mortgage free by 45 diary

gallygirl

What's you roof like? Windows and doors? Do you have a big garden - fencing etc?

I wouldn't bother with a sofa fund personally. I got mine from M and S , they had 2 or 3 years interest free depending on how you did it.

Sounds like you have everything else covered though :T

suse*

The windows and doors are all double glazed already. I could maybe do with a new back door, but that is just as I don't like the style of the one I have so don't really need one.

The house was built early 90's so would I need a new roof any time soon or how long do they last? I don't know much about house stuff really or how long bits last. The kitchen and bathrooms were relatively new when I moved in as well so I don't think they will need changing any time soon.

I have a garden fund going already, as I am in the process of getting that more sorted out so will keep that going to be a new fence fund too, once it I ever decide how I want it. It was a gravel jungle before as the people that laid it didnt line it properly. So some lovely (mad) people on freecycle spent weeks digging most the gravel up. It is just now needing some top soil and deciding what to do next really. I don't really want grass as I won't be able to cut it myself, so I was thinking a mix of raised beds, and maybe a small patch of astroturf just to give the dog somewhere to sunbath.

suse*

Ipoll is up to £9.18 so just waiting for that to all come through before changing that to amazon vouchers.

My swagbucks are also back up over 600 already even after getting a £5 voucher last week. I am not even really sure how as I haven't used it much since then. I think some 70 point surveys must have come through.

So I am thinking if I can try and get enough amazon vouchers to have £25 by mid feb, I should have enough to try the new dog food I have seen. So not only then would it be half the price of what I normally buy, it will also be free with the vouchers.

I have remembered to take my lunch to work this week as well, and haven't caved and bought snacks out of the vending machines.

I am due some sort of bonus from work soon I think, but as this is the first full year I have worked there I have no idea if we are talking a £5 voucher or a billion pounds. I suspect it is closer to the voucher, but you never know maybe it might be a good over payment.

With my wages now sat in the offset waiting for the 1st to roll around the daily interest is back to £8.71 which is much better than being over 9 again. So I think once it gets to the end of the month, and I can see how much I have spent on expenses next week, based on that will decide how much I count for this months over payment.

That or I might just use the expenses refund, and the refund from the dental insurance straight as over payments too. So then for feb and march I can see a bigger difference with the balance going down and staying down, and not creeping back up slowly with the interest being added. I just would feel a lot better if I can get the ltv below 75 asap, as I am just so scared of the negative equity coming back after all the news about fracking, as I had no idea how close it was going to be to my house. I have already lost 15% from the housing crash, so I am just so worried it will drop even more so I end up back being unable to remortage when I want to.

BlueMoo

Sounds like it is all going well, and you are budgeting in advance.

The house expenses unfortunately are an ongoing affair - there's always something to do/fix/paint/buy!

suse*

Well end of the month round up and I am quite pleased really.

Mortgage interest added in Jan £276.43
Mortgage op's in Jan £161.40

So it currently £8.89 interest a day, but that will hopefully reduce a bit more when the Feb payment goes out.

For food, take aways, and house stuff I had budgeted £220 but actually only spent £131.73 for Jan which feels amazing really as I haven't been trying to cut back loads just yet. When I first set it at 220 based on a rough look through with 30 for food and 20 a week take away, I thought that wouldn't be enough so coming well under that as well is brilliant.

I have just requested another £5 amazon voucher from swagbucks so that takes it up to £10 for Jan. So I will use that to buy some new dog food I want to try, which is half the price of James Wellbeloved but looks like the same ingredients.

I just posted the receipt for the dentist visit a couple of weeks back, so that should be £97.50 back once it comes through.

I have done my expenses for last weeks trip so they will hopefully come through in a week or two. I am not sure how long it actually takes as I've been rubbish up till now submitting them quickly, so it will be interesting to see how long it takes when you do it straight away.

