I really really want to be........mortgage free!

smcqis

i took a 25 year and will have it paid off in 5 but looks like its 65 quid for the fee on my tracker, was 90 on my fixed so little more saving :j

ourcornercottage

smcqis wrote: »

i took a 25 year and will have it paid off in 5 but looks like its 65 quid for the fee on my tracker, was 90 on my fixed so little more saving :j

Wow that's quite some going. I am hoping for another 8-10 years, 5 would require some freugal behaviour.

Whats your secret then, some top tips for us in the early stages of our MF journey.

Today I have made a whooping £1 OP, making my total for the month £6!

I tried to open a nat west account yesterday just for the rewards of course, It seemed to do through online but I did not actually get an email or anything. Will wait a week and see if anything turns up in the post. I will send the relevant bill payments over to them and consider the credit card for rewards when I decide to change. Currently I am happy with my everyday CC and I do still have my moving costs CC on 0% but i'm paying minimum balance off that every month so its coming down slowly. I don't have to worry about that until later in the year though.

In terms of my free money from banks paying my mortgage this should take me up to around £14 just shy of my £20 free money target! I might have to look at the barclays rewards too soon.

As soon as the nat west account is opened up I will be opening a donor account to start taking advantage of the switching bonuses and cashback available. I am waiting on both from my Nationwide switch but will be keeping that account for 12 months due to the interest so need another donor account. decisions, decisions. I really need to take advantage of the switching bonuses though as that can really up my free money from the banks in the months they come through, and why not if they are offering them.

I had my first interest from Nationwide and it was about £5 even through it had only been in there a couple of weeks. As I have not quite added in the maximum (for interest) £2500 I will leave the interest in there building up every month until it reaches £2500 although I don't think it will in the year. End of the year I will start looking to rehome this again. I do like a monthly interest account, it really shows you that you are getting somewhere.

I am getting really low on funds with 11 days until personal spends payday. I must not spend anything else, simple as that. I have £10 (which actually belongs to BF) in my purse plus about £5 in change which covers minis subs for the weekend and about £15 left in my account. That's my lot. Saying that nothing actually required so unless I really need to make a purchase I should make it!

I am having a fantastic time testing the teas I got to review, I had a lovely cup of second flush Darjeeling tonight which was so delish. I have tested 3, reviewed 2 and have another 6 to go. Its such a chore this one, drinking lovely tea. As an added bonus it isn't just a few cups worth you get. I should think that the amount I have would make about 500-600 cups in total so no spending on tea for a couple of years and as the best before date is 2018 they should be still tasting lovely then too!

Also got a few beauty products and a phone camera lens too today which are useful but less pleasurable to test than the tea, I am slightly concerned that I might have to actually buy some shampoo soon but hopefully something will come up as to be honest I will be quite disappointed! I think I have only brought 2 shower gels and our toothpaste in about 2 years now everything else I have been given free!

Anyhow I have to get an early night as I have to take mini to work with me in the morning for an hour and then onto friends for lunch at hers (no costs thank god!)

On plus side, GP's brought mini some new casual shoes today as his were getting a little small. When I get my personal spends I will OP £20 to make up for what I would have spent. I must check on the status of the school shoes as he is on a huge growth spurt. Will check tomorrow.

edited : forgot to say I actually wrote a blog post yesterday and have vowed to keep up with it a little better.

smcqis

Was first time mortgage when got married wasn't really sure how much I could afford a mon but max OP was 500 a month so I made sure to do that every month. Benn slowly saving as well over the 5 years and at stage now where in position to clear. Mortgage was 80k with decent deposit at the time. Need to save as want/need to move to bigger house. Not sure how much bank will lend use, looking less than 100k with our salaries and childcare costs

ourcornercottage

£80k in 5 years, that's some going. I'd be well happy with that. If you save what you were paying you'll have your bigger home in no time

Also if anyone is opening s nationwide account I would love to refer anyone, same goes for funding circle if anyone's joining.

AlexLK

Ridiculously late and once again I can't sleep. :mad:

ourcornercottage wrote: »

I really would recommend having 2 separate personal spends accounts. If the total spends per month is approx £1050 then you get £525 each and that's all. The way for you to do it would be for put all money income in joint account then have a standing order to your personal spends account monthly.

Don't take offence but your set up currently doesn't seem that fair to you and little Lk. I'm sure mrslk would not want to change current set up for obvious reasons.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: There's not a chance my wife would agree to that! The last time we tried separate accounts, after the bills were paid I had just enough money to fuel my LR (nothing for fun motoring) and to buy lunch for my son and I which was apparently not to be counted alongside our food bill as wife thought it a personal spend.

edinburgher wrote: »

Alex - urgh! Sometimes when I read your posts I am mentally making a whip cracking noise in my head :rotfl:

Can't help you with that, I'm afraid but not sure why you're announcing it to the world. :rotfl:

edinburgher wrote: »

It sounds like you could use a bit of work on your financial harmony as a couple. As it stands, Mrs K is the breadwinner and the current power dynamic is that she can pretty much do what she likes because you will accept it because you have low self esteem about what you bring to the table (both literally and figuratively) and because you're more frugal by nature.

Unless you challenge the status quo it will not change, even when your parents eventually leave you a property empire. At this point, you'll have 'the power' in your mind, but a) you'll not know how to exert it and b) your wife will think 'I'm fine with my own money, so it makes no difference to me that Alex is now minted'.

