Tinytott's Mortgage Free Quest Begins - My 10 year plan

kirstypark

love that philosophy! We moved into our moneypit on monday and am torn between saving money and getting the house as we want it. I will subscribe to your diary and look forward to seeing how you get on.

Tinytott

Hi folks! Hope you all had a great weekend!

Kirstypark, I will subscribe to yours too. We can share painful DIY stories lol. I'm sure it is a very exciting time for you - it's such a great feeling moving house to somewhere you really want to be. And exciting that you've bought a doer upper too. That's going to be a fun journey!

The spending went ok for me at the weekend. I was slightly over budget as I bought stuff at that big scary DIY shop as I've decided to paint the windows in the outside of my house myself rather than hire a painter. So although £30 spent, I should save myself about £1500 as it's quite a monster.

As it's an edwardian sandstone house, this is going to be quite a challenge. Although I've had a joiner in to remove all the rotten wood and fix all the sashes and weights, the outside condition is appalling. Three full coats required. I feel like I've started painting the Forth Road Bridge or something!

I've become something of a novelty in my street as neighbours keep popping over to see what I'm up to. I live alone and I'm sure they are all waiting for me to make a mess of it/fall off my ladder and break my neck (well I am blond, so....this is not out of the question lol).

After all my hard work, I decided I deserved a night out last night, so £20 spent. Probably not in budget, so will have to reign in this week ewith some NSDs to recover from slight overspend. But oh, forgetful that I am, forgot to bring my sarnies in, so have to spend £2 on some food and eat that sarnie for my tea lol (well, waste not want not lol).

I'm having thoughts about a quick way of getting rid of my overdraft. I currently drive quite a nice car. There is probably about £5 - 6k of equity in it. I'm wondering if I should sell it, pay off overdraft and some of credit cards and then just lease a car for a while. There seems little point in having money tied up in a depreciating asset whilst I pay high interest rates on an overdraft. And I could probably lease a car for a similar monthly payment. Not sure about this though......

Anyway, better go and get some tasks for the day done. Happy Monday folks!

Tiny

Tinytott

OH dear, just had to spend £33 on mastic for the windows. some fancy old fashioned type. That's another two NSD required to make that up along with the three for the overspend at the weekend. So have to do 5 NSDs. I think I'll aim for 10 this month and see how it goes....I wonder if that's achievable for me who forgets her lunch every day!!....

Tiny

Tinytott

Right, it's time to see how this moneysaving exercise is going.

Got refund of £33 on mastic, found a cheaper place, which will cost me £12, so that's good. Spent all my asda card last night, but apart from bits and bobs, I think that will do me this month. I got heaps on reduced and it's all in the freezer. I reckon another £20 on groceries this month will do it. So probably a total groceries spend of £100 including wine for my weekend tipple. This is good for me as I usually spend about £200 and waste a lot of food! I used to joke that I should just buy the food and put it straight into the bin as I wasted so much! This week my total wastage has been a 10p reduced half cucumber that I didn't eat. Result!

Every day this week has been a no spend day. I've been bringing in my lunches (none forgotten) and living very quietly but productively! What has been amazing about this has been how much my lifestyle has improved as a result. No more fast food as I can't be bothered going to the supermarket because there's no food in the house. Now, despite spending much less, there is always something lovely to eat. I'm eating better than I've done in years. As a result, energy levels have shot up and I've been to the gym three times this week. Also, sleeping pattern much better due to exercise. Hence, more getting done around moneypit at night to clear out and improve. Nice unintended consequence of my economy drive!! I'm liking this lol. Not sure if I'll lose weight though as I'm really enjoying my food :rotfl:

Today, I have to pick up dry cleaning and alterations that have been in the shop for over a year :eek: That's £26 but it will give me a new outfit so will save me buying something new next month as my work clothes are becoming a bit tired. I also have to get shoes heeled. There are two pairs in the boot of my car - also been there a year :eek: and have another two which need attention also, but again, will save me buying more :T. I expect that to cost around £30. Hence, that's my daily spend allowance spent for next Monday to Friday, so I'll have to make sure I bring in lunch etc.

The overdraft on one account has been completely cleared and if I'm careful, I might be able to shave a bit off the other one too this month, but might only be £100, but we willl see. I've overpaid my credit cards a litte bit too, to keep me off the minimum payment trap. I have £1500 a month to spare after bills so the challenge is to use it well and get the overdraft down as much as possible as quickly as possible.

I've realised I'm spending far too much with BT on telephone and broadband, but can't do much right now as I'm tied in until January next year. I did have a chat with them though and they said if I phoned them back in October they would see what they could do. I think they have an offshoot company and I might try and get them to price match with them.

