MF take two...

gerbiljo

ok!! were in, just a quick update, moving is stressful, no need to do it again for a while.
so far we have a dodgy patio door window and the boiler has stopped working this morning-hubby is fiddling with it now…
also the husband has just had a 10% pay cut argggh!!! definitely could of done without that.
busy changing addreses etc, will update soon when we know where we are!

newgirly

Hello gerbiljo, welcome back that's a big plunge back into the world of mortgage paying! I wish you all the best, I am sure you don't need much luck as you have done it all before

CathT

Sounds like nights will bring in the money but it depends if the extra pay is worth the impact on the rest of family life. That said, some people really enjoy nights and the extra pay makes it a win-win!

Ouch at DH paycut, is that a temporary measure?

gerbiljo

Hi girls…

No ages ago hubby and his colleague got offered another job and his work gave him 10% retention to keep him there, this was a few years ago and it has been renewed ever since, so there was always a threat of it going. The problem is that all the bosses are temporary at his work and they don't really respond when you appeal. A while ago his work went through a single status review and one guy in the office gets more, so they appealed and in the meeting they basically got told they should get it too but when the review came through they didn't, my husband didn't appeal as he said it was pointless and now all the staff concerning it have left. I was so annoyed I wanted him to get minutes from the meeting etc but he didn't want to kick up a fuss so he let it go. My husbands job lets him work at home most afternoons and I always think that is worth more than money, and it is but only when you can pay the bills. We've probably lost over £500 month through both of these events. Anyway its happened now.

To add to the lack of money I have decided to switch to days, I will be working 2 and half days a week, mon-wed. It was a hard decision but I know if I work nights (especially as another staff member has left them) i will get asked to work loads more, which yes is money but I really don't want the shifts. Theres nothing stopping me doing nights overtime if I want to still. The nights are actually really understaffed and stressful and its actually like being in booby traps!! you really can't do anything right and you always get in trouble whereas days that doesn't really happen and my boss thinks i will find it much less stressful, which i probably will. So less money for me as well, I have had to apply for the job so I might not get it though I think I was the only applicant so far!! I will probably have to do some keep in touch days now i think before i go back maybe november, I think i will go back to work a month early as well

Anyway we also have a a holiday coming up which is very un "MSE' and definitely wouldn't have been booked had we of known we were moving, but its one of those things, we will definitely be making the most of it anyway and expenses unfortunately will have to go on an interest free credit card well locked up until 2016!!! ha no i will repay it when I am back at work but the limit is £2500 so any unforeseen spending we need until I go back to work will fall onto that card I am sure.

The hardest part for me is going from being a spender again to trying to be careful, in a way that isn't too extreme and doesn't upset my whole family because i am only able to do extremes it seems!
Anyway we are putting the overpayment into our joint account and it is hiding in there and if we overpay it it will be when I go back to work so it can be a contingency in the mean time… hubby seems to have forgotten about it was well so if we are feeling short of money I can whip it out and if not wow we will have a little overpayment pot!! Plus our first mortgage payment is actually next month not this so we already have £1500 in there, the first payment is more about £1600 something but my husband has definitely forgotten we have £1500 in there so if he remembers he will be pleasantly surprised and if he doesn't he will be pleasantly surprised!!

I am going to build a desk now, our computer has been on the floor for a week so we went to ikea and saw a desk we really liked and bought a different one cheaper, thats our first money saving attempt!! The last week we have also been soaking up a free bt wifi hotspot but its not that reliable so we have signed onto bt for £5 a month which i must remember to cancel next year when it goes up (£5 less than our last internet provider). We also got bt sport so we can definitely cancel sky which we couldn't cancel as I did a free multi room upgrade ages ago and then got stuck paying the subscription as it ran over our 'deal' thats november or december yay!!
right to build the desk! will update with figures at some point!

