Mortgage Free in Three Yrs

Kaz2904

Sparklymessygirl, I was going to say that you ought to look at other forms of borrowing money too. You do have a scary interest rate but will your bank let you have a high overdraft or not? Even if you were only able to get half of it onto an interest free overdraft it would help massively.

Another alternative is to have a look at opening up a life of balance credit card with a lowish interest rate (they all seem to be around the 5% mark at the moment though!) or a 0% balance transfer card. I have just opened up an Egg card (got the wrong one btw!) and will balance transfer the amount somewhere. I can't bt direct to my mortgage because I'll get charged! The limit I was given was £5500 and its 0% for a year.
I think that you should definately have a look at card tarting though. Even if you only get one 0% card then after a year you would only owe £4500 (assuming £250 repayment). You then either get another 0% card or a life of balnce card or a low interest rate mortgage. Whatever situation you follow you should benefit even if the interest rate rises because at the moment you are still affected by every rate rise.

TallGirl

I am no stoozing but I did get a Tesco card and used it for about 3 months to get the interest free credit. As most balance transfers now charge I am not sure it is really worth doing it. I only got 3 months 0% but 1 year sounds a lot better. I put all my shopping and our holidays on the cards to build up the balance as Kaz is right you would get charged for using it to pay off the mortgage.

On a seperate note just been in to Barclays today with DH. He does not have internet banking and as we have seperate current accounts I cannot transfer any of his money for him. Anyway they were just so busy. Really really silly that they did not sort themselves out before they closed Woolwich. We wanted to transfer £5k to our mortgage and online you can only do £1k a day plus it was in DH acc I cannot access. Finally got the font and the lady was really nice etc. She did not know how to do so had to go and ask someone. I had brought my statement with me with the acc no but they could not find the sort code. From previous telephone calls with Woolwich I remember it is the first 6 digits which the lady did not know. Sad when you know more than they do. Anyway got the money transferred and persueded DH to cancel his DD for a magazine subscription he has had for the last 5 years. Result mortgage is now £35k it sounds so much better.

On a final note doing a huge batch cooking of spag bol and cottage pie which will be frozen in individual portions ready for DH when on his own or me when I come back from the gym. I can't actually eat ready meals anymore since I got a slow cooker will recommend it to anyone.

Update: now got 8 portions of bolognaise sauce and 4 cottage pies so that should last us a while.

sparklymessygirl

Thanks for giving some thought to my figures and interest rates and all your suggestions :beer:

Little Mama - the value of my cash ISA is about 46% of the balance outstanding. I would be MF within a year if I used it up!
AnW'smum - and Kaz - my OD facility is pretty pitiful so I think I would have to increase it to make it worth the trouble.
Kaz and Tallgirl - re the stoozing - I never thought of that - I could look at that but would really have to get the figures right with the transfer fee. I am stoozing on purchases at 0% until end of Jan and am stashing the equivalent in this year's ISA but now full so need a new savings account.

Thanks again
Sparkly

sarahe

Hello all
Well done. I'm thinking of joining your quest. I've just reorganised my finances (april may ish) after getting my endowment missold upheld. But I'm trusting myself to pay off the remaining balance as and when. The last 2 months has been lots of holidays and I need to be more disciplined. In reality I could pay off the mortgage in 3 years - so I can then start another mortgage and move house!
Sarah

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

TallGirl wrote: »

I am no stoozing but I did get a Tesco card and used it for about 3 months to get the interest free credit. As most balance transfers now charge I am not sure it is really worth doing it. I only got 3 months 0% but 1 year sounds a lot better. I put all my shopping and our holidays on the cards to build up the balance as Kaz is right you would get charged for using it to pay off the mortgage.

On a seperate note just been in to Barclays today with DH. He does not have internet banking and as we have seperate current accounts I cannot transfer any of his money for him. Anyway they were just so busy. Really really silly that they did not sort themselves out before they closed Woolwich. We wanted to transfer £5k to our mortgage and online you can only do £1k a day plus it was in DH acc I cannot access. Finally got the font and the lady was really nice etc. She did not know how to do so had to go and ask someone. I had brought my statement with me with the acc no but they could not find the sort code. From previous telephone calls with Woolwich I remember it is the first 6 digits which the lady did not know. Sad when you know more than they do. Anyway got the money transferred and persueded DH to cancel his DD for a magazine subscription he has had for the last 5 years. Result mortgage is now £35k it sounds so much better.

On a final note doing a huge batch cooking of spag bol and cottage pie which will be frozen in individual portions ready for DH when on his own or me when I come back from the gym. I can't actually eat ready meals anymore since I got a slow cooker will recommend it to anyone.

Update: now got 8 portions of bolognaise sauce and 4 cottage pies so that should last us a while.

---

Hi TG,

I am a big fan of batch cooking too and use my SC a lot (thank you to all the moneysaving oldstylers!)

My kids now wonder what is in the spag bog sauce as I have been known to chuck anything and everything in to 'pad' it out! Porridge, green lentils, soya mince, tvp. owt! The last batch I did was the tastiest and it had porridge oats in it!

My latest venture in the kitchen is beans, pulses and seeds and sprouting them. I think my kids have had every bean recipe known to man (and some that aren't) this month. Nothing like experimenting...

Kaz2904

Where do you get your sprouting seeds from then? Are they reasonable prices to buy or not?
I need to get myself sorted out with some decent tubs apropriate for sticking meals in so that I can freeze meals in what they will be cooked in.
My meal planning has gone to pot recently with the summer holidays and me needing DH to help out with cooking. He doesn't do meal plans or budgets or anything to do with the MSE kind of life!

I opened an Egg card recently and was given a limit of £5500. I originally opened it as a mule but should have opened an Egg money card. I've now done this too and been given a £3000 limit. I will bt through the Egg money and then use the Egg money as a slow stooze even if I can only leave the money sitting around for 45 days it's better there than not!
My bt will only earn me around £45 but that is still 1 step closer to the final goal isn't it!

pink_fairy_7

Thanks for the chart TG and well done to everyone so far, those balances are coming down. :T

mountainlioness

Can anyone tell me how to join MFi3 officially? :cool:

AnW'sMum

lioness I have copied this from the first post for you.

Note: If you would like to join the challenge please post a message or PM me with your mortgage amount on 01.04.2007 and what you hope it will be on 01.04.2010.

Dithering Dad will allocate you a number when he next checks the thread and add you to the first post, good luck

Tall Girl maintains the "progress so far" spreadsheet, so please PM her with your mortgage repayment updates.

mountainlioness

Thanks AmW's Mum... Unfortunately we moved house and took on another 135k's worth of mortgage after 01/04/07 so that day's figure wouldn't help much... the day we got the mortgage offer for the new place it was £263,491 (eek!). I hope that's OK as a starting figure...

Sorry for being dim but do any of the calculators tell you how much capital you would have paid off in a certain period just making the normal repayments?

We reckon we can pay off about an extra 10K by April 2010 but need to factor in the normal repayments to be able to set our challenge...

Thanks all!