Going to get rid of my mortgage!

bbh30

OK I realised I havnt updated this thread since June- the main reason I stopped updating was because instead of becoming a mortgage free wannabe, I was ploughing all our money into savings and we were increasing our mortgage!
So now we have moved house, we now have 2 mortgages, M1 is for 142771 and M2 is for 125352. M1 is borrowed at 2.5% and M2 is borrowed at 3.5%. Total amount borrowed is 268124. So now I am aiming to pay off as much as I can on M2 and just make the standard repayments on M1. Both mortgages are variable rate, and I can make unlimited repayments.
However, we only moved into our new house 2 weeks ago so obviously there are things we need for the house. I saved and saved and saved before we moved and I am pretty proud of myself that we have moved here with zero debt. I paid all the stamp duty, solicitors fees, removal fees. I even had extra left over! So I bought new appliances for our new kitchen (we had to leave the old ones behind as they were integrated). I had sourced second hand ones but I was pretty happy to be able to buy new ones. The kitchen in our new house is much smaller than the kitchen in the old house and we are struggling for storage space. So with the rest of the money saved, I have ordered some new kitchen units.

So here we are, I have now spent all our savings, there are lots of things I would love to buy for our new house but I am not prepared to buy anything I cant afford. Pretty high on my priority list is to pay back the mortgage early also.
We have really got used to a very frugal way of living, ok I have done much less cooking and baking in the new house but we are still not fully unpacked and the kitchen is not hugely useable yet.
We dont do expensive entertainment, in fact today, we went into town to watch the xmas lights being switched on (free), I took the kids a packed tea (already paid for), and didnt plan on spending anything but saw some loaves of bread in Sainsburys reduced to 30p in town so bought 2 of them for the freezer. I just keep having to plan ahead so Im never caught out having to spend money I didnt budget for.
Ive pretty much bought everything for Christmas, I probably got about 100 pounds worth of presents to buy for, my parents, my niece and nephew (budget about 25 each). So I just keep plodding on. Hopefully next month (well, friday!), Ill be able to make my first OP on the new mortgage.

bbh30

Well a NSD for me today.. love living in this new house as no money even spent on petrol.. walked the kids to and from school and walked myself to work so car hasnt moved all day! Took lunch to work, dinner from stores.
Husband however is a different story- he went for a sports massage and spent 30 and also a haircut and spent 12. But thats all come out of his pocket money so no problems there.

Ive just worked out the daily cost of our total mortgage... just to pay the interest on our massive mortgage, we are paying 21.74 a day. If thats not a huge incentive to OP, I dont know what is! First mini goal is to get the daily interest rate down to below 20 per day.

bbh30

Feeling quite chuffed with myself as my new mortgage isnt even a month old yet but Ive managed to OP 203.30 in total so far. It took me 7.5 years to make my first OP on the old mortgage so I don't think Im doing too badly really!
It really is quite easy to live day to day life without spending anything at the moment- we are walking everywhere, the car hasnt moved, we are eating from the fridge/freezer and I have no need to spend anything. However, I know I have a few things coming up to pay for- kids school christmas fair on saturday, school disco, my work xmas do, and we havnt paid some of our new bills for the new house yet- i.e. council tax, phone, sky etc.
We had sky tv installed in the new house as it had no aerial- they installed the dish for free so we will keep the sky contract for a year and then change to freesat. We have the basic package- to be honest we dont watch a huge amount of tv, but I was quite pleased to get 130cashback from sky (TCB) and then they have just emailed me 100 M and S voucher also!! Ive had a look on the m and s website looking for things to buy but I think Ill save it for the sales after xmas and get some new clothes.

I have signed up (and paid for!) to do a half marathon- Ive never done anything like this before and I am not a natural runner! I am training to do it, so this morning I went for my longest run ever, I ran 14.5km. That, combined with the THREE school runs to deliver and pick up children from various clubs etc, plus the bike ride to my own job, should mean I will be skinny in no time!!!

