My Quest to Beat the Bankers - A MF Mission!

MissOptimistic

Hi Everyone
My name is Miss Optimistic and I'm here to start another MFW Diary. After lurking on the Mortgage Free Boards for the past week or so, Ive been amazed at how much some people achieve and also how keeping a diary seems to keep people focused. So I thought I would give it a go myself.
A little background.... I started off on the DFW boards, and although I am not yet debt free, a large portion of it has now gone, what's left is manageable and I feel more able to start directing some money towards the mortgage as well (after all....that's debt too!)
Theres myself, DH, DS(14) DS(12) and DD(6)
We run an online retail internet business which I wish would do better, and I work part time as well. We also have a small bit of income from another house which we rent out and the rest of our income is made up of tax credits, child benefit and maintenance from OH
We took out our Mortgage when 'self-certs' were an option for anyone, and our advisor told us to take a 10 year mortgage, since it was interest only, we could revisit the options later. Fast forward to 2012, there are now only 6 years left on our mortgage and I think we will really struggle to get a mortgage off anyone with our poor 'patchwork' income, unless we can really bring the balance down in the next 6 years. We currently owe approx £211,000 - Our house is worth approx £240,000 and our monthly payment is £753 (about £70 of this is coming straight off the balance as a couple of years ago we had difficulties when we were stuck in a ridiculously high fix - and some arrears were added onto the mortgage, which are on a repayment basis.)
Finally just to add - our mortgage is with the H**ifax - Who very generously recently increased their SVR for no reason other than they weren't making enough money, or enough people weren't struggling - which added £90 onto our monthly payment :mad:)
That's enough of an essay for now - Thanks if you're still reading!

MissOptimistic

Right - Day one and I have already taken some action which will get me started:-
* Mum rang and asked me if I wanted a small chest freezer they are chucking out - Yes, that will help with meal planning and atch cooking
* Took a pair of shoes back for a refund. I bought them 3 weeks ago, but didn't end up wearing them with the outfit they were intended for, so another £18 back into my bank
* Posted my application for 2 free Legoland tickets from the SUN - we've been meaning to go for ages, but its very expensive to get in and the travelling will be costly too, so happy to receive 2 free adult tickets
* Posted out a book sold on amazon - so £3.51 earned
* Popped into L*DL - to get some ideas about what they sell. I won't need to shop until next week, but I will make it my first stop before heading to Mr T's
* Cleaned and tidied out the garage yesterday (now room for new freezer) but it felt really good to give it all a good sweep and organise - 4 bags of rubbish to take to skip and a couple of things to Ebay
A good start I think

Southernman

The chest freezers are amazing and really economical. I could do with one myself! When i was at uni one of my friends hid in one and jumped out of it when i was going to put some frozen batch meals into it. Needless to say i kacked myself.

I wish you good luck on your quest!

MissOptimistic

Well, quite a good start today!
It is my last day off before work tomorrow, so wanted to make the most of it.
*Load of washing on the line and now dried
*One survey done on onepoll - 15p richer!
*Registered for Shop and Scan - will wait and see if anything comes of it
*Made pasta bake for tea using some left over chicken breast from last night, red pepper, garlic, sweetcorn and a jar of hidden vegetable pasta sauce I found in my cupboard (so while the kids were picking out the bits of veg they could see, I had a self satisfied grin knowing that they were eating veg they couldn't see! )

Then spent quite a bit of time on here reading diaries etc and thought if I don't do something the afternoon will be over and it will be school run time, so I set off for the kids an hour early and called by a large Lake near my house which is set at the side of a nice housing/shopping development and ran round twice - at least 4 miles by my calculations. Even at that though, my pedometer is only reading 5557 so far today :eek:

Plan for this evening is reading with DD and ironing
I am also cutting out alcohol for the forseeable future (well, until I go on holiday at the end of July) as I find it makes me feel groggy the next day and I was getting too used to the odd glass of wine, quite a few nights of the week

Courgette

Hi there!

Well done with nearly being debt free and good luck with getting the mortgage down - you sound very motivated!

I'm planning on buying a chest freezer soon so I can do loads of batch cooking too. I used to have one and it was ace so looking forward to having another. There was a time of course when I used to look forward to far more exciting things than freezers but never mind! :rotfl:

MissOptimistic

Thanks Southernman and Courgette for popping by :wave:

Today has been a quiet one on all fronts. Been at work and was en-route to the shop at lunchtime to pick up closer (or some equally trashy gossip mag) to while away my half hour lunch along with a packet of crisps, but did a U-turn at the last minute and walked round the block instead, so probably £2 and 150 calories saved!