At that point, you'll either ignore it because you'll both be too busy having money baths, or you'll focus on some other aspect of her temperament that you don't like and that will become the new focus of what's 'wrong'.

Your wife sounds like a woman who knows her own mind and enjoys herself because she isn't challenged. Do you enjoy yourself?

Being described as being "more frugal by nature" has got to be a win. Until a few years ago I was utterly terrible with money. These days I'd like to think I don't waste money on depreciating assets and consider what I spend, though I admit that happened through need rather than some frugal epiphany.

As for my wife, she does as she wishes and always has. To be honest, I rather admire her for that. She is as likely to accept me exerting power upon her as you are to spend your life savings on a new Aston Martin. Had I a healthy level of self esteem, challenged her and "won", I'd have no marriage. We've had the arguments and the relationship counselling. We've talked about what needs to be done like adults and my parents have also given her advice but ultimately if she decides she wants to do something, she does it.

edinburgher wrote: »

*Edit: because it's always fun to compare notes, we live in the blissful socialist state of edinburghertopia (with overtones of benevolent paternalism). We earn vastly differing amounts, we receive an equal share of any surplus resources (from salary) based on no more than 20% of salaries being spent on fun and what happens to the rest of our money is guided by an investment policy.

It might sound a bit cold, but it helps to take the emotion out of things.

I think you do extremely well with the amount you earn (remember having a conversation about income per month) and am rather impressed. However, there's not a chance my wife would enter "edinburghertopia", whip or not. :rotfl:

ourcornercottage

Sorry Alex you misunderstand me, actually I explain it terribly. You need 3 accounts (at least) one which all income goes into and all bills/savings come out of. Then what's left after everything's paid (fun money) gets split equally for you 2 to do as you wish with in 2 separate accounts.

Once again I don't want to offend but your relationship seems very old fashioned with one 'breadwinner' calling the shots. It sounds very much how my BF describes his family from the 1960's although it was his dad calling the shots. Ultimately he does not have a great deal of respect for his dad (his mum had agoraphobia at the time) and particularly remembers when money was tighter and his dad was always doing what he wanted.

Once again don't mean to offend but your wife is being incredibly selfish on this from I know you think she holds all the cards now but it really isn't nice to use them. I also know that you have been bad with money in the past but this is money for non essentials so if it's wasted it's wasted. Ultimately I personally think you would put it to better use than her!

I know you are going to come into lots of money later in life, perhaps a meagre pittance of fun money for her then might be in order to restore the status quo (joking of course, or am I)

Sorry for rant and don't be offended, I don't know your wife (obviously) but from what you describe here over the last few days it seems very self centred even bullying.

edinburgher

ourcornercottage wrote: »

Once again I don't want to offend but your relationship seems very old fashioned with one 'breadwinner' calling the shots. It sounds very much how my BF describes his family from the 1960's although it was his dad calling the shots. Ultimately he does not have a great deal of respect for his dad (his mum had agoraphobia at the time) and particularly remembers when money was tighter and his dad was always doing what he wanted.

I agree completely, Alex appears to be aware of it.

hiddenshadow

ourcornercottage wrote: »

I had my first interest from Nationwide and it was about £5 even through it had only been in there a couple of weeks. As I have not quite added in the maximum (for interest) £2500 I will leave the interest in there building up every month until it reaches £2500 although I don't think it will in the year. End of the year I will start looking to rehome this again. I do like a monthly interest account, it really shows you that you are getting somewhere.

Amusingly N@tionwide sent me an e-mail the other day encouraging me to switch from the no-fee 5% account to a monthly-fee 3% account...no thanks! I think the only benefit in the fee account that we'd use is travel insurance, and we just got an annual policy for £18, so....no. I wonder how many people go for it, though, without doing the sums?

I am having a fantastic time testing the teas I got to review, I had a lovely cup of second flush Darjeeling tonight which was so delish. I have tested 3, reviewed 2 and have another 6 to go. Its such a chore this one, drinking lovely tea. As an added bonus it isn't just a few cups worth you get. I should think that the amount I have would make about 500-600 cups in total so no spending on tea for a couple of years and as the best before date is 2018 they should be still tasting lovely then too!

Jealous! Are these off amzreviews?

Popgirl

hiddenshadow wrote: »

I think the only benefit in the fee account that we'd use is travel insurance, and we just got an annual policy for £18,


£18 wow that's amazing can you share your secret getting the insurance so cheap, I am currently looking for an annual policy and the lowest I have found is £38, two adults in 40's no illnesses and that's a no frills policy.

hiddenshadow

Popgirl wrote: »

£18 wow that's amazing can you share your secret getting the insurance so cheap, I am currently looking for an annual policy and the lowest I have found is £38, two adults in 40's no illnesses and that's a no frills policy.

We just did a quote on £co and went with the cheapest policy. Europe only, multi-trip annual. (US/Worldwide is more expensive so we generally just get single trip insurance in those cases.) We're two adults in our 30s, so perhaps the age difference is the reason for the price difference? None of the cheapest 5 or so companies were well-known brands but we looked them up and they're all underwritten by big companies so we figured it was worth saving on the policy cost.

Hope that helps - insurance is a PITA sometimes.