Welshlassie's MFW Diary - Round 2

Welshlassie

Hello all, I’m back after an absence of about 3 years. I’ve started reading posts again in the last few months and have decided I’d like to start a new diary.

We’ve had a very up and down few years, new baby (up) and realisation that we were over spending significantly (down) and needed to reassess how we did things.

It’s taken almost 2 years to get us back on an even keel, but we are actually in a really good place now.:j

For those of you who don’t remember me, here’s the run down:

Me 35, Mr WL 36 & DS and DD (6 and 3).

Mortgage IO initially at 192,500 when bought 8 years ago, still IO but now £160,900 mainly due to some large lump sums from family windfalls and redundancy over the years. At 2.39% + BOE lifetime tied in until Dec 2015.

We have some other lumps ready to pay off when the new year starts as we’ve filled this year OP allowance.

The target is to pay the dam thing off, as when we took it out there was no sensible repayment vehicle in place and therefore no actual end date.

Since refocusing our financial life a few years ago and paying off a few lumps a date is actually on the cards although 80 odd years away – Dec 2094 – very scary. :eek:

So the aim is to bring this down significantly, hopefully to amount 10 years, but not fixing a date on it just yet.

Hoping to do this by ensuring that every spare penny (not that there is a huge amount atm) is either paid directly off the mortgage or saved so it can be paid off when the time is right.

There is still no actual repayment vehicle in place, but we hope to go onto a repayment in Dec 2015 when the current deal comes to an end and hopefully our LTV will be around 50% so the best deals will be available.

I’m the bread winner and DH is a SAHD, although is in the process of starting a new venture that will hopefully bring in a few pounds when it’s up and running, but will still be school hours so no need to consider childcare.

I manage all the financial stuff and I’m a bit of a geek so as you can imagine lots of spreadsheets, although since finding YNAB last July I have my fix of my geekery (is that a word) on my phone so can check in on our position at any moment J

That’s it for now. I’ll be back with a bit more detail on how our plans will pan out soon. TTFN.

RoaringTwenties

Hi Welshlassie, I know you've posted on my thread, I couldn't see your diary and now here it is!

Good luck and I look forward to hearing more

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Good luck! Did you really get an 80 year mortgage or am I being really thick?

Squirrel x

Alchemilla

Good luck. X

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Morning WelshLassie, glad to see your diary

Good luck with all your plans, Tilly x

Welshlassie

Secret_Saving_Squirrel wrote: »

Good luck! Did you really get an 80 year mortgage or am I being really thick?

Squirrel x

No we got a 30 year mortgage, but because we didn't have a replayment vehicle in we'd have either had to remortgage again or rob a bank to pay it off.

Now we have actually started OPing on it using the snowball calculator it gives us an end date based on current monthly payments, previously it just went on and on and on! :eek:

Thanks guys, you have all been influencial in me starting my diary as you all seem so together in your diaries and focused. I'm hoping some of it will rub off on me.

7 fleabay auctions finished last night, only about £15 after fees, but better than a kick in the teeth Someone is coming to collect 4 of them on Thursday as well which will save me trying to find a box big enough to get them all in.

That money will be added to either the holiday fund or emergency fund, need to have a look and work out which one needs it the most. :rotfl:

Want to list more stuff but we're away this weekend and next in the van and I prefer them to finish on a Sunday night and you always get the numpties who don't read things properly asking questions when you can't answer them. Highly unlikely to be a signal where were going so don't want to chance it.

We have a Room of Doom that so needs clearing - DH has given me 2 months to get it all listed and sold or he's charity shopping it so need to get bottom in gear.

Welshlassie

Have been having a think about savings goals. We currently use an application called YNAB, it’s a clever way of electronic envelopes really. I have all our accounts listed on there and periodically (once or twice a month) I reconcile it to our accounts. It includes categories for every expenses we have over a year and each time we’re paid I drop a bit of money into each category, so when the expense comes round there’s money to fund it.

We have a wish list of things that need to be done in the house currently and are slowly working towards them, some are low/no cost, but most will require us to save up for them. So I’m going to list them here and hope that having them “public” will help us to start putting money towards them, even if it’s only a few quid each month, it all adds up.