I have low excesses on my house and contents insurance policies and I'm wondering if I should raise the excesses to get the price down as I'd only claim if the claim was big. Not sure if they will requote now though as only took out policy last month....thoughts anyone?

Otherwise waiting for a listing free weekend on ebay so I can list a few things. I could probably start a shop actually lol. I've worked out that if I live frugally, the overdraft will be clear by end of December. That's when saving for the moneypit improvements and overpaying the mortgage can start proper. I'm not sure if this should be a over paying the mortgage diary or a getting the overdraft down diary lol, but got to start somewhere I guess.

Have a great weekend everyone

Tiny

newgirly

Hi tinytott, just wanted to say welcome and best of luck with the overpaying and the house renovations

Tinytott

Hi folks, it's time to update my diary.

Over the last couple of months, I've been focusing on reducing the overdraft. The last time I was online, it was £4500. It now stands at £2400. Credit card debt is now reduced by a few hundred also. One is at £615 from £730 and the other is at £5,030 from £5200.

I decided to keep the car but got a sainsbury's loan at 4.8% apr with a two month payment holiday. That holiday of £350 per month is helping to reduce the overdraft. I wont pay anything until January so it is helping with my goal of getting rid of the expensive overdraft by Xmas.

I am hoping we get our bonus in November. If we don't, it will be January before the overdraft is clear. Fingers crossed.

I've also reduced my car insurance by shopping around. Current mortgage stands at £176k approx and yesterday, I signed up to a whole new mortgage with my current provider (so no legal fees or valuation fees) at 1.49% fixed for two years. There was a whopping 2k booking fee with it (which they've added to the mortgage, but it still works out £60 a month cheaper than my current deal due to the very low interest rate). Thats a saving of £1440 over two years. And, the deal won't start until after I've made my next mortgage payment which cancels out half of the booking fee (or at least that's how I'm trying to justify that extortionate sum in my mind lol).

My groceries bills have been slashed. Everything, including food, wine and weekend cigs is currently costing £120 a month. I used to spend three times that and waste loads. Now I'm lucky if I waste anything at all. It all gets used up somehow, or it goes in the freezer til I am ready to use it. Meals are batch cooked and frozen. And I've not spent money at work in months as I take lunch in.

Next for the chop is BT. They are just too expensive! And I've just received a letter from them telling me that line rental is increasing. Cheeky beggars! Any ideas for good replacements anyone? I don't want to use talk talk as I used to be with tiscali and they're support was poor. I can't use sky or virgin (no dish/ cable and too expensive anyway).

Anyway, that's my update. I continue to reduce debt while doing everything I can to reduce the mortgage by the back door for now, until the debt is gone. Then phase two starts. The money pit attack lol.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Tiny

kirstypark

hi Tiny, it's amazing how much can be saved on food bills, isn't it? I am kicking myself for all the years i used to brouse the supermarket chucking in the odd book, magazine, jumper and treats. Used to spend over £100 a week regularly - and just accepted that was the way it was. like you, we had some debt that we should have cleared first before overpaying, but wanted to make a start anyway. Once we got clever with our cash it did become priority and we managed to move some onto interest free which helped.

How's the DIY coming on? It's all the silly wee things like switches and screws that cost the most I find

Tinytott

Hey Kirsty, thanks for your reply.

I know exactly what you mean. I am astonished when I look back, but never again! At the moment, I'm finding life a bit austere, but I'm trying to stick with it.

I did some of the windows and it went well, although it was very time consuming. I've now stopped as the winter has now set in and it's just not feasible to carry on in this weather. So, I've downed tools til Spring! How's your place coming on??

Tiny

kirstypark

just bought 5 new doors that need painting - think i am going to be busy for a while

Tinytott

I thought I had been on and updated but a quick review of my file shows I've not checked in with an update for a while.

So, here we go. Update. Previous overdrafts of £4500 now gone. I've now got £1000 in savings towards moneypit work due this year. Not bad for six months. My credit cards are down a few hundred also (switched to 0% Nationwide for over two years, so just plod away at that). So, with frugal living, I can save over £800 a month for house renovations. Plus the odd bonus when it comes in. My expenses are as low as they can be.

Mortgage now down from £180k to £174k so heading in the right direction at least.

The problem I've got is that most of my spare money is going towards my pot for work on the house. I need to find other ways to generate cash that I can justify paying off the mortgage with as at the moment, there are some parts of the house which are not livable and it needs doing.

Ho hum, thought required.....