gerbiljo

Its hard to keep this updated as I seem to have so much on!
Since the last entry we have been on holiday and made 1 mortgage payment.
My husband has received a pay cut from work and this month his salary is £2500 instead of about £3000 or sometimes a bit more. This happens just as my SMP stops. without food our outgoing are about £2600 so clearly this does not work! So hubby has got a new job which he starts in january. The salary is about £3000 month and he gets milage which hopefully will add a few hundred so its kind of a side step but a new challenge and its no good for your spirit losing money when you are working hard. It looks like him leaving will get the remaining guys bit of a pay rise..but c'est la vie! The job looks much better my husband is excited and the new boss is really good and nice and I'm praying it works out ok!
Anyway just in time work asked me to do three shifts, I've said yes to 2 although I am to hear back but one would mean getting paid this month so I can't really say no that should generate about 250-300 so we will scrape through. Its annoying going back to work but it needs to be done.
Otherwise things are ok, we have both car insurances this month one every other year for some reason we get free monthly payment so its gonna be about £250 for the other and we have about £500 left on our holiday credit card which is interest free until jan 2016 (be total £2500 owed). I am back at work february which is going to be days, 2 and a half, I'd love to not do the half but they haven't offered this! I don't know my exact salary as I am yet to receive a contract but roughly 20k I am expecting, plus I will have opportunity to do overtime i am sure.
Christmas is virtually done…some stuff I will just have to leave i think!!
We still have our overpayment money, about £1500 and we are to get £500 rebate from the mortgage company for the home insurance. I have this as contingency but still hoping can overpay this once I start back!
We have no other expected costs, just still I think a discrepancy between my husband and I about overpayments. I don't think he is as keen where as I am much more driven to make them. He desperately wants a new car, we do need one as our current ones will cost us money this year but I think lets just get through the next couple of years…. I'd rather get some overpayments established first i think, the thing is we want 2 cars really so thats where it all goes wrong! I think in the long term we are trying to decide whether to have another baby as well.
So far anyway we have no regrets about moving we feel happier everyday as a family and the extra space is appreciated, we would never go back to the old house and be mortgage free. I think because we had built up cards and had holidays etc we never had the true carefree ness of mortgage free-ness (although we spent a lot) and we kind of think we would be spending the money on something else anyway and as a fairly poor saver I think tying our money up in property is probably the way to go!!
Oh and our baby is standing up, its all gone so fast but she is a wonderful addition to our family and we wouldn't be without her

newgirly

Glad it's all going ok Jo, good news your dh has a new job at a higher pay rate, that must be a relief

gerbiljo

its good to sort of have the money sorted!! looking forweatf to a proper overpayment plan hoping finances will allow £850 a month and that i have enough in the pot already to back pay it!! then will be aiming for 10years...

gerbiljo

Much harder to keep this updated second time around!!
Wow 2015 and I have just made our first overpayment!!

To summarise, I have been hanging onto this money until I go back to work which is february. However I have some keep in touch days being paid this month so I feel I can finally pay something off the mortgage.

Our monthly aim is £850 a month overpayment, this gives us a mortgage free date in 2024, 10 years. We started in November but we moved in the month before so it was a higher payment so I have reduced that months overpayment to £700. So I have just paid £1550 off so that covers nov and dec. So basically we owe for jan hopefully that will follow in the coming months, we will be behind until about spring I predict when I would like to be caught up and on target.

I owe our daughters some money which basically my dad leant me to finish the old house but he didn't want paying for he wants the money to go into their accounts £2k each (will add a bit for interest lost) which again will be a priority when I go back to work. Plus he paid our stamp duty which again at some point I will need to start paying him, but to summarize he doesn't need the money and is happy for us to pay him back when we are ready. So in the summer I will start looking at paying him back for this also, yes I know we are very lucky…

AnywayI need to do a SOA at somepoint…. I have cancelled sky, so much hastle trying to cancel but got there in the end. Only other new bill will be…for a new car. I crashed our car into our front wall so that was £250 excess, we thought it was written off, but it survived but not before my husband had gone out getting quotes for shiny new cars anyway he was sad so i relented and the car i didn't crash which is 10years old and in need of new clutch etc is getting traded in. We got a good deal as we have family discount, but car is being paid with finance which is not ideal but the cost of finance is £440over two years and we have a £750 additional discount for taking finance so my husband has convinced me its ok…he is very happy anyway and it will be great for both cars to have 5 doors regarding getting children in and out of the car. We also have two interest free credit cards totalling £4,500 ish, they need to be paid in 2016…so we are certainly not debt free but trying to realign our finances now, nearly a year off work and a new house, car and holiday so we've not done badly but time to to get ourselves straight!!

I want to overpay though, we are living with the benefits now everyday of our previous overpayment struggle and I know if I get things done to the house now or pay for things upfront we will not overpay and before we know it a year or three will go by and we could of paid off a hefty sum. I always seem to achieve more going up the hill!

On the up we want the overpayments to be significant but we still want to live, we want to do stuff to the house which we will create a wish list for and gradually work away at them, these things will come slowly but that will give us more time for family life, the odd holiday maybe every other year…i think now we are getting the new car my husband will be happy with this!! we will pay bills and live on my husbands salary and my salary over half will go on overpayments hopefully we will achieve our goal.

So current mortgage balance £232,399.82 (tempting to pay off the odd i must say, watch this space…this is how I got so addicted before!!)