Just looked at trading in my old camera on-line, and can get £18 for it - I could probably get more if I sold it, but it does have a couple of problems, its still classes as working and good conditon so should be ok to trade in, but can envisage problems if I go down the E*ay route, so steering clear.

Need to ring mortgage provider and find out if there's an easy way to overpay as you can't do it online from what I can see, maybe I can get the bank a/c and sort code and set them up on my internet banking. Does anyone here get a massive annual statement from all the tiny overpayments?

Brodiebobs

MissOptimistic wrote: »

Need to ring mortgage provider and find out if there's an easy way to overpay as you can't do it online from what I can see, maybe I can get the bank a/c and sort code and set them up on my internet banking. Does anyone here get a massive annual statement from all the tiny overpayments?

Me!!! i'm disappointed if its less than 20 pages long :rotfl:

well done on getting rid of the debt, i'm with C&G and they gave me sortcode/account number but be warned makes it very easy to overpay when you log in and see it everyday !!

MissOptimistic

Well tried to ring the H*fax last night to get a sort code/account Number and yet again they wouldn't speak to me. Morgage is in DH sole name, but we have filled in the 'authority' form numerous times and DH has spoken to then numerous times, but we have to go through the whole rigmarole every time :mad: Last night, I found a copy of the last signed authority and faxed it to them telling them I would be ringing today and expected to be able to speak to someone.... we will see. I feel a complaint coming on (plus maybe some compensation for the hassle )
My Dad is coming tomorrow with the new freezer and I need to do a food shop this weekend so I can now finally defrost our other fridge freezer and give it all a good clean. I will buy some of the foil tray type things to make some meals to freeze.
On an expensive note, DS came home last night saying that he wants to go to their Y9 Prom (for heavens sake!) - This will require a suit and some smart shoes as he only has trainers - any ideas anyone - not least on where I can get a suit for a 14 year old boy?

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi MissOptimistic, if you have a M@talan near you, they may have something suitable for prom. It's mad though isn't it :eek: There are enough things we have to spend money on, without these unnecessary extras being thrown in. I think having one at the end of year 11 is good fun, but any younger than that is mad in my opinion.

Chest freezer sounds excellent - I would be in spreadsheet heaven tracking the contents :rotfl: I really love having autumn/winter Saturdays of a big batch cook. One thing to consider, some things can be heated up from frozen, but if they are in metallic trays, you need to thaw and switch. I tend to use metallic when I know it's going into the oven, and plastic for the others. I only buy plastic/metallic trays n £land or B£M. Good luck with your freezer.

Best wishes Tilly x

MissOptimistic

Hi there, long time without any updates! I actually forgot I had a diary to be honest
These past few months there havent been any massive overpayments, just £50 per month plus about £50 which comes off the balance automatically from the little portion of the mortgage that is repayment. I managed to get the account number and sort code from the H***fax, so Im all set up if I want to pay any more. We have been trying to drive down our one credit card, which now stands at £570. DH has been paying £25 per week off this, and I have suggested that perhaps once its gone, we could direct the £25 to the mortgage account instead. We also owe a family member, and have been paying them £25 per week too, DH is keen to up this to £50 once the CC is gone, but the loan is interest free, whilst the mortgage is not! decisions decisions!
The other thing on my mind is whether to use approx half of my emergency fund to pay off the CC in full? I would hate to see that balance come down, but would be satisfied to see the CC gone, think I will ponder it a little more

MissOptimistic

I hope everyone is having a lovely Christmas? I sit here Typing this on my lovely new shiny iPad a gift from DH.
Does anyone have any apps they can recommend for this mfw journey?
I sat last night and made a list of the mfw goals I wanted to achieve next year. I love the feel of a New Year! Aside from the fact that 1 jan is my birthday, I just love the feeling of hope and promise a new year brings. So here are my goals for 2013
* get emergency fund up to £3000
* repay credit card in full
* overpay mortgage by:- £1501 ( progress shown in signature)
Perhaps my fourth goal should be to update my diary more often!
Well, my freezer is full, as is my petrol tank, and aside from a buffet I need to do on 29th for 12 people, I shouldn't need to spend much more (crosses fingers that Tilly pops by with lots of wonderful bargain outs buffet ideas :wink