Muser1

Welcome back and congratulations on the new house. Look forward to the updates. x

bbh30

A lovely weekend and managed to make a few OPs too!
My parents very kindly gave us 500 to buy some furniture for the new house, we will do a big IKEA shop in the Christmas holidays, but for now I have used the money to overpay on the mortgage. I get paid in between now and then so we will have enough money to buy the new wardrobes we were going to buy, I just thought I might as well shove the money onto the mortgage as we wont use it for a month or two.
Our weekend as been pretty enjoyable- my friend came to spend the weekend with us. I was going to cook a thai green curry on friday eve but when she arrived she said she had had thai noodle soup at lunchtime so we decided to get fish and chips! Husband was duly sent to the fish and chip shop, so 15 was spent on fish and chips all round.
Saturday we went to parkrun (I got a PB- personal best- fastest ever running time for 5km so pretty pleased with that!), then after showers and breakfast, we went to the kids school fair. I took out 40 to spend there, but came home with 20. I also managed to get loads of uniform for the kids from the 2nd hand stall at the xmas fair, it was 50p an item and I did really stock up for summer!
Today we spent the morning at church, kids at sunday school, and then my SIL and BIL came round to visit this afternoon. I eventually cooked the thai green curry for dinner tonight, Ive got loads left which can go in the freezer for meals another day now.
I also made a big batch of bread rolls this morning which have gone in the freezer for lunches etc during the week. Earlier on in the year, I won tickets to the "cake and bake" show, and one of the things I bought there was some tiger paste. It is paste that you put on your bread dough before prooving and it turns the bread into tiger bread. It is so delicious and makes the bread really yum- tastes just like the tiger bread you buy in the shops. But my tub of tiger paste is nearly finished I have tried making it myself to replicate it but it is just not as good. I might have to investigate buying another tub of tiger paste but Im just not sure where to get it from. It cost about 1.50 for a tub which has lasted me about 3 months.

bbh30

Not a very mse weekend!
After parkrun on saturday morning, the kids and I caught the train into the big shopping town about 10 miles away from us. Bought the last of my xmas pressies costing me about 100. Also bought lunch in town- but just a sandwich from Greggs which we ate on a park bench!!!
So I spent lots of money yesterday, then today we had some friends round for sunday lunch which was lovely.. but I had to pop to the supermarket yesterday eve to get a few bits and pieces. So, more money spent.
Tomorrow, we have a man coming to fit our extra kitchen cupboards, so I will need to get some cash out to pay him. I am aiming to make a total OP this month of 1k; it would be great if every month I could OP by 1k but Im not sure that will be possible, especially once we end up having to pay for summer holidays etc.
I am hoping to get through the week without having to spend any more money- actually I will need some milk but fingers crossed that will be it. We have enough chicken leftover from lunch today to do at least 2 meals and plenty of other stuff in the freezer!
I bought 2 big bags of potatoes the other day which were reduced so I sat and peeled them all and par boiled them- some of them we ate for lunch today, and the rest I put in the freezer for Christmas Day! Turns out my parents and my sister and her family are all coming here for xmas so Im going to have a lot of mouths to feed! Not too worried about the Christmas dinner aspect as we can do that fairly cheaply, but I do need to go and buy all the drinks which I suspect will add up to quite a bit.

cupidsrose

hello everyone

bbh30

Well, the start of a new year and the show must go on!!

I am aiming to overpay 1k per month this year... whether I will manage it or not, I dont know! January is already going to be tough... Ive got a lot of things to pay for.. its the boy child's birthday.. last year we had a very mse party for him but this year Ive already booked a man who is going to come to the house with snakes and spiders etc. Thats 150!
Ive also managed to accrue a speeding fine (entirely my own fault and yes I was driving too fast so totally deserve it, but grrr!) which needs paying off. And we have a huge council tax bill for the new house as we are currenty in the wrong band (already written to contest it but it needs paying in the meantime). Plus my little car needed a tax disc, that was another 175 gone.
So funds will be a little tight this month, but I know we can do it. Well, we can live happily (even if we are eating beans on toast!).. and any OPs I can make will just be a bonus.