To add to the fracking news I have found out there might be a new housing development built of over 500 houses. I doubt they will break ground any time soon, but it does make me worry still about the negative equity coming back or getting worse. I have never liked living here, I have no ties here even, but I had thought if I stayed another 5 years or so the price might creep up a bit more to make it worth selling, so I could afford somewhere else. I am just worried now maybe I should be selling sooner rather than later if the whole area could change so much, but as I don't know anywhere else around here so could it just be jumping into a whole new set of problems. I think I probably have another 2-5 years before my next redundancy as well, so when that happened I could see if I was in a postition to rent the house out or just look at relocating completely again. Maybe I do just need to wait it out and focus on the overpaying, because if at least if I can pay it off quickly if it does just drop in value more, I would know if I need a new bigger mortgage I have done it before I could pay it again somehow.

suse*

This months payment has gone through, so I am back down to £8.74 a day interest. £113822.16 is todays balance which takes me from 82 to 81 LTV :j

So that includes a £145 overpayment for this month. I am going to save the rest of the money for the mfw yearly payment just in the offset, and then pay it at the end of the year I think. I know I could just leave the money in the offset, but I do like seeing the total balance coming down so I think if I can do a big payment like that it will feel good and help with the ltv.

I seem to have mild man flu again after my adventures last week which is a bit annoying. It feels like it should be friday at least already this week but it is really dragging.

suse*

Yesterday I bought a new warm winter rain coat in a sale. Today the heating is off and the sun is out. You're welcome :A

So paid day yesterday so time to do the first lot of money shuffling. The daily interest is down from £8.85 to £8.32 today. That will just be for this week though until I have to start moving some of the wages money back out to pay for bills but it is so good to see it drop like that.

I got my first mortgage statement for the new mortgage this month too and they predict I have knocked 5 years off already. That only counts till the end of the year though so now I can't wait till the next offical statement to see what it says. I struggle to work it out offically myself just with how the offset changes the daily interest, and op's too but it is all going well I think.

The budgeting software is really helping by having lots of little pots for things. I have already got a big surplus in some of them which is obviously also sitting waiting in the offset, so in the next month or two I can start reducing the allocations to some pots and increase the overpayments too.

So this month the op is £189.59 and I am up to £10 in amazon vouchers thanks to swagbucks. So they will go towards the next lot of dog food I think, and the budgeted money can then add to the op when I next order some. The op is a mix of actual op and a virtual pot as I made the dd the same as what it was to northen rock so I am used to that when the rate goes up in two years. The rest is going in the offset and I'll decide when I hit this years target if I over pay to get the LTV down more, or just leave it in the offset still.

I had a sports massage yesterday thanks to a groupon deal, it was 3 for 27 quid but I don't think I've had a proper sports massage before. Today I am really achy and sore and didn't sleep that well either cause of it but as much as it hurts it feels better too. At least I'll know what to expect next time afterwards anyway.

My expenses have been paid, the dentist insurance refund has come and I have some overtime this weekend so that's all good.

I have done some free credit check reports as I need to switch 0% cards soon but everything looks ok as far as I can tell. So I think I'll get that sorted out first, then look at a cash back card of some sort as well for day to day expenses after that. Just so then I can leave the money in the offset for more of the month before spending it.

suse*

Although I haven't been posting on here much I have still been lurking about. I am surprised at myself that I am still so on track but I do love YNAB software now so that is keeping me going so well.

I have realised though I messed up a bit by not thinking enough about paying extra into my pension this year. I had been doing the amount to get work to fully price match as this is the first pension I've had. I did actually increase it this year as well by a couple of %, but now I've hit 40% tax properly just as the year is ending it seems such a waste, when I could have just put more of that in the pension so I could have kept it.

So I am going to keep a much closer eye on overtime this year, and try to avoid that else I am just giving away money when I didn't really need to. Especially if they are thinking of changing the pensions a bit in future to make it easier to get some of that money back again.

In March I have op'd £168.81 so that takes me up to £519.80 for this year so far. So I am no where near the £5100 target I had done at the start of the year. I think I will need to have a bit of a rethink about that now, as it was decided before I'd thought about some of these virtual pots to self insure that I am doing now. That money is still going into the offset though so it is counting against the interest, but once I have the pots full for white goods / new laptop etc on top of the emergency fund then I will put a bit more towards the OP too.

