Jan 2015 / 14yrs left on mortgage. MFW, time to make a serious dent and be MF

PopcootMFW

Here's our Jan review....bit late I know
We have been great at coming well under budget for our shopping and fuel. We have decided to keep it the same level because with baby due soon we may need that extra bit of movement with the budget.

For selling items:
£195 icandy pushchair
£25 ikea sofa bed
£20 pushchair adapters
£17 Icandy parasol
£25 ikea bedside tables
£10 bookcase
£50 guitar and amp
£11 selling some old books
£?? STILL awaiting music magpie, grr

Just need to wait until Monday for DH payday and we'll see how much extra we can OP for Feb. (Have £300 set up as standing order and already calculated into our budgeting spreadsheet on the laptop). It feels exciting, it's like waiting for the magic to happen, waiting to see what amount will be there this month, seeing all our little monthly pots build up. Our pots are:
-holiday fund
-birthdays fund
-christmas fund
-car,tax,mot, ins fund
-emergency home fund
-savings fund

Feb and Mar are expensive months for us birthday wise...my brother, father-in-law, Dad, DH's 40th, Mum, best friend, new baby due and then it's my little girls bday in April !!!

PopcootMFW

Another OP made, bit late, it's technically for February really but only had to time to sort out transferring it today. Another £1,000 in total made.

Got DH to phone Halifax up and clarify that all OPs made will go towards reducing our term and not our monthly payments. Apparently, halifax now have a different process set up....when we come to "remortgage / change products" it's at that point we request the term of our mortgage is shortened.

Anyone else with halifax or heard of this??? Not sure if it's something to be concerned about? Our product is due to end July 2016 time.

Cream_Tea

I've not heard of that. We're with lloyds and I haven't noticed my payments reducing so I guess it is coming off the term. I will have to check now.

Can't be long until bubba makes an appearance!? How many days?

CT

velocity_girl

PopcootMFW wrote: »

Another OP made, bit late, it's technically for February really but only had to time to sort out transferring it today. Another £1,000 in total made.

Got DH to phone Halifax up and clarify that all OPs made will go towards reducing our term and not our monthly payments. Apparently, halifax now have a different process set up....when we come to "remortgage / change products" it's at that point we request the term of our mortgage is shortened.

Anyone else with halifax or heard of this??? Not sure if it's something to be concerned about? Our product is due to end July 2016 time.

Popcoot, I'm with Nationwide and they do the same. Not an expert but I don't think it's an issue - I just make the same regular OP every month ('normal' payment £535-ish, we pay £700 by DD every month)... When we come to the end of the deal, they'll recalculate things and we can decide which to do.

PopcootMFW

Cream_Tea wrote: »

I've not heard of that. We're with lloyds and I haven't noticed my payments reducing so I guess it is coming off the term. I will have to check now.

Can't be long until bubba makes an appearance!? How many days?

CT

Thank you CT
Oh yes little baby bean.... I'm 38wks but having a difficult pregnancy so im booked in for induction tomorrow...bubba will be making an appearance very soon ((she says! Fingers crossed))

Cream_Tea

How exciting! Good luck for tomorrow. Keep us updated!

CT

PopcootMFW

Wowzers...it's been a while...new addition to the family has been keeping me very busy DS arrived 6 March safe and well.

Haven't really been able to OP as much as we would like. I've been spending money on lots of blue outfits. Have managed £300 OP each month for March, April and May. I'm hoping once I get a bit more time I can sort out all DD clothes I've saved and get them on eBay and gumtree and sell lots of bundles of clothes.

Cream_Tea

Congratulations! That's brilliant you are OPing. Good luck with the bundle selling. Xx

Tartan_Mum

Just been reading through your diary and want to add my congratulations!


I currently have over 12 years left but am hoping to reduce this to 10 (or possibly less) but when I see what you've achieved with your figures it's encouraging me to review again. I think we could OP with a bit more effort and less daft spending.


Enjoy these lovely days with your DS, especially now the sunshine might be arriving x

PopcootMFW

Tartan_Mum wrote: »

I currently have over 12 years left but am hoping to reduce this to 10 (or possibly less) but when I see what you've achieved with your figures it's encouraging me to review again.

I never thought we could OP as much as we did some months but it's amazing when you do count the pennies a lot closer you can make them stretch more. I definitely found budgeting helped a lot. xx