· Decorate various rooms^: £15 so far
o Dining room - £500 (walls done, gloss work to finish)
o Lounge - £1,200
o Hall, stairs and landing
o DD bedroom - £500
o Master bedroom - £150
o Repaint kitchen
· Double glazing replacement - £5,000
· Replacement car* - £8,000 - £150 so far
· Replacement Boiler - £3,000
· Garden furniture and BBQ - £400
· Replacement phones - £250

Total £19,000


^Decorating - paint already bought for most of this, just need the time to do it. The amounts next to some of the rooms are for furniture and carpets, but the painting can be done without the furniture being bought.

*Cars- I have a lease currently (through work) with 3 years left on the lease, it’s highly unlikely this will continue when the lease comes to an end and if I change roles before I’ll lose the car then, we’d quite like to buy my current car at the end of the lease so need money aside for that and even if we don’t we’ll still need to buy a replacement (big enough to pull our caravan).

Listed out like that its way more than I thought it would be :eek:, but you have to start somewhere. We already have regular savings for some of these things (eg car), but others are plans for the future and we haven’t really thought how we are going to fund them. If we can put a few pounds to each of them each month from additional income then we will slowly start to make a dent in them,

Will update each month as I add to them

Welshlassie

I sent a few small OPs to the mortgage last week just to round down the outstanding amount and also to see if I'd get charged ERC's. The first one (slightly larger one) has cleared and no ERC's - yay. Just waiting for the other one to clear and then I know I can send small OP's - TT's here I come.

I was able to do this with my last mortgage with IF, but couldn't find out if the same would happen with the Co-Op and when I asked no-one could tell me, but it looks like it's not worth them charging me ERC's on this one either so I'm free - literally - to send small OP's, means I get to keep the outstanding amount round and feed my OCD obsession with numbers

Alchemilla

Tried to post this last night but phone conked out.
Your £15 ebaying is £15 nearer to being MF so yay!

Suarez

Welshlassie wrote: »

to send small OP's, means I get to keep the outstanding amount round and feed my OCD obsession with numbers

Oh god I'm so glad it's not just me! I overpaid £3.26 last month just to round it off to the nearest £100

Welshlassie

Well have had a very busy few weeks.

Away in the van for the last 2 weekend and in the gorgeous sun for the bank holiday too - got sun burnt whoops. In-laws came for both weekend in their van and refused to let us pay for any of the activities or eating out, so a cheap few weekends yay, very grateful.

But on the flip side nothing has been done around the house. I'm off work for the half term so planning on getting loads done then as weekends are looking quite full for the next few.

No fleabay auctions listed recently, but will hopefully get onto that again in the next few days.

I had to buy a new charger for my netbook as managed to snap my old one grrr. But this meant I was without it for over a week and had to spend a few hours last night catching up with YNAB and the budget, but up to date now and provisionally planned out next months (paid on 20th so only about 10 days premature )

I ordered my first Bounts voucher today £5 L2S voucher, if it arrives will be really pleased as it's only taken be just over a month to save enough points to get it so will hopefully have another few bought by the end of the year. :T My running has increased the amount I'm getting, doing a half again in Oct so will be upping my mileage again so will increase my points Didn't think my running could be MSE, can use my vouchers to buy more running gear :rotfl: :money:

We've decided to use some of the money we've got put to one side for next years OP to get our hall tiled and some of the carpets we need. Dog has scratched a hole in the hall one grrr and has now started on the lounge one. Not sure why he's doing it as there's nearly always someone in the house. It tends to be at night he does it so we aren't around to tell him off. Not sure how much we're going to need at the moment, but DH is off researching tiles and carpets currently, he'll find the best deal and we already have someone lined up to do it when we're ready.

DH went to the HMRC drop in centre this week to ask about his NI contributions. As a Stay at home parent we've just found out that he'll get NI credits, but we've been paying them for the last 6 years as he's also been doing a tax return as loosely self employed, never earned a significant amount so apparently he could have had credits without paying, grrr. Does mean we'll get the last 6 months refunded though so amount £90 extra we can use elsewhere.

Off this pm so DH can go to a funeral, means I get cuddles with my sleepy DD after playgroup, yay and to pick up DS from school which I don't get to do very often Simple things.

I sent 1.96 over to mortgage to round down again yesterday so pleased I can still do this without ERC's

That's it for now, need to plough through outstanding surveys in my inbox this evening and check out Turk (I'm saving for a garmin on Amazon US )