

ammonite

Pinky15 wrote: »

Whoop whoop first official overpayment has gone out with the regular payment today
Have a figure in mind for the emergency fund - and have got the ISA's sorted and opened.
I have also set up an online savings account to budget for oil, garage service and households things through the year!:)

I do this PInky. I work out how much our car tax, car insurance, home insurance etc. will be for the year and divide it by 12 (months) then as soon as we get paid, I put that amount away as a "bill", so when the time rolls around for car insurance to be paid, it is always there and no :eek: moments when you suddenly need to find £500

Well done and good luck for your MFW journey!

sushistar

:TLovely to read how far you have come Pinky, paying off all your debts - well done! I have 2 small ones and one on the way, and I know how hard it is saving when they always need something, outgrow their clothes, have a birthday etc etc etc. It's so great you are managing your affairs so well now.

I would just throw in a word about emergency fund - I just posted on my mfw thread about emergency roof repairs we have had to make costing 7.5 k :eek::( So do think about worst case scenarios. Don't want to sound like a prophet of doom, but we did have enough to cover that, but paid it into our mortgage when we remortgaged in January! So have had to borrow it elsewhere. Not fun.

Good luck with the ebaying - kids clothes sell really well I find, and I made a bit last month towards paying off the debt for the roof. I'm aiming for £100 this month!!

Pinky15

Hi Ammonite - thanks for stopping by! i have started saving £20 on my p office budget card which helps loads and have tried to divide the big bills evenly for the saving pot - which i am hoping will like you say help out with big and unexpected bills:)

Sushistar - Hi there - I have 3 little ones also! They are very expensive mind. I have sorted some clothes for ebay but need to find the motivation to actually list them:D
Re - roof quote eeekkkk! Having said that we are expecting to have been overpaid by T credits last year and due to the changes in the thresholds we wont be due any this year so we have worked out we owe then £1000:mad: luckily I have managed to scrape together £800 and my mum will lend us the rest till payday.
Am off to find the log in details then will see what the mortgage actually stands at now:)

curlygirl1971

ammonite wrote: »

I do this PInky. I work out how much our car tax, car insurance, home insurance etc. will be for the year and divide it by 12 (months) then as soon as we get paid, I put that amount away as a "bill", so when the time rolls around for car insurance to be paid, it is always there and no :eek: moments when you suddenly need to find £500

Well done and good luck for your MFW journey!

I do this also, and I include a bit towards things like car repairs, Xmas, dentist - I started off saving for the obvious things and then added extra categories to it when I could