I applied for the nationwide 0% 26 months and 0.75% interest card yesterday. They didn't match the current balance I have on my other card though, so I am going to have to use a bit of the emergency fund to pay the remainder off to get that closed before the 0% runs out. I'm not really sure why I didn't get it, and I'm sure if I explained to them I am closing the other card maybe they would increase the limit. I think though it probably isn't so bad as the monthly payments will be lower then so more for over payments. I can then look at getting a cash back card of some sort in 6 months or so once it is all settled properly, and not be tempted to use it wrongly then as well.

I have managed to get another £10 of amazon vouchers from swagbucks, so that can go on the next bag of dog food and the cash put into op's. I also have nearly £100 in quidco now again, so that can go to this years op too.

suse*

It has been an expensive week already, and I am worried as my mot is due next week that it shall continue.

My phone finally gave up the ghost, it lasted 3 years which isn't to bad considering how much I used it. I found what I think works out to quite a good deal on a new phone though, even though it is on contract, just as I wanted a 4g phone so this should last me for a while too. I also got the case for it using amazon vouchers I'd got from swagbucks so that felt good at least.

Next I had an eye test yesterday, even though it was only a year ago I got new glasses I have been having problems. Turns out I was right and I do need new glasses so that was another 200 quid, but I can at least claim some if not all of that back on insurance I'm hoping.

I am trying to get quotes to get my garden done but it is amazing to me how hard it is to even get a quote sorted. I phone people, they sound interested, they come and look then say they will mail me or whatever then don't. I chase but then can't get a response so then repeat and try and book more quotes. I was hoping to at least have a couple to pick between but at this rate I am still struggling to get one company to quote for it.

It is just to rotavate what is there and then lay turf and maybe do some woodchip stuff on some beds. So I don't know if it is too big a job or not big enough that is why I am struggling so much. Also it is quoting to maintain it and cut the grass too so ongoing work as well. I'm just suprised no one seems to want to do it.

I tried calling the credit card where the 0% runs out in may to see if they'd extend it. I didn't think they would but don't ask don't get so I will have to use some money out of the offset to pay the 3k which is the shortfall from the balance transfer. I am thinking though the new card should have a lower min payment so hopefully that will help to recoup the 3k again.

It is just annoying as the daily interest is now down to £8.45 a day, but I guess that might go back up to 9ish again once I pay that card off. It does look good now it is down into 112k now at least. I guess as well it will be below 110k soon enough, and also below 80 ltv which will be a relief. The further I can get out of negative equity the happier I will be really in case the prices drop even more.

suse*

Well have been slack at posting but good at op still which is all that matters.

Credit card all transferred and the rest paid off from savings. When I phoned again to close the card down though they did offer to keep it open interest free even though they had said before it was impossible. In the end though I thought it better to have a lower monthly payment commitment and to just build up the emergency fund a bit again, than maintain the card and have the payment.

I am planning instead to get a 123 card once it shows the other one as closed on noodle. Then just use that for expenses in the month to keep my money in the offset for as long as I can, and just pay that off in full each month.

I have tried to overpay this month just a bit more than the interest accrued to help keep the mortgage coming down faster. Having the ltv so high still is a worry to me so with the next payment though that should get me into the 70's which is a big mental goal and would be 5%(ish) in 8 months which seems good. I am just so scared of getting into negative equity again, I want to keep ahead of the next bubble if I can.

Part of me wishes it was statement time again to help figure out better how on track I am to pay it off, as I can't find a calculator or spreadsheet I can use well enough to combine both op and offsetting.

YNAB has really helped me since I've started using it as it is making me focus much more on what I am spending and saving for. I don't think I could have saved that much otherwise. I have also increased my pension contributions in the past few months as well as this op'ing which I never thought would be possible even a few months ago.

I think for june and july though I need to build in a bit more fun for myself, as it is good I am so focused now in some ways, but 10 years is still a long time to go yet and I need to have some fun. I just need to be selective and not as impulsive as I used to be to do that is all.