Aspirations of Frugality and Fun on the Road to Mortgage Freedom

Karmacat

DedicatedDFW wrote: »

Thanks KC - you put it so much better than me

Nah! I was just echoing you!

littlegreenpeas wrote: »

Not giving to charity is really hard at work, people think you are being tight and its not the always the case. Although we do have some really tight and very rich people in the office.

I worked out one month that I had give £60 to charity. From now on I just give to a few people only £2 but I do get funny looks when I say no thanks.

:eek::eek::eek:

DedicatedDFW wrote: »

I am really trying to make my money work as hard as possible - go as far as possible for me so it put me in a little dilemma - with the £80-odd pounds i have saved should i make an overpayment now to the mortgage thus seeing a saving of a few pounds on the interest for the year as these savings pots will only be needed at the end of the year.

You know the answer :kisses3: much better paying it off so that you get an interest reduction, rather than sitting in a pot on your windowsill etc. What happens with the overpayment, actually? Is the amount you pay lessened, or do you repay more capital? If its the latter, you probably need to remember to save it - because you're right, those little bits really do add up.

Sleep well

PositiveBalance

Hi Dedicated - I'm back!

I'll try to catch up as I go.

Although I notice you and Ed are hitting it off.

DedicatedDFW

Karmacat wrote: »

You know the answer :kisses3: much better paying it off so that you get an interest reduction, rather than sitting in a pot on your windowsill etc. What happens with the overpayment, actually? Is the amount you pay lessened, or do you repay more capital? If its the latter, you probably need to remember to save it - because you're right, those little bits really do add up.

Sleep well

Thanks KC - you're right - i kinda realised as i was typing but i was so tired

My mortgage allows unlimited overpayments so anything i pay extra is an overpayment my monthly payment doesn't alter. I have spoken to 3 different people at the mortgage company and they've all given different answers in terms of why my mortgage term still shows the same on my statements if i've paid extra so must have reduced the term ? :wall::think: At least i got each of them to confirm i have paid extra and i have saved interest :cool: Still really annoying.

So yes i can overpay as much as i want and it does come off the capital (essentially i guess) and monthly payment is the same

I am still tired

What are your plans for le weekend ?

DedicatedDFW

PositiveBalance wrote: »

Hi Dedicated - I'm back!

I'll try to catch up as I go.

Although I notice you and Ed are hitting it off.

Yeah! :j:j

I don't think you've much to catch up on - i bought a lovely dress returned it for a refund, sold some bits on the bay of e and overpaid, got my assignment in and snowed under with study bought another dress - stunning / amazing / fantastic / wierd / unusual - just me :T and of course in the sale :cool: et voila my news in a nutshell

Chocforever

When I had a mortgage, overpayments simply reduced the term of the loan unless I gave the building society instructions to reschedule the monthly mortgage payments instead. In practice, if I made an overpayment in person at the branch or by post, they would ask my preference (by phone if I had posted a cheque to them), but online payments automatically adjusted the term. You can see why that would be easier for them but maybe your lender could offer a choice, at least on annual basis. Maybe book a short appointment with the mortgage adviser if the telephone service is unreliable.

DedicatedDFW

PB thanks also for the intro to ed took - i have loadsa fab info. to read up on

Chocforever

Part of the reason I am lacking focus on money saving is that I don't know how much my mortgage will be and there could be a huge difference in the amount I need to borrow. I need to buy somewhere in quite a specific small area, the reason being that I am sometimes unable to drive (e.g. I haven't been able to drive for the last 3 years) which means I need to live somewhere where I can walk to the train station and the shops etc, whilst being a nice enough area that it is safe to walk around at night. A lot of people want to live in the same area because they like the thought of amenities being close by. What is irritating is that most of them still use the car for almost all of their journeys. What this means is that demand in my desired area is such that house prices are very high. Very little property has come on the market over the last year so it is getting frustrating continuing to wait.

I only need a small property and if one came up for sale, I may only need to borrow about one times my salary. However, it is more likely that I will have to buy a bigger property because that is mainly what is in this area. The house I was hoping to buy, and recently fell through, would have involved me borrowing nearly five times my salary.

So my enthusiasm for saving money will be dictated by the size of the mortgage. Since I started looking for houses, my job situation has turned shaky which makes me wary of getting a huge mortgage.

Of course, many lessons are learned on the MSE journey and I hope I am more careful with money and in reusing and recycling things. But whether I could go back to, say, MSing, would very much depend on how much I truly needed that money rather than the time to myself.

This post has ended up being longer than I thought! Anyway, the gist is that I may delurk from time to time rather than start my diary. If I borrow five times my salary, I expect to become a MSE addict!

DedicatedDFW

Chocforever wrote: »

When I had a mortgage, overpayments simply reduced the term of the loan unless I gave the building society instructions to reschedule the monthly mortgage payments instead. In practice, if I made an overpayment in person at the branch or by post, they would ask my preference (by phone if I had posted a cheque to them), but online payments automatically adjusted the term. You can see why that would be easier for them but maybe your lender could offer a choice, at least on annual basis. Maybe book a short appointment with the mortgage adviser if the telephone service is unreliable.

Hi Chocs - thats the thing i think that it should either reduce the term or reduce the monthly payment and seems to do neither but does reduce the balance. The joys of being trapped in this mortgage include having no branch / person i can get an appointment with :mad:

Chocforever

If the mortgage company are still taking the same monthly payment from you, it must be reducing the term.

You won't know how much you are reducing the term by until you get a mortgage statement (I used to get one once a year; I don't know if that is normal) or they stop the monthly payments because you have paid off the mortgage.

I suppose you do know if you calculate the reduction in term yourself, but you won't get confirmation that the mortgage company agree with your calculations until you see a statement.

DedicatedDFW

Hello all

So far today i have walked for 30 mins, studied for 4 hours, prepared tea in the slow cooker - delicious aroma of lamb now Checked recipe for the bread i'm going to make a bit later as a starter with the pate that needs eating

I've overpaid the xmas savings and noted it - better to save the interest now and make my money work for me

I'm going to add up the 'day out savings' and will overpay that to. I must then pay this into the bank on Monday :cool: I enjoyed making the overpayment i haven't spent any money as yet today

I've dried pots and washed pots too. And am about to set the washing machine to do its thing :cool:

I am tired as i said but still want to have a productive day today - going to have a few mins on here and then will start prepping the veg :cool: