Mrs Trelfa's Master Plan For Trifle Towers

Mrs_Rachel_Trelfa

Hello there,

Yes its another MFW here with a brand new diary out of the packaging placed right at the top of the tread (well until someone else posts something :P). I have been a lurker on here since me and the hubby decided to buy our first house - yes that's right I have been planning how to be mortgage free before I have even found a house let alone bought it.

So first things first an explanation about my title. May 2013 I got married and became Mrs Trelfa and my father who I love dearly who loves the British sitcom Fawlty Towers thought it would be highly amusing to start calling me Mrs Trifle (down to the fact that the hubby has had a lifetime of people not being able to spell his surname and consequently several companies have variation of his name on their systems). As both me and the hubby had gone through university we already have 2*toaster, 2*kettle etc and decided that as house prices are starting to pick back up, we wanted to get onto the property ladder and out of renting which as far as I am concerned is dead money. So we asked our guests for monetary gifts (if they wished) to go towards the deposit of our first home. So as of 18th November 2013 we officially became homeowners of a 3 bed semi detached house :j Since then my dad has decided to call the house Trifle Towers and me Mrs Trifle.

So what is the master plan you ask. Well as far as I am concerned the banks have had enough of my money to screw up the economy with and I do not plan on letting them have any more than is necessary. And as I love this house it is not our dream home (would like something a little more secluded and obviously bigger when we have a family). Soooo the plan is to overpay on this house to save on interest etc and also bring up our equity in it so that when it comes time to sell we will have more money to put into the dream home and therefore achieve a better LTV and interest rate. So although we do not plan to be mortgage free on this place, we will on the next (overpaying will still be important) I hope it is still ok to be here with all you lovely supportive people.

Anywhoo enough of the waffling time to crunch some basic numbers;

Me: age 25, Permanent job with salary of £17,000 pa, addicted to Disney and loves listening to cheesy music (currently have spice girls playing).

Hubby: age 24, Permanent job with salary of £21,000 pa (just had a £3k pay rise lucky sod :P), a gangley nerd who loves his xbox and traveling.

Mortgage: £104,400 Santander 5 year fix @ 4.99%, 90% LTV, 31 years 3 Months, repayment of £550.19 per month.

Although the plan was to overpay straight away (we are allowed the 'standard' 10% of remaining balance each year), what with moving in November and Christmas we decided January 2014 would be where we start. So last Saturday we popped into the branch we made our fist overpayment of £400. This is the amount we want to pay each month while we can - i.e. no little Trelfa's. I even did a little dance in the street when we came out - very sad I know.

This morning Mr Postman bought us bought us a letter from Santander showing that we now have 30 years and 9 months left. So that's 6 months knocked off with 1*first payment of 'half a months interest', 1*normal payment and 1*£400 overpayment.... However it hows that our monthly repayments are changing to £550.56 and it also shows that the balance was £103,767.40 less an overpayment of £0.05 leaving £103,767.35. I phoned as I was expecting to see £400 and the man said that the 5p was what was left over from the overpayment as they can only take off 'whole months' and this will come off our next payment (550.56 will actually be £550.51) and the reason for the repayment changing from £550.19 to £550.56 is because it is the balance over the remaining term. Is this right? or can someone explain it to me?

So after '3' payments we have only reduced the capital by £632.65 So your support, advice, etc. will be much appreciated.

Congratulations if you have made it through my essay :rotfl:

resilie

Welcome Mrs Trifle I like your dad's sense of humour.
Great to start OP straight away- that's the spirit:T

ixia

Hi just wanted to welcome you and wish you good luck on your journey

I'm not sure about your mortgage figures but I also have a mortgage with Santander but I have been told the minimum OP I can make is £500. Although you get different info depending on who you speak to at Santander.

Mrs_Rachel_Trelfa

Thanks resilie for the welcome.

ixia trying to find out what I could overpay has been interesting as I have heard about this £500 rule. However after checking all my mortgage documents it just says a limit of 10% from outstanding balance at 1st January. The only place where I can see about a £500 min payment is here http://www.santander.co.uk/csgs/Satellite?appID=abbey.internet.Abbeycom&c=Page&canal=CABBEYCOM&cid=1237869824449&empr=Abbeycom&leng=en_GB&pagename=Abbeycom%2FPage%2FWC_ACOM_TemplateG and it applies to tracker and lifetime tracker. If I have gone wrong anywhere then please let me know.

Mrs_Rachel_Trelfa

Well they say that the universe is in balance and based on the events of the last wee I would have to agree. My coil and leads etc went in my car last Tuesday, took it to the garage and that's £110 please Grrr. I know my car is on the way out and I am saving for a new one but I won't have the money until about June so when things go wrong its less that can go in the new car fund. I am convinced that cars are mentally linked to your bank balance and when you are low on finds they decide to go wrong. Anyone else agree.

However on the flip side another overpayment of £500 this time I even did a little dance when we came out of the bank - how sad am I?!

FloppyDisk

Hi Mrs T, best of luck but do be careful with regards to your online persona and likeness to your real name. Floppy x

Mrs_Rachel_Trelfa

Got the paperwork from Santander showing that we have knocked 4 months off the mortgage and will be mortgage free in may 2044. It seems so far away though...

We have gone a tad over our food budget this month which is annoying but we bulk bought some fish which will last us ages so I am trying not to worry about it.

Had some great news from my line manager which is that the yearly bonus is being doubled. So I will effectively be getting double pay this month.

littlegreenpeas

Congratulations on your bonus news, I wanted to say your doing well on your mission.
Lgp

Crumpets

Hi Mrs RT, well done on your bonus! Fab news. Just wanted to wish you good luck on your MF mission

Crumpets x

If_in_doubt,_do_sums

Good luck! I'm a newbie when it comes to the MFW journey too, so I shall follow your diary with interest.

yukkibear

Good luck on your journey. It's very addictive.