Mortgage Free in Three Yrs

catshark88

I am quite new to all this and am still very much in the "MSE Obsessive" phase.

I am finding it quite a struggle to spend any money on anything (bar my mortgage account) and am boring Dh to tears with suggestions of finding cheaper alternatives, using Quidco etc!

We have cut our weekly food bill down by about 66% and Morrissons "Bettabuy" labels are taking over the kitchen. We have expensive hobbies that I am happy to pay for but I see no reason to spend more than 14p on a tin of kidney beans! :rotfl:

Hopefully a more balanced approach will be resumed soon...:rolleyes:

Onwards & downwards!

Dithering_Dad

catshark88 wrote: »

I am quite new to all this and am still very much in the "MSE Obsessive" phase.

I'm not new to this and I'm still in the "MSE Obsessive" phase!

firesidemaid

yes, once with you, the mse obsessive never leaves......

i do like DHwife's idea about the note book for shopping prices - i keep them all in my head, but sometimes it's not so easy. i've even seen an ideal rspca address book in home bargains for 25p!

i have to stop getting really annoyed with myself when i cannot make overpayments. i am in the midst of changing current accounts (and 2 x council tax payments went out this month) so it's difficult to know what's what at the mo. but i will be putting the A+L free overdraft money into premium bonds this month.

also, any overpayments now take longer to reach my mortgage account as it is with my old bank:mad:

meanwhile i am moving the bill money etc over into the linked savings account and then back again - just for the period that i don't need it. every little helps.......

financialbliss

Had some server down time today at work!

Which meant I couldn't do any work for a while...so I slipped into MFiT mode and did some calculations. I've worked out that:

I'm paying almost 100 quid less a month in interest since I started my mortgage, due to my over payments.

Providing I get close to my MFiT target, I'm almost certain to have less that 25k left when I come out of my 5 year fix in March 2011. May be an issue if I want to re-mortgage, due to low amount. May have to slip onto SVR.

My "goal" with this (25 year) mortgage which was to clear in 10 years or under should be achievable (was looking at about March 2014). Could potentially claw this back about a year - I quite like the date of 12/12/12.

Keep up the good work folks!

FB

Kaz2904

When we get to the end of our present deal (July 2010), we will only owe £37,653.71. I am hoping that this will be less by then though as I have some schemes coming up.
When my Egg cards arrive I will be doing a balance transfer to the mortgage. That will be over £5k and can go over to the mortgage in 3 months. I will only pay the minimum payment on it and will save the rest of it in a high interest account so that in month 11 I can clear it. I will then start again. With a 3% bt fee, I will only save around £45 but that's still better than nothing.
My long term aim is to get the mortgage to a level where we could potentially bt the whole thing onto credit cards.
If we can do this then we could save masses. It will just mean that I have to keep bt'ing for a wee while yet.
Thanks to MrT's taking any coupons you have at the moment, I have saved masses this week. I am off on holiday on Friday and won't be back until 2nd September so am spending money that I don't need to at the moment but I am stocking up on things that we use such as coffee and washing powder. When I get home I am transferring the exact coupon saving over to the mortgage.
After my clothes haul the other week I counted up that I had used £57.12 in vouchers. When I returned the unwanted clothes I got back £10 more than I had paid so transferred that over straight away. At work that night I was deliberating with the girls whether I should pay the £57.12 too and they made me do it.
They argued that although I had kept some of the clothes and bought other stuff too, I would have needed to buy the clothes in the first place so it had to come out of the shopping budget. They said that I couldn't count the £10 profit in the vouchers as it was extra so I made £90.64 overpayments in 2 days.
I have still got some vouchers to be used so will have to go and do a couple more shops to get rid of them before expiry.

Tallgirl, we do still do big jobs to the house but follow the mantra of getting it cheapest, doing as much work as we can ourselves and making sure it is what we want.
We just had the sandstone repaired to the front of the house and will be needing to buy paint for the front in the next few weeks. We paid <£110 for the repairs and the paint may cost £30ish. I will then finally be able to get the front of the house sorted before the winter and get my flower bed in. The work needed doing at the front as water was coming in through the air brick but doesn't need anything doing round the side. We have decided to do it all at once because it is a huge job and we may be able to get discounts on the work by buying in bulk. Also, if it becomes too much for me to finish, I have done the majority of it so it will be cheaper.
If we did it in stages then the new bits would get ruined when we do the next lot so it's best to do it all at once.
We are also getting a new front door at a cost of >£200 but I hate my plastic door with a passion.
There is no harm in spending money on things that will make your life more pleasurable or easier espescially if it adds value to your home. Just don't get into debt to do it- or if you have to then make sure it is interest free!
When my egg money card arrives, I will transfer all spending to that and earn 1% cashback on purchases too!

mountainlioness

catshark - I think my OH would fully sympathise with yours, I drive him nuts with my meal plans, money-making drives and general household MSE obsessions! I'm hoping he catches the bug or it'll be a long ol' slog to 2010!

Kaz - am seriously impressed with your dedication (and that of your family) TBH we haven't gone that far down the MFi3 road but I guess it's made me realise we need to if we're serious about our challenge. Can I ask about your voucher system? How does it work?

angelavdavis

jobbingmusician wrote: »

Just a reminder to everyone, and a rap over the knuckles for myself.

I had a letter from Powergen today, telling me that they were reducing my monthly electricity payments by £25 as I have accumulated £375 overpayment. I KNEW I was paying too much, and even rang them to tell them this, but they wouldn't reduce the payments. :mad:

Anyway, I logged on to their site to tell them I wanted my £375 and they couldn't have it as an interest free loan :rotfl:and got through, by mistake, to my gas account with them. Which also has just over £100 sitting in it.

I have never heard so much incorrect misleading flannel as I've just had from the chap on the other end of their phone. Him: "We always notify you when your balance goes over £100" Me "But I've been paying £71 a month and it's now £350. It's obviously been over £100 for at least 4 months". Him "But we can only tell you after we have issued a bill". Me "How often are bills issued then?" Him "Every quarter". Me " So you are telling me that my balance has increased from under £100 to £375 in less than a quarter?"

Anyway, the long of the short of it is that I will have an estimated refund of just under £500 coming my way. Guess where that is going?

Check your bills! You may have money sitting around giving an interest free loan to your utility suppliers, which should be saving you mortgage interest....... :beer:

Hi JM,

I had exactly the same experience with Powergen - I suspect their operators are told to put off refunding the money! I challenged that the account was in credit by three hundred pounds and they said "well your bill is due in August and it will no doubt use this up". By this time, they will have taken two more payments from me and the bill is unlikely to be over £250! I said I looked forward to speaking to them in August and asking for my money back!

Dithering_Dad

angelavdavis wrote: »

"well your bill is due in August and it will no doubt use this up".

Yes, because August is a notorious month for heavy gas and electricity use. What with all those long wintery nights. :rolleyes:

Kaz2904

mountainlioness wrote: »

Kaz - am seriously impressed with your dedication (and that of your family) TBH we haven't gone that far down the MFi3 road but I guess it's made me realise we need to if we're serious about our challenge. Can I ask about your voucher system? How does it work?

My family aren't really that dedicated! The kids are 5 and 3 so a bit young to fully understand and the DH is 30 and a bit young to fully understand:rotfl: . He thinks that I am barking but just lets me get on with it. So long as he has his beer money and can buy his swanky toys when they pop up he's happy!
The vouchers: Tesco have just changed their acceptance of coupons, they will accept any scannable ones for money off a product. It can't be "gateway lets you have 60L of pepsi for 1p" but pepsi can let you have 60L of pepsi for 1p!
You don't have to buy the product. You can use 2 vouchers if you have bought the product (or the amount you have bought + 1).
I can get masses of vouchers when they are around because I work in a hospital so I get the papers/magazines out of the recycling bin and sort through them all to get the coupons.
I had a couple of daily mail printed ones for £4.50 that I wanted to use today but the self scan till wouldn't accept any of my coupons :mad: so the mortgage will now have to stay hungry until we get back from holiday!

mountainlioness

Thanks Kaz - so it's a case of keeping eyes peeled for vouchers from newspapers and other sources?

I definitely missed a trick when I was commuting into London as people always left papers on seats, so multiple copies including ones I wouldn't buy myself so I could've done some serious damage to my mortgage then! Ah well.

What I really need to get stuck into is the paying off the mortgage amounts you could've spent but didn't - so when you underspend on the weekly shop, or resist a takeaway etc. All those 'virtual' amounts just get lost otherwise... I suppose the best way of doing that is to pay for weekly necessities out of a cash budget then stash the extra into the mortgage pig so it doesn't get 'absorbed' elsewhere :rolleyes: We've always paid by card so all those little savings don't get added to the MFi3 pot... Note to self!