I wil go to ALDI tomorrow to get some shopping, milk, fruit, etc. I currently have 3 chickens living in my freezer, and one turkey (but no partridges in a pear tree!).. managed to buy them all cheaply on Christmas eve so thought I would freeze them and that will feed us nicely for the next few weeks. Ive also got some tuna steak that I bought at rock bottom prices so Im looking forward to that, yum!
So I will do a shop tomorrow for the essentials then hopefully after that it will be just living on store cupboard ingredients for the rest of Jan.. with a few top ups of milk and fruit and veg. Ive already made the veg left over from Christmas day into soup, I added a tonne of stilton into the soup and the husband will have them for his lunches in Jan. I hate stilton so I wont eat them, but if I can get a butternut squash, Ill make some soup with that to see me through.
Ive also ordered some washing powder from Mr Suds, 30kg, that should last me the year (hopefully!).
Today was a NSD- we did go out and do parkrun in the POURING rain, then returned home for brunch of pancakes and bacon.. followed by an afternoon of films and the kids made some gingerbread men!
Tomorrow, the weather is meant to be better so we need to get out more, the girl child is desperate to go swimming so maybe we could do that, but it will cost money, but she needs to practice before she goes back to swimming lessons next week.

A few months ago I signed up for childcare vouchers from work- its great as I have a load of money put to one side to pay for after school club on the days we need it, therefore it dosnt need to come out of the main family budget. I should have done this AGES ago, and I have no idea why I never did. Ive sacrified 80 of my salary but actually only about 50 seems to come out- as it comes out of your pre tax salary.
Right I must go and spend some time with the husband now, he is bored to death with me rambling on about budgets all the time... I just cant help it!!

Anna_Glypta

bbh30 wrote: »

Right I must go and spend some time with the husband now, he is bored to death with me rambling on about budgets all the time... I just cant help it!!

Your post made me laugh so thought I should pop by and say Hello - it's really difficult isn't it - I can't stop looking at my spreadsheets and have changed my standing order on the bank site at least three times in the last two days!!

Good luck with all your goals - there is a great Jamie Olliver turkey chilli recipe online if you need help with something new to do with all those birds stuffed in your freezer!! AG

bbh30

Just when I was really starting to wonder HOW on earth I was going to make a 1k OP this month, the most amazing thing happened this morning. A cheque arrived in the post from Nationwide for 1.5k... apparently when we moved house we overpaid them by 1.5k and didnt even notice!! So I was really really chuffed with that!! Of course the husband was desperate to go out and spend it, and I kept thinking of all the things we could buy (ipad etc!) but Ive decided to put 500 away for our holiday in the summer and I will OP 1k on the mortgage. So really pleased with that. We could have gone out and bought more "stuff" but I decided it wouldnt really change our lives or anything.
So once this arrived in the post, we then popped into town to pay it into the bank, where it has been safely deposited for now.
I also popped to decathlon to return some sports bras I bought before Christmas... turns out I needed more scaffolding than these could offer.... so they were taken back and another 30 has gone back into my bank account.
Tomorrow I am running in my first proper race... its a 10k run, I know I will come last, or at least pretty near the end, but its all practice for my half marathon so Im happy with that. Ive run 10k quite a few times now so I know I can do it, I just hope the weather is kind to us all! I have booked the husband and children tickets to the kids am cinema in the morning.. he wanted to come and watch but I am pretty sure the kids will find it dull. They were desperate to see Turbo so I was happy to find it was on at the kids am showings! They are also desperate to see Frozen and the Moshi monsters films but I refuse to pay that much money for it... maybe by half term they will be on kids am viewings.
I made a massive chilli con carne for dinner tonight, enough for a good few portions to go in the freezer, and probably enough for tomorrow night too.
My massive box of washing powder arrived this morning, excitement all round (well I was excited.. I think everybody else just thought I was mad!!). Now I need to find somewhere to store it all. Its currently residing in the hallway but it cant stay there forever. I dont want to put it in the garage as I dont want it to get damp, but there really it a lot of it- 30kg!! Maybe tomorrow's agenda can include tidying out the understairs cupboard and I